the pine
Taking a break from my Japan trip blogging so I can write down all my thoughts from my recent visit to The Pine in Creemore, Ontario – a one Michelin star restaurant serving contemporary Chinese cuisine using local ingredients. They broke the top 20 on a list of Canada's top 100 restaurants this year, too.
But I mostly wanted to visit because a) is close-ish to the farm, and b) a local food reviewer(?) (he's a guy who posts reviews of all the restaurants he visits and his palate is either super aligned to mine, or I've just been following his recs for so long that I tuned my palate to match his) posted a rave review of the place. And I guess I'm also a huge fan of local ingredients in Chinese cuisine!
I managed to get a reservation for August 1st, which means we went for our one year wedding(?) anniversary (is it a wedding anniversary if we didn't have a wedding and only got married?) and/or our 16th “being together” anniversary. It's always nice to have a reason to go to a nice restaurant!
Other people on the internet can probably give a better description of the place than me, so I will leave it to others to do so. I'm simply going to start with the experience I had, beginning with entering the building.
We were the last group of our seating time to arrive, which was also the last seating of the day. We were put at a round table that probably could have fit 4 people but was set for our group of 2, facing the open kitchen prep area. One of the servers commented that I had a really nice camera with me, and even brought a stool over for me to put it on while not in use! There were hooks for purses, but she brought the stool since it'd be better to not have the camera bang around on a wall (for both the camera and the wall, lol).
We were offered still or sparkling water, and as a complete sucker for fizzy water nowadays, I opted for sparkling. I asked if taking photos was okay, and this server said it'd be totally fine and even checked that I was already brought a stool, which made me feel better about it. It only had about 6-7 other groups of 2-3, so I felt pretty self-conscious with a whole-ass camera with me (it's a me thing, nothing about them – I feel awkward taking photos even in busy restaurants. I'm not cut out to be an influencer, lol).
They started the evening off with a complimentary glass of local sparkling wine, and I had one from Westcott Vineyards. They also offered a non-alcoholic sparkling, which Keelan had.
(I'll be honest, I have no recollection of what this was except it was the non-alcoholic sparkling).
When we were chatting with one of the servers later in the evening, we found out that 90% of their clientele drives up from Toronto and then drives back the same night, so that would probably be why they offered non-alcoholic versions. In fact, they even offer non-alcoholic pairings, which Keelan also had. I had the local Ontario wine pairings, since I like Ontario wines just fine, and I didn't think international wines were worth the extra $50. If I were the kind of person who didn't like Ontario wines, maybe it'd be a better prospect.
Once they took our beverage order, they started serving the food. We were told that it would be 20(!) courses long and it sure was. I do not remember everything that they told us about the courses, and wish I took notes or something, because I also want to steal their ideas for my own cooking! (I am not anywhere close to executing on their level though lol).
The first was the “Beijing Rosette” and the only thing I remember about it is the duck confit puree, which was excellent. The green rosette was very crispy and I'm pretty sure it was made with some sort of green that's in season, but I would not be able to tell you which one. When serving this, as well as all the other dishes that didn't require utensils, they told us how many bites was recommended, and this was 2-3. I maybe did 4-5 bites because of how crisp it was – it shattered so much that I wanted smaller bites to keep it all in my mouth.
Next was one of their signature dishes – the tea egg. This was devilled egg style with a mustard and egg yolk filling. The white was flavoured with tsaoko (black cardamom), and the whole thing was topped with sturgeon caviar from the Atlantic. I loved this one and it's probably the most elegant tea egg I've ever eaten.
This was followed by the “No Boil Boiled Fish” which played on the Chinese dish that I love eating, “water boiled fish”. Also honestly could not tell you what this dish consisted of except the fish, which was a trout tartare. The flavours riffed on the traditional dish without being as spicy.
Then our wine/beverage pairings started coming out. The sommelier(?) (or otherwise the beverage pourer) told us that it'd be ~3 courses per pairing on average. I lamented the fact that I clearly wasn't drinking quickly enough, but they said that it's fine to go at whatever pace and that lots of people only have sips anyway.
