Cafe en Passant

Date: July 30, 2013

Location: 10133 Yonge St (north of Major MacKenzie), Richmond Hill
Website: http://www.cafeenpassant.ca/

Cuisine: French

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

With a Team Buy voucher in hand, my sister and I came here for dinner on a random Tuesday night. You may have read from my previous posts that I've been to this restaurant a number of times now, and it is a place that I highly anticipate visiting.

So while this isn't a new restaurant for me, I thought I'd at least order items on the menu that I'd never tried before. 

We decided to share:

Crisp Calamari ($11.95) - marinated calamari rings mildly spiced and flash-fried to a golden brown. We were dissatisfied with this mostly because the batter wasn't really crispy. The culprit wasn't that the dish had been sitting for a while, as it was actually served hot. The problem is the batter. Tweaking of the batter recipe is definitely suggested. And perhaps a different seafood distributor - the calamari had a rubbery texture. Blech.

Cajun Seafood ($22.95) - trio of fresh mussels, scallops and jumbo shrimp blended with cajun on tomato rice. This was what I ordered and it made me reminiscent of the Spanish paella that I love so dearly from here.. but a whole lot spicier and with lots of mussels and no chicken. Next time I'm craving rice here, I'm definitely going for the paella, which is more flavourful minus the spice cover-up.

Crêpe saumon fumé ($19.95) - smoked salmon & green asparagus in a rosé wine sauce. This was pretty good but my sister and I unanimously agreed that the Crêpe St. Jacques is a whole lot better.

So it seems like tonight was filled with letdowns. We do, however, hold high expectations for this place. We are not regulars as it is out of our way, but we have been here enough times. I do still recommend this restaurant, though, just not the particular dishes we had this evening.

Iqbal Kebob

Date: July 11, 2013

Location: 2 Thorncliffe Park Dr (across from Fairview Mall), Toronto
Website: http://www.iqbalkebab.com

Cuisine: Pakistani and Indian

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
I used a $10 voucher from Groupon. Not knowing that it is for a fixed menu, I was a little disappointed because I had my heart set on trying their biryani, paneer and butter chicken - maybe not all in one shot!

My voucher entitled me to 3 different styles of chicken kebobs, with a side of flavoured rice and a salad. It also came with a choice of a beef or vegetable samosa (I chose the latter), a naan and a mango lassi.

Let me start with the kebobs. They were dry and I wasn't very fond of the seasonings, which is ironic since it is in the name of the restaurant! I preferred the rice and salad, although neither of which were very notable in any way. The samosa was overly spicy and the naan dry and thick. I think the best part of my meal was the mango lassi. I have a preference for drinks that are mild in taste and almost border on bland. This fit that bill and was very refreshing.

The service was unbelievably slow. Quick side story: I was waiting at the cash for about 5 minutes to place my order. I was starving. I was growing impatient. I caught sight of some take-out menus with their phone number listed and a portable phone both located next to the cash, I thought about calling the restaurant to get someone to come out to pick up the phone and hanging up just before they pick up - I know it's lame of me, lol. But I didn't have my phone on me. With my rumbling stomach urging me on, I tiptoed past the cash area and into the kitchen and shouted out (in as polite a way as possible) that there were waiting customers. A server by the name of Aleem came out and was surprisingly nice about the whole thing. I was afraid that he would give me attitude for doing that, but I got nothing of the sort.

In short, if I am ever in the area, there is a tiny chance that I will go back to try their biryani, but I definitely would not go out of my way to do so.

Monkey Bar and Grill

Date: July 10, 2013

Location: 3353 Yonge St (north of Lawrence), midtown Toronto
Website: http://www.themonkeybar.ca/

Cuisine: Canadian, Italian, French and Asian fusion

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

I came here for their Summerlicious event with some former co-workers (AE, AB and MM). Seeing how busy the restaurant was, we realized how lucky we were to have nabbed a reservation the day of. 

Now, let me first say that you shouldn't let "bar" fool you - this is an upscale restaurant with the prices to match. But you get what you pay for. This is precisely why I love Summerlicious (and Winterlicious). You get 3- or 4-course meals, sometimes featuring items off of their regular menu, at a discounted price. We paid $25 for a 3-course meal, which is very fair.

Anyway, this is what I had:

Panko-Crusted Brie with Blueberry Balsamic Sauce - I'd never had crusted brie of any sort before so seeing it on the menu piqued my interest. Unfortunately, I wasn't that impressed by it. I felt it needed some chicken in it, which may have then clashed with the blueberry compote. Just saying. Also, I took a close-up shot of this, so the picture doesn't give you much perspective as to how big the dish was, especially in comparison to the uberly-tiny the chunk of cheese was. This turned out to be a good thing, since I didn't care too much for this anyway!

Pecan-Crusted Chicken Breast with Pommery Cream Sauce, Vegetables and Sweet Potato Mash - This was the only entree option that is from their regular menu. We were told that this is their most popular entree, and as much as we all wanted to get a taste of everything, we just really wanted to order this. We were all glad that we did. This was divine. The chicken paired perfectly with the sauce, and there was a perfect yet subtle blend of spice in the sweet potato mash.

House-Made Sorbet and Cookie - The cookie was rather hard, so I didn't care much for it, which was okay, because the strawberry-lemon sorbet completely stole the show. It was amazing! Too bad it isn't on their regular menu.

All in all, I was impressed. The quality was there and it was apparent that there was a lot of attention to detail put into preparing the food. I'd love to try their regular menu. Reservations are highly recommended!

Manpuku

Date: July 4, 2013

Location: 105 McCaul St Unit 29-31 (University/Dundas), Toronto
Website: http://www.manpuku.ca/

Cuisine: Japanese

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

I was working late today and knew I wouldn't be able to wait til I got home to have dinner, so I came here to grab a quick bite. 

Kake udon ($3.99) - basic plain udon topped with kamaboko fish cake, tenkasu and diced scallions.

Corn soup ($2.99) - a bowl of cream corn soup. For what it was and compared to the kake udon, this was relatively overpriced. While the flavour was there, this is a very basic soup that was a tad on the greasy side. 

Everything was served piping hot, which wasn't a good thing on a sweltering day like today, but it was my fault for ordering these things. Service was quick. I'd been here before, and overall, I would say this is nothing spectacular, but if you are looking for some authentic, quick, reasonably-priced Japanese fare, this is it.