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Restaurants

L'Unita

Rating: 2.4/5 (38 votes)

Posted by Staff / Reviewed on January 28, 2008

1 Comments

L'Unita
L'Unita, in the space of the former Arlequin Restaurant on Avenue Road, is a bustling Italian restaurant. Toronto Life's James Chatto is a fan of their red wine risotto with pesto-spiked marrow bone. Yum!

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Ingrid Masak Mida / February 1, 2008 at 08:22 am
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L'Unita is a trendy new Italian restaurant that replaced the former Arlequin's at Ave and Dav. We waited three weeks to get a prime reservation time for Saturday at 730 pm and were anticipating a fine meal based on other reviews. When we entered the room, it was packed with the fashionable crowd. But when the hostess seated us in a back "hallway", I started to wonder if we were fashionable enough. There were four tables for two in this narrow hallway that is the server's access into the kitchen. We were the second closest table to the kitchen and my husband had a "lovely" view of the prep area. We asked if we could be seated elsewhere but were told there was nothing else available and the maitre d' said that we would be served "the same food as the rest of the restaurant." Two plasticized menus were plunked down on the table along with some cold bread (do they leave it outside? how does bread get cold?) After studying the menu, I ordered an organic pork chop with gorgonzola gnocchi and rapini as sides. My husband ordered chicken. My pork chop was burnt on the outside - charred to a crisp black finish - and basically raw on the inside (did they confuse the Florentine steak from the menu with my pork chop or is all their food cooked this way?). The accompanying onion garnish (or was it a lemon - it was hard to tell in the low light of the hallway) was also black and inedible. The gnocchi was alright - a little greasy from the gorgonzola and the rapini were a little limp. The pressed chicken was fine and my husband offered to switch with me but I just tried to cut off the burnt bits and eat the inside. No one asked why my plate was piled with the burnt bits of petrified pork chop. My water glass, which had sparkling water in it, was refilled with tap water more than once. In spite of a terrible main course, I was still hungry and hoped that the restaurant could redeem itself with dessert. We ordered lattes and chocolate espresso cake. It had to be the smallest piece of chocolate cake I've ever been served. It was rich and dense - just on the skimpy side. As we were finishing our dessert, another unlucky couple was shown to the table right next to the kitchen. They were young, hip, fashionably dressed, and obviously on a date. They sat down on the edge of their seats and asked for another table. My husband pointed out that it wasn't that we were not hip enough to sit in the main part of the restaurant, it was just luck of the draw. This was no comfort to me after a terrible meal. The main highlight was the big candy bowl by the entry way. It was a sweet exit. I don't know if I ordered the wrong thing but I would never go back and risk getting seated in that hallway again.
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Location and Contact Details

134 Avenue Road (Get Directions)
416.964.8686
Yorkville
Italian
DineSafe History

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