My wines are mostly self-explanatory since I made a point of taking photos of the bottles and labels (and it was super nice that they placed a bottle on the table with the pairing!) but I'm not a huge fan of chardonnays. This one was actually quite nice and drinkable though – it's wild fermented so it had a lot of umami to cut the typical chardonnay qualities that I don't like!
For the non-alcoholic option, Keelan had a sumac-ade. He said it was oddly salty but he wasn't sure if it was because that's how sumac is or because of how they made it. Now that I'm writing this up, I wonder if the salt was an addition to add a savoury note to match the wine?
The next course was a rock crab rangoon. I believe the flowers here are phlox. I really loved the presentation on this one. I was also the weird one asking the server who cleared the dish, “do you know what kind of rock this is?” and when he was like “uh, no,” I followed up with, “is it local?”
It is, in fact, local, so Keelan and I suspect it it granite. Our server did tell us that the chef searched around the area for nice stable rocks for the wordplay/presentation! The other local rock could be limestone but it didn't look or feel like limestone would. Plus limestone would be an odd choice for food, since it dissolves in acids...
“Wuxi Lamb Ribs” was next, and I really liked this. The lamb was perfectly cooked – it's actually so hard to cook lamb well (or maybe I just have bad luck with finding it?), so I was really impressed. There were multiple sauces involved, but I don't remember any of it. I think one was some kind of molasses (but not actually molasses). However, I do remember that the flowers on top are Bachelor's Buttons.
These cute little rolls on crabs (which I said to the server, “I think I've seen these as fountain pen holders” because I'm a complete weirdo) are a little take on jianbing, hence the name “Good Morning Shanghai.” The chef apparently ate tons of these when he was in Shanghai. These were crispy, unlike the soft crepe that a traditional jianbing is, and it actually reminded me more of the crispy little roll cookies you can get at egg waffle places (the direct translation would be “egg roll” but that does not lead to the right places when searching the internet).
Anyway, these were filled with lobster and crab puree, hence the cute holders. I could eat a million of these – if someone were to mass-produce these as a snack, I would be there.
I don't have real recollection about this wine, so I suppose it was just a typical gamay. I can't remember if I've ever been to Malivoire but I've certainly had lots of their wines before.
Keelan started to get some de-alcoholized wines as his pairings. This one was apparently steam distilled.
This cute dish was called “Oyster and the Oyster Thief”. The little oyster shell was made with the oyster thief seaweed (which the internet actually tells me is an invasive species in Canada – I'm a fan of eating invasives as a control method). There is an oyster blade beef tartare. I think the puree on top was made with oyster mushrooms but don't quote me on that. It was a lovely oyster dish with no real oysters. Beef tartare is obviously more chewing than I would like for a real oyster but I really liked this one.
As a nod to Shanghai's French colonial past, and one of the restaurant's signature dishes, we have “The French Concession”. It's the only French dish on the menu, with a piece of sourdough toast topped with foie gras ice cream. I don't remember what berry puree is on top.
Another dish with playful plating and a play on words, “Hold Your Tongue”. It was a beef tongue croquette. I think the green puree was yet another in-season vegetable, but absolutely no recollection of what it was.
What I do remember, however, is our server clearing away the empty plate and saying, “let me give you a hand with that,” which was fantastic.
The next wine was a rose from Pearl Morissette, which recently ranked as top restaurant in Canada. They also have one Michelin star. I've never been to Pearl Morissette but would like to go! I don't have strong memories of this wine either, so it must've been fine or an otherwise typical expression.
The non-alcoholic option went back to a little rhubarb-y drink for Keelan. He said the straw was super weird – the bottom was actually a bulb with a bunch of holes in it, making it hard to drink when you got to the bottom.
The next dish was a cute take on “Prosperity Salad,” which is a Singaporean tradition for Chinese New Year. There was from the bottom going counter-clockwise, trout roe, watermelon radish, beets, idk, chrysanthemum greens, idk, maybe pickled cucumbers?, and flowering cauliflower. In the centre under the flowers was more trout.
