Il Gatto Nero

Located on the corner of College and Crawford, Il Gatto Nero is one of the trademarks of Little Italy. We came here on a Saturday night and ordered 2 salads, 2 pastas and a pizza to share between 7 of us. That was the perfect amount of food. Our favourite was the salad with pine nuts.

This corner restaurant is located right in Little Italy and is a cute place for an intimate dinner or coffee date. My friends and I came on a Sunday evening for dinner. We ordered a pizza, two pastas, and two salads to share among the 6 of us. It was just enough to fill us up and leave us room for drinks (we were going to a bar afterwards).
We got the pizza with prosciutto, mushrooms, egg, and truffle oil but couldn’t really taste the truffle in it. Both the rucola salad and insalata gatto nero we ordered were very good and appetizing. I especially liked the roasted pine nuts in the latter. The pasta was okay — it was just a bit too hard for my taste. I like my pasta al dente.
All in all, it’s a cute place with decent food and a nice atmosphere. I’d come back again for coffee or dessert.

In the heart of little italy is this gem of a restaurant. We went in for a pre-​show concert meal. This place has a bright casual look in its décor and ambience. The menu is Italian food consisting of pizzas, pastas and appetizers. You get complimentary bread with olive oil & balsamic vinegar to dip with your meal.
I ordered the Quattro stagioni Pizza, 2 orders of arancini which is rice balls, that are formed into balls and quickly deep-​fried; also ordered an appetizer of Meatballs which came with only two medium size.
The pizza was absolutely delicious was fresh just enough sauce to cover the dough and lots of cheese and toppings on mine; it was enough to share with two people or even three. Homemade dough, pizza oven in the back of restaurant.
The arancini were delicious, aborio rice cooked soft and outer coating thin crispy. The only thing I was disappointed about is not to find any meat or peas or cheese stuffed inside; it really simply was just rice but it was delicious I just wish they would stuff there’s. The sauce that it comes with was a perfect marinara sauce mild tomato flavor balance just right.
The appetizer meatballs were very lean but delicious and again with the nice marinara sauce. I wish it wasn’t so lean but that’s just my preference.
Service was quick, efficient and friendly just a note it was not busy at the time we went.
My table ordered two pints of beer which was decently priced for only $ 6.50 + $ 7.00.
I would definitely recommend and go back when I’m in the area. I’m giving this place 4 stars out of five; the only reason they lost one star it’s because of the non stuffed Arancini and 2 meatballs (expected 3 atleast for $ 8).

Just had a glass of wine and a beer but, we’ll be back here — great atmosphere and service is supuerb!

Co-​worker and I came here for lunch. Just had the Veal Panini which was a good portion for lunch. Could have more sauce… but it was nice and tasty.
It came with a few olives on the side: Green olives were hard and needed some teeth grading action. The black ones, soft and ok.
Waitress was nice. Service was quick. Not good with math but Panini was good :)

I came here last night for a friends birthday dinner and I was quite excited as I had read reviews on Unilocal.The food didn’t disappoint! I ordered the gnocchi which came in a creamy white sauce. I love Italian food and I would have to say the gnocchi tasted authentic and full of flavour. The pizzas looked really good too, I’ll have to try it next time I’m there. The service was a bit slow however our server tried to accommodate us as best she could, plus she was pleasant and friendly.

Just happened to pass by this place with my girlfriends and decided to try out this Italian restaurant, and it was a satisfying choice. I had the fettuccine con pana with a glass of mimosa. The crispy and savoury pana goes well with the creamy fettuccine. The mimosa was refreshing but the drink was quite small. The staff was super friendly and even offer to take photos for us. The food menu is only one page — some appetizers, salad, pasta, and pizza selections. Slightly pricy, but the nice and clean décor, the helpfulness of the staff, and the quality of food match the price.

Forgot how good pizzas are here. Delicious! Great espresso too. No clue why it only has 3 stars! staff was friendly, prompt and had great suggestions!

This place strives to be a classy neighbourhood restaurant. Looks and atmosphere only get you so far. When it comes to quality of food, Il Gatto Nero lets you down. I’m not sure if the chef in the kitchen cares about the output, but what I got wasn’t very impressive for the price you pay. Perhaps, the owner and the Chef might want to watch the movie «Chef» to understand the importance of true passion when it comes to the craft of cooking in a restaurant.
Bottom line, next time I’m in the neighbourhood, I have little incentive to come back to Il Gatto Nero for a nice meal, unless I just want to go for some drinks, in which case there are plenty of other venues with patios in the vicinity of 100m.

