For decades, The Old Mill, nestled in a scenic leafy area near the Humber River, in Toronto’s west end, has been woven into the city’s social and cultural fabric, hosting countless weddings, family gatherings and corporate meetings and events.
On the food side, The Old Mill’s main dining room offers a generous Sunday dinner buffet that is as popular as ever, as demonstrated at a recent visit.
There are hot items displayed in a lengthy buffet table manned by a team of chefs. Cold items are displayed on six attractively laid-out tables loaded with a wide selection of salads, breads and desserts.
Customers can leisurely build their own salads from an array of pasta-, seafood- and grain-based selections.
And the hot table tempts mightily with about a dozen options, including proteins and side dishes. On a recent Sunday, there was rich and creamy mac ’n’ cheese; tender, medium-rare roast leg of lamb expertly carved to-order; mashed potatoes with sundried tomatoes; delectable slabs of Tuscan-style chicken in spicy tomato sauce; and superbly moist and delicate roast pickerel — the finest fish dish I’ve ever eaten at a buffet — in light dill cream.
Dessert selection at The Old Mill’s Sunday buffet.
Desserts are autumn-perfect: Homestyle, cinnamon-spiked apple crisp, served warm; silky and rich chocolate mousse; textbook pumpkin pie; and pecan pie built on a sturdy crust and properly not-too-sweet filling.
All of this unfolds in a spacious, high-ceilinged room outfitted in a stately English Tudor style that grows more appealing with the passing years, and is particularly convivial and welcoming in the cold-weather months.
The Old Mill offers a wide variety of meetings and event packages, including Day Meeting Packages, as well as The Heritage Meeting Package, which includes the daily lunch buffet as an option (Monday through Friday only).
In addition, there are special Christmas Holiday Party menus available for corporate groups in the venue’s banquet function space. In the dining room, group functions could be considered for Monday or Tuesday nights, depending on the number of guests, budget, scope of event, etc.
— Don Douloff has been a restaurant critic for over 30 years and, during that time, has critiqued more than 1,400 eateries. In 1988, he studied the fundamentals of French cuisine at Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris, France. During his time in France, he furthered his gastronomic education by visiting the country’s bistros, brasseries and Michelin-starred temples of haute cuisine. He relishes exploring the edible universe in his native Toronto and on his travels throughout Canada and abroad.
