Moxie's Grill and Bar

Date: October 25, 2012

Location: 4950 Yonge Street (north of Sheppard), Toronto

Website: http://www.moxies.ca/

Cuisine: Canadian

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

I came here with my former coworkers - AE, MM and AB - because it was a central location for all of us.

AE and MM each had a Classic Beef Burger, with different sides. I didn't try these but I was told everything was really good.

AB had the crab cakes. Again, did not try but heard they were very good.

 

I had the Spinach Salad with Champagne Strawberries ($12.95). This was okayyy, albeit expensive for what it's worth. The name definitely is deceivingly fancier than the dish itself. The "champagne strawberries" tasted like regular strawberries to me, or maybe my taste buds aren't very refined (I doubt it). In fact, I don't even recall there being any strawberries, and I have a picture to prove it! Take a look below; the picture says it all!

Kenzo Ramen Japanese Noodle

Date: October 9, 2012
Location: 6180 Yonge Street (south of Steeles), North York
Website: N/A
Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
My family and I came here for my sister's birthday. We've all been here before and my sister was in the mood for ramen. 

We had gyozas ($5.95) and squid takoyakis ($7.95) for starters. The gyozas were really good - hot, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The takoyakis, on the other hand, left something to be desired. I am by no means a takoyaki connoisseur, but I have had quite a sampling of Toronto's selection of takoyakis ever since I experienced my first one at Guu. While the takoyakis were hot, they weren't nearly as fluffy as the ones at Guu.

Of course, this being a ramen restaurant, we each ordered a bowl of ramen (my parents shared). I've been here on multiple occasions with my family in the past. To this day, it has yet to make an impression on me, especially considering the price point (they're all in and around $10), but the rest of my family loves this place. I find the soup bland and the ramen not chewy enough. All things considered, however, this is a quiet restaurant with decent service that I'm sure my family will continue to frequent in the future.

Lemongrass Restaurant

Date: October 9, 2012
Location: 633 Silver Star Blvd. (Steeles and Midland), Scarborough
Website: http://www.lemongrass.ca/
Restaurant: Vietnamese-Thai-Chinese fusion
Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
It was my sister's birthday, and she chose this place to celebrate. While the meal was pretty good, the service was terrible. Through her mannerisms and tone, our waitress was very impatient throughout our meal. It got to the point where my dad finally called her out on it; she apologized and stopped serving our table afterwards. Awkward? Indeed. But we didn't let it put a damper on our evening!

Just a side note: When we went, we were given about 3 or 4 different menus. The online menu seems to be a condensed compilation of these menus, so some of the dishes I talk about may not be listed. Just a head's up if you decide to check it out! Anyway, this is what we had to share:

Lemongrass beef with rice ($9.50): Very good, but much too high of an onion to beef ratio considering the price, especially considering that most people don't actually eat the onion anyway - at least I don't. The beef was very tender.

Traditional pad thai noodles ($7.99): I have never really cared much for pad thai because all the constituents in the whole dish are so.. soft. I mean, I don't mind it, but to me, it is akin to eating baby food or something. But to each their own, I suppose. Everyone else enjoyed this.

Beef brisket curry ($7.99) and roti ($1.99): The curry was mildly spicy and flavourful and the beef tender, but this was nothing special. It paired well with the roti, which was delicious albeit very greasy.

Stir-fried bok choy with garlic ($7.99): Standard Chinese dish. We needed something nutritious to balance out the rest of our meal!

Grilled salmon belly ($4.99): We ordered this off of their specials menu. This was probably the highlight of the meal. Not only was it cheap, but it was very juicy and flaky. If you've never had salmon belly, make sure you do so at least once in your lifetime. It is very fatty but oh-so-good. Besides, salmon fat is good for you! It is a great source of omega-6 and an even more so of omega-3.

