Hexagon – Oakville, Ontario (*)

On a trip to the Toronto/Niagara region recently, we had the opportunity to dine at Hexgaon, in Oakville on the outskirts of Toronto. Unfortunately, during the booking process (Opentable) I wasn't paying attention and did not click on the option for the tasting menu and so it was à la carte for us. This was perfectly satisfactory as we were four and ended up creating our own tasting menu by sharing multiple appetizers and mains. However if you have your heart set on the tasting menu then you have to reserve it as you will not have an option to select the tasting menu once on premise.

The dishes were of a high caliber and there were some real winners flavour-wise. Apologies for the pictures in advance. there were four of us falling over each other to grab photos.

In picture sequence:

1) Off-menu item: Octopus, shaved radish, served in a tomato water, house tostada. Tomato water was bursting with flavour and hints of spiciness.

2) Appetizer: Beef tartare w/ red pepper conserva, kosho bagna cauda, sunflower seeds served with sourdough.

3) Appetizer: Blue-fin tuna carpaccio w/ heirloom tomatos, umami mayo, black truffle. Delicate flavour with beautiful punch from the tomotoes.

4) Appetizer: Hokkaido scallop s/ brown butter, shoyu, new potato, marigold, trout roe. Holy cow, this was good. The potato foam was buttery and delicious and it added so much to the sweet scallop.

5) Two appetizers: Kampachi tostada w/ salsa negra, pickled strawberry, herbs, garlic chips, radish. Pain au lait w/ St Brigide's butter & agave. I liked the kampachi by itself but if honest the tostada had too strong a flavour and blew away the delicateness of the kampachi. It was perhaps too mild. The pain au lait was excellent.

6) Mid-course: Ravioli (stuffed with potato) w/ Idiazabal cheese, honey vinegar, garlic scapes. A strong dish. I don't usually love pasta courses but the potato ravioli (which was more firm than pillowy, for the win) and cheese sauce was excellent.

7) Mid-course: Foie gras terrine w/ bbq strawberries, guajillo, creme fraiche, madeira served with brioche. Very nice foie gras terrine.

8) Main course: Ontario trout w/ brioche crust, soubise, English peas, salsa macha. Texturally clever with the brioche crust. While I enjoyed it, it was probably the weakest of the four mains ordered.

9) Main course: Koshikari rice w/ uni, squid ink aioli, zucchini blossom. Briny, creamy, a very tasty. Solid.

10) Main course: Snake River Farms Wagyu Zabuton w/ bone marrow salsa roja, grilled onion served with Sonora flour tortillas and condiments (not pictured). Rich and delicious. I tried the flour tortilla with it but if I had eaten the whole thing I probably would have eaten it without them.

11) Main course: Ontario lamb saddle w/ atlas carrots, mole verde, merguez sausage, labneh. This was the best main. The lamb was so tender and perfect with the spicy merguez. Mole verde and labneh really elevated the flavours in the background.

12) Dessert: "Basque" cheesecake w/ strawberry, sake kasu, almond, caramelized white chocolate. I hate cheesecake but I would eat this again in a heartbeat.

Overall, it was a very good meal. What we ordered was way too much food but on the flip side we probably covered close to 2/3 of the main menu excluding dessert. I feel we got a good picture of what the kitchen is capable of.

Service was excellent and not intrusive. A small service error was generously corrected at the beginning of the meal and once they discovered that two of our party spoke primarily French, they sent over some of the French speaking wait and bar staff to occasionally converse and describe the dishes for us.