Honest El Fogon
By Sarah Dearing
(Restaurant Review from NOW Magazine)
EL FOGON (543 St. Clair West, at Vaughan, 416-850-8041)
Complete dinners for $25 per person ($15 at lunch), including all taxes, tip
and a Cristal. Average main $11. Open Wednesday to Sunday noon to 10 pm. Licensed.
Access: barrier free.
Rating: NNN
This modest Peruvian restaurant serves what must be one of the best $5 lunches in the city.
We call it a sexy sandwich at our house. They call it lomo saltado a very fresh bun loaded with juicy strips of lean, charbroiled steak dripping with a wonderful barbecue-style sauce and sauted onions.
Our impossibly polite server confesses he's tried to replicate it at
home but failed, perhaps because it requires a special pan. We love
him for that. At any rate, the sandwich comes with salad or chunky
fries (go for the fries for the total experience) and costs only
$2.25 more at dinner. It comes in a chicken version as well.
A nicely done ceviche mixto ($13.95) is ample for two as an
appetizer, consisting primarily of tender squid rings and octopus,
plus a few clams, shrimp and white fish, a very complementary slice
of chilled sweet potato, plenty of cilantro and a choice of medium
or hot. When paired with a basket of fresh bread and a dish of a
very hot, very delicious spread consisting of garlic, clarified
butter and hot peppers, the medium is recommended.
Thinking a nice stew will take away the winter chill, the
seco de
carne ($10.50) turns out to be a little dull and heavy after the
wonderfully clean and summery ceviche. It's two large pieces of
stewed beef and potato in a cilantro gravy, served on a bed of rice
surrounded by a ring of beans in a sauce that's a bit glutinous.
El Fogon, with its minimal attempt at
Latin American-inspired decor,
is the kind of place one might actually find in Peru.
Order some honest food and a Cristal ($4.25) or Inca Kola ($2) and you can pretty much ignore the fact that it's January in Toronto.
*Prices in this review might not be accurate anymore
See our menu for current prices
Read Restaurant Review from Toronto Life Magazine
We have also been featured in The Peru Guide