Kicking off, a bison carpaccio, gentle in flavour, is paired with truffled goat cheese and a tiny papaya salad. For richer fare, a roasted Alsatian style squab terrine - a seasonal rendition - is balanced with the flavour of black truffles. Another plate brings a combination of delicate sea scallops and yellow fin tuna tartare, marinated miso with organic Umeboshi plums.
However, haute cuisine - as the forward in the menu describes Thuet’s style - moves into a rarefied and slightly original plane with items from which to choose: Thai Alberta beef tenderloin ($34) is vibrant with an oxtail mousse, arriving with fingerling potato coulis and poached bone marrow, Pinot Noir jus. The Glazed Brawn Lake aiguillette of duck breast ($32) is a formidable second choice, served with cherry truffle ravioli, green pea purée and pungent Banyuls reduction. Ontario lamb filet and côtelette ($31) with succulent ratatouille, goat cheese liquid, pommes Anna and thyme essence.
A meal at Thuet Cuisine goes along at a leisurely pace (in epic proportions!), so be warned: a four-course meal, interspersed with champagne sorbets, you’re in there for three hours and onward. Going the Degustation (blind tasting) route? Add another hour. These are good, well-spent hours, as Thuet Cuisine is a restaurant to return to with alacrity. - B.J.
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 AT A GLANCE
Thuet Cuisine
609 King Street West, Toronto, ON
416-603-2777
French
King West
Venue:
Restaurant
Hours:
Wed. to Sat.: 6:00pm - 11:00pm
Price Range:
$$$$ (expensive)
Payment:
Master Card, Visa, American Express
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THE BUZZ
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IN THE AREA
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14 Reader Reviews | I recently had the misfortune to take a very important client to Thuet. After receiving a bill for $467 (for two people) and presenting my corporate expense card for payment, I was then told that they could not accept my corporate card due to technical difficulties. This was an embarrassing situation for me to be in with my client as this was the only form of payment that I had with me. Although I asked for the Manager to call me, despite repeated follow up phone calls, I have NEVER received a call back from Thuet. I frequent many restaurants with clients and I WOULD NEVER GO BACK to Thuet! Save your money and avoid a negative customer experience at considerable expense. This place gives good restaurants a bad name. I expect that they'll be closing their doors any moment now. Toronto is full of great restaurants and given the fierce competition, Thuet can't cut it.
1. Anonymous's Review :: September 27, 2008 Anonymous's Rating: 1 Stars |
Highly impressive when you first enter, but it's all downhill from there. They lost my reservation, made a mistake with our food orders, forgot the desert and still charged us. We were also served by a cocky arragant waiter. The menu is highly deceptive and be prepared to pay $$$ for the evening. Ridiculous. Overall, you pay for ambience and even that loses it's effect... P.S. don't expect to have dinner in under 3.5 hours - the service is very, very slow.
2. Robert Behr's Review :: May 30, 2008 Robert Behr's Rating: 2 Stars |
Saturday 8:30pm
Entering seems like a crashing the dying end of a temp-agency's x-mas party. Not even the either pretentious or unintentional nod to 'outsider art' can dispel the shitty 90's printshop vibe of the space. A sweaty waiter fails to up-sell you the tasting menu. Awesome bread. Appetizers (esp. the 'Lasagnette')are well received and our mood brightens. More of the cheapest ($65!?) wine. 45 min. pass. Entrees arrive and portions are tiny. The beef tenderloin is like rubber and the salmon are undercooked. Goofy pine needle hotplates arrive table-side briefly and awkwardly. Anticipation of the superior taste (and cost) of "line caught" fish and farm raised beef quickly give way to feeling duped. We pick away, but disappointment is universal. Dessert is abandoned and we dread the arrival of the bill. Freely poured and unsolicited bottled water figures heavily. Fuck Thuet.
