Elle M’a Dit

Elle m’a dit was closing its doors at the end of the april so I went to the restaurant with the group to have one of their last meals.
Elle m’a dit is located at the heart of the Baldwin Village and it serves Alsatian cuisine. It is simple to identify in the menu the French and German dishes and the great variety of Alsatian wines.
We sat at the second floor of the restaurant on a somewhat quiet Wednesday. Wooden floors and tables, candles and tiny flowers were placed inside of tiny jam jars. That was the décor of the restaurant.
I shared a traditional tart flambé made of bacon and gruyère. Very light and delicious.
For the main, I had the Coq au Vin with spaetzle. The meat was very tender and tasty. The spaetzle did not feel heavy but I was just able to eat half of the dish.
For dessert, I had a perfect sized lemon meringue tart. So good!
I’m glad we made there before they closed. The Baldwin village will definitely lose a good resto.

Sadly, they’ve recently announced on the interwebs that their LAST SERVICE is Saturday April 27^th!
So check ‘em out while you still can!
Elle M’a Dit is a lovely gem on Baldwin. May find it a bit pricey but GREAT food and service!
My coworkers and I love this romantic and refreshing restaurant. Haven’t come across anything like it. We’ve been back several times already.
ATMOSPHERE: The classy atmosphere matches the french flare in their cuisine! Warm and inviting. Makes you just want to spend a few hours there… There are 2 levels, so larger groups are seated upstairs.
SERVICE: Super friendly.
PRICE: A little pricey for lunch, but reasonable for dinner. But as mentioned, they are CLOSING SOON — so really, just GO.
FOOD: As others have mentioned, they dish out really unique (and delicious!) Alsatian food (french)! Tasty tarte flambée (their specialty) in a range of flavours. Their sandwiches are deliciously filling and satisfying. And cap off with the Choco Charm dessert (Warm chocolate cake, Nutella gelato, crispy banana fritter) and I’m in my happy place.
Seriously: you have 10 days left to try.
Go. Now. Enjoy!

My obsession of the meal was the:
Artichoke Tarte flambée — arugula, lemon confit, pecorino (11)
A simple stunner for the mouth.
We also had:
Coq au Vin & spätzle– Alsatian egg dumpling (20)
Bavette steak & frites– 48hrs marinated hanger steak, shallot Jus (21)
Apple tarte flambee– Sliced apple, cinnamon sugar, cinnamon fromage blanc
baked in ovenAlsatian traditional dessert (7)
The dessert flambé was slightly disappointing, but the:
–novelty of Alsatian food
–Baldwin street location
–lovely and helpful server
–well-​priced and pretty tasty dishes
bumps my rating up a star to make me a «fan» of this ‘lil resto.
Additional note: Downstairs seemed to be a bit too quiet/​lacking ambiance and upstairs is a bit too loud (I think this is due to structural acoustics?) but we still enjoyed the surroundings.

Ate lunch here and everything we ordered was delicious! I had a mushroom pie, my husband had a grilled tuna sandwich and my father-​in-​law a tarte flambee. We also had the crème brûlée for dessert, which was lovely. I was especially impresesd with the service. The waitress was unfailingly kind and efficient, even when it was clear she was managing the whole restaurant. Will definitely return.

We had a quick dinner here but the food was fantastic. The Gnocchi dish was one of the best i’ve ever had and the service was lovely. I can’t wait to go back and spend some time exploring their menu.

Great patio, good food. My interest was piqued by the unique cuisine – Alastian – which is, as you’d expect, a mélange of German and French.
We ordered two flambees – smoked salmon and zucchini – and the cheese plate. Everything was good, although I would echo other reviews that the cheese and meat boards don’t come quite as stocked as you’d hope. The service was good and the overall Eurocharm-​atmosphere makes the patio a nice date spot.
I’m eager to try some of their more German-​influenced dishes to get a sense of how those two cuisines interact. Spaetzle is on the menu, sacre blau!

