Food'n'Around

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I love to eat but there is nothing less tasty than my own words. Having railed against the quality of current Beach nosh I stumbled into the most perfect little place that has been open for a mere three weeks.

Michelle's Beach House (1955 Queen St. E., 416-693-4454) has taken over Stony's old spot and made it into an absolute haven from mediocrity. The quiet, shady back patio in this building has always been its cachet. Michelle also owns a hopping spot in Yorkville and plans to give we Beachers all the comforts of the urbanites.

Special touches include cozy blankets on the patio should you feel a bit chilly, magazines in the clean, contemporary loo, French press coffee (3.50) with three-minute timers and the coolest fish tanks above the bar.

But the food! Now we're talking.

The lunch menu includes fresh oysters and steamed mussels with aoli, but the Caesar salad (7.95) lures me every time. In fact, I judge a chef by how much oomph is in his dressing and this guy knocked my socks off. Large crispy leaves (more like a quarter of a head, really) were generously dolloped with thick, zesty, garlicky, anchovy dressing. A few shavings of parmesan cheese and bacon pieces graced the plate. The dressing was too good to waste so we used the fresh baguette to mop up any remaining.

A Croque Monsieur (11.95) can be a heavy, indulgent dish or it can be a fine, crisp treat�you take your chances. Here, we found a lightly egg dipped, crispy oil fried version with melty cheese and thick slices of real ham. No deli meat derivation here.

Served with soup, salad or frites, each sandwich deserves its side. Tempting as the frites in paper-lined coffee cup are, we knew our fatty limits so we went for the pistou soup.

Pistou is a flavourful bowl of hearty chicken broth (from real bones, not a powder) with the finest dice of carrots, celery and garlic I have seen since my painful training days. Floating atop was a fine slick of pesto sauce. Just enough to dole out loads of flavour but not so much that it was oily.

I was having so much fun that I did go in for dessert. Verbal dessert menu options appear to change often but ours was an apple dumpling of sorts. Apples with cranberries were swaddled in a puff pastry and served with a tiny scoop of ice cream.

If Michele's let me down at all even for a quick minute it was with the dessert, it was a bit gooey in an uncooked way, as though it were rushed. Not quite up to the rest of the meal but better than most. The ice cream needs a tweak, that's all. A finer scoop to finish the day in the same manner that it started, with flawless fineness would be all I could ask; small potatoes really.

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Theresa Albert-Ratchford is a personal chef and author of Cook Once and Week Eat Well Every Day and Host of the Food Network's Just One Bite.