Pangaea Restaurant

I went here for winterlicious lunch with my friends because I remember it being pretty good few years back.
I ordered the pear/​endive salad, chicken main, and cinnamon panna cotta. I liked the sound and idea of each dish but it didn’t deliver as much as I hoped. They were all presented well and tasted okay but there wasn’t anything outstanding. But I mean $ 23 for 3 dishes, I can’t complain. My friends complained how the dishes didn’t fill them enough as well.
It was a good experience overall with good service but I don’t think I will back for the winterlicious menu!

We love Pangaea. Had not been here in a number of years, and it was very busy because it was also Winterlicious. Regardless, the service and food remain exceptional. We love the feel here. It’s a very upscale Yorkville restaurant, with a stunning interior, yet the service and attitude is comfortable and anything but stiff. Watching floor staff is like watching a symphony. Everyone knows their part to keep things moving. The food is so creative and fresh. Worth every cent. Especially for a special occasion, this is a wonderful place to be.

We came here for Winterlicious and it was delicious! I had the smoked salmon salad, duck, and panna cotta for dessert. The duck was cooked just right with nice layer of crispy skin. And the panna cotta had a nice drizzle of vanilla bean sauce. Yummmmm

Outstanding find at every level. We are New Yorkers and my wife and I had some work at the TD Canada Trust bank on Bloor street before we had to take an afternoon flight back home. We called the restaurant at 11:20 (they open at 11:30 am) saying we were pressed for time and they let us in and seated us promptly (we had no reservations of course). My wife is vegetarian so they put together a wonderful pasta dish with veggies in a tomato based sauce that was simply outstanding. I ordered their cod entrée which too was superb. The food arrived within 10 – 12 minutes of our ordering.
The staff deserve an A+ for service and the chef for the quality of food.
The décor is understated with a nice local touch — there are three photographs mounted on the wall across from the bar which were taken by a local photographer and depicted wintry scenes and are changed based on the season.
Definitely worth a second visit on our next trip to Toronto.

This is a great place to eat. The presentation could be worked on a little. The food most of the time has a good collaboration of flavours, but sometimes they’re a little off on certain dishes. The fish is delicious here, with a nice blend of veggies and delicious sauces.
I enjoy most the 1 $ oysters on Wednesday and Thursday’s !! And btw it is easy to park to eat here too.

Food was good but weird… they took my credit card to charge it instead bringing the mobile reader, that they used at the adjacent table, they took my cc and charged it then brought it back. I didn’t like that at all. Service was okay but had to constantly ask for water service which was a but tedious. MIght give it another try

Came here after work for Winterlicious.
Atmosphere was very nice and intimate. Definitely a good restaurant to come to for a date. Crowd I would say is 26+.
Had the beef carpaccio, which consisted of parmesan cheese, lemon confit, compressed cucumbers and black olives. Very lovely starter appetizer, as I enjoyed the meat. For the main, I had beef strip loin and the Ontario cheese plate.
My friend had the lamb, which was oven roasted and served with barley, mustard seed, raisins, ginger and almonds.
Overall, I probably regretted picking my strip loin as it was not enough to fill me. The lamb was cooked perfectly and my friend enjoyed it. Ideally this is a restaurant where portions do not fill you. Ontario cheese plate was pretty generic but still good.
Nothing really stands out to me about this restaurant and the food was good but nothing too special.

First time here with a group of 6 — three couples — for Summerlicious 2015, $ 35pp.
We all ordered different appetizers, mains, desserts… and ended up ordering almost the entire Summerlicious menu between 6 people so we tried everything. I don’t think a single person was unhappy with anything. A pitcher of sangria was easily shared between 6 people.
Beautiful presentations, delicate balance of flavours with some creative ingredient offerings, perfect portion sizes to satisfy even the big eaters in the group. And plenty of local, sustainable ingredients. Could we ask for more?
Some of our group’s favourite dishes (pics of all 5 below):
— Seafood salad appetizer
— Duck main course
— Trout main course
— Panna cotta dessert (just order it and thank me later!)
— Chocolate cake
We also need to commend the top-​notch service. We dressed up a bit for a special evening, but I noticed even the customers who were more casually dressed we receiving equally attentive service.
VERY impressed. Would definitely come back for a special occasion.

The food was good, the servers were friendly and efficient.
Lovely presentation.

