Less time booking = more time living!
Reserving online is now faster and easier

Make the most of the time you save by booking online. We suggest a Ricard on the terrasse.

Here’s a special present: a little bit of your life back. Booking online is now faster and easier than ever. Our system will remember your details to save you time. You’ll get an optional reminder for your calendar program. No waiting for a confirmation: as soon as you pick an available time, you’re in our book. What to do with the time you’ll save? Enjoy a cool drink and savour la bonne vie.

Avoid labour this Labour Day weekend.
(Try brunch instead.)

Stretch out the summer with a special brunch on Labour Day Monday, September 6. We'll be serving from 11 am. Book now!

We're open for brunch and dinner on Saturdays (starting at 11:00am) and Sundays (at 10:30am). Park in our complimentary private lot at the back, or on the street (free until 1:00pm on Sundays), ride or walk if the weather permits and work up an appetite. The Brunch menu is also available on Mondays of long weekends.

French cuisine is alive and well and living in Toronto

Michael Steinberger, author and wine critic, enjoying Provence Rosé on the terrasse

Michael Steinberger, wine critic and author of Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine and the Decline of France believes that you can find better and more authentic French food at Le Sélect and at other restaurants in New York and Japan than in France. “French cuisine is largely living in exile,” he says in conversation with the Globe and Mail’s Boyd Erman. Why? Thanks to “a diaspora of chefs such as Daniel Boulud who carry the tradition forward, and also to legions of dedicated Francophiles who flock to places such as Toronto's Le Sélect Bistro, a city institution where La Marseillaise plays on the answering-machine greeting”.

The Meaning of Life - Ripeness is all

“Life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward.” – Kierkegaard

The International Herald Tribune's Roger Cohen –one of its most celebrated columnists (and Middle East Editor)– looks at how what we eat seems to conflict with our enjoyment of life or with our longevity. Given the choice, which is better, he asks? Based on the study of two baboons on two different diets, one restrictive the other plentiful, Cohen observes: “It’s the difference between the guy who got a Château Grand Pontet St. Émilion with his Brie and the guy who got water. As Edgar notes in King Lear, “Ripeness is all.” You don’t get to ripeness by eating apple peel for breakfast.” More on Roger Cohen.

Join us on Rue Wellington

For those who missed our tumultuous move three years ago, we are now located at 432 Wellington St West, just west of Spadina and a block south of King, in Toronto’s historic Garment and Warehouse District. It's a spacious, tree-lined boulevard with plenty of parking and the perfect location for our summer terrasse and our private rear jardin. We are conveniently located downtown, but pleasantly situated off the beaten track. No noise but birds in the trees and Ella on the soundtrack. Chef Albert Ponzo is cooking up a storm in his state-of-the-art open kitchen and receiving great feedback from customers and critics. His resolutely authentic Bistro menu summarizes the best of his trips to France.

What to look forward to

The rear jardin

The rear garden is equipped with infra red heaters, making it possible to lunch or dine longer during the shoulder seasons. This is particularly helpful for private functions if guests wish to have a drink outside before coming in for dinner.

Meanwhile, as co-proprietor Jean-Jacques Quinsac remains busy cellaring newly arrived shipments of hard-to-find regional wines of great value, Chef Albert Ponzo is at the stove. Try his Os de Crô-Magnon, a neanderthalesque bone marrowwith a parsley salad, or his pied-de-cochon, his boudin noir, his skate wing beurre noisette, his sow's ear and lentil salad, his Tripes à la Tripel, his braised lamb neck not to mention his Alberta lamb gigot or his bavette d’aloyau steak frites and his famous Joue de bœuf bourguignonne. For desserts indulge in the Île Flottante or the Baba au Rhum.