Joe's Shawarma

Date: March 22, 2011

Location: 10794 Yonge St, Richmond Hill (Yonge & N. of Elgin Mills)

Website: no website!

Cuisine/Style: Fast-food/cafeteria-style shawarma (Lebanese/Persian)

Meal: Dinner

My thoughts: 
I had been introduced to this quaint little joint by a friend of mine, who frequents this place, and I can completely understand why. I have only ever had their shawarma sandwich and their chicken shawarma dinner/plate, and both were superb. The chicken is very tender and juicy, the coleslaw fresh and crunchy with just the right amount of sourness and the hot sauce smokin' hot but delish! Large serving sizes - the sandwich is always stuffed to its brim and food really piled on in the dinner/plate meal. Decent prices: around $7.50 for a sandwich, and if my memory serves me correctly, the plate is around $10. Again, considering the portion sizes, the prices are very fair.

Anyway, we both had the chicken shawarma sandwich on Tuesday. I didn't have my camera with me, but we are both regulars. I will post a picture next time!

Oh, I've also read in other reviews that their lamb kebabs are really good. Unfortunately, they didn't have any ready that night (it was a slow night) and I was told I'd have to wait about 10-15 minutes. I was pressed for time so I passed them up, but I vow to order them next time!

As an afterthought. I really wish the shawarma I had in Ottawa. I was there last summer for a weekend and had shawarma with some Italian-style seasonings/tomato sauce in it. You are probably grimacing at the sound of shawarma and tomato sauce in the same sentence, but I am telling you, it was most probably the best shawarma I've ever had! I wish I remember the name of the joint, but it was on Rideau St, just a few blocks away - east, I think? Not sure, because I'm not very familiar with the city - from Rideau Shopping Centre.

Kelsey's

Date: March 17, 2011

Location: 8715 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill (Yonge & Hwy 407)

Website: http://www.kelseys.ca

Cuisine/Style: Bar & grill
Meal: Dinner/drinks 

My thoughts: 

So it was St. Patrick's day and my companion and I were in the mood for some good ol' green beer (why not? You're only able to get coloured beer once a year!) We headed over to Archibald's Pub around 7:30 and not surprisingly, it was jam-packed, literally! We were both hungry and didn't feel like waiting around for a table and not even get any service, so we went to Kelsey's just down the street.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had green beer, so we ordered a drink and mulled over the menu. We finally decided on an order of wings in "Hot n' Honey" (which is not listed in their online menu for some reason) and popcorn shrimp.

The wings were not bad. Personally, I think having experienced Archibald's Pub's deliciously fatty and juicy wings the week before might have influenced my thoughts on Kelsey's. Kelsey's were definitely much leaner and the sauce was not bad. As in the name, it is actually quite spicy.

The popcorn shrimp was mediocre on it's own, as it was way too much batter and very, very little shrimp. But it came with two dips, one of which was a creamy mustardy-looking dip, and the other a sweet Thai chili. I, being a big fan of thick, creamy, fatty foods (who doesn't, right? Haha), tried the creamy dip first and I didn't feel it did anything for the shrimp. The chili dip, on the other hand, was amazing! I had the rest of the shrimp with this. I definitely recommend this, with the chili sauce!

Ippai's Japanese Fusion Cuisine

Date: March 16, 2011

Location: 8865 Woodbine Avenue Unit D5 (Woodbine & 16th)

Website: http://www.ippai.ca/menu.html

Cuisine/Style: Japanese, specializing in ramen noodles

My thoughts:

Okay, I know that thus far, I haven't given much mention to restaurants' service, but that is only because they were decent or better (as one should expect). But I must start off with the service with this place, because it really detracted from my experience here. 

Be prepared for a long rant. If you don't want to read, skip this paragraph. I went on a Wednesday night and the place was less than half-full, and we were treated very poorly by one of the waiters (female). She was extremely impatient, rushed and literally out-of-breath (from what, I don't know, seeing as how it was quite empty). Anyway, here is what went down: I wanted to order a plain/vegetarian okonomiyaki (pancake) and asked if they could do that, since all the ones on the menu contained meat. And she answered - somehow, in several sentences - that the plain/vegetarian one has a lot of vegetables (duh! I said vegetarian). Then I said that I was aware of that, and asked her for the price. And she kind of sighed, exasperated for some reason, and said that it would be the same price as the chicken one. And I asked why, since the chicken also contained the vegetables and I'm just asking for them to omit the meat. And she made a clicking sound with her tongue and sighed again and said "It just is." And I just looked at her, and I guess I had a confused facial expression, and she said, "So do you want it?" That was when I said, "I want to talk to the male server," who I suppose was our primary server, and she walked off. Very, very rude!

Okay, now that I'm done my rant, here is a review on the food! Here is what we ordered:

- Milk Soup Ramen: Price $9.95 but large serving size. I liked the noodles and the soup was interesting, in a good way. It also had mushroom, seaweed, kelp, sesame, green onion and broccoli - all of which I like. What I didn't like was the pork, as it was a little fatty. But all in all, I would order this again.

- Garlic Butter Miso Soup Ramen: Price $9.95 but again, very large portion, so it wasn't too bad. However, as the name suggests, the soup literally tastes like an entire stick of butter and some raw garlic was just tossed into their soup base. There was also corn (a fan), kelp (a fan), boiled egg (a fan), mushrooms (a fan), seaweed (not a fan - seaweed was crispy but tasted like it was fried in butter) and fishcake wrapped in fried tofu (a fan). While the noodles' texture and most of the toppings, I just was not a fan of the soup. Will not order again.

