Ok, I’m no restaurant reviewer or anything, but I thought I’d share our experience with Lakes tonight.

We had a reservation for 7:00 so he came from Mississauga at 6pm and then we headed back downtown to the Summerhil/Rosedale area for our reservation.

We were early arriving at the restaurant and when we walked in the place was empty except for one two-seater. The maitre d and waiter were standing at the bar when we walked in, looking at us, and so he said, “Hi, can we eat?” to which the maitre d said, “do you have a reservation?” and he said, “Regehr”. Then he told us that, “well, then, of course you can eat – and drink too!”

So they seated us, we ordered Bloody Caesars but they had no horseradish to put in them – Caesars taste best with some horseradish, worcestershire, tabasco, and lemon pepper, but theirs were ok. They made them nice and spicy for us but I hate when restaurants rim the glasses and my lips feel like they’ve got sand all over them.

For our appetizers, he ordered the Lakes caesar salad tossed with grana padano, toasted garlic croutons & crispy pancetta. It didn’t taste like any caesar salad you usually get in restaurants, but it was nice, light and flavourful. I ordered the soup of the day, which happened to be potato & leek, and it was fantastic yet very filling.

My entree was the lobster & saffron risotto with roasted red peppers and baby spinach in a light vegetable cream. He had the slow roasted chicken supreme served with a calvados reduction, finished with goat’s cheese. His meal was fantastic. I wasn’t thrilled with my meal and had about 4 bites and that was enough. I found it too salty and the risotto a bit undercooked and starchy tasting.

So the waiter took my meal away and credited us the $25 for it. Because I’d had no meal I decided to order dessert, and we split it – passion fruit cheesecake with tahitian vanilla creme anglais. Even though I’m not a big ’sweets’ person, that cheesecake was fabulous, dahlings, simply fabulous. I’m skipping my WW tomorrow cuz I think just eating half of that cake may have added 5 pounds since the loose pants I put on this morning weren’t feeling too loose by the end of the night. We still tipped on the food that was credited back to us, so the meal was $100 – but that was without any wine. When I saw that the house wine was $16 a glass, I said no thanks to that.

Overall, I’d give the restaurant a high rating. It was very small, the service was excellent, and, in general, the food was savory.