3. Anonymous's Review :: April 10, 2008 |
Saturday 8:30pm
Entering seems like a crashing the dying end of a temp-agency's x-mas party. Not even the either pretentious or unintentional nod to 'outsider art' can dispel the shitty 90's printshop vibe of the space. A sweaty waiter fails to up-sell you the tasting menu. Awesome bread. Appetizers (esp. the 'Lasagnette')are well received and our mood brightens. More of the cheapest ($65!?) wine. 45 min. pass. Entrees arrive and portions are tiny. The beef tenderloin is like rubber and the salmon are undercooked. Goofy pine needle hotplates arrive table-side briefly and awkwardly. Anticipation of the superior taste (and cost) of "line caught" fish and farm raised beef quickly give way to feeling duped. We pick away, but disappointment is universal. Dessert is abandoned and we dread the arrival of the bill. Freely poured and unsolicited bottled water figures heavily. Fuck Thuet.
4. Sven Jorgenson's Review :: April 10, 2008 Sven Jorgenson's Rating: 1 Stars |
We were very excited to go to Thuet, but we were extremely disappointed with the quality of food and service. For a bill of 450 for two people we should have received 5 star service. It took 20 minutes to get cocktails and the white wine I drank with dinner was luke warm.
The food was not much better. My fiancee ordered steak and received an enormous Flintsone-like slab of bloody meat with a side of soggy fries. The black cod and lobster I ordered was barely warm and fishy.
We love going out to nice restaurants and will gladly pay premium prices for superior food and service, but at Thuet we left feeling like we had been had.
5. Anonymous_frequent Diner's Review :: November 25, 2007 Anonymous_frequent Diner's Rating: 1 Stars |
I had expected great things given the press that this venue has received, but was disappointed with our Sunday brunch. Breads and pastries were, as expected, excellent. We ate on the patio where service was very poor - could not get the server's attention to order for over 10 minutes, server did not bring water or ordered drinks until after the appetizers were almost finished, never got the coffee refilled and could not get server's attention for 10-15 minutes to get the bill. Food was mixed. Coconut shrimp was tasty but consisted of only one shrimp on a seafood salad. The dish should probably be renamed to reflect that it is primarily a seafood salad so coconut shrimp lovers will not expect several shrimp. The waffle and fruit was fresh and delicious. Our son ordered the kobe beef and egg. It was visually unappetizing and, although our son has a pretty adventurous palate, he did not care for the dish - admittedly, that could be put down to personal taste. My husband also had an egg dish (don't remember the name - perhaps eggs basques?) that he found just ok. I doubt we will be back to the restaurant but the breads are some of the best in the city.
6. Anonymous's Review :: August 21, 2007 |
I had expected great things given the press that this venue has received, but was disappointed with our Sunday brunch. Breads and pastries were, as expected, excellent. We ate on the patio where service was very poor - could not get the server's attention to order for over 10 minutes, server did not bring water or ordered drinks until after the appetizers were almost finished, never got the coffee refilled and could not get server's attention for 10-15 minutes to get the bill. Food was mixed. Coconut shrimp was tasty but consisted of only one shrimp on a seafood salad. The dish should probably be renamed to reflect that it is primarily a seafood salad so coconut shrimp lovers will not expect several shrimp. The waffle and fruit was fresh and delicious. Our son ordered the kobe beef and egg. It was visually unappetizing and, although our son has a pretty adventurous palate, he did not care for the dish - admittedly, that could be put down to personal taste. My husband also had an egg dish (don't remember the name - perhaps eggs basques?) that he found just ok. I doubt we will be back to the restaurant but the breads are some of the best in the city.
7. Tipper's Review :: August 19, 2007 Tipper's Rating: 2 Stars |
I went there for summerlicious and the service was beyond bad. we waited for 30min to be seated while people went ahead of us, the hostess was disorganized, the waiter forgot or drinks and got the order wrong. Food was good but not worth the hassel. Complaints to the management made NO difference. Service took 2.5 hours, ridiculous!
8. Anonymous's Review :: August 01, 2007 |
I went there for summerlicious and the service was beyond bad. we waited for 30min to be seated while people went ahead of us, the hostess was disorganized, the waiter forgot or drinks and got the order wrong. Food was good but not worth the hassel. Complaints to the management made NO difference. Service took 2.5 hours, ridiculous!