We were provided a set of cutlery to do the mixing, and another to actually eat with, which was fun. But my favourite part was actually this:
Love this fish cutlery rest.
The next dish had different cutlery, and also different cutlery rests.
Mushrooms! We even got to choose. I picked the morel and Keelan picked the chanterelle. The server who had the box open for us to pick from was like, “you guys really know your mushrooms,” since both Keelan and I had said out loud which mushroom we wanted before grabbing it. I don't recall what other mushrooms were available to pick, but they were all pretty distinctive edible mushrooms, so I'm more surprised that most other guests wouldn't know the mushrooms. But I guess I'm also the weird one who asks about rocks, so...
Anyway, onto the next wine pairing. I think this might be the first orange wine I've had? I've seen orange wines a lot more on wine lists and especially in the natural wine space recently. This one apparently is notable for the length of skin contact – apparently typical orange wines only have like 5 days of skin contact whereas this one is over 200.
I recall telling Keelan that this wine was surprisingly tannic, not in flavour necessarily but in the way it stripped the tongue. But tannins come from the grape skins, so it's not actually that surprising.
I'm not sure how you would describe this but maybe as a wine replacement? Mock wine? Especially since it's using verjus.
The next three dishes were the dim sum course! This was the carrot jiaozi, so a carrot skin and carrot puree inside and a carrot sauce outside.
The red dumpling was called “Red Oil Handcopy” which we were told was a direct translation of the Chinese dish it's riffing on. I suspect it's 紅油抄手 which is wontons in chili oil.
The last one is a mushroom dumpling, hence the mushroom cutlery rest. It was filled with mushrooms and had a mushroom foam, reminiscent of cream of mushroom soup but less heavy.
Keelan said this course was his favourite.
After this course, we actually were asked to get up and come up to the kitchen where we had a little palate cleanser. The menu cards tell me it was called “Refresher”. It was a little white currant popsicle and was refreshing.
The next dish took place outside in their back garden, which was really cute! But that is why the photo is so garbage. The dish was a Digby scallop with a black garlic tamari, which was fermented in-house for 6 months. It was smoked in the shell, and the smoking setup was actually in the garden I believe. Except it was dark so I couldn't really see it or get a photo of anything it or anything else. The garden also had raised beds with some nasturtiums and herbs though!
But I really liked this! The scallop was very tender and the flavours worked really well. I also thought this was a nice interlude. It forced us to get up and stretch our legs for just a little bit, and enjoy the outdoors since we've had some nice summer weather too. The server chatted with each of the three groups for a little bit before we were ushered back inside (this is when we learned about most people coming from Toronto).
The next wine was a Riesling from Cave Springs, and I love Cave Springs Rieslings, so I was excited when I saw the bottle. It was a 2015, so a 10 year old wine. Our beverage server said they wanted to highlight the age-ability of Ontario wines. Personally I just drink things as we get them in the mail, since we're part of two wine clubs... but I did like this one. It was richer than the Rieslings I usually associate with Niagara (or maybe it's just the ones I gravitate to and thus buy), which are bright with lots of acidity and minerality. This felt heavier on the tongue and lingered.
The non-alcoholic beverage was another de-alcoholized wine, this time a pinot noir.
This next dish was called “La Zi” on the menu cards but I'm really not sure how it ties into the dish I'd associate with that name, la zi ji which is spicy chicken (both the translation and what it is). This wasn't really spicy at all! It was beautifully cooked trout though, with a braised pattypan squash. There were multiple sauces in the middle, one of which was apparently pawpaw based.
Now that we're in the “mains” territory, I guess we have one wine per course. This obviously has a really cool bottle. I've been to Stratus, and they do some really great wine. This was a Cabernet Franc that I honestly couldn't tell you anything about. But I like cab francs and I like Stratus, and so I probably was predisposed to liking this wine already. I'm assuming it was a typical expression of a cab franc.
Keelan had another de-alcoholized wine.
The red wines were there to stand up to the char siu here. This was a veal char siu, made with rose wine I believe? The nasturtiums garnish was from their back garden, and they encouraged us to eat it. The mustard circle is where they painstakingly spooned the sauce in, one spoonful at a time, from a copper measuring cup.