Unlike others, I was here for the buck-​a-​shuck oyster deal. The deal is on every Wednesday and Thursday, starting at 4pm.
So I reserved a table for 8 and 3 of us were there first. I was very impressive with the service, very welcoming and friendly. We dressed in jeans and tees, with backpacks and messy hair. We didn’t dress formal enough compare to other customers around (some restaurants will treat you differently if you don’t dress nice). However, they still asked if we want to check our coats. Then he showed us to our table at the bar section. Since it’s the bar section, the décor is more relaxing, not as formal and fancy as the dining room.
While waiting for the other 5, the waitress kept coming back to make sure our glasses of water are always full and to check if we want to order another beer.
We ordered a dozen each. Its oysters were fresh, and they are bigger than other places who have the same deal. I was a bit sad because they don’t have a variety of sauces for oysters like Nome.
Since we ordered a dozen each (96 oysters in total), they only brought us 72 on the first round and forgot the second round. We reminded the waitress and she apologized right away. She brought us the rest and said the chef wanted to apologize as well. It was worth the wait for the oysters.
Excellent service, good deal for oysters, and they are all fresh and yummy. I will definitely come back here. If you’re looking for oyster deals, Pangea is one of the great choices.

I’ve been to Pangaea three times, twice for Winterlicious and once for their regular menu.
First Winterlicious in 2013 impressed me a lot, I still remember the quail app which was deliciously tender. This led me to try their regular menu afterwards, where I had the duck confit that was also extremely flavourful.
Unfortunately, the Winterlicious menu I had this year was a bit disappointing.
Starter — Beef Carpaccio; Parmesan cheese, lemon confit, compressed cucumber, black olives. I’m sorry. this combination was just weird. You can call my taste buds unrefined but aside from my hate for black olives, the combination of cheese and lemon confit tasted rather strange with the beef carpaccio. I think anything sweet with beef carpaccio is a little off, the combination of the lemon and parmesan just poked me in all the wrong ways.
Main — Roasted Leg of Lamb; On creamy gorgonzola and rosemary barley. Hm… okay, this was pretty good. The blackened part of the lamb in the photo tasted more flavour than the rest of the lamb. It was not the best Winterlicious main I had by far, but definitely miles better than the starter.
Dessert — Ontario cheese plate. Standard cheese plate with fruit compote and honey, cannot remember for the life of me the different types of cheese I had, but it was enjoyable, I’ll leave it at that
Overall, four stars because my first two experiences were great and I feel like my Winterlicious experience this year was dampened too quickly by the strange starter. Another worthy resto in Yorkville.

Underwhelmed
Went for winterlicious, had higher expectations of the service & food. Especially for Yorkville area. the best item on my prix fixed dinner was the appi, which was the beef carpaccio; my lamb entre was 75% lamb fat then meat. The dessert was more biscotti then crème Brûlé. Which was disappointing.
I had been very specific in my reservation in stating that one of the ppl attending had a very very high sensitivity to nuts, and when i told them who had the allergy it seems to be forgotten as she got served nuts on her dessert on the top. EpiPen should be brought as they are not sensitive to allergies

Winterlicious lunch here was quite pleasant. One of my favourite places to go to in the city. Service was excellent and welcoming and we were seated right away.
Appetizer was beef carpaccio which had quite a bit going on. I had a hard time appreciating the flavours but the presentation was spectacular.
Main course was the lamb which was quite disappointing. A very tough piece of meat, but I can still say that the seasoning was excellent.
Dessert was a very dense chocolate cake which I liked but my colleague didn’t.
Overall, the ambience of Pangaea is wonderful and great for a nice lunch/​dinner. I have had previous experience with this place and fantastic cuisine, but I have to say that this lunch was not as appealing as expected. Will still come back here knowing their full potential.

Visited during Winterlicious with friends. Total: 7 pax. They were running a bit late. Had to wait 20 mins so we were quite hungry by 8:40.
For the appetizer, we sampled the mushroom soup, beef carpaccio and pear and endive salad. The soup was hot and enjoyable. The carpaccio was also tasteful. The pear was a mild disappointment, not much taste.
As for entrees, we had the duck breast, striplion and lamb. All delicious & delicately prepared but the portions are rather small. We all had extra bread.
Desserts: chocolate cake, crème bulee and lemon stick. Both chocolate cake and crème bulee were good. The lemon stick was just ordinary but nice presentation.
Overall a good experience but nothing that really strikes out.

We came here for dinner on a whim, and oh what a delicious whim it proved to be!
For an appetizer, I had the chilled melon soup which was perfect on a warm evening in September & my husband raves over the grilled calamari. I selected the mushroom risotto for my main, which was delightfully creamy but still light with shaved green beans and cherry tomatoes garnishing the brothy risotto. My husband had the homemade gnocchi which literally melted in his mouth. For dessert, I sampled the coconut and banana tart while he had the fresh berries with light flaky pastry. This meal was great from start to finish.
I did not provide 5 stars because our waiter was lacking in charm and personality. He acted as if he didn’t really care. However, the servers and maître’d were extremely attentive, so I may chalk this up to a bad night for him.

I came here with some friends and had a great experience. The service was great, we were seated promptly and the waiter was super friendly and knowledgeable. The restaurant was really elegant and understated which I liked.
I had the steak which was cooked perfectly. It was absolutely delicious and I am really picky about steak! Everyone in our party was pleased with their food which is rare and definitely a good sign. The only thing that came up was we thought the portions were too small and I would agree that it was smaller than most other comparable restaurants.
For dessert I had the lemon tart which was so good I didn’t want to share (I did of course but it was THAT good :)).
This is a great restaurant for a nice lunch with friends, I would definitely recommend.

