Winter is fabulous and intensely celebrated in the city of Toronto during a 3-in-1 festival presented in late January through early February each year.  The WOW! Series of concerts and theatre presentations (both indoor and out), the Warm Up series at various sites/popular attractions around town that offer performances and special events, and Winterlicious comprise Toronto ’s WinterCity festival!

Each year, we’ve tried out a few of the menus showcased during Winterlicious.  Hands down, our favourite menu was the Rosebud’s!  Small but mighty, this charming restaurant on Queen West offered some of the best fare we’ve had in a long while.  We were also equally impressed by the creativity of the vegetarian dishes—oh, what a lovely marinated beet salad with walnut goat’s cheese bavarois and balsamic … and that was just the appetizer! 

As with its sister festival, Summerlicious, we highly recommend booking EARLY to avoid disappointment.  Peruse the online menus of participating restaurants, make your choice and pick up the phone on the first day of reservations!  If you are willing to risk it and want to check out the restos in more detail, there are plenty of online review sites that will overload you with other people’s opinions of the restaurants in question (such as Chowhound).

Don’t forget!  After lunch or dinner, check out the indoor and outdoor performances of the WinterCity Festival!

Winterlicious Home Page:

http://www.toronto.ca/special_events/wintercity/index.htm

The Rosebud Restaurant

http://www.therosebud.ca/

Chowhound

http://chowhound.chow.com/boards