Il Fornello located at 214 King St W in Toronto

Last night, we had a media tasting thanks to jojoinstameets at the King Street West location of Il Fornello.  This location of Il Fornello was actually the very first Il Forenllo that I had visited back in July 2010 (my pre-blogging days) for a dinner before my friends and I attended a musical.  Needless to say, this location is also in the Theatre District and proves to be a very popular spot for a pre-musical meal.

When I arrived at 6 p.m., many other food instagrammers were already there along with Jo.  She told us about the Spring Salad Promotion catered exclusively towards our followers where if a guest ordered any entrée off the menu (pizza, pizza, etc.), they would receive one free salad (a choice of Caprese, Caesar, or Arugula & Beets Salad) upon presentation of the Instagram post to the server.  This deal was available only from Wednesday, June 21 to Sunday, June 25, 2017 at their King Street West location of Il Fornello only.

Il Fornello King location

We were also shown their upcoming Summerlicious menu.

Il Fornello Summerlicious 2017 menu

Once everyone had arrived — there were 18 of us that night — the servers came out with the three salads and some of the Summerlicious menu items for us to photograph and promote.

As usual, we all did our jobs to photograph the dishes as well as we could. 🙂

Spring salad promotion: Caprese, Caesar, and Arugula & Beets

Caesar, Caprese, and Arugula & Beets Salads

Pizzas!

Instagrammers in action

Mussels!

Gluten-free options available: Bruschetta, Pizza Margherita, Penne

A selection of the mains and appetizers we were given to photograph

Desserts: Tiramisu and Panna Cotta served with fresh Ontario Strawberries

After that, we were welcome to choose any entrée on the menu to dine for dinner that night.  Jo thought it was a good idea also to order an array of appetizers and pizzas for everyone to share so that we would be able to try the dishes out too.

Menu cover

Il Fornello King location dinner menu

The kitchen was very fast!  Very soon after our orders were placed, the salads came out.  We received nearly one Arugula & Beets Salad per every two persons to share.  Wow.  They were very generous.  Stacy, the manager and part owner of Il Fornello, was extremely accommodating and made sure that we all got what we needed and didn’t hesitate to go over and beyond the servicing to make sure we were happy.

We sat at a long table

The Arugula & Beets Salad had arugula, beets, chèvre, and balsamic vinaigrette.  It was a lovely salad with lots of big chunks of goat’s milk cheese and fresh beets and arugula.

Arugula & Beets Salad

We had the pleasure of trying their Mussels too!  I have had their mussels last time at the Richmond Hill location of Il Fornello (also at a jojoinstameets tasting) and enjoyed them.  This time however, I enjoyed the spicy tomato broth even more!  I found the spiciness in the tomato broth just right and it was so tasty!

Mussels

Pizza Salmone

We shared the Pizza Salmone.  This had smoked salmon, mozzarella, panna di cucina (mascarpone cream), arugula, and lemon.  I loved how big the slices of smoked salmon were on this pizza.  Again, I’ve also had this pizza at the last tasting.

Their Pizza Fichi made with mascarpone, proscuitto, figs, grano padano, honey, and arugula was the pizza that everyone fell in love with last time at the tasting and this time we ordered it again to share.  We split this one too (no photo unfortunately) and I found that this time, the proscuitto was more cooked and crispy than the one I had last time.  In my piece, I didn’t get any figs and couldn’t taste the creamy mascarpone or honey that I loved last time.

After these appetizers that we shared, our tables were cleared of our plates and utensils and replaced with new ones.  The staff here were absolutely amazing!  They brought us more water and extra napkins as needed too, and all with a smile.

For my entrée, I ordered the Atlantic Salmon.  This was a pan seared Atlantic Salmon with lemon caper aioli, fingerling potatoes, and vegetables.  It looked amazing.  The salmon was very nicely pan seared so that the skin was very crispy.  The salmon was quite tender and moist too.  I especially loved the carrots and green peas.  They were cooked perfectly, juicy, and so delicious!

Atlantic Salmon
-pan seared Atlantic Salmon with lemon caper aioli, fingerling potatoes, vegetables

I also tried the Lamb Shank and Chicken Asiago from my fellow dinner mates.

Lamb Shank

Chicken Asiago

We were all very full by the end of the night and many instagrammers packed the remainder of their dinners home along with the leftovers from the photoshoot that we had earlier.  I decided not to take any home this time (I remember last time I took home a pizza box of a variety of their pizzas; it was amazing).

We ended off the meal with dessert.  We shared the Tiramisu.  This was a really good portion of excellent Italian dessert that wasn’t too sweet.  It was soft and fluffy too!

Tiramisu

Thank you so much to jojoinstameets for organizing this media tasting at Il Fornella at King.  Thank you also to the staff, and especially Stacy and Karen, and everyone else for preparing such an amazing feast for us!

FTC Disclaimer:  Although Jojoinstameets and Il Fornello invited me to a complimentary tasting, the opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the companies.