Lobby Lounge

Date: January 28, 2012

Location: 550 Wellington St. W. (east of Bathurst St.), Toronto

Website: http://www.thompsonhotels.com/hotels/toronto/thompson-toronto/drink/lobby-bar

Meal: drinks

My thoughts:
Typical King West crowd - artsy and trendy and mostly consisting of 20-something to 40-something year olds (my kind of scene).

We arrived at 8pm and were promptly seated at the bar and were given complimentary honey roasted peanuts almonds and kettle-cooked chips, both of which were really good. By 9:30pm, it had gotten quite busy. 

My friend (a female) and I couldn't help but notice the gorgeous designer-like dresses that all the waitresses donned.

Nice decor and ambiance. Drinks were on the expensive side, but given the location, this was expected. Good music. Service was not bad. Will return again.

Guu Izakaya

Date: January 26, 2012

Location: 398 Church Street (north of Gerrard St. E.), Toronto

Website: http://guu-izakaya.com/

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
Yes, it's Guu again! :) Came here on a Thursday night and the wait was still about 50 minutes for a party of two. That should tell you something about how popular this restaurant is. But as always, the wait was well worth it.

This was my friend's first time here and he asked me to make some recommendations. I ordered my usual dishes - okonomiyaki, takoyaki and unagi doria. I've included just a quick little description from Guu's website just for easy reference. To read my thoughts on these dishes, please see my entry from November 2011. 

Takoyaki ($5.00) - deep fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo 

Okonomiyaki ($6.80) - deep-fried Japanese pancake with squid, tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo 

Unagi Doria ($9.30) - barbeque water eel on mixed mushrooms rice with cheese on top 

My friend ordered the following dishes... 

Karubi ($6.80) - salt and pepper grilled beef short ribs with scallion sauce. This wasn't overly salty today, unlike the last time I had this. It wasn't bad, but I prefer my beef short ribs to be sliced thick so that it's juicier. 

Kinoko Bibimbap ($8.80) - rice, mushrooms & cheese with seaweed sauce served in a sizzling stone bowl. This was similar to the unagi doria, but without the eel. Similar sauce, almost just as delicious (I am a big fan of unagi after all), and will definitely order again.

And for the record, my friend was impressed with this restaurant and its atmosphere, despite the fact they don't t have sushi. Yay again for Guu :)

Menchie's

Date: Jan 18, 2012

Location: 3883 - 3885 Rutherford Rd. (west of Weston Rd.), Woodbridge

Website: http://www.menchies.ca/

Meal: snack

My thoughts:

What a concept Menchie's is! I love it!! 

Menchies is a self-serve frozen yogurt bar. One of the best things about this place is that they have a tray of mini paper cups for you to sample all their flavours. Then once you have made your pick, there are bigger cups for you to fill with yogurt and customize your creation with any combination of the wide array of toppings that they have.

I had the original tart with crushed Oreo cookies, fresh pineapple, maraschino cherries, bobas in cherry, mango and lychee (these are 'pop-able' juice-filled bubbles). Heeeavenly!! I can't imagine this being that healthy considering all the toppings I put on, though.

By the way, if you go to their website, you will see that they have hundreds of flavours of yogurt, but they only have about ten flavours at any given time. I was told they rotate through the different flavours every two weeks. I can't wait to try their other flavours!!

Cafe en Passant

Date: Oct 22, 2011

Location: 10133 Yonge St. (north of Major MacKenzie), Richmond Hill

Website: http://cafeenpassant.ca/

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

Oh boy. I realized I forgot to write about this place after coming here for a second time about a month ago. (And okay, in all honesty - I "forget" or "am too busy" to blog all the time, but I think this place deserves at least one write-up on it.)

For starters, my friend and I shared the Mussels Marinara ($9.95) served with a wine, herb and garlic marinara sauce, which was delicious and paired really well with the bread (that we had to request for, which was odd, but I'll let that slide because my main was so delicious).

I ordered the Spanish Paella ($23.95), which is a Spanish-style rice dish with lots of herbs and all sorts of delicious things. This particular dish had sauteed chicken breast, jumbo shrimp, fresh mussels and tomatoes. The portion was huge, and it was probably the best paella I've ever had. Will order again.

My friend ordered the Pork Tenderloin ($21.95) off their specials menu. I'm not normally a pork kind of girl, but I had a little taste and was blown away by how tender and juicy the meat was. (We came back about a month ago and the specials menu was pretty much the same, so if you are interested in trying it, they might still have it since it doesn't seem like they change their specials menu all that often.)

We also ordered half a liter of red wine. The decor was simple and understated, but in a charming kind of way. We were seated near the middle of the restaurant by a wooden lattice board with flowers (roses?) weaved through. All in all, a very enjoyable dining experience.