Bar Butcher is the new, more casual little sibling to Toronto's celebrated The Butcher Chef — but all the hallmarks that made its forebear a local favourite are alive and well here.

Occupying the south Bay Street space that formerly housed the Miller Tavern, virtually any restaurant that took over the address would be a license to print money: it's just steps away from the Scotiabank Arena, the city's swath of lakefront hotels, Union Station, the CN Tower, the Rogers Centre and Roundhouse Park, after all.

Still, neither Bar Butcher co-owners Michael Dabic and Derek Von Raesfeld, nor chef Michael Pallister, were content to let the pull of pervasive foot traffic make them get lazy with the concept.

Unlike Butcher Chef, Dabic and Von Raesfeld's upscale steakhouse that sits just around the corner, Bar Butcher takes on a more casual and playful approach than its sibling, while maintaining a culinary tact and quality that's more or less unparalleled in this little corner of the city.

Bar Butcher is perfectly primed for the in-from-out-of-town or stopping-by-before-a-concert crowd, with its comfortable pub-meets-old-school-Italian-joint interiors, but it's got just as much to offer for the discerning foodies that all too often avoid the South Core like the plague.

I don't make a habit of speaking to the bathrooms at restaurants, but before we start talking about food, the restrooms at Bar Butcher deserve applause of their own. Japanese toilets. Heated seats. We'll leave it at that.

Exceptional quality, free from formality, is the modus operandi of the menu at Bar Butcher. As such, it's populated with dishes you could easily imagine finding at a restaurant with a far stricter dress code, at a far steeper price.

Cucumber salad ($18) is almost impossible to mess up, but Bar Butcher breaks past the dish's typically mild and watery shackles with a spritely chili and ginger dressing, pea shoots, zippy radish and puffed rice for a pleasant added crunch.

Similarly, the ceviche ($24) is in a league of its own. Buttery chunks of branzino are tossed with lime juice and a standout lineup of alliums and aromatics that give the traditionally Latin American dish a decidedly Asian slant. To top it off, it's served with puffed nori crisps that are satisfying enough to warrant a first nibble before it's dipped into the dish.

Get ready for a hard pivot. While the prior two dishes may make it seem like Bar Butcher is beholden to Asian flavour profiles, chefs Von Raesfeld and Pallister bow to no master — regionally speaking — in the kitchen.

Here's your proof: crisp fish ($26) is an homage to the fish element of traditional pub-style fish and chips, and a damn good one at that. Complete with a bed of mushy (or, as the restaurant describes them, "crushed") peas, the crowd-pleasing dish gets a welcome boost with the addition of a delicate and fresh fennel salad and house-made tartar sauce to cut through its oily, golden crust.

Now that we've established that almost anything goes on the menu at Bar Butcher, and that whatever it is will almost certainly be that thing in its finest form, I present the schnitzel ($28).

Lightly breaded and topped with a single, sunny-side-up egg, the schnitzel itself would do any Wiener proud, but the real show-stopper is the bright, briny Holstein sauce, punched up with anchovies and capers.

Of course, being of the Butcher Chef lineage, steaks, fish and chops make up a considerable portion of the menu, and, like this Australian Wagyu flat iron ($80) with a dollop of herbed tallow butter, are served with absolute mastery.

Be sure to save room for dessert, if for no reason other than to treat your phone camera just as much as your sweet tooth.

You can't go wrong with any of the dessert options on the menu, but the cheesecake ($16), presented in a Bauhaus-esque ball-cube, is a can't-miss. It's refreshingly light and decidedly mild, with welcome punches of tart Vermouth-raspberry compote, zingy ginger-lime streusel, and floral elderflower jelly.

With a tagline like "Where Mixology meets Gastronomy," you can also, of course, expect a similar commitment to quality when it comes to the cocktail menu.

Divided by flavour profiles — Boozy & Honest, Playful & Bright, Indulgent, and Savoury — you know exactly what you're getting into, whether you live for the burn of a strong rum punch or prefer not to taste the booze in your beverage.

Of course, if you prefer your drinks free from any alcohol whatsoever, a collection of zero-proof cocktails rounds out the offerings.

Bar Butcher is located at 31 Bay St.