T.O.bites | Toronto Food & Restaurant Blog

Last September, when Zelda’s closed and ran up Yonge street, people started to cry out that due to the rising cost in rent, the village was doomed to become a collection of high-end stale corporate chain shops and restaurants.  Heck, there was even a rumor that McDonald’s was going to take over the old Zelda location.  To make matters worse, Lettieri closed up shop a few months later and is now a Hero Burger.  Then Il Fornello decided to take off.  What’s going on?  Thankfully, there’s been a slight change in the doom and gloom of the neighbourhood: the Church St. Diner recently opened back up and a new comer, Chi-ko-roo, has taken up the space once formerly housed by Il Fornello.  I had the chance to sit down and have a bite to eat there just a few days after their opening.

Chi-ko-roo’s menu contains a huge collection of meals and food options to eat, so it usually takes a bit of time to decide what you want.  We decided to go with brunch for this visit, but I do plan on going back some day and trying something more dinner-like.  There hasn’t really been much of a change of the inside since Il Fornello left.  Infact, aside from the tables, everything else seems intact from when the Giannone Petricone Associates Architechs first redesigned the interior for Il Fornello.  But hey, if it’s still pretty then why destroy it?  One thing I noticed is that it’s a lot brighter in there, possibly a bit too bright.  It might not be a bad idea to change those 100 watt bulbs to something a little less bright.

You can still tell it used to be Il Fornello

After we placed our order, we were served with a basket of bread that had a side of different savory spreads.  One was hummus, the other was a mash of sun dried tomatoes, and the final one can only be described as some sort of garlic paste.  Not bad for a complimentary appetizer.  I hope this is something they do regularly and not just for the opening week.

the bread appetizer with three sides

One complaint I have (aside from the bright lights) is that our food took a bit of time to come to the table.  Perhaps that’s why we were given bread first.  It took roughly 30 minutes from when we placed our order until it was in front of us.  It could have just been opening week hiccups, but the place was hardly busy, so I wouldn’t recommend heading there for lunch if you’re on a 1 hour break.  Even though the kitchen is a tad bit slow, the wait staff is incredibly friendly and nice.  They’re also pretty prompt when serving you, but keep in mind, I was there during a slower time of the day.

french toast with berries

I ordered the french toast with berries.  It came with a little side of ice cream and a tiny jar of syrup.  Antony asked for a second jar of syrup (since I gave him two of my pieces of toast) and they had no problem giving us another one.  It’s kind of hard to tell in the photo, but these aren’t really your traditional slices of bread.  They were more like bricks of bread that were fried in egg batter.  Definitely different from the standard french toast, but also really good.  It had a nice light crunch on the outside with warm soft bread on the inside.  Now you put some of that ice cream on top of it and you’re in food heaven.  The fruit was also a nice touch, with a mix of blueberries and strawberries.  It made me feel less guilty about eating the fried fatty bricks of french toast.

three eggs

Antony ordered a traditional brunch/breakfast of 3 eggs, toast, hashbrown potatoes, and bacon – extra crispy.  It came with a slice of melon as a garnish.  The hash browns were amazingly good, nice and crispy.  Everything else was of the standard breakfast platter, and yes, his bacon did come crispy.

His favorite part of the meal was not so much the meal itself, but the huge case of jam, honey, and peanut butter that was brought to our table for his toast.  We have a pet peeve with places that give you one small jam when you’ve got 4 giant pieces of toast so this gives Chi-ko-roo a thumbs up in his book.

Chi-ko-roo is a great addition to the village which I highly recommend.  Their large portions of food will satisfy any appetite, and the cost of the meal won’t break your wallet.  But just make sure you’re not in a rush, though I hope kitchen service will improve in the future.