I’ve been to Il Gatto Nero on a few occasions and I love coming here. It’s not over the top like many of the restaurants on college. They are not trying to prove anything. I enjoy the simplicity of their menu and the thought out flavors they add to their dishes. I’ve tried a variety of items on the menu from pasta to pizza to their spinelli (no longer on the menu) and I’ve never been disappointed.
The bar adds a bit of casual to the atmosphere but the dim lighting and candles on the tables add a bit of romance. The bar is a hangout amongst regulars and those just catching a quick drink or dinner.
I’ll continue to come here because it’s easy, casual and has always been inviting.

I came to Il gatto nero during the taste of little italy festival. The menu they offered was limited, most of them are pizza-​related.
My friend ordered the gnocchi and ravioli, and the portions are quite small for $ 15. I ordered the anchovy pizza, which comes with a nice thinly crusted pizza, with tomatoe sauce on top and all-​too-​salty anchovies. I was too busy chuggin down water to wash away the saltiness of the anchovies to even enjoy anything about the pizza.
This might be a good place to sit down and have coffee and wine, but definitely not a place to get a meal.

I live down the street from this place, and I’ve got to say– provided all the alternatives steps away from this restaurant, I’m not sure why anybody would choose Il gatto– be it for food or drinks. It’s in the heart of Little Italy, and is way overpriced for mediocre food, and drinks. What’s more, the female bartenders are very rude, and even scowl at you when you ask them what something costs– WTF?! You do realize your only job is to SERVE people right?! Also, the bar is frequented by older clientele so if you are young, head elsewhere. It’s surprising because from the outside, the place looks upscale, and even the interior is very nicely done. The ambiance is beautiful– it’s just everything that matters sucks.
Neat fact: When I visited, I met this older dude, who is best friends with Charlie Munger’s son. So, not a complete waste of a night :)

Not impressed. The food here is very tasteless. Our dinner took quite a while to come and was very mediocre.
We had a bread and fior di latte cheese, this was very tasteless and greasy. They should know that is tasteless. I know the cheese doesn’t have much taste, but I assumed they did something to make it more tasty. They didn’t ! Why would they serve this!
then we had halibut, it looked pretty but was over cooked and tasteless as well. No sauce or anything. Just dry.
I would never go back to this restaurant. They need to start over…

You know, I’ve gotta say I enjoyed this place. Cute little cozy spot to grab a bevvy or a decent pizza. I was there a few weeks ago with a friend who frequents this place quite often. We popped in to start our night on College Street and to grab a quick bite to eat and a tasty cocktail.
We scored a sweet spot by the window which was a quaint and cozy spot, and I think maybe the best in the house :) We both had a hankering for pizza, so we ordered the margherita with mushrooms as an add-​on [the Ai Fungi pizza was a white pizza (without sauce)] and we both had a craving for a nice tomato-​sauce pizza. Our server suggested that since the mushrooms were really saucy (they were marinated), that it would have been too wet with the tomato sauce and mushrooms which was why we opted for the margherita. I have to say the crust was very nicely done and the pizza itself was very tasty, and priced as a good pizza should be, at $ 10.50. Quite reasonable in my books.
Our server was also very nice and knowledgeable, so I would have to give Il Gatto Nero a positive on this one as well.
Great ambiance without being pretentious or overly done, and a busy spot for a Friday night out. I do recommend this spot, if even just for a drink and a quick appetizer to start out your evening.

Il Gato Nero Restaurant is located in the College and Grace area of Toronto’s «Little Italy». Menu is simple: antipasto, pasta, pizza and daily specials. Food was average, nothing over the top. The Eggplant Parmigiano antipasto was tasty. Spaghetti Alla Carbonara was creamy, pasta was overcooked… not al dente the way it should have been. Spinelli (wrap) salsiccia lacked flavor, good portion size. I found the restaurant to be too dark for casual dinning Price point was average. The service was good, restaurant was clean (big plus for me). Would I go back… not for dinner but for an espresso and desert!

J’y suis allé une seule fois. Il semblerait que le serveur était en fin de service, il était particulièrement désagréable, alors nous sommes partis.
C’était il y a 4 ans, comme quoi, le service, ça compte non?

Stopped in for dinner this past weekend, and although the service was the weak link in the experience, we still had a pretty enjoyable time.
The beer list on tap isn’t great, but includes some local Toronto brews like Steamwhistle and Amsterdam Blonde and some international staples like Stella so you should be able to find something adequate.
We started with an app which was some sort of iteration of breaded pieces of eggplant with sauce and cheese over it. Definitely recommended!
Then we both tried Spinellis, which is kind of like a big wrap made with really thin pizza dough and filled with various ingredients. We got one with prosciutto and some veggies and one with sausage and veggies. We we’re actually surprised by how big they ended up being, and even split them half and half to try each of them.
Both were pretty good. Toppings inside were an adequate amount, but admittedly could’ve had more meat to really push the flavours… But they were pretty good and even ended up taking some home for leftover which reheated quite nicely.
All in all about 4 pints and 2 mains and an app, I believe came to around $ 72 after tax before tip. I’d come back and do it all over again, although utilize the patio when the summer weather has approached.