- Chicken Okonomiyaki: If I had not experienced Guu's amazing okonomiyaki last weekend, I would think that this was not bad. But since I have, this really pales in comparison. I went with my mom, and she, having never tried okonomiyaki, was quite impressed. My complaints? It was too thick, floury, and did not have enough sauce - the best part of okonomiyaki's in my opinion!

Archibald's Pub

Date: March 10, 2011

Location: 8950 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill (Yonge & Carrville)
Website: http://www.archibaldspub.com

Cuisine/Style: Pub

My thoughts: 

- Wings: 1 pound of wings with Hail Caesar sauce. $9.99. This was amazing! The best wings I'd had in awhile. They were very juicy, lightly crispy and  the flavour was delicious. I personally didn't really taste the "Caesar", which I would say is a good thing. A must try! (FYI: Wednesday is 1/2 price wing night!)

- Nachos: We went on a Thursday night, which so happened to be 1/2 price nacho night. So our order cost $5.50. Awesome! Taste was pretty good, but nothing special. I liked that they really loaded up on the cheese. If I had to be really critical, I would say the chips were a little bit too thin; I prefer slightly thicker chips.

Guu Izakaya & 7 West Cafe

Location: 398 Church St, Toronto (Yonge & Carlton)

Date: March 13, 2011
Website: http://www.guu-izakaya.com

Cuisine/Style: Japanese Pub

My thoughts:

I have to admit, when I came into the restaurant and saw how packed and crowded it was, I almost wanted to pass on this restaurant. Further, my girlfriends and I came here around 6:30 on a Sunday night and was told that there was an hour-long wait (yes, on a Sunday!). We were all pretty hungry and almost decided to go elsewhere. I am very, very glad I did not. I was literally blown out of my mind at how amazing the food was!

The 'restaurant' is actually a Japanese-style bar/pub that also serves snacks/small dishes. Small portions. Prices were on average $6-7 a pop, which might seem really cheap, but given the small serving sizes, wasn't actually that cheap.

Here is what we ordered:

- Sashimi salad: This was a salad with various types of sashimi served over mixed greens and strips of pickled turnip. A wasabi mayo sauce was drizzled over top. This dish was not bad. The sashimi was definitely very fresh. The thing was, however, I didn't feel like the various things really melded with one another. I felt like I was just having sashimi with lettuce, if you know what I mean. Not bad, but I am not sure if I would order this again. Just not my cup of tea. I'm just not a big salad person, but if you are, you may like this.

- Aburi salmon: An appie consisting of lightly seared salmon sashimi with ponzu sauce and wasabi mayo. This was slightly similar to the sashimi salad, but tasted much better. Perhaps maybe because there wasn't anything to compete with the delicious taste of sashimi. I would recommend this.

- Takoyaki: Fried octopus balls with sweet Tonkatsu sauce and mustard mayo. My second favourite dish of the night. These were unbelievably soft and fluffy little balls with a small piece of octopus in the centre. I don't know what the soft, fluffy part was, but it was mind-blowingly (is there even such a word?) delicious. I was simply floored by the taste! The sauce was a little bit salty, but I am telling you, it was perfect with the food. I would recommend this in a heartbeat. Loved it!! I would come back just for this! It was a little taste of heaven!

- Okonomiyaki: Deep-fried pancake with Tonkatsu sauce and mustard mayo. This was similar in taste to the Takoyaki. It must've been partly due in part to the sauce. The food part was quite similar to the octopus balls as well, in the sense that it was also quite loose and fluffy (not as fluffy as the octopus balls, though). But overall, I thought this tasted similar enough to the octopus ball to give this the same second-place rating.

- Oden: An assortment of Japanese-style hotpot items, including egg, radish, squid & fish cake, puffed fish cake, deepfried tofu and bamboo shoot. Okay, this was the last thing we ordered, and after being so impressed by most of the things that we had ordered, I have to say, I had high expectations. But this was quite disappointing. I found it to be salty and the flavour a little strange. I personally would not get this again.

- Unagi Doria: A rice dish topped with BBQ eel, mushroom and cheese. This was hands-down my favourite dish that night. The richness of this dish resembled that of risotto, but I guess what I would have guessed to be Japanese-style, because of the sauce. The sauce was sweet and thick, which made the rice taste absolutely heavenly. I would have never expected this combination of foods to taste so amazing. It was the perfect marriage of all the ingredients. I would recommend this in a heartbeat. Two thumbs way up!

One of my girlfriends absolutely adores cheesecake and we were going to order a slice of the Roasted Green Tea Cheesecake for dessert. Before doing so, however, we asked our waittress how big (I should say small) the slice was, and she indicated a little square with her hands. Not enough to share amongst three people! So we decided to go elsewhere for dessert. My friend suggested 7 West Cafe.

Location: 7 Charles Street West, Toronto (Yonge & Charles)

Date: March 13, 2011

Cuisine/Style: North American cafe

My thoughts:

We ordered the Dulce de Leche cheesecake, which for those of you who don't know, is a caramel cheesecake. It was very rich and creamy, which is good for a cheesecake. My cheesecake-loving friend really enjoyed and she definitely got her fill. However, I am not a big caramel person. I prefer rather plain or fruit cheesecakes. Also, the price was $6, which was a little pricey given the size. I think we should have stayed at the first restaurant. Oh well, I will be returning to that restaurant in the near future, and I will try it out!