I had to go up to Toronto for a trade show recently and I have a former colleague that I worked with for nearly 20 years who lives in the Toronto area. My current colleagues from Montreal and France also worked with us during that time and we plans to have dinner with our former colleague. He offered to have us over for dinner, but we didn't want to be barging in on him and have him cook dinner for us. Then he said, "How about an old-school steakhouse that was a mob hangout for years?" Now, that intrigued me and I had him make reservations for us at Zorro's Steakhouse in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga.
Zorro's is the quintessential Greek steakhouse that was founded in 1975 by Nick Iatropoulos. As my former colleague said, it was a reputed mob hangout in the 70's into the 80's, but was also a favorite of families celebrating anniversaries, birthdays and special occasions. In 1990, Nick Iatropoulos' son-in-law John Mitropoulos took over the ownership of Zorro's and he continues to run the restaurant to this day.
Along with my current colleagues from Montreal and France, we had set up our room and another display for the trade show during the day and we were ready to unwind with our former colleague. He texted me and said that he was sitting in the hotel bar where we were staying near where the trade show was being held. My colleague from Montreal had rented a van to bring over a bunch of equipment for the show and we ended up taking the van to Zorro's Steakhouse located just past the northwest runways at Toronto Pearson International Airport. (see map)
My former colleague had made reservations for 7 p.m. and we walked in about 10 minutes early. However, our table was ready and we were escorted to the back corner of the main dining room. To say Zorro's is an old-school steakhouse is an understatement. It was sort of like walking back into 70's with stucco walls with dark wood trim, wooden beams and sort of a gothic theme to the restaurant.
There were a handful of side rooms off the main dining area. Stained glass windows and skylights were prominent in the restaurant along with velvet chairs and cloth table toppings. The servers were dressed to the 9's and were somewhat formal in their demeanor. Oh yeah - we were going to have a good meal at this place!
While steaks are main items on the menu at Zorro's Steakhouse, they also had seafood items such as lobster, scallops and shrimp, as well as lamb chops and barbecued ribs. Appetizers included smoked salmon (which I damned near ordered), tiger shrimp, broiled scallops wrapped in bacon, and oysters on-the-half shell. Our server brought out a little relish try with dill pickles and Kalamata olives on it, along with a basket of some wonderful garlic bread. We were all pretty hungry and the garlic bread didn't last long.
I started out with a Moretti beer and took a look at the wine list to see what they had that would go with our dinners. I saw that they had a reasonably priced bottle of one of my favorite cabernets - the Liberty School cab that I ordered up for us to have with our main entree.
Salads came out after we placed our respective orders. It was a small Greek-style salad with a Greek vinaigrette mixed in with the greens. It was fine for what it was - nothing really special.
My colleague from Montreal is a vegetarian and he asked our server if they had any vegetarian options on the menu. They didn't, but the waiter said that they could come up with a medley of charbroiled veggies and rice for him. When the plate was set down in front of him, my colleague said, "This is perfect!" It featured grilled peppers, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots along with some squash and a large ball of rice pilaf. He said it was very good.
My colleague from France just couldn't wait to have steak that evening. I relayed a story to him a few months ago about former colleagues of ours from France who would come over to the U.S. and want to eat steak every night because they don't get the same type of beef in Europe they get in North America. He said that was basically true and we've had steak together on three or four occasions since we started to work together for our new company. He got the large (12 ounce) filet, medium-rare. It came with steamed broccoli and carrots. From his first bite, he was in heaven. "This is so delicious," he said between bites. "The beef just melts in my mouth, it's so tender."
Although I momentarily thought about getting the prime rib that evening, my former colleague ordered the New York strip coated with peppercorns. I saw that on the menu and I immediately changed my mind on the prime rib. We both ordered the strips as medium-rare and it was a perfect medium-rare with a lot of pink in the middle. We also got the carrots and broccoli on the side, but I wasn't interested in either one of those. I did order a baked potato and the server brought it out plain, but then offered sour cream that he manually put onto the baked potato. A side of gravy came on the plate with the steak that was actually a nice enhancement to the taste of the meat. But most importantly, they did have fresh ground horseradish to go with the steak - a must-have for me when I have steak in restaurant (or, at home, for that matter).
I have to say my steak would superb. The cracked peppercorn shell on the steak gave it a bit of a spicy kick. And when I dipped a piece of the steak into the gravy, the cracked peppercorns exploded with flavor. The horseradish wasn't as hot as Atomic Horseradish, but still got my attention a couple times. This was simply a top-notch meal.
We ended up reminiscing and catching up on things, and asked the waiter if he would take our picture for posterity. I ended up sending the picture to my boss over in Germany and when he saw it he said he was immediately jealous. "That had to be a great time," he said in a reply. It certainly was.
Zorro's Steakhouse is coming up on 50 years of being in business and I have to say that I liked everything about the place. It was definitely an old-school steakhouse down to the well-dressed servers who were straight-forward and formal in their demeanor without being stuffy or snooty. The steaks the three of us in our group had that evening were very good, and my vegetarian friend was more than happy with the plate of grilled vegetables they made up for him. Zorro's Steakhouse was a great choice by my Toronto area friend and I would highly recommend it if you find yourself staying out by the airport on a visit to Toronto.
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