nooty foodies, celebrities and celebrity-watchers come sniffing around once a year to get their TIFF fix. Bistro 990 is just across the street from the Sutton Place Hotel, so it drags in more than its fair share of big names. The Gallic dining room is charming, and the service is all-around attentive.

Yep, the food's simple (spare, perhaps); the menu offers sea bass baked with wild rice, a roasted half chicken with garlic jus crackles with crispness and Provençal flavour. Best known for its celebrity clientele, especially when the Toronto Film Festival rolls around, 990 serves pastoral French cuisine that incorporates fresh market produce. - A.J.