Dining Out Restaurant Review: The Six Steps

We had dinner Tuesday night at The Six Steps Restaurant, at 55 Colborne St (Downtown Toronto. Colborne St is north of Wellington and South of King-- located in the historical building block that extends West from Church over toward Leader Lane).

Gary and his sister Cathy joined me for this meal. It was not our original dining destination. We had a reservation at La Maquette—which has held over its Summerlicious prix fixe menu—which we decided not to keep when we arrived to find the legal marketing association (“Lexpert”) had commandeered their terrace (adjoining the sculpture garden) as a venue to was host a large n loud group soiree.

This was our second time dining at The Six Steps, having previously come here during the Winterlicious festival.

The Six Steps is divided into two rooms, a more casual lounge area in the East room and a more formal dining area in the West room. We were the first dinner group (having arrived at 6:35) seated in the formal West room. Thereafter, patronage was steady (if not busy), allowing for the fact that it was a midweek night. I imagine they draw diners from the central business district office workers during lunch and theatregoers (attending the St. Lawrence Centre and the Sony Centre) and guests of the Le Meriden King Edward hotel for evening dinner service.

The dining room ambiance is modern chic overlaid with traditional elements, such as dark hardwood floors and exposed brick walls. The tables are constructed of real wood with cloth linen table runners to protect the surface while leaving the wood on the table fringes exposed. Hanging on the wall behind our table were two large mirrors titled on an angle out from the wall at the top (which conveniently allowed me a discrete view of the plates served to adjoining tables).

Overall, service was prompt, friendly, helpful and unobtrusive. Our group consensus was that the food was of high quality. Our table candle was lit mid-meal as twilight set in. There was initially some disappointment in the menu selections insofar as the pizzas we had spied on their menu on a prior visit had been deleted from the menu we were presented with and that there were also no poultry entrees on it.

I ordered a beet and goat cheese salad plate as my appetizer. The presentation was amazing and the taste matched the appearance. The sticky toffee pudding dessert was likewise a meal highlight. I was less impressed with the tiger shrimp tagliatelle pasta dish I ordered as an entrée that came served in a bowl (the noodles were clumped together). Gary ordered the daily soup (potato leek) as his appetizer, a halibut fish plate for his entrée and a banana flame dessert. He enjoyed all of them. He noted that the fish fillets were served piping hot , were nicely crusted on the edges but were tender flaky otherwise. The ridge of lemon-mustard sauce greatly enhanced his plate presentation. Cathy passed on an appetizer but ordered a ravioli pasta dish as an entrée and followed with the same sticky toffee dessert as myself as a sweet. Her pasta dish impressed more than mine.

The tab averaged $60 pp including tip, coffee, plus a glass of wine (pinoit griggio) for Cathy and a mixed cocktail for Gary.