Exquisite Ambience in a Box

Good value and a nice environment are what it’s all about for yours truly when it comes to eating at a restaurant. You’d think, with such low standards, it would be easy to find such a hospitable dining establishment: Not so.

Most places offer fare designed to sell, not to intrigue. For me, the elements of value include portion sizes, creativity and of course, price. Less creativity should, in turn, equal greater portion sizes, while dishes unique in ideas and flavours (often a result of more expensive ingredients) can be smaller in size. With this in mind, I experienced the best lunch of my life the other day at The Red Tea Box (696 Queen St. W, Toronto, 416-203-8882).

More affectionately known as The Box, this is a small, premium tea emporium where customers can buy tea and/or sweets to take home. It is also a restaurant that operates only for lunches, Wednesday to Saturday from 10 a.m., and Sunday from noon.

Upon entering the slender but long front room, I wondered where to sit, as I had brought a party of four and the only tables in the room, all two of them, were for couples. To my surprise, we were instructed to go out back where a lovely courtyard shaded by a pear tree greeted us. There was also a completely separate building with a spacious dining room filled with various antiques, tables and chairs included. This was a room that, in Toronto, would normally be arranged to cram 30 plus diners, while at the Box only 14 seats filled its space. So much room, I felt like I had been transported out of the city to some sort of Asian bed and breakfast in the under-populated countryside.

As for the food, let’s start with the soup. I’m not sure how often they change them up, but the Box usually offers a choice of three homemade soups, some cold, some hot. Each soup is sold individually by the bowl or you can order a small sample dish, where all three come in small, but sufficient, ramekins with bread (ideal for sharing). When I was there, I had two cold soups and one hot. The hot was carrot turmeric cilantro, and the cold included cucumber fennel, and roasted tomato. All were really good and seasoned perfectly. It’s a good thing they give you that bread, as I used it to wipe each bowl clean!

Every month The Red Tea Box offers a different Lunch Bento Box, offering a meat dish, a starch dish, a vegetable dish and a side dish, often consisting of fish and some sort of spread or compote or what have you. This is all served in (what else?) a bento box, each item in a different compartment. This also includes a small starter salad with a unique tea dressing, and multigrain bread with a creative spread. On my particular visit, this was my lunch choice. The salad was various mixed greens and julienne of carrot and fennel: Very tasty as far as salads go. The multigrain bread came with green pea humus that packed a garlic-cumin punch. Yummers!

My bento box had — by compartment — crisp green beans with toasted sesame seeds, caramel-anise rice, avocado, pear and tomato salsa with shrimp, and curried slow roasted medium lamb. This was a total taste explosion!

The portions were perfect, as I had just enough room for dessert. The post meal menu consisted of two sections: chocolate and non-chocolate. We opted for a rose infused chocolate pie, which really tasted of flowers, but not so much that the chocolate was interfered with. Amazing! Next we got a chocolate carrot cake that came served warm and moist, but needed some kind of icing or something. It was good, but not on its own. Lastly, we got a chocolate pudding-chocolate cupcake, which came with marzipan decorations, as several of their cakes and other desserts do. It was good, really good, but the rose infused chocolate cake stole the show.

The total bill for the four of us — one appetizer, four entrees and three desserts — came to $91, including taxes.

Photographs courtesy and © copyright The Red Tea Box