9. Torontogirl's Review :: July 31, 2007 Torontogirl's Rating: 1 Stars |
Unfortunately, my experience Thuet was very negative. The person who actually made the reservations (not me) called approximately one month in advance to make reservations for noon on Mother's Day. She called back to confirm and was told that we were set for noon, but later received a call saying that our reservations had been moved to 1 pm. When she explained that she made the reservations a month in advance she was told that if she didn't take the 1 pm slot, the restaurant would not honor the reservation. Finally, we were instructed to arrive 5 minutes early or they'd give away the table.
We arrived at your restaurant at approximately 12:45. The gentleman who was handling the reservations couldn't find our name on the list. Finally, he found it and told us we had to wait. About 10 minutes later he again came to us and asked for our name and we repeated the process of him having trouble finding us on the list. Eventually we were seated (a bit after 1 pm, but in fairness not by much) and he offered the excuse that things were a bit hectic but the food would make up for it.
I have to say that contrary to our hosts assertions, I did not find that the food made up for all the earlier missteps. The smoked salmon w/ maple that I ordered was fishy. The bread basket was pretty good however. Our waiter was polite but was inattentive when it came to refilling coffee and cream. The 5 people at our table paid $30/each for brunch and the meal was certainly not commensurate with the cost (I don't mind paying for good food, but this place offered neither good food nor good service). All in all it was probably the most disappointing dining experience that I've had in Toronto, especially given that I had heard so many positive things about the restaurant.
10. Anonymous's Review :: May 15, 2007 |
Unfortunately, my experience Thuet was very negative. The person who actually made the reservations (not me) called approximately one month in advance to make reservations for noon on Mother's Day. She called back to confirm and was told that we were set for noon, but later received a call saying that our reservations had been moved to 1 pm. When she explained that she made the reservations a month in advance she was told that if she didn't take the 1 pm slot, the restaurant would not honor the reservation. Finally, we were instructed to arrive 5 minutes early or they'd give away the table.
We arrived at your restaurant at approximately 12:45. The gentleman who was handling the reservations couldn't find our name on the list. Finally, he found it and told us we had to wait. About 10 minutes later he again came to us and asked for our name and we repeated the process of him having trouble finding us on the list. Eventually we were seated (a bit after 1 pm, but in fairness not by much) and he offered the excuse that things were a bit hectic but the food would make up for it.
I have to say that contrary to our hosts assertions, I did not find that the food made up for all the earlier missteps. The smoked salmon w/ maple that I ordered was fishy. The bread basket was pretty good however. Our waiter was polite but was inattentive when it came to refilling coffee and cream. The 5 people at our table paid $30/each for brunch and the meal was certainly not commensurate with the cost (I don't mind paying for good food, but this place offered neither good food nor good service). All in all it was probably the most disappointing dining experience that I've had in Toronto, especially given that I had heard so many positive things about the restaurant.
11. Michael's Review :: May 15, 2007 Michael's Rating: 1 Stars |
We are lucky to have eaten at some of the best restaurants in Toronto and Thuet is amonth them. However, we were very disappointed with the service we received on Saturday night.
We had dinner reservations for 8:30 p.m. and were seated at 10 p.m. During this time, we were told three times my the hostess "that we were going to be next" only to watch two tables seat before us. We were only seated "next" when we complained to the owner.
We understand that scheduling dining can at times be difficult, however, they need to improve managing expectations so we can decide if the food is worth a 1.5 hour wait. And it's not.... with susur and blowfish just seconds away.
12. Anonymous's Review :: April 15, 2007 |
For lunch . Open concept . Slow customer day. Felt that some form of partitioning was required to make the tables seem more intimate. Service very attentive . Wine list quite expensive . Cassoulet and ( wife's )steak frites both excellent and plentiful . Olive loaf was bread making at its finest. Will return .
13. Anonymous's Review :: March 31, 2007 |
For lunch . Open concept . Slow customer day. Felt that some form of partitioning was required to make the tables seem more intimate. Service very attentive . Wine list quite expensive . Cassoulet and ( wife's )steak frites both excellent and plentiful . Olive loaf was bread making at its finest. Will return .
14. Gordon Fulthorpe's Review :: March 30, 2007 Gordon Fulthorpe's Rating: 4 Stars |
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 609 King Street West, Toronto, ON |
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MBO Toronto :: Toronto Restaurants & Dining Guide
