Calico Cafe

So sad. I can’t believe this amazing place has closed.
I had been thinking about what to say in my review for a long time. What hadn’t already been said? Now it seems like I took a wee bit to long to decide. However when someone close to you «closes», I feel it’s only fitting to share some memories.
I remember the first time I tried coming here for dinner, my friend and I walked in and the waiter said «Did you make reservations?». No, I never even thought to! Who does that? I’m not that fancy. Until I saw that there was about 5 tables in total and realized why this might be a good idea. Alas, it was not meant to be that night. But after only being in there for a few minutes I was hooked, and I couldn’t wait to go back.
I remember asking a pretty girl to go for brunch with me here. She agreed, which I think may have been more because of Calico rather then for my company, but I’ll take what I can get. Where am I supposed to take pretty girls to now Calico?!
I remember so many wonderful brunches here actually, sitting out on the back patio, a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. The wonderful vegetable garden behind us. Pecan crusted French toast with chocolate compote. MMMmmmm. This place was magical.
Excellent staff. Excellent service. You will be missed.

So delicious! They menu is small, but everything is done well and prepared fresh with local ingredients (they even have their own produce garden in the back!)
Their salads are amazing with delicious dressings and creative combinations.

Decent but I don’t really see what all the hype in the other reviews is about. I found the food to be fairly bland overall. If you are a vegan this might be a worthwhile option. If not, I wouldn’t bother. A little cheese and butter could make these meals infinitely better.
The pumpkin soup ($ 6) we started with was good but a little heavy on the nutmeg.
We tried both of the mains ($ 13 each). The better of the two was seitan, pumpkin brown rice risotto, and some greens in a «creamy» sauce. The greens weren’t much to talk about but the seitan was tasty had a nice texture. The risotto was pretty good, a little bland but what can you expect when there’s no dairy.
The other main was weak. The was some lacklustre carrots, a few pieces of flavourless tofu with sesame seeds, and a bland lentil dish. No excuses for the lack of flavour here. It’s not a lack of dairy just a lack of spice.
Dessert brought Calico back on track. The chocolate brownie ($ 8) was huge and, although not very brownie like, it was delicious. One complaint: it seemed like they were using soy milk, which left an odd aftertaste. I felt like rice or almond milk might have been more appropriate.

I love this place!!!
*warning — limited seating* so show up early for brunch! Some friends and I showed up 5 minutes before opening for brunch and the place filled up right away after opening. The brunch menu did not have a lot of options but what they make, they make really well, so you can’t go wrong. We all tried something different and we all enjoyed our meals.

This is a really superb little restaurant. The décor is attractive, with a lovely landscape oil painting adorning one wall, reminiscent of a Group of Seven. The owners and staff are friendly in a way that is disarmingly genuine for a Toronto restaurant. There is a nice, simple patio at the rear, which is homey without being ramshackle. Small Toronto restaurants geared towards brunch crowds often seem cramped and noisy, while this place manages to achieve a tranquil vibe.
The menu is smart: a limited variety of offerings, all very inventive recipes, with fresh seasonal ingredients, and nutritionally balanced. I always leave this place feeling satisfied but not lethargic (as you often do from overly fatty/​salty restaurant food). There is attention little details: e.g., the buns used for sandwiches are baked in house and are very flavourful. They have a couple of good local beers on tap, as well as organic wines. The obvious comparator here is Fresh. Calico’s food is more artfully prepared, and its prices are considerably less. (A salad and sandwich can be had for $ 10). I have not tried the desserts.
With takeout food, they make a point of minimizing packaging, and it’s all compostable. You can have them deliver food for the week to your office, which I’ve seriously considered as it would surely be healthier.
Overall this is a delicious, healthy, affordable and environmentally responsible little restaurant. Highly recommended, even to non-​vegans/​vegetarians.

I’ve been meaning to try this place for awhile, especially because I’m a big fan of Fressen and I heard the chef formerly worked there.
The décor could use some sprucing up. For some reason, I was expecting a cute little café with gingham tablecloths. There aren’t many seats available so don’t go with an army of friends.
The bathroom downstairs is like some some old person’s basement. A little bit on the scary side.
But of course, I came here for the food. I started with the coconut carrot soup. It was tastey but there was a slight bitterness to it. I don’t know if it was the ginger in it that gave it that bitter edge or what. Following the soup, I tried the tofu steaks on a bed of rice. It was pretty delicious although slightly too peppery. The rice had a really nice flavour to it and wasn’t mushy. My partner was less impressed. He found it a bit on the bland side.
I was debating on giving it 3-​stars but I have faith that this place is worthy of 4-​stars. It sounds like they rotate their menu often so maybe the next time I go, my tastebuds will be high-​fiving each other.

