Dining Out: Milestones at Toronto Life Square

Gary & I had dinner at the new Milestones in the Toronto Life Centre at Yonge Dundas Square tonight. The Toronto Life centre is a complex located on the north east corner of the Yonge-Dundas intersection around the Ryerson bookstore and parking garage. Tenants started to open back in March. The complex's anchor tenants include an AMC-24 multiplex theatre, a Future Shop electronics store, an Adidas retail store and (below grade) a Shoppers Drug Mart and an Extreme Fitness gym.

The new Milestones is one of two full service eateries on the AMC theatre entrance level above the food court (the other is Jack Astors, where we have eaten three times previously). We wanted to eat al fresco out on their sky-terrace patio, which is long and slender shaped, extending in a north-south direction along Yonge Street.

The wait to get the patio table was very long. In the interim we were seated at the bar in the lounge to wait. The lounge is tastefully decorated with a full wall of floor to ceiling windows wall running along the south side offering views from the bar down to the street. There are also two very large video screens onto which sports were projected from overhead. The bar is made of white fleck acrylic composite material and is underlit with an orange-red colouring. A false fire alarm went off for about 10 minutes while we were seated there. It was loud and annoying. The manager came through to apologize for the disturbance and cheers erupted from diners when it was cleared. In the end, I was able to consume a pint and a half of beer while we waited for our dinner table. The potables of choice in the lounge appeared to be frozen Bellinis, pitchers of mojitos (served with fresh mint leaves and also available in a raspberry infused variation) and shots of vodka with red bull mixer.

When we were finally assigned our table outdoors, we were seated toward the north end of the patio at a small table for two. Although they have real wood plank deck flooring, the tables are of inexpensive construction (chrome metal legs and plastic table-tops with coloured pigments to resemble a wood grain). They have installed a clear plexiglass railing along the street side which allows an unobstructed view of the Yonge-Dundas intersection below. This is preferable to how they finished the railing at the Jack Astors along the Dundas side of the complex where the railing is opaque.

We ordered two appetizers from the menu as share plates (a trio of mini kobe beef burgers and some thai spicy chicken drumettes). Each of us then had an entree sized chicken salad, which featured cold thinly sliced chicken breast meat, red corn tortilla strips and cilantro, tossed in a honey-lime vinaigrette dressing with peanut sauce. The food was tasty and served hot from the kitchen.

The total bill for two was $91 including tip and three pre-dinner pints in the lounge.

Overall I would rate the experience as better than next door at Jack Astors. Rather than ordering dessert at Milestones we went down to the subway level to order gelatos from the Vici Gelateria and Café located there. I order butter-pecan and Gary had rum-raisin. Not as good as you get at Solferinos on Wellington St or at Soma in the distillery district, but still tasty for a chain store outlet.

The only eateries remaining to be opened in the TL complex now are Woos (which will be nestled between Milestones and Jack Astors on the 4th level) and the Johnny Rockets burger place which will be located on the ground floor on the Dundas side. I will look forward to posting a review of JRs, having previously eaten at the Fallsview casino location in Niagara Falls and other locations Stateside.

The biggest culinary disappointment about the Toronto Life complex is that the original publicity claimed a Wolfgang Pucks would be opening there but it has unfortunately not materialized.