BlueBlood Steakhouse is set in a fairytale castle. A menu of prime cuts of steak from around the world and a raw bar is served within Casa Loma’s jaw-dropping heritage environment embellished with original Dalis and Warhols.

The elaborate 138-seat undertaking comes to us from Liberty Entertainment Group led by Nick Di Donato, behind other restaurants like Spice Route and Cibo.

A separate entrance to the restaurant is preceded by a walk through Casa Loma’s award-winning gardens, past a set of lion statues.

Dali’s Surrealist Angel marks the entrance to BlueBlood from within the castle.

The interior here makes my heart skip a beat. A breathtaking fully restored room has all the original wood paneling and crown molding.

The BlueBlood chopped salad ($18) pays a modernized homage to the classic steakhouse like many items here, a mild but pleasant and clean light blend of chopped lettuce, blue cheese, avocado, cucumber, hard boiled egg, and tomatoes from the garden.

Short rib ravioli ($24) are stuffed with ricotta and porcini and actually only topped with savoury shredded short rib, topped with fresh peas, a porcini dust and a scrumptious jus.

Fresh cheese can be grated on top, and if you hold the rib this dish becomes vegetarian.

Smoked seared jumbo scallops ($36) rest atop a corn puree, the corn theme carried through with butter truffle popcorn, charred corn kernels and pickled charred onions that add serious texture, and of course, bacon, presented in a smoking glass cloche. 

A forty-four-ounce tomahawk for two ($180) from Dakota City, New Brunswick pulls out all the stops.

Aged for a minimum of forty days, with a little drier texture and a slight almost blue cheese flavour, it’s served with flavour-enhancing pink Himalayan, Maldon and black lava salt.

The seafood tower comes in a “medium” ($85) or whopping “large” size ($160) recommended for four, brimming with king crab, lobster, jumbo prawns, salmon crudo and oysters with all the fixings.

The Once Upon a Time ($20) is an opulent cocktail for the ages, made with Calvados, apple brandy, brown-butter-infused rye, Bulleit, a house caramel syrup, whole star anise, Angostura bitters and Boker’s bitters.

It’s presented extravagantly in a Belle-and-the Beast like dome filled with applewood smoke that imparts a rich flavour to this full-bodied cocktail.

Warhols include his pink cow, “Indian” nickel (the shade of which inspired the paint colour for the walls), and his only two portraits of Canadians: Wayne Gretzky and Karen Kain (who signed hers).

Chandeliers are pastiched together from vintage real antler chandeliers and more modern art deco ones, and portraits of the Queen and Prince by Mr. Brainwash play off the “royal” atmosphere.