If I could give Calico more than 5 stars, I would. Hell, i’d marry the place if I could — or at least the kitchen staff.
I went back recently to try the dinner menu, after having such a spectacular brunch experience, and I was certainly not disappointed. Eyeing up the menu I decided to go for an appetiser/​main combo — despite how tasty the desserts looked I was more in a savoury mood.
My appetiser was an amazing little pile of well combined ingredients and flavour — oyster mushrooms on collard greens sitting on spicy-​shoyu sauce. If I could’ve licked that plate clean, I would’ve. Holy moly. The mushrooms were seared to perfection, the collard greens gave a great green depth of flavour, and the sauce was out of this world. They should bottle it!
My main was a tasty combo of comfort foods, with some gorgeous fresh ingredients — cornmeal crusted tempeh on a bed of glazed rutabaga and carrot cubes, garlicky asparagus and a beet reduction sauce. I would never think to put these together, but it was all such a satisfying meal! The beet reduction was flavoured just perfectly, and offset the tempeh’s crunchy coating just nicely. Even if you’d sat me down in front of a plate of only the garlicky asparagus, i’d have been happy.
Add all of this to my surprisingly tasty maple/​cranberry smoothie and Dirty Three tunes floating from the stereo, and I was in dining heaven.
Safe to say, I can’t wait to go back and see what Calico dishes up next time!

I’ve been wanting to try Calico Café for a while now and thought it would be best to go for brunch. Finding a vegan brunch in this city is not fun. But there are so many satisfying options at Calico that you won’t care that you don’t eat eggs like all your friends! Vegan omlettes, scrambles, waffles and french toast! French toast was not available the day I went but the waffles were. I was stoked because that’s pretty much the only thing I can’t make at home myself. They were chocolate-​cayenne with coconut banana compote. WOH! I know. amazing. My boyfriend had the EGG scramble, but presentation wise everything is very nice, and I tasted the accompaniments to his eggs — a salad with creamy dijony dressing, roasted red pepper sauce, and homemade cinnamon toast with raspberry apple compote — and they were all delish! The only disappointment was owner Jared was making some upgrades to his backyard garden patio so we couldn’t dine out there. But on the other hand, Jared served us that morning which I thought was rad. Also a good selection of interesting and tasty vegan baked treats and juices and hot and cold tea concoctions. I wish I lived closer to this place because I would be there ALL the time.

Let me preface this review by saying that I love me some animal products and have no intention of ever becoming a vegan/​veggie.
That said, in my never-​ending quest for good brunch spots within 10 mins of my home, She-​Va and I decided to give this place a shot.
The owner/​chef/​host/​waiter was a really friendly and genuine guy (didn’t get his name), and I could tell from chatting with him that he cared a heck of a lot about his little resto and the food served therein.
It’s only been open 8 months i think, but they are currently applying for a liquor license, and there is also a backyard patio opening for summertime seating rushes.
The menu was limited, but original and delicious. I had my girlfriends Date, Banana and Almond smoothie (it was too sweet for her!) with my crispy tofu sandwich (made with home-​made curry bread different! good!) and my girlfriend had a cup of coffee with rice-​milk and the zucchini sandwich. Each served with salad and some tasty home-​fried potatoes.
The space is small and was frequented by a wide variety of people including a couple with baby in arms.
The only other observation I can offer is that I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland upon visiting the washrooms in the basement, with their just-​under-​6-​foot-​high clearance.
So, after a hearty, meatless meal, and a satisfying hunch –pee, my first visit to Calico came to an end. Me and the lady paid the bill (which was very reasonable) and headed across the street to peruse the clothing at 69 Vintage Collective. All said, another successful brunch-​hunt in Bloorcourt! Calico, we will be back!

It’s the beginning of Passover.
Through a somewhat intentional omission, I’ve decided to observe the week of ‘unleavened bread’ by eating only healthy bread-​based vegan foods.
What a great way to start it off.
A place where the menu changes day-​to-​day. A place where the staff are truly passionate about the food and experience. A beautifully presented healthy sandwich served between two hand sliced pieces of distinctly-​passover-​unfriendly corn bread. A glass of delicious pear-​and-​ginger juice washing it all down.
I had no idea that the Caiico Café even existed… but now that I do, it’s going to become a regular haunt… especially in it’s convenient location on the edge of Little Winnipeg.

