Tabülè Middle Eastern Cuisine

Joanne Kates' Top 100 Restaurants
2012
Middle Eastern food carries the stigma of student-food. For those whose minds still go to greasy falafel and dryish hummus when they think Middle Eastern, Tabülè is a wake-up call. The gracious dining room puts the pleasure principle front row centre with clean tastes and delicate textures. Their hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush and lentil soup are all robust of flavour and delicate of texture. Fried eggplant is the usual browned crisp treat. Fried tomatoes also cleave to Middle Eastern tradition thanks to too much garlic to be socially acceptable. They flash fry cauliflower till its almost crisp, which makes a great combo with creamy tahini sauce. Vegetarians will be in heaven over the pilaf of rice and lentils with crisped onions, spicy tomatoes and cucumbers. Vine leaves are stuffed with rice scented with garlic and lemon. This is Middle Eastern food for epicures.

Eye Weekly
22 May 2007
It's hard work to find a turnip in Toronto, those perfect purple pickles, that transform a simple combo of meat, tahini and pita into a sublime experience. A few falafel joints at Bloor and Dufferin manage to slide them into shish taouk, but if we hear one more person rave about shawarma in the Annex... no turninps, no dice. And judging by the line up winding out the door of Tabülè, hungry hordes are equally eager for that pungent tang. Located in the largely Italianate enclave of Yonge and Eglinton, Tabülè starts dinner with chatty servers who somehow manage to make pouring water out of pretty glass jugs a theatrical experience, capped by a complimentary dish of turnips, peppers and other fine pickled snacks.

Zagat Survey - Rated excellent 2007, 2008
12 July 2006
Superb, wonderfully fresh middle eastern eats (especially the namesake dish) purveyed by friendly, helpful people, draw crowds to this cheerful, contemporary midtowner. The tiny spot's success has resulted in line-ups out the door, so waits are to be expected.

Town Crier, Dinner with Liz
18 August 2006
Our restaurant choice this month was the result of a happy confusion. We started out planning to wisit the 'Stork on the Roof', a Dutch-Asian fusion spot, which is, alas, no more. In it's place, with the same phone number, is Tabülè, offering middle eastern cuisine. We started with a glass of wine apiece, Italian Pinot Grigio for Lyn and myself and white Zinfandel for Jim. In the middle eastern tradition we ordered several starters: the signatire tabule ($5) arrived first. It was fresh and crispy with parsley, tomatoes and lemon juice, with only a little of the bulgur wheat, which can be used to fill out this dish.

Toronto.com
20 August 2006
There's a school of dining thought that a meal must be showy, daring pricey to draw raves - all spinning plates, fireworks and exotic ingredients. And then along comes Tabülè, a quiant midtown spot with fewer than 50 seats, where a delightful dinner for two with a decent bottle of a New World wine comes in at around $80. There's nothing edgy or revolutionary coming out of the kitchen, just traditional, fresh and delicious flavours of the middle east, all prepared with simplicity and skill.

Toronto Life
26 August 2006
It's hard to overstate charms of this midtown gem, which dishes up terrific middle eastern grub at irresistible, dirt-cheap prices. With tables jammed together, hanging fixtures throwing a soft glow, the room seduces, but the food is the real star. A puree of red lentils, scented with cumin, leads to fattoush salad tossed with cuke, tomato, red onion, fresh mint and toasted pita bits. It would be simple to make a meal of the hot vegetarian apps: tender, smoky cauliflower dressed with tahini, custard-textured fried eggplant dresed with lemon and garlic.

Joanne Kates, Globe and Mail
Saturday, 5 November, 2005
That Toronto is a city of neighbourhood is a cliché. The ramifications of our identification with neighbourhoods are less obvious. If troops march on their bellies, then torontonians equally go to work (and play) on theirs. So when Tabülè opened this summer, it was no surprise that the neighbourhood went nuts. Good luck getting a table. Still, there's no snob appeal or trendy thing about going down there. Tabülè is a Jerusalem restaurant, cleaned up, edited and gently gentrified.