It’s been a while since I’ve been able to enjoy a meal at a prix fixe dining event like Winterlicious and Summerlicious. Before kids, my husband and I would check out multiple restaurants during each event. I think one time we made reservations for 4 restaurants over a 2 week span. I wouldn’t recommend that unless you like visiting the gym multiple times a week – I don’t so you can imagine how that went!
But after kids, coordinating child care made it a bit more difficult to get out to these events. We either made reservations during the work week for lunch with co-workers or skipped the “licious” events completely.
I was excited when I heard about PC Babylicious – a baby and kid-friendly prix fixe dining event at some of Toronto’s most popular restaurants.
Many of the participating restaurants are on my never-ending “I’m going to eat there one day” list and Babylicious finally gave me an opportunity to cross one restaurant off the list. After several hours of studying the menus and reading Yelp reviews, we settled on L’Unita at Avenue and Davenport.
We arrived at 5:45 PM on Saturday night and were seated immediately. Having young kids in your group forces dinner time to be a bit earlier and we had the restaurant to ourselves for about half an hour.
L’Unita is a fairly small restaurant aimed at diners who want a more intimate dining experience. Tables are close together and dinner is by candlelight (hence the following yellow-tinged photos – sorry!).
Parents in our group were able to enjoy some delicious dishes while the little foodies had a selection of PC Organics Baby Food to choose from.
Moms and Dads started with Quinoa & Broccoli Salad, Cesar Salad and Sweet Pea Bruschetta while the little ones nibbled on PC Organics Puffs. Serving sizes are quite large at L’Unita and we ended up taking several of the salads home.
The entrées were just as big as the appetizers and we almost didn’t finish it all – the older kids ended up polishing off Spaghetti Al Pomodoro for the parents.
The little ones chose PC Organics Pasta (the chefs sautéed it with a bit of butter which they LOVED!) and PC Organics Junior Vegetables and Chicken for dinner.
By the time desserts came around, we were so stuffed but somehow managed to sample a bit of all 3 of them. Marscapone Cannoli was fantastic (not too heavy and the shell was light and crispy – they definitely do make some of the best cannolis in Toronto) and the Bufala Panna Cotta with lemon curd was great too (a really refreshing way to end the meal). There were mixed reviews when it came to the Dark Chocolate Torta (some parents loved it, some found it too dense – I was one of them) but the older kids enjoyed it. The babies and toddlers loved the spoon spouts on their squeezable dessert pouches.
Dinner from start to finish took about 2 hours and by the time we left L’Unita, the restaurant was full with multiple groups waiting at the door. PC Babylicious was wonderful way to spend time with friends without having to worry about finding babysitters for all the little ones. Especially at a restaurant like L’Unita that is not known to be baby or kid-friendly – high chairs, change tables and child-friendly cutlery are not available normally for guests. I hope PC Babylicious becomes a regular event like Winterlicious and Summerlicious – families with kids want to eat good food too!
The PC Babylicious dining event runs until Sunday May 15, 2016 so there’s still time to snag a reservation. Head on over to pc.ca/babylicious to learn more about the participating restaurants and their menus.
Let me know where you took your little ones and if you enjoyed your meal. I’m hoping to cross off a few more restaurants off my list at next year’s PC Babylicious dining event!
