The Room
Buca Yorkville is the second restaurant from chef Rob Gentile and the King Street Food Company — a 90-seat downstairs cellar in a Yorkville townhouse, opened in 2014 to expand the original King West Buca's playbook into a more polished register. The room is dressed in dark wood, leather and brass; the open kitchen runs along one wall; the cured-fish charcuterie and brick-pizza counters are the visible focus.
The dining room runs at the noise level a confident Italian neighbourhood restaurant should — conversational hum rather than special-occasion hush. Service is warm and well-paced. The corner banquettes are the seats to request.
The Food
Gentile's cured-fish programme is the kitchen's most-photographed work — dry-cured tuna, salt-packed bottarga, smoked sturgeon, lardo di sgombro — and the bread programme matches it. The pasta menu rotates seasonally and runs to eight handmade options at any time. Brick-fired pizza programme is short but excellent. The whole-fish-for-two and the bistecca run at the higher register.
Wine programme is Italian-led with serious Tuscan, Piedmontese and Sicilian benches. The natural-wine programme is one of Yorkville's deepest. Cocktails run aperitivi-led with a properly stirred Negroni and a working Aperol Spritz.
Best Occasion Fit
First Date: Buca's downstairs cellar is the Yorkville first-date for the diner who wants the night to register as Italian-confident. The pasta menu is shareable, the wine list is interesting enough to extend the conversation, and the bill is plausible at C$120 a head.
Team Dinner: The private dining room seats 22 and runs a set Italian menu that the corporate dinner needs without negotiation. The pasta course is built to share.
Birthday: Birthdays at Buca are loud-and-warm — a candle, a small dessert from the kitchen, and the noise level the room runs at every night. Mention the occasion at booking.