After they finished that, Keelan asked our server, “do you ever just wanna... [pouring motion]?” which she laughed at. She said yes, and that they went through multiple spoon iterations and this one that they landed on is the most aesthetic, but has the least capacity! I certainly admire their commitment to the experience.
Anyway, this was probably my least favourite of the whole meal, which is unfortunate because I think they intend it to be their star course. The round portion at the right was oddly mushy for me. The square portion was a better texture but I was already put off from the round bit that I don't think I enjoyed it as much. The flavour was great but I couldn't get past the mushiness.
Now we were into the dessert courses, and with that, a sparkling rose. I don't recall anything about this wine either, but I do remember thinking this was a decent wine for something out of Prince Edward County (we visited some years ago and were not impressed with the wines there). The orange wine is also from PEC so I guess they've improved over the years!
Keelan also got a bubbly option – this was his final pairing.
The first dessert was a riff on douhua (or I know it more as toufu fa), and they called it “Tofu Flower” in another direct translation. We had a tofu jelly(?) on the left with a soy milk sorbet on the right. They were both dotted with haskap puree and with a rhubarb ginger syrup to round it out.
I am not actually a fan of tofu in the slightest, but I actually liked this. The tofu pudding(?) or whatever you'd call it had a panna cotta texture to it. It definitely wasn't a typical douhua, which is just freshly made soft tofu. The soy milk sorbet tasted super fresh, and I think that helped me get over the soy-ness, which is what I don't like about tofu and soy milk. If I recall correctly, they made these all with local soybeans.
My final wine pairing was a late harvest Riesling. As mentioned before, I love Cave Springs Rieslings, so I liked this. I also definitely prefer late harvests to ice wine, because ice wine is just way too sweet and syrupy for me.
Their “HKFT 6.0” – the 6th iteration of their Hong Kong French toast – was very very good. A deep fried milk bread coated in egg, as all HK French toasts should be, served with caramelized condensed milk and shaved salted egg yolk. They also poured over a smoked milk, which they suggested we drink like cereal milk after eating the French toast.
My one comment on this is that I expected a filling, potentially a salted duck egg custard, like most HK French toasts, but there was none! I get that it'd probably be too rich and also it'd be hard to get the balance right in something of this size, but it stuck out to me.
Finally, into the last desserts of the night, or the “Tianshi” course. This was a sable with a sweet pea ice cream.
Some “timbits”! We joked with the server that it's “local” cuisine where you drive down to the nearest Tim Horton's and pick up a 6 pack. These were actually a corn fritter coated in five spice sugar. Their five spice is very cardamom forward.
Finally, more rocks! Well, actually tuiles. I do not recall what made these tuiles special. I enjoyed eating it. But I think I enjoyed the timbits more.
Anyway, that rounds out the many courses we had at The Pine! In terms of final comments, I think it was a lovely experience but I wasn't prepared for it to be 3 hours long. That's on me more than anything.
The service was outstanding, and everyone was very knowledgeable and friendly. It wasn't a snobby affair, either – the vibe was casual while still being professional. But they let their personality as a restaurant shine, and I really liked that. And I think it was just well suited to me as a person.
People always talk about “authenticity”, and I think The Pine has it. They're out here making good food (stellar food) and having a good time doing it, and it doesn't feel like a place that's chasing stars or “best of” lists. They can get the star and onto the lists because they're good at what they do.
At least that's the impression I got.
I will say that the miss with the char siu felt extra disappointing, mostly because it should have been a star of the meal. I think it also is slightly because of the price point at over $200 per person just for the food, especially comparing to the one Michelin star restaurant we went to in Nara on our trip (which I still need to write about). I think they were vastly different types of experiences but there were no misses there, and it was less pricy (even accounting for the depressed yen at the moment).
Some more pictures available in my album here but honestly not much that wasn't included in this post.
Meant to post this before I went camping but didn't, whoops! So here it is, almost a month later. Which is actually pretty good, considering I'm at like 8 months past my Japan trip without having blogged about 90% of it...