Now that the restaurant has had time to settle in, Im guessing that most of the reviews will be quite positive. I went for dinner on a weeknight so it was not very busy and we received a lot of attention and great service from a very knowledgeable waiter. We also spoke to the owner chef who is a really nice guy and insists that everything is made fresh and with love. His wife makes fantastic desserts! Specifically we had:
Duck Tarte Flambee — It looked better than it tasted. Didn’t taste bad but just not as much flavour as I thought it would have. I will try another one next time.
House smoked trout salad that was good though if you are a cook you might think you could have made it at home
Seared Fois Grois — Delicious. Perfect blend of flavours
Monkfish Osso Bucco — Not my favourite but mostly due to not liking the texture of the fist rather than improper cooking technique. The orzo pasta that accompanied it was good though
Poutine — Not on the menu. It was good but they added some fois grois upon request which wasn’t worth it. There was only 1 piece and it was inferior to the seared fois grois dish we had.
The Apple Tarte Flambee was amazing as was the other dessert which I no longer see on the menu but included ice cream and a salted chocolate mousse.
Personally I like this place better than Bodega and I think its worth the trip to Baldwin street to try for yourself

3.5 star
Elle M’a Dit was the last stop of the night for our Baldwin Street Crawl. Dessert please!
Elle M’a Dit specialized in Alastian (Franco-​German fusion of Northeastern France) Cuisine, so does that reflect in their desserts too?
Decisions.Decisions… as I want to try everything as usual:
My Unilocal Friend’s dessert (is my dessert too!) — MEH
Apple Tarte Flambee (Sliced apple, cinnamon sugar, cinnamon fromage blanc) $ 7
— Thinly sliced apples on top of a thin dough with a touch of cinnamon
— This is one of those rare time I wish my dessert is sweeter and more buttery… aren’t desserts suppose to be sinfully good? This verison just a tack too healthy for my taste!
My dessert (is my dessert too!) — LOVE IT!
Blueberry & Lemon (Blueberry corn bread, Lemon curd, Mixed berry frozen yogurt, candied ginger) $ 9
— I highly recommend this! Talking about a journey for the taste buds and senses…
— the warm and textured corn bread, the zesty lemon curd, sourness of berry yogurt and the tanginess of candied ginger
Elle M’a Dit’s deco is rustic and homey… I really feel like I am having a night cap over at my friend’s house?! BTW, if you are serving Blueberry & Lemon at your place, I wouldl be over every weekend!

Food was pretty decent. One of the dishes came with what looked like Oscar Meyer hot dog, and apparently tasted like a hot dog… I didn’t try it though (mainly because I don’t eat hot dogs). Nothing super memorable about the food but I remember it being pretty delicious. Only bad part was the hot dog.
We had a Gewürztraminer wine from Alsace and that wine was DELICIOUS. I loved it. Best part of the meal. I would go back just for the wine if I can’t find it in the LCBO.
The service was average and friendly. Nice patio. I would go again.

I spent some time in Alsace. This restaurant fails to capture the flair of the Alsatians, or the specific nuances of the classic dishes on offer.
Moreover, the service is disorganized, unfriendly and amateur. The décor is a bit awkward and the noisy atmosphere is odd – seeing that the place seats so few people to begin with.
The tarte flambée was soggy and sour. The choucroute was overcooked but the salads were good. Of all the restaurants on Baldwin Street, this is not the best. Go to La Bodega or Midi if you want a little bit of French.

