BB, before blogging, the print restaurant critic was the pioneer who fork in hand speared the big names then scouted for promising minnows. Now, we’re the rearguard action. By the time I get to a restaurant it’s already been picked over by the bloggers who are chowing down before a place is officially open. I love it. It’s not so
much the reviews – it’s the back story, I wouldn’t have gone to Sidecar (March 30) unless I’d tracked it for weeks on the web, the Aha moment coming when a blogger mentioned the $20 prix fixe on Tuesdays. My news peg.

The blogosphere isn’t always so beneficial. When I decide to go to Eight, the wine bar which has replaced Doku 15 at the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Colborne Street, I find bloggers making contradictory noises about the nibble-heavy menu and its sommelier, Zoltan Szabo, who offers an extensive list for discerning winiacs.
Eight’s appearance is against it: we enter through a bleak concrete utility room which is the bar, furnished with large sofas. After freezing in a chilly red dining room we return to the sofas. We order wines by the glass and I get unlucky: my choices are both corky. Better get that star sommelier back on the job. Why isn’t the wine tasted first by the server? It would save embarrassment all around.

I’ve already checked the menu on Eight’s website. Executive Chef Derek Kennedy has created an all-size plate menu to catch the fickle drinkers’ attention. I savour the “Retro Blinis” ($12), delicate bites of chive-potato pancake with tiny black caviare and crème fraiche, and the three mini burgers, kobe, buffalo and lamb, particularly tasty with curried mango chutney. The seared tuna with kimchee ($24) and the lobster Caesar ($36) are delightful, and they would be better if we weren’t having to crouch over the coffee table to eat them. Charred heirloom tomato salad with buffalo mozzarella (before the Dioxin scare) is pleasant too.
Aside from bland CBC Muzak in the background, Eight’s noise level is ok. But we’re early. Googs posts that he returned to the hotel at 12.30 at night to find Eight “absolutely jammed with 20-somethings, many of them obviously and obnoxiously drunk (like singing and staggering drunk),. ….. I spoke with the doorman this morning, and apparently it's like this late-night on weekends. So, unless you like near-vomit-y 20 year olds singing Rihanna, be cautious about when you choose to frequent this spot.” Now that’s a back story.

I feel the bloggers let me down about BeerBistro. Freya did warn about prices “With the price you pay for a Belgian import you could fly there and drink it.” But nobody mentioned that you may lose your hearing if you spend time there. The food, most of it cooked with beer, is routinely praised and I looked forward to eating Brooklyn Brown Rabbit Curry ($21.95) with India Pale Ale. But within 20 feet of BeerBistro on King East, I am engulfed in a tsunami of sound. A man is leaving the restaurant and still shouting into his cellphone on the street. Yeah, this is testosterone heaven, you need shoulder pads to get inside. I’ve reserved and a “so what” hostess shows me to the worst table in the room, practically in a passageway. The only alternative she says without a smile is a high table, you know the ones where you play kneesies all evening. But then, who needs another customer?

The evening’s fallback is KiWe Kitchen on King West. Web traffic has been listless (JamieK posts “overpriced and just nothing special”) but then no one was jumping through hoops about Sidecar and look how that turned out. But the moment we enter the charming but empty candlelit bar, I smell uncertainty. We pass three booths before being seated in the main red and white room with a long bar and big screens showing silent Charlie Chaplin movies. I know many people do eat while watching TV but I wonder why they’d want to go out to do it. Service is brisk. Cocktails are pushed but the wine list has few, not very good wines by the glass. The cooking shows that chef Aldo Lanzilotta (formerly of Teatro) has ambitions that exceed his kitchen’s competence. Forest mushroom ravioli ($12) sounds great but it’s tough outside and mushy inside. Seared tuna on fennel cream and savoy cabbage is more false advertising.. I can’t believe any chef would stuff ravioli with lobster and white beans($21). Lobster’s texture is its taste – but the texture is lost in the white bean mash.

No more. Bloggers have been right to ignore KIWe Kitchen.

Luckily, I don’t have to consult the bloggers when I go to Tundra’s theme banquet for the COC production of Eugene Onegin. After complaining about how lonely it was in the nearly empty dining room, I was invited by Armin Shroecker, Hilton’s general manager, to come and see how great the dining room looks when it’s filled. An offer I can’t refuse. The Russian dinner, devised by sous chef Kreg Graham was five imaginative courses including blini with caviare, truffle custard, squab, fresh foie gras, lobster poached in butter and paired with wines, some outstanding like the 2004 St. Estephe. Filled with 80 people, Tundra fair comes to life, especially when the COC table jumps up for toasts with every course. A steal at $75. for information: www.coc.ca.

*Eight Wine Bar, 8 Colborne St. 647-724-3386, Wheelchair accessible. Noise: OK early on. Dinner for two plus tax$102
Kiwe 587 King St. W 416 203 0551 Wheelchair accessible. Noise: medium. Dinner for two plus tax $87