Here's why Toronto's epic new seafood tower is a bargain at $180
Toronto is no stranger to extravagant seafood towers, but now you can get one that costs $180 you can eat in a heated dome.
Selva is now home to a sell-out dome dining program called Selvierno, where there's a minimum spend of $75 on Fridays and Saturdays, and a $60 minimum all other days.
Of course, that should be no problem for anyone planning on shelling out on their massive deluxe seafood tower that costs almost $200.
If you're familiar with Selva, you know it's the Entertainment District's new blacklight playground for drinks and eats by the renowned Thai chef Nuit Regular, who's behind Michelin-recommended restaurant Pai.
That said, the seafood tower is in keeping with her extremely high standards for cooking and ingredients, which is a big part of why it costs what it does.
"Our seafood tower which has become a popular choice is $150 and includes crab legs, freshwater prawns, arctic surf clams, razor clams, white clams, pacific white shrimp, and oysters, with an assortment of house-made sauces and condiments," Nuit Regular's partner Jeff Regular tells blogTO.
"This is available Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights. On Fridays and Saturdays, we offer a deluxe version of our seafood tower, which includes all of the above plus a whole lobster, for $180."
In total, the seafood tower consists of 10 oysters, three Pacific white shrimp, nine razor clams, seven white clams, five pieces of surf clam, one large cluster of crab legs and one jumbo fresh river prawn.
For the deluxe tower, a whole lobster weighing one and a half to two pounds is added, and the current expense of all those ingredients adds up.
"Chef Nuit and her team take pride in sourcing high-quality products and the cost for seafood products are extremely expensive now. Her profit margin is actually very minuscule for the seafood tower, but seafood is one of Chef Nuit's absolute favourite foods, as well as her mother's," says Jeff Regular.
"Coming from Northern Thailand, seafood wasn't always readily available, so it was such a treat for her family when they had it. She very much wanted to share her love and passion for seafood and honour the memory of her mother by offering this seafood tower to guests at Selva."
She's able to share her passion for food at Selva almost through happenstance, with the chef originally connecting with The Fifth, who's behind Selva, through a casual meeting.
"As chef's flagship restaurant Pai is just down the street, I wandered down to say hello to them one day to explore a collaboration," The Fifth and Selva owner Oliver Geddes tells blogTO. "There was instantly a connection and commonalities within delivering customer service, culinary experience, and dreaming and doing big."
If you're looking for the full dome experience, Geddes says Selvierno is currently sold out until March 19, but they're going to extend reservations until March 26 so you have one last sliver of a chance to get in if you book quickly.
Fortunately, if all you want is an epic seafood tower, that's available in the restaurant as well, but of course reservations are still always a good idea.
Fareen Karim
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