Terra Restaurant

OUCH !!! How do you give your "go-to" restaurant a less than complimenting review? tough. My wife and I haven't been to Terra for a few years due to changes in our diet and eating habits. Since we live in Richmond Hill, Terra has been our number 1 go-to restaurant for fine dining and yesterday we took our son and his girlfriend to celebrate his birthday. My wife likes to consult the menu online, and decide what she'll order prior to arriving at the restaurant. I like to be surprised. The first think that hit me when I studied the menu was that no dish jumped at me with a promise of being unique and different than in other restaurants. In my mind, An "eclectic" restaurant, as Terra defines itself, needs to always have something new and creative, surprising and thrilling, that makes you want to order it as soon as you lay your eyes on it, unlike an upscale steakhouse where one finds all the usual "suspects". The service was very good, as always. With my main course I have asked for spicy oil (I had the pasta) and we needed to remind the waitress after 10 minutes that we were still waiting for it. Not to be petty, but at a fine dining place that shouldn't happen. Every fine dining establishment should have excellent bread. The 2 types of bread we received were mediocre at best. The EVOO was of excellent quality so the mismatch was unfortunate. 2 of the 4 appetizers arrived barley warm (Calamari) and had to be redone. At a place like this you expect the chef to know that if there's one dish that couldn't sit at the window it's Calamari. It gets cold very quickly. The replacement Calamari arrived quickly and was hot. My wife's soup of the day (cream of Spinach, I believe) was very good but was just very warm. We believe a soup should be served hot. My wife ordered the Foie Gras appetizer as a main dish. Since she came prepared with the dish selection from her online study of the menu, she didn't bother to look at the printed one. Well, the online menu promised a Foie Gras Duo (grilled and a mousse) but the dish served was just grilled. When we inquired, the manager came over and explained that they have yet to correct the online version. Ii may be our own fault for trusting the online menu but the expectations from a fine dining place are a bit higher. When the dessert arrived (we all had just one, to share) it was nicely decorated with a "Happy Birthday" writing and a candle. It also made it onto the bill. One would think that after the Calamari had to be re-done, the soup was just warm and the spicy oil was forgotten, that the dessert which costs the restaurant $5 and is priced at $16, could be complimentary after the mis-haps... The food was good. Anyone who frequents fine-dining restaurants could easily tell that the ingredients were fresh and the dishes well prepared. All were tasty, and here exactly lies the problem: Not a single dish was of such flavours, creativity or uniqueness that would make one want to make come back for. Every really good restaurant needs such a dish, and even some of the Indian, Thai or Chinese restaurants north of the city, where the price of a meal is about 30% of what it is at Terra, have such dishes. Bummer.