(2.5*)
I REALLY, REALLY wanted to like this place and perhaps one day I will, but given the mediocre meal I had, I can’t say it was all that. Mind you, it was for lunch when the menu is much more limited.
I read a few reviews about EMD shortly after it opened before finally checking it out and I was pretty excited as there is not much in the way of Alsatian cuisine here. I tend not to visit restos too soon after they launch as I am not a fan of lineups (for Guu’s cheese bibimbap and oysters however, I’m willing) but also, there is often the awkward transition phase that many go through early on and I prefer not to have too much fine-​tuning going on by the time I get there, though in this case it seems maybe there is still some tweaking necessary.
I was dying to try their tarte flambee which had all the promise of something good, but when I saw that their sandwiches are made with Thuet bread, I could not resist. I had some kind of grilled chicken thing which was by no means Alsatian but I am such a sucker for the chicken-​and-​bacon combination (it was similar to a club sandwich, I guess). The contents of the sandwich were fine and the size of it was more than plenty (comes with frites or salad – I had the former which, as we all know: you can’t go wrong with anything fried) but the grainy bread was so burnt that taking a bite caused it to crumble, making it very difficult to eat with all the mayo and stuff dripping from it. It also tore up my palate, which was dangling away for the rest of the meal – very unpleasant.
I was having lunch with a potential employer so I didn’t really want to make a scene about it – not that I would, but even just to mention it seemed pointless as our server was kind of sullen (though I am willing to bet that she was exhausted after the lunch rush – one reason not to get too worked up about the burnt bread) but the mere fact that she even served it to me that way told me I needn’t bother.
Besides bacon, I am also a lover of basil though that does not warrant ordering a cocktail based on it, but I did anyway just out of curiosity. It was nothing special, just tasted like shampoo.
My lunch partner had a pulled pork sandwich and a glass of wine, which he seemed to enjoy. It was a nice sunny day and we were seated on their patio so that made up for a lot. We ended up going for dessert elsewhere as EMD’s list did not have anything too enticing.
While my selection was not the most sophisticated and speaks nothing of Alsatian cuisine, still, a club sandwich isn’t the kind of thing that is easy to mess up. To EMD’s credit however, lunch is not always the best measure for a resto’s true talent. I have seen a few so-​so reviews of EMD and some that are downright nasty, which I hope mine does not come across that way! I will give this place another go but next time for dinner, and if that doesn’t do it, I’m going to be really sad.

It was with much anticipation that I went to try this modern Alsatian restaurant in the heart of Baldwin street. Everything was set for me to give this place a five-​star review: an incredible seat on the patio, gorgeous weather and, of course, great company.
Unfortunately, the meal started out promising but just went downhill. The traditional tarte flambée got things started well enough; it was quite tasty and reminiscent of a mini pizza from Libretto. And then onto the braised beef tongue & potato gratin which was quite tender and delectable, but surprisingly the tongue didn’t have the texture that has been the case in past. We also had a tuna dish that came recommended, which was light but not particularly outstanding, and a duck confit flambée, which once we’d had the first flambée did not feel all that special. Finally, we capped the meal off with the charcuterie platter (which felt lacking compared to Bier Markt’s, and not even close to the one at the Black Hoof) and the cheese platter (which inexplicably took the longest time to be served, and came out looking seriously underwhelming for its price).
Service was so-​so, and there appeared to be no communication between the two servers, so we often had to deal with the same question («would you like another glass of wine?») or having to place our order twice (since apparently only one of the servers was capable of placing orders). The tab for a satisfying (but not filling) meal for two and three glasses of wine per person came to just under $ 200. Not bad, but certainly better values to be found.

Came here for lunch last Friday. Service was good but slow (only one server for a packed patio plus a couple people inside). Ordered the meatloaf, I really thought it was a beef meatloaf so while eating it I was a little confused when it looked and tasted like a fancy version of SPAM. Then it made sense when I realized it was a pork terrine… doh. The bread was kinda hard though and it hurt the top of my mouth. Ate some of my friends frites — tasted uncooked and soggy (unless that’s how the French make ‘em??).
Since the place is so new I think I’d give it another few weeks or month and I’ll come back to try their dinner menu.

