Remy's

Date: August 31, 2013

Location: 115 Yorkville Ave (east of Avenue Rd), Toronto
Website: http://www.remys.ca/

Cuisine: bar

Meal: dinner and drinks

My thoughts:
My friend LL was leaving town, and she picked this place for a final catch-up session before going. The restaurant was about half full, surprising for a Saturday night, but I guess most people are away for the long weekend.

For drinks, I had the Walking Dead ($8), Malibu Black Rum, pineapple juice and grenadine. It was amazing! If you are anything like me and love pineapple and/or its juice, then you'll love their cocktails menu. About a third of their drinks have pineapple juice in it.

LL had some sort of rum cocktail. The name escapes my mind. It was black in colour but sweet in taste.

I ordered the Chicken Quesadillas ($13), which was aesthetically-pleasing, with its perfect grid-like grill marks. Unfortunately, taste-wise, it was lacking. There wasn't much chicken and the little chicken that was there was chopped so fine, it was hardly distinguishable from the cheese. There was also no cilantro, parsley or any type of fresh herb, which would have given it a nice contrast.

LL ordered the Crab Cake Salad ($14). The crab cakes were delish - with a nice crunchy exterior and a moist, intact interior. The salad was very plain, though, was terribly meagre, tossed in just a little bit of salad dressing topped with a sad very few dried cranberries. My friend asked our waitress, who was a real sweetheart, for some nuts, cheese and extra dressing, which she provided at no extra cost. With the extras, LL said the salad was much better.

Our waitress - whose name is Jessica, I think - was great. Attentive, but not overly so, friendly, and efficient. The patio was really very spacious, and I hear it is one of the largest in TO; this is certainly a great spot to hit up on a summer night. This particular night, however, was a bit on the chilly side, so we didn't stay for very long. All in all, we had a good time. Great electronic music, if that is your thing, played at just the right volume level. I'd come back for patio drinks, but not the food. A lot of floor space, which I would imagine converts into a dance floor on busier nights.

La Casita Chinese Eatery

Date: August 30, 2013

Location: 405 Dundas St W (east of Spadina), Chinatown, Toronto
Website: http://www.lacasitachineseeatery.ca/

Cuisine: Chinese

Meal: lunch

My thoughts:
Came here on my lunch break, so I was pressed for time. Food came in under 10 minutes, so that was a plus.

I had one of their lunch specials, beef with black bean sauce on rice with a spring roll and cream of corn soup for $5.99.

The food was very good. The spring roll had a vegetable mix (which I like, as I am not a fan of meat fillings) but tasted like it was refried or the