*****THIS PLACE IS REALLY 2.5 STARS*****
Whenever I go out I always find, and this is specially true in Little Italy since there are so many Resto/​Lounge/​Bar/​Bistro combos right next to each other, that they all tend to fall under three main categories.
A-​) Great food, love the place.
B-​) Great food, place is alright.
C-​) Food is not all that but the place has a great vibe.
IGN falls under the latter as I have walked by this bistro for years and during many of those walks, I actually stopped to look at their menu and the only thing that came to mind was ‘Man, that patio sure looks like a great place to have a cold one.‘
A few times I have gone there and done just that and had a really nice time. Chat with a friend, had the odd smoke, do a little bit of people watching, all in all, good times.
Only twice did I go through the trouble of looking at the menu and it is pretty standard fare for this side of town. Some Pollo and Margharita pizzas, maybe some veggies thrown in for good measure, some cheese/​chicken/​seafood pasta… But not enough to warrant the price plus last time I was there, the server seemed to be having a bad day, alas, I digress. The rest of the menu looked very pedestrian, yet most items were near the $ 20 mark, which is a no-​no if you are asking almost $ 20 per dish.
Honestly I can barely remember the pizzas we ordered. However I do remember the inviting old-​world-​looking bar made out of darkish wood, stacked bottles of wine behind it. What felt like high ceilings and hardwood floors and the great corner patio with a tree at the very corner where you can sit beneath its shade during hot afternoons. Ah… Add a glass of dry, smoky white wine/​or a cold {insert drink of choice here}, pair it with some good conversation and you are set.
Personally, I see Il Gatto Nero to be more for an espresso or apéritif kind of place, so do yourself a favor and check it out, just don’t come hungry.

Just a quick one on Il Gatto Nero, as I don’t feel I have much to add beyond what’s already been said. As indicated by the two stars, I fall on the negative side.
Nothing was bad, so don’t get me wrong, it’s just that «good» doesn’t really compensate for slow service. Would I go back if someone was holding an event here? Sure. Would I go out of my way? Definitely not — there are plenty of better options within walking distance, and plenty of ones I’ve yet to try, that I wouldn’t give IGN another chance any time soon.
For the record, salad, panini, a basic pasta (as I recall, mozza, tomato, basil, etc), espressos, and wine between the two of us.

Came here for an espresso at night before going out. Didn’t try the food.
The espresso was really good. This would be an ideal place to go for an evening coffee date if you order something espresso-​based. I didn’t try a latte though so I’m not sure how good they are at those, but for espresso and I’m assuming americano as well, they’d be a good spot.
The hot chocolate tastes like some no-​name brand powder where you add water.
Based on the other reviews I WOULD NOT go for food here. It’s never crossed my mind. Espresso is great though.

Should have known better.
The «Italian» restaurants on College are for the most part, shit. I’m not sure who goes there– assuming it is people from outside the neighborhood who don’t know better, or people who have bad taste. Probably a combo of the two.
We were hungry so we decided to give it a go, even though better judgement would have pushed onward in our search.
1) Service:
Slow. Really slow. There was probably a 1:3 ratio of staff to patrons so this should not have been the case. Jumping ahead here but we waited appx 36 minutes for food.
2)Patio: Quite nice actually, big space, good view, nice to people watch. That’s enjoyable for the first 25 minutes of waiting for your dish of pasta.
2b)
I asked for some direction on what was the most popular and couldn’t get an answer. Ok, fine. Later:
«Hi, sorry. Any ETA on our food?»
«Just checked, nope, not ready»
«Um…Ok, any idea how long that it-​«
*she walks away*
3) Food:
Bad. Really bad. Pasta tasted… not fully cooked on one plate, and too cooked on the other. Chicken was overcooked and rubbery. Sauce= meh. Big meh. Other sauce = «My jars of sauce are better than this».
4)Complaints:
Well, we got our food comped. That was good. It was the right thing to do. They asked us not to tell anyone that the food «wasn’t good» because that was unusual. Server could tell it looked «weird». More than the food, I didn’t like waiting so long, and with no apology.
Anyway, I think I would have refused to pay either way, but it was good for them to own up. I won’t go back. I shouldn’t have gone in the first place. For all of you who like shitty, unauthentic, overpriced Italian food coupled with a poor dining experience… this one is for you!