Part of me wants to keep this place a secret, but I have to share (/​brag) about what a jackpot we just hit:
Walking in Friday around 8 we sat down on a pleasantly half-​full patio without waiting. Our server was lovely, and informed us that the owners are also the cooks, a husband and wife. This place soon showed itself to be a fantastically successful labour of love; I’m tempted to come back tonight.
First off, the wine list — well chosen and mostly French, *extremely* low mark-​up (average bottle price was mid-​40s ranging down to $ 22(!!) for a realllly delicious crafted sparkling cider).
We were sunburnt and had been beach picnicking all day, so we took it light — - (for entrees the seared trout on summer rattatouille and the coq au vin were nearly ordered before our apps were so filling we couldn’t eat anymore!).
So, an overview of the starters.
Meat Plate ($ 15) House smoked duck, huge mounds of house-​made terrines of chicken and pork, happy surprises of smartly chosen herbs, seeds, and a perfect hint of lemon and mint in the pork, served on a board with cornichons, a housemade summer chutney, dijon and horseradish mayo. The duck melts into your mouth, the terrines are just… perfect.
Classic Tarte a Flambee ($ 6) Crispy thin handmade dough, savoury and cheesy and generous with all the toppings — I’d get these for after-​work takeout in a heartbeat. The duck confit option is a temptress.
Fish Plate ($ 13) Absolutely absurdly good house-​smoked salmon on croustini with lemon, shaved radish and grated fennel was the highlight of this. Serious highlight. Wanted to take a nap with it in my mouth kind of highlight.
Beet and Feta Salad (I forget, $ 8 or something) The only thing we didn’t identify as Alsacian made up for it with the genius move of sneaking in chopped caraway and hazelnut into a generous and well-​balanced (but otherwise pretty familiar) salad. Again with shaved fennel and radish which lifted the whole thing up a little.
For dessert we had the Black Tea Crème Brulee which was as rich and fragrant as it sounds, served in a little mason jar.
This was one of the most gorgeous meals I’ve had in Toronto in years, with a truly painless bill.

Recently opened and running along swimmingly. The menu changes frequently, so keep an open mind about what you might order.
The Tarte Flambee comes in a variety of flavours– and this is a fantastic vegetarian option, or a sharable appetizer for after-​work drinkers.
The other mains range from Alsatian (semi-​German) sausages and spatzle to gazpacho to beef tongue.
For adventurous eaters and picky eaters– there is something for everyone.
Cool list of cocktails with mint, ginger, basil etc…
Good for groups and outdoor patio seating.

Elle M’a Dit is a new favorite of ours on Baldwin. Tasty french cuisine prepared with love by a friendly chef from Alsace.

A great addition to Baldwin, French food for less money than Bodega but not lacking in quality. Although cheaper than Bodega in general it’s not what I would call a cheap meal.
It’s brand spanking new replacing Thai Paradise, and while Thai Paradise didn’t seem to utilize their patio well, Elle M’a Dit’s patio quickly rises to one of my favourite patio’s on Baldwin. It’s small but has a great mix of tables in the shade as well as in the sun (this is at dinner time I’m talking about). You can also bump free WiFi from TAN which sits next door if you’re on the patio :)
The menu changes daily and from lunch to dinner, which is a great treat and they do a lot of prep work on their meat in house. I didn’t pull out all the guns in my visit in terms of ordering some of their pricier items, I did have their gazpacho with shrimp ceviche which was just what I needed on a warm summers day. It was also pretty chunky so you chunky haters best stay away. But for $ 8 I did find the price a little steeper than it should have been, but I still highly recommend it. My main dish was their Tarte flambée (a flatbread dish) with gracious amounts of brie, bacon and oil and finished off with a delicious black tea crème brûlée which I thought was a little small on the portion front but then again, better to have just the right amount of dessert than stuffing yourself. The rest of the menu looked very interesting, pricy but I have a feeling it might be worth it to treat yourself.
The waitress was very friendly and professional and overall I don’t have a lot of negatives to say about this place.
But French food is high quality food in small portions, sort of pretty much sums up my experience here.