Mom's Rotisserie

Date: October 7, 2012
Location: 2573 Victoria Park Ave. (south of Sheppard), Toronto
Website: N/A
Meal: lunch

My thoughts:
I was literally starving at work and was having the worst craving for something hot, salty and greasy. I was initially looking for Greek or Persian restaurants, but after driving around the area for a bit, I could only find this place. 

It was pretty well deserted, but it being a Sunday afternoon and Thanksgiving, I was not surprised. I decided on one of their lunch specials, 3 pieces of fried chicken for $3.99. I asked for it to go. I was so hungry and the aroma of piping hot, greasy chicken tempted me to steal bites while driving back to work. 

The chicken was very crispy - that I was impressed with. But it seemed that the teenage workers on shift must not have been paying attention in the kitchen because they clearly forgot to put any salt whatsoever on the chicken. That aside, it did fill my stomach and I felt much better... 

For a couple of hours anyway. After a while, I started to feel really sick in the stomach and I am convinced it had to be the chicken because I did not eat anything else that was out of the ordinary earlier that day. Blech. Never going back.

Momiji Sushi

Date: October 5, 2012

Location: 2111 Sheppard Ave E (east of DVP), Toronto

Website: http://www.momijis.com/

Meal: lunch

My thoughts:

So the recent dinner experience I'd had was so good I decided to take my sister here after she mentioned she wanted Asian food. 

We were given some complimentary noodles to start, which was good albeit greasy:

For our meal, we decided to share two things, one of which was the spicy salmon pizza ($8.95) that I'd had last time. She loved this.

We also had the Unagi Kani Tempura Roll ($8.95), with deep fried shrimp, BBQ eel, crab meat and unagi sauce with rice skin paper, which was recommended to us by our waitress. This was da bomb! Everything complemented each other very well, and the rice paper made this a step up from being 'just another sushi roll.' This was even better than the pizza! Love!!

The place was about a third full. This was a nice quiet place to go for lunch without having to shout over others' conversations to be heard or worrying about someone spilling something on your jacket because it is so crowded.

Taste of the Danforth

Date: August 11, 2012

Location: Danforth Avenue

Website: N/A

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

Okay, okay. So the Taste of the Danforth is not a restaurant. But because I tried a few food vendors, I figured it would be easier to group it under a common title rather than make separate posts.

Anyway, as per usual, our first stop was at Ella Meat Market, at the southwest corner of Pape and Danforth. I love their famous juicy, tender, well-seasoned lamb chops ($3.50 for one chop). This is the reason why I make the trek here every year!

Next, I went to Astonia for their pork souvlaki ($3 for a skewer). I'm not even a big pork fan but this was really good and juicy. Prior to coming to the festival, my friend suggested I check out this place. Very good recommendation.

Our final stop was Pizza Pizza. Sorry to disappoint, but my friend really needed to use the restroom! Feeling guilty, my friend bought me a pepperoni canzone ($5). This might very well have been my first canzone experience, and I didn't really know what to expect. Overall, it wasn't bad, but there was quite a lot of dough and it tasted very greasy - almost fried. My friend, who is Italian, insisted that canzones are baked. Don't think I'll order this again.

Beer Bistro

Date: August 10, 2012
Location: 18 King Street East (east of Yonge), Downtown Toronto
Website: http://www.beerbistro.com/
Meal: drinks

My thoughts:
Part III of our girls' night!! We tried all of the fruity Belgium-import beers that night (hey, we are girls after all!) My favourite was definitely Fruli, the famous strawberry beer. I have provided a few pictures below but don't remember which was which now!

We shared a plate of wood-smoked buffalo wings ($12.95). Very tiny wings, but very nice smokey flavour and juicy. Came with celery and blue cheese dip (not a big blue cheese fan.)

Great atmosphere! Slightly more mature (mostly 20- and 30-something year olds) crowd. Just busy enough to be hip but not overcrowded. Of course, their specialty is beer, and their selection really is very impressive. Had such a great time!