We ventured out here partly because of all the rave Unilocal reviews about this place and my co-​worker was only willing to eat out if the place was healthy.
The menu was very small and we had to look up on the chalkboard to order because they had no printed menus. Between the three of us, I think we tried almost everything. We tried 2 out of the 3 sandwiches, the grain bowl, the peppermint iced tea, carrot juice and both the dessert muffins they had that day.
I really liked the peppermint iced tea, it had a little more depth to it than I expected. My friends really enjoyed their sandwiches, they came sliced in half with a mini salad in the middle. They enjoyed it and said it was very filling. I had the grain bowl, which I assumed for some reason to have brown rice, but it had a mix of beans/​lentil — also, very filling. Had I known it was so full of beans, I would have ordered the butternut squash soup, this lady beside me was having it and it looked like a huge bowl of deliciousness.
Of the two muffins: banana nut and apple ginger, we enjoyed the banana nut much more because the apple ginger had little chunks of ginger in it, which we didn’t enjoy.
Overall, very good, definitely meets my expectations of a vegetarian restaurant. I felt nice and healthy, but very full after and it kept me satisfied until dinner came around. It was like my body was thanking me for not eating any deep fried potatoes (for once).

It’s no secret that I love Calico.
Not only is it named after a type of patchy tri-​coloured lady cat (at least I think it is) but it’s got something special going for it. It’s a cozy, little hole-​in-​the-​wall type place that makes you think ‘I wasn’t expecting to see this here’ as you walk by. Max seating is maybe 16 so don’t plan on a party.
Jared, chef + owner turned this old Bloordale falafel joint into what is essentially my dream café. It’s accessibly located, affordable, and hip yet also chic and thoughtful. The menu morphs from brunch/​lunch to dinner seamlessly because it is reinvented weekly and sketched up on a chaulk-​board visible to all.
What’s most impressive about Calico is that it manages to be both casual and formal all at once. I would not hesitate to take a date out to dinner here. The presentation of the food is top-​notch and the ingredients are quality and locally sourced. In a lot of cases, the food is grown in the yard behind the restaurant. It doesn’t get much more local than that!
Finally, the price point is amazing considering most of the food is fresh, local, organic produce thoughtful prepared and exquisitely presented.
I can’t forget to mention that Calico consistently serves up a mean soup. Love it!

SUMMARY: Go. Now.
I loved absolutely everything about Calico Café. The only thing way it could improve would be to move the location into my home (hey, I have a spare bedroom and my kitchen’s got room to groove!). Until then, I shall fantasize about the day that I start pulling in Oprah-​esque figures and owner Jared spends his days gingerly assembling custom healthy meals for me in my home.
Not unlike Camros Eatery’s restaurant motto, Calico is the type of place where you «feel good during AND after eating.» The rotating lunch menu is vegan but nothing about it screams «weirdo» — instead, you’ll find yourself struggling to decide on just one thing to order. At $ 6 – 7 per main, it’s affordable enough that you could order two things, but I dare you to get to the bottom of the plate — I couldn’t!
I ordered a Crispy Tofu Sandwich with Avocado, Tomato, Alfalfa Sprouts and Roasted Red Pepper Spread ($ 7) that came with a delightful side salad of greens (good ones — no iceberg lettuce here), shaved carrots, tomatoes and slivered almonds. I couldn’t quite pinpoint the dressing but it was light, refreshing and perfectly portioned. It’s like they knew I didn’t like my greens drowning in dressing. The sandwich was grilled ‘n pressed and the type that I always daydream about making at home but never do. And as mentioned, I could only finish half the sandwich with the salad, not because it was monstrous and unwieldy, but because it was really filling and slammed with quality ingredients.
I also had my eye on Maple Cumin Tempeh with Tomato Sprouts, Eggplant Chutney and Miso Spread (for next time!) and the daily soup, which Val G warned was what reeled her in as a Calico regular in the first place.
I have to call attention to the presentation of the food — it’s gorgeous (see photos). Everything is carefully assembled and photo-​op ready. It begs to be captured on film. You almost don’t want to ruin it by eating it. In fact, everything about the food here seems inspired and carefully considered.
They have daily fresh juices (beet & apple yesterday), smoothies (banana & date) as well as an Iced Tea Of The Day. Way to make me fall in love with you. Naturally I had to order a glass of Lavender Mint ($ 2.50) — it was spectacular and will promptly be added to my list of best iced teas in the city. For $ 2.50 it was a great value and a very unique flavour that was just slightly sweetened but not cloying.
Jared, the owner, was a very kind and gracious host. We chatted about his bustling vegetable garden in the backyard (which gets lots of use in warmer months, but still manages to produce things like kale even in the winter!) and Calico’s inventive vegetarian brunch menu of sweet and savoury waffles and omelettes, available on weekends from 11am-​4pm.
Bravo, Calico! I will zip across the Bloor line soon to come see you again for brunch and dinner. Repeat visits are definitely required.

