Southern Accent

The past 2 weeks was Toronto's Winterlicious event and the only restaurant that I went to was Southern Accent. It was a solo mission since Ann couldn't go because she had to work on the day when our friends wanted to go. Regardless, it was a great experience.

Many of my friends enjoy the Winterlicious/Summerlicious events every season, but we usually have a difficult time in choosing a restaurant. How we ended up at Southern Accent was actually quite the coincidence since two of my friends that I went with actually picked the same place separately.

The night before we dined at the bistro, I did some last minute studying of the menu and it looked legit. The prix fixe menu had something in each course that I had wanted to try and boy did I hit the jackpot. I'll explain later.

This was the outside of the restaurant. Lots of lighting, hard to miss right?

Or so I thought, but I wouldn't have found it if my friend hadn't guide me. It's hidden on Markham St. just slightly south of Bloor.

This was our table, the atmosphere is pretty nice for a get-together. It's not exactly what I'd call romantic if that's what you are looking for. There's just too much "Christmas lights" and strange decor for that.

Shortly after we all arrived, we talked about what we planned to get. I stuck to the plan and ordered: Southern Combo (appetizer), Nawlin's Combo Chicken and Lamb (main course), with Creme Brulee (dessert).

My appetizer was amazing. There were 4-5 different things on the plate and their flavors really complimented each other. The calamari was great and that's saying a lot because I don't like calamari (I ordered it because it looked like a better option than the other appetizers).

I was actually almost full by the time I finished the appetizer. The Southern Combo could've been a meal itself since the portion was huge for fine dining. My friend deviated from the plan (he originally wanted the Southern Combo too) and regretted his decision in changing his order to Seafood Cornbread. Lol, this isn't the first time that this happened. Last year we went to Cafe Moroc and he changed his order from steak to salmon (another big mistake on his part). Lesson to be learned here is to always stick to the plan!

This thing... is the Chicken and Lamb combo. Or what I'd like to call, 2 main course on the same plate. At any other fine dining places, they would've placed lamb and mash together and call it a dish with the chicken, veggie and jambalaya together as another. But no. This beastly thing was the best main I've had for fine dining.

And to finish the night off with Creme Brulee. Pretty standard stuff, except they plated it with some fruits on the side. Eating this only made me realize that I only like what's underneath the caramel crust of the Creme Brulee.

I'd definitely recommend this place to anyone, which I have so far. My overall experience of it is... simply superbly sublime. I haven't been to many Winterlicious/Summerlicious places but this is the best one yet.