Fall is a time for comforting leisurely brunches with good friends, and to spoil yourself with rich foods that make your belly full and happy. Lately I have had a hard time keeping up with both my old time favourites and all of the new restaurants on the scene in Toronto, and there have been some quality places popping up. A lot of the places that are on my hit list are not open for lunch, and this is when I tend to eat out, so brunch is a perfect excuse to check out one of these places.

My gorgeous and very talented friend Peggy

Keriwa Café came on my radar as soon as they opened, and the idea of aboriginal influenced cuisine definitely caught my attention. Parkdale is the hub in Toronto, currently, of an explosion of gastronomy and epicurean delight, being started a while back by our friend Mark Cutrara at Cowbell, another place that is an old time favourite that I haven’t been to in a while.

Built from the ground up by Aaron Bear Robe and his sous chef Denis Tay, the room at Keriwa is absolutely gorgeous and very welcoming. Warm and bright, with lots of nice repurposed woods, and a long and equally welcoming bar near the open kitchen at the back of the space. The staff is friendly and helpful, and while the service is slow this is brunch not fast food so I wouldn’t want to feel rushed like at some places.

So, I made the mistake of letting Denis have a choice of what to feed me, because I didn’t want to choose between the pork belly and duck confit dishes. So what did he do? Sent out basically the whole brunch menu, talk about being killed with kindness, thanks Denis. 

The plates at Keriwa are well thought out, and small portions so it would be great to order 3 dishes for two people and get to have a taste of a few things. The flavours were well defined and balanced, and everything was cooked perfectly. Another great example of a place that makes everything themselves and has the skill to pull it off. I cannot wait to go back for another meal, and guarantee that this will happen very soon. Oh, and another great thing about Keriwa is that they get their veggies from Vicki :)  

Yummy baked goods that Denis sent out for us to start. Love that they use Red Fife wheat in all of their baking.

Pork belly goodness.

Crispy duck, what's better? Salt balanced with the sweet bread pudding and some sour from the berries.

Brown butter in a hollandaise? Yes, please! 

This was beautiful, the smoked whitefish crepe. 

As if there wasn't enough food in our bellies Denis decided we needed some sweet potato pie for dessert.