This Toronto spot is proof that older restaurants still deserve our attention

Even though it's been serving up some of Toronto's best Filipino cuisine since 2019, you could breeze past Rosedale's Mineral without even knowing it was there.

That's not because it's a bad restaurant — on the contrary, I'm here to make the case that it's one you need to add to your list, whether you've never been or stopped by once when it was brand new — but Toronto has a tendency to forget things when they're not new or splashy.

Mineral is neither new nor splashy, but that's part of what makes it particularly impressive today. An unassuming front marked with a minimal neon sign, an interior that hums but doesn't beg for a social media feature, and a chef's table experience built on seven years of Chef Daniel Cancino finding his stride — they're all markers of a restaurant with staying power. Better yet, a restaurant that's finding its finest form, more than half a decade after opening.

When Cancino opened Mineral in 2019, it was a rare thing: a tasteful spot serving upscale, contemporary Filipino cuisine. All these years later, it is still one of the only restaurants of its kind in Toronto, but two years ago, he revealed a new ace up his sleeve: a 12-course chef's counter tasting menu that embodies all the restaurant's best qualities.

The lobster and chive dumpling is a standout on Mineral's Chef's Counter menu.

Rotating based on the availability of seasonal ingredients, the chef's counter, priced at $140 per person (with optional cocktail pairings for $67 or wine pairings for $85), is, without a doubt, Mineral's creme de la creme, clocking in at a price that's wildly palatable for how downright tasty each and every bite is.

Right now, the menu features such sumptuous morsels as PEI oysters topped with pear coulis and a spritz of calamansi, hamachi in grape reduction, lobster chive dumplings in a broth you'll want to order a litre of to take home, Iberico pork collar lettuce wraps and black cod sinigang.

But it doesn't really matter what's on the menu on any given day, really. The years of perfecting his craft — paired with the opportunity to watch him create the dishes and hear the stories that inspired them — make Cancino an undisputed master of Filipino cuisine, urging Toronto to look far beyond the lumpia and adobo we've grown accustomed to.

Let Mineral be an example of the lesson that so many fellow oft-overlooked neighbourhood restaurants are also teaching today: sometimes new doesn't mean better. Oftentimes, the best meal of your week, month or year is waiting for you at a spot that's been holding it down for years.

Mineral is located at 1027 Yonge St.