After four months of being open, Calico was awarded NOW critics’ pick for vegetarian restaurant in Toronto. That’s just one delicious tidbit about Calico.
It’s in Bloorcourt, which is a great area because it is a truly diverse immigrant neighbourhood. On one hand, I would hate to see this area gentrified, but at the same time, Calico has quietly slipped in and set up a tiny vegan spot that calls very little attention to itself despite big things.
The menu has about three sandwiches, a rice dish, a soup, a salad, and some drinks to choose from. They change every so often and the website has an up-​to-​date-​ish list each week or so. Prices are fairly reasonable (it seems like $ 7 is the magic number for small vegan sandwiches in Toronto) and the seating arrangement is fairly cramped. I feel like this is a winning mixture to be the next super-​cool-​while-​not-​really-​trying-​to-​be restaurant.
My dad and I split a great chili-​like soup that was as delicious as it was beautiful. I liked seeing speckles of spice in the broth.
Our sandwiches were good but I won’t say they were beyond. I ordered the maple-​cumin tempeh with eggplant and miso and my dad went with the grilled tofu with avocado and tomato. While I was pleased that I went with the more exotic of the two, nothing one really captured my heart. They were good though, and I don’t want to knock them. And I love when they grill them.
Both sandwiches came with a small salad on the plate which was healthy but just a salad. It had the essentials — lettuce, carrots, peppers, seeds, sprouts, cucumbers. I’m always happy to get a salad, even if it is nothing special.
We did each order a drink and I am glad we did. The banana-​avocado smoothie was the highlight of my meal. The texture and the taste were perfect and balanced out the other flavours of my meal (spicy, teriyaki-​ish, green).
The place itself is cute, cramped, and apparently has a nice backyard where they grow the veggies themselves. One guy really dealt with us the whole time, but he was sweet and accommodating, and service was relatively quick after a slow start (we were in and out in less than an hour). Not surprisingly, on the walls were posters for things like Boylesque TO and upcoming arts events, and the music rounded out the ambiance.
I do know that they let you do takeout, so if you’re in the neighbourhood (it’s between Lansdowne and Dufferin), it’s definitely an option to swing by.
Welcome to the scene, Calico. So far, so good.

I suppose it’s time to be up front and totally honest. I am not a vegan or a vegetarian and I have never been to a vegan or vegetarian restaurant before. In fact, truth be told, I’m a carnivore. I just want that out there. This review will be all but useless to those who know much more about this cuisine than I do, so, er, sorry.
That being said, I loved the place! We met a friend for dinner who had recommended it and it was just outstanding. I began with the Shitake mushroom and spinach dish with creamy garlic sauce. Shitake mushrooms are a little bit of heaven and they were excellent. So well done. For dinner, I had the tempeh with an oat & corn crust with roasted beets. I’m sorry, but there was a pilaf there, but I forgot what it was. I meant to write this down but I didn’t. Anyway, the presentations on both dishes were excellent. For a restaurant that is so laid back in atmosphere, they take their food seriously. I respect that. As for flavour, I can honestly say that I was happy to be eating vegan. The prices are amazing: $ 6 for an appetiser, $ 13 for an entrée and $ 7 for desserts. As for the desserts, they were outstanding. We all shared both of them. One was a chocolate ganache with orange and a cranberry sauce. I don’t have a sweet tooth, but I loved it. The other was a pear-​anise combo that was quite good. They also make their own juice.
Seriously, I don’t care how much you may love the meat and potatoes thing, you need to try this restaurant. It’s really worth it. I will absolutely go back at some point. I just need to find someone who loves meat more than me.

Scrumptious veg food that makes me proud to be a Torontonian. I enjoyed grilled tofu served on a bed of kale and mashed sweet potato, each item spiced with fresh herbs grown on the back patio. My friend ordered a hearty pecan crusted tempeh and we shared a rich chocolaty wonderful dessert. It was a classy meal.