Girasole Mediterranean Restaurant

Girasole Mediterranean Restaurant, Mississauga, Ontario

Warm and cheerful, and evoking the lazy days of summer, when one and all seem to 'turn to the sun'. That's Girasole Mediterranean, a fine dining restaurant in Port Credit, Mississauga Ontario's lakefront community.

"We chose the name because it is bright, happy, and full of life," says Changaiz Khan, who with Ryszard Julian, owns the 30-seat restaurant they opened on Lakeshore Road West nearly five years ago. "Girasole is pronounced jeer-ah-SO-lay," explains Julian. "'Gira' means 'turn with', and 'sole' is the sun, so it means 'sunflower'."

Decor compliments menu

And Girasole's warm gold-colour stucco walls, vases of sunflowers and large custom mural depicting a Mediterranean city scene echo its name, and complement the menu dappled with references to Mediterranean shores: Girasole Salad, with vine-ripened tomatoes, feta cheese and roasted pine nuts flavoured with balsamic vinaigrette, and Linguini Pescatore, with shrimp, scallops, mussels, calamari and baby clams in tomato sauce with wine and herbs. "When you say 'Mediterranean', it's too broad a range," says Khan. 'It could even include Middle Eastern, so we qualify it as European Mediterranean -- France, Spain, Italy, Greece -- the coastal areas."

The menu at Girasole

There's Lamb Alicante (Spain), Veal Tuscana (Italy) and Chicken Licata (Sicily). As the menu gradually expanded over the years, so did their inspiration, from across the sea, in Africa: Northern Moroccan Chicken, spiced with cinnamon, turmeric and ginger, and Shrimp Tangier. "Our first menu was fairly small," Khan says, "but we've gradually modified it to include new dishes. We can offer something to appeal to almost everyone, including vegetarians."

Girasole's owners . . .

Khan and Julian each bring more than 30 years restaurant experience to Girasole Mediterranean, their first joint venture, and one that's a culmination of the common vision and goals of these long-time colleagues, and friends. "We think it's very important to have a consistent menu set to our own exacting standards," says Khan. "We are very particular about the foods we serve. We consider the ingredients, colours, complimentary sauces and presentation and create our own dishes. That's where the 'experience' kicks in. It's a collaborative effort. You have to be on the same page, and we understand each other."

New menu items appear from time to time, and it's rare that existing items are retired, says Khan. "We've modified our menu over the years to double the original size," he says. "We try a new dish first as a special, and get feedback from our clientele." And since Khan and Julian do double duty as Girasole's only servers, clientele feedback is swift and direct. "We know first hand what our clientele like, and tailor the menu accordingly."

Fresh produce, fresh ingredients,

With limited storage space at the restaurant, says Julian, "We have do the shopping every day. But we use the lack of storage space to our advantage, so our foods are fresh every day. Especially fish. We're very particular about fresh fish. We could do a new menu every day, based on what looks good at the market, but our clientele expect to see their favourite dish on the menu."

One of the favourites is Veal Marsala, says Khan. "It's a retro dish -- hardly anybody is doing it now. And Linguini Pescatore. Our age group grew up on those dishes -- they're comfort food -- and they've almost disappeared."

Slow food . . . or not . . .

"Our whole idea for this place is this is not fast food place. It's a Slow Food place," he says. "Sure, if you have only a short time, of course we can accommodate you. But we encourage people to sit back and relax, to take their time, enjoy a glass of wine. Our wines are from Spain, Italy and France, and many are consignment vintages, though a few now are listed by the LCBO. The trend in a lot of the chains is to allow clientele about 30-40 minutes to eat. They rush you on purpose in order to get in another sitting. We don't want that. We want people to enjoy the evening. And at this time of year, reservations are recommended. We get really busy now, even with the additional seating on the patio."

Patio in season . . .

The patio, which seats 12-15, is a few steps up from Lakeshore Road West, on the north side, where is intersects with Peter Street, with free parking along both sides of the restaurant. A large door rolls up to seamlessly extend the dining room to the open patio, with its view of the Port Credit lighthouse and the Credit River. Girasole's clientele come from the adjacent south Mississauga Road neighbourhoods, as well as from further afield, like the many boaters from along Lake Ontario's shores who moor at one of the nearby marinas, many of whom discover Girasole by chance.

"We've always played it low-key," says Khan, "and we like it that way. No hype, so people can be pleasantly surprised. Much of our clientele comes from word-of-mouth referrals. We hear comments like, 'Our friends recommended it, so we thought we'd try it', or, 'We pass by here a lot and finally got around to stopping in,' or 'Wow! This is so much more than we expected!'

So when you are out and about the popular Port Credit neighbourhood, drop in to watch the world go by. Take your time. Relax. Girasole Mediterranean is open for dinner Monday to Saturday 5:30-10:30 p.m., and available for special parties at lunch and on Sundays.>

Girasole 110-150 Lakeshore Road West Mississauga 905.891.7641

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