Veloute @ Palace Pier — Restaurant in Toronto

Second visit, won't be our last!

After our first visit to Velouté earlier this year during Winterlicious, we decided to host several family members there during Summerlicious. To our disappointment, we couldn’t get everyone together in time – but then the restaurant continued its special summer menu with its “Veloutélicious” promotion. This three-course menu featured a generous selection of dishes from the regular dinner menu at a special fixed price of $75, an excellent value. The regular menu and weekly specials were also available; two members of our group of six opted to share a Chateaubriand, beautifully presented and carved by Chef at the table.

From the Veloutélicious menu, the surf & turf and steak frites are bistro classics. Chef also did a wonderful job with seafood. The crab and lobster tian salad is an artfully constructed tower of shellfish and guacamole, decorated with tiny green fish eggs, and the Mediterranean sea bass was grilled to perfection.

The highlight of the evening came at dessert, as we were celebrating not one but three family birthdays. Restaurant birthday celebrations can be a noisy and embarrassing nightmare, but there’s none of that here! The guests of honour received desserts with “Happy Birthday” beautifully piped onto their plates in chocolate, accompanied by sommelier Alise’s exquisite singing.

Throughout the evening, our server Zin again looked after us impeccably, attentive but never intrusive. Everyone was delighted with their meals and the lovely setting. All in all, we consider this the best fine-dining experience we have had in many years. We will definitely be back.

Initial review

A hidden jewel! Nestled away in the Palace Pier condo complex, Veloute Bistro is less well known than the quality of its food and service deserve.

My husband and I enjoyed our first post-pandemic meal out after discovering Veloute among the many restaurants participating in Winterlicious. Unlike some places that had limited-time seatings (understandable but annoying) we were not rushed as we savoured 3 delightful courses plus a classic lime daiquiri to start the evening. The cocktail is not on the restaurant's standard menu, but Alise was able to create a delicious version of it. The staff was also most obliging in decanting our full-bodied red wine selection in advance of our arrival so it could "open up" in time for the main course.

The Winterlicious menu duplicated a lot of Veloute's regular fare, and offered a varied and generous selection.

The Caesar appetizer was somewhat unconventional with finely chopped romaine, but had a classic dressing with fresh parmigiano reggiano cheese. The Warm Lobster Crab Cake was even better, with a crisp panko coating and touches of smoked salmon and spicy guacamole.

We both had the steak frites with rosemary and garlic mayonnaise, a bistro classic done to perfection, and wound up the meal with a deliciously delicate creme brulee accompanied by capuccinos. All highly impressive! Chef Fawzi is clearly a master of his craft, and we will definitely return to celebrate more special occasions at this...

We have chosen this restaurant as our mom-daughter date night for Winterlicious. It's priced at the top tier ($75/ person) for Winterlicious, we had quite an expectation prior to the evening.

Here's what we tried:

I ordered the French Kiss cocktail before the food, and it was such a treat--fruity, refreshing, and balanced without being too sweet. I was sipping it throughout and honestly, it's a palate cleanser between each dish.

Lobster Crab Cake- the perfect start to the meal. Crispy on the outside, soft and full of flavour on the inside, and the tangy sauce paired well with the flavour profile of the dish. Not too heavy to start off the meal.

Tuna Tataki- the tuna was seared to perfection and still had a little chew to every bite. The light sweet dressing brought everything together without overpowering the natural flavours of the tuna. At first, I thought the sauce was a bit too sweet, but if I had the tuna together with the guacamole in each bite, it actually brought out the flavours of the tuna.

For the main, my mom picked the duck leg confit. The duck was so tender it practically fell off the bone! The skin was perfectly crispy, and it came with fettuccine tossed in a rich truffle oil sauce and some mushrooms, you could smell the truffle from a mile away! It felt like pure comfort food with a touch of elegance.

As for myself, I picked the Cast-Iron Steak Frites. This steak was was cooked to a perfect medium rare, with a beautiful crust from the cast iron and a juicy, tender center. The fries were freshly fried to golden, and crispy. Though the menu said the fries were tossed with rosemary, we couldn't taste anything except plain golden crsipy fries. But that garlic mayo on the side? Totally made up for that- with real garlic in the mayo, it was creamy, flavourful, and the perfect dip for those fries.

For the dessert, we picked the tiramisu and creme brulee. The tiramisu was creamy, not too sweet, and with just the right hit of espresso. It was such a comforting and indulgent way to end the meal. Though it could definitely worked on the appearance. It looked like as if it was scooped out from a giant spoon and the chef just plop it on the plate. The vanilla crème brûlée had that perfect crackly caramelized top, and the custard underneath was silky smooth and full of vanilla flavour. Simple, classic, and what a satisfying way to wrap up the meal.

And you don't have to worry about the parking situation, Palace Pier offers complimentary valet parking for those who dine at the restaurant, and it was such a thoughtful touch that made the night even more special.

If you are looking for a great date night spot, I can't recommend Velouté Bistro enough with great food, cozy vibes, and amazing service. We'll...

We went here to try this restaurant for Winterlicious, and overall can say we enjoyed our meal and the service. Our severs name was Thomas. I ordered their Bellini which tasted nice, they had two options: mango or peach. Before the appetizers the server suggested that we try their bread service, so we did and we are glad that we did, as their bread is made in house and it was great. We are disappointed that we weren't told the price was $4 (however we heard our server tell another table the price when he suggested it to them).

To start we had the crab cakes and tuna tartare - both tasted good, however the tuna tartare had wasabi in it so it was slightly off-putting for me personally (but my husband didn't mind it). Their crab cakes were I think a bit more crunchy than others I've had and a bit dry (we had to ask for lemon to squeeze on both apps). I don't think we would order these again though. For our main course: we had the Bouillabaisse and their lamb. I asked for my lamb to be cooked medium rare but I felt it was more so on the rare side, I also had to ask for salt as I felt my lamb needed it. My husband enjoyed his Bouillabaisse but he felt that it was slightly lacking in seasoning and needed some salt. Keeping in mind that we'd prefer to have to add salt then it be over seasoned. My husband also got more bread to have with the sauce. For dessert we had the eclair and chocolate mousse, both which were great. From everything we had the eclair was our favorite as it was not overly sweet. We did not enjoy the dark-ish lighting in the restaurant though, as their ceiling was a clear glass panel so you could see outside and given that it gets dark quite early more lighting would have been...