A few years ago, I went to Rodney’s but it wasn’t totally up to my expectation. Maybe my expectation was too high. The oysters/service were not spectacular given the high price range. One night at a gathering, I first heard of Starfish. Someone told me this place is great place to get good oysters – less expensive compared to Rodney’s but very good seafood.
About half a year ago, JK and I were talking about going to Starfish after browsing their website, but I did not go to this place until recently. It was a birthday gathering for one my girlfriends (and also for my bf – at least to both of us).
Saturday night around 8:30, we came to this place near Adelaide and Jarvis. It was a gloomy evening – with all the clouds and rains. Of course, it wasn’t because of the birthdays; just a very subjective feeling of mine. There were a total of 10 of us.
The menu was good – enough but not too many selections. Raw oysters from the East (PEI – Colville Bay, Hardy’s Malpeque; NB – Beausoleil, NS – Wedgeport), West (WA – Kumamoto, BC – Hariot Bay) and from far and away’s Kelly’s Oysters Ireland and Clarenbridge Bay –Gigas.
We ordered 30 Malpeque, some Ireland and some Kumamoto. Kumamoto, this small but flavourable oyster, seems to be the favourite of the ladies. The flavour of Malpeque was very balanced – not too strong/salty, but Ireland was very salty – maybe it’s just not my type of oyster. Price range of these oysters is from about $2.10 (Malpeque) to $3.50 (Kumamoto/Ireland).
They also have the so-called Patrick’s Oysterlicious Plates. If you like Malpeque and want a “deal”, this is good. From the Canadian’s Plate (18 Hardy’s for $28) to the Shucker’s Hunny (100 Hardy’s for $100).
(1) Our two-level oyster dish
(2) Malpeque (left); Kumamoto (right)
(3) Ireland
Beside oysters, Starfish also offers a different dishes from the land and sea. Here’s what we ordered:
(4) Tasmanian ocean trout on wild rice polenta, Ontario asparagus, confit cipollini onions, sauteed by baby swiss chard, and a chanterelle mushroom sauce. It was good and juicy – according to JL.
(5) Pan seared white fish (substitute of New Zealand tarakihi), with fingerling potatoes, baby golden and candystripes beets, and sauteed pea tendrils in a lobster consomme.
(6) Steak frites – grilled certified Angus rib eye with a parsley shallot butter sauce and house cut yukon gold frites. According to the EL, this is extremely greasy. I had a bite and echo that…
(7) Oven roast Scottish organic cod on brandade de morue, sauteed rapini, roast cipollini onions with a green olive herb broth. Almost unacceptable to me – extremely salty. Augh!
(8) Rare roasted magret of duck on potato galette, braised red cabbage, runner beans with a savory cherry sauce. According to R, this is so-so. The cherries was not a good complement of the duck. The flavour of the dish was overall too strong.
(9) A look inside the restaurant…
Overall, I would say Starfish was so-so. However, according to JK, they do have good side dishes/appetizers. If you would like to check it out and give it a try. Here’s the info:
FYI: Starfish Oysterbed & Grill
100 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, ON. M5C 1K9
Tel: 416-366-STAR (7827)
M-F: 12p.m. – 3p.m.; 5p.m. – 11p.m.; Sat: 5p.m. – 11p.m.; Sunday Closed
Sorry foe the off-topic comments but are you taking your food pictures with your FX-01? Are you using the “Food” scene mode? I noticed that you always take photos without flash using just the natural light but in the darker situations your pictures are always in focus. you must have steady hands. Also, particulary at this restaurant, every plate photographed conveniently has a spot light on it. Coincedence? Or do you do ALOT of plate shuffling for your photo everytime a new dish comes out?
Hey Rick! No problem. Just say whatever you wanna say here – as long as they’re not spam :p
Yup I’ve been taking pictures with my FX-01, except when my camera’s out of battery or if I forgot to bring my camera – I will use my cell instead.
I noticed that there’s a “food” mode, but I’ve never used that. (just a bit lazy to go to that menu – take an extra step). Usually, for all these food picture – I just use the macro without flash. Yes, my hands are very steady 🙂
The spot light – I think it’s just because of the restaurant setting – I just took pictures of the plates when they came out and put in front of my friends. You may notice that the picture of the steak is weird – it’s because my friend who had the steak sat quite far away from me…
“enough but not too much selections” shoud be “enough but not too many selections”…
there seems to be chinglish in your posts…
Thx for the correction! Sometimes I just typed it up quickly w/o second read. That’s why there’re typos and chinese-english everywhere. Yup. I should definitely pay more attention to details.