I came here with a group for my friend’s birthday party. They were a bit late seating us which was fine because we were quite a large party.
We all went for the Summerlicious menu ($ 35). I got the tuna tartare (with shaved radish, coriander, Shibori yuzu gel, crisp shallots), three way lamb (oven roasted lamb loin, charred lamb sweetbreads, sous-​vide lamb kidney on cous cous with mustard seed, raisins, ginger, almonds) and summer berry shortcake (marinated fresh berries, hot milk cake, vanilla whipped cream).
The tuna tartare tasted good and it was very standard to me. The presentation of the three way lamb was incredibly unappetizing. Good thing the actual food tasted better than it looked. My favourite part of the dish was the sweetbreads. The biggest disappointment was the shortcake. The cake was thickly cut and dry. The presentation was average and the amount of cake to berry was off.
Overall, the flavours of the dishes were above average but the presentation was below average. After this Summerlicious experience, I don’t think I’ll be coming back for their regular menu because the meal just didn’t wow me.

On my way to an evening class, I decided to check out Pangaea as it was close it happened to be on the Summerlicious 2014 participating list.
I booked a 4:45PM to be sure I had a spot. But given it was a Tuesday, the restaurant would not be as busy at that time. As soon as I arrived a manager and some servers greeted me and noted my booking as well as request to be finished within an hour. I was asked to choose between the lunch and dinner menu. I decided on the dinner menu.
I got a seat by the window next to Bay St near the after work rush. The restaurant itself had high ceilings and simple décor. A rare experience to view life in Yorkville.
The standard bread offering came first. The waiter made sure the glass was always full of water. He asked how the food was and was very courteous.
The dinner menu was a 3 course meal with about 4 options for each. Within 10 minutes of ordering the Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with fresh basil, olives, onion, vincotta dressing had arrived. It was light with right amount of dressing and quite good.
The main course was duck with carrot purée, and roasted root vegetables. The emphasis was on local ingredients. The duck was the best prepared part of the main course. I was not totally sold on some of the vegetables. Summerlicious dishes attempt to give a small taste of the offerings of restaurants. The main course appeared to be a bit experimental in terms of taste.
The desert was a lemon bar — more like a cheese cake with raspberry sauce on the side and topped with lemon meringue. A bit sweet for my taste but well prepared.
All in all, a good experience at Pangaea. Although a bit pricey — worth to try.

I came to Pangea with some friends and it was a really good experience. First I have to say the restaurant did a great job at catering to my Lactose/​Gluten free diet. Second, our waiter was really attentive, which I think is über important. Our meals were all delicious and the ambiance was nice. The portions were on the smaller side (expected of high end restaurants) but we all left satisfied.
I started with a cold melon soup which was really good. I normally eat really healthy so it was something I could see myself enjoying as a dessert. I highly recommend it if you would like to try something different and sweet.
Next I had the Halibut and Octopus dinner. The halibut was plain and not too flavourful but the octopus definitely made up for this. The Octopus was amazing and super delicious. It had almost a butter flavour but it wasn’t buttery. It was just scrumptious!
For dessert I had three flavours of sorbet. I could immediately tell that they were made from real fruit and were not store bought. The sorbet was the perfect dessert to end my meal.
Some of my friends enjoyed the Tomato and Mozzarella Salad, Duck breast, Strawberry Shortcake (Out of this world but not gluten free), and the vegetarian risotto. They all really enjoyed their dishes.
I would definitely go back.

I’m sure taking advantage of SUMMERLICIOUS ALRIGHT! lol
Conveniently across the Bay subway station on the North east corner of Bay and Bloor is Pangaea. Though this place looks small and narrow outside, its definintely deceiving. Beautiful contemporary décor, with a few sculpted fixtures, and paintings, its definitely a place to try.
Our server was knowlegably helpful in assisting us in recommendations, and we were satisfied.
I ended up having the:
Hot Soup of the day: which was an asparagus purée soup 4.5÷5, beautiful color and texture with a nice drop of cream in the center. Great presentation!
entrée was Brined & Roasted Pork Loin ⁵⁄₅
Smoked celeriac purée, stewed peppers, sweet & spicy golden raisins
the celeriac purée helped diversify the flavor of the pork as it is a blander meat, and thankfully it was not a sweet purée which really complimented the sweet and spicy golden raisins, and brought an overal flavorful dish…
Dessert was the Raspberry Semifreddo
Shortbread cookie, raspberry compote, lime caramel, white chocolate curl. The shortbread was very soft, which complimented the semifreddo that was topped off with with chocolate curl… perfect way to top off a perfect lunch.