Cherry House Restaurant

The filet mignon comes out of a cast-iron skillet under a brandy peppercorn jus, the New York striploin wears a horseradish crust, and the rib eye is crusted in peppercorn before it reaches the pan. At Cherry House, the sear is the through-line, and the steak list is the clearest way to read the kitchen. This is a fine-dining steakhouse in Burlington's Appleby Village — French in its accents, North American at its centre, with beef and seafood doing the work on either side of the menu.

The beef program is built to climb. A forty-eight-ounce tomahawk comes with roasted garlic and herb butter, meant for the middle of the table; surf and turf sets a ten-ounce filet beside a broiled lobster tail; veal and scallops arrive in a mushroom marsala cream, and an Australian rack of lamb is seared under a peppercorn crust. At the top sit a bison ribeye and Japanese wagyu — the kind of listing that tells a diner the kitchen will source for the occasion rather than the average cheque. Most cuts lean on the same technique: a hard sear, one assertive sauce, little fuss on the plate.