After touching down in Toronto, Flo and I went to Buca on King Street for dinner. It’s been a few years since I’ve been here but I will remember they had some pretty damn good Italian food. They have 2 more locations Buca Bar and Buca Yorkville.
Like always, remember to make reservations or else you will be out of luck. We managed to snag a reservation on Open Table at 6pm a day before due to cancellations.
We were seated in their wine room and it was really beautiful seeing all their varieties of wine.
There are lots of tables and seats in the area. It’s much more calm and relaxing here compared to their main dining area.
Peroni is served in a large wine glass. I never felt more sophisticated drinking beer out of this glass. I like Peroni because it’s light with a hint of citrus.
We chose two types of their Salumi Di Buca, which are their daily meat.
- Prosciuttini, which is a cured leg of pork with colonata spice.
- Coppa, cured pork shoulder with ciociare spice
Then we got 2 of their formaggi, which are their cheeses:
- Ricotta Di Bufala, is their whipped water buffalo milk whey cheese
- Pecorino Toscano, Tuscan DOP Sheeps milk cheese, aged 8 years
All the the choices were great and they came with their daily preserves. It’s a fun item to pick a few meats and cheeses and enjoy a good chat with friends while picking at the plate.
Gnocco Fritto ($7) are Tuscan spiced crisp dumpling. It is basically a big dumpling that is hollow. It is served with lardo, which is basically fat.
I thought it was an average dish. It looks beautiful, but I didn’t like the idea of eating fat and deep fried hollow dumplings.
Orecchio Di Maiale ($8) is a great dish to share. It is crisp pig’s ears with wild fennel and sale di cervia. It is so crispy and is music to my ears. It was good for the first few pieces, but it did get quite salty after a while.
Fungi Pizza ($24) has sauteed seasonal mushrooms, marscarpone, gorgonzola and marjoram. This pizza was quite rich and heavy. The mushrooms didn’t shine through as it was overpowered by the various cheeses.
Bigoli ($18) has torchio-cranked duck egg pasta, duck offal ragu, venetian spices, mascarpone, and basil . The portion was small for the price, but it tasted good.
Their food is pretty good but you have to choose the dishes carefully. Here is my last visit from 2012. I do like the atmosphere of Buca and it is quite lively.
We Rate Buca:
Address:
602 King Street W.
Toronto, ON
Website:
http://buca.ca/
