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This year, Summerlicious runs from July 3 to July 19. Reservations will be taken for Summerlicious starting June 18, 2009. I’m told the “good” restaurants fill up quickly. By your standards, I’m guessing those are the restaurants that offer steaks and seafood, so I’m pretty safe.

I always say I’m going to go to Summerlicious, but I never end up going. The restaurant listing still lists which restaurants have vegetarian courses. This year, they’ve even included which courses are vegetarian in the menu. It might have been my wave of emails to every vegetarian-friendly restaurant to ask what was in each dish that didn’t look like it had meat, egg or cheese in it.

Summerlicious 2009 Restaurant Listing

Who knows? Maybe I’ll go this year. Has anyone seen a vegan list somewhere online for Summerlicious?

Time to start making the vegan list. I’ve contacted a number of restaurants that had what looked like veganvegan opt options. I’m still hearing back from all of them. To keep track of my progress, I like to make lists. After the first week of emails, it looks like the others that I’ve tried to contact about their menu aren’t going to respond.

• Arriba Restaurant, Renaissance Toronto Hotel Downtown1 Blue Jay Way, 416-341-5045
  Special Reservations Through Correspondent
  No vegan options on Summerlicious menu
• Brassaii
  461 King Street West, 416-598-4730
  Lunch Starter: Salad, Special Request (SR): No cheese
  Lunch Entrée: Vegetarian Sandwich, SR: No mayo
  Dinner Entrée: Nightly Vegetarian Option, SR: See least note
  Dessert: All include dairy, SR: Fresh fruit
  Reserve seats two-days in advance and tell them on the phone that you’re vegan and the chef will cook accordingly that day. When you’re seated on the day-of, let your server know.
• Noce
  875 Queen Street West, 416-504-3463
  No vegan options on Summerlicious menu
  Outside of Summerlicious: “we can prepare any vegan dish you desire.”
• Five Doors North
  2088 Yonge Street, 416-480-6234
  “There are a couple of Vegan options on the menu and we can also modify other to accommodate” I asked which dishes…
• Café Moroc
  49 Front Street East, 416-961-0601
  Starter: Harira (tomato-based soup), Café Greens
  Lunch Entrée: Grilled Vegetable Pita, SR: No cheese
  Dinner Entrée: Keskesu Casablanca (Coucous with grilled vegetables)
• Bistro 990
  990 Bay Street, 416-921-9990
  Starters: “most of our salads are vegan”, SR: Vegan soup or vegetarian spring rolls
  Entrée: Fusilli with Fresh Tomato, Spinach, Mushroom, Roasted Garlic Broth
  Dessert: No vegan options, SR: “The chef will provide you with a vegan dessert alternative.”
  When making reservations, tell them of the special requests.
• Jaaadu Restaurant
  1415 Yonge Street, 416-944-8885
  Dinner Starter: Curried Squash Soup
  Dinner Entrée: Alu Gobi Masala

(more…)

Last year, I attempted to go through all the Summerlicious menus and pick out vegan-friendly restaurants. That list was incomplete. The number of restaurants I had to sort through seemed overwhelming, I was on the Toronto.com website and the way the menus were posted was horrible. This year, I was on the City of Toronto website and I was looking at their Special Events section and I saw Summerlicious posted. They have the Summerlicious menus on the City of Toronto website and it clearly shows you which restaurants are vegetarian-friendly. If the City of Toronto website had this available last year, I didn’t know. I was probably doing a web-engine search and the first thing that popped up was the Toronto.com website. So here is the City of Toronto listing of Summerlicious restaurants:

Summerlicious 2008 Restaurant Listing

Now that the list already screens out the vegetarian-unfriendly restaurants, I might find some time to pick out the vegan ones for personal reference.

By the way, this year’s Summerlicious is taking place from Friday, July 4 to Sunday, July 20. Start making your reservations early if you’re planning on visiting during the weekends, I’m told the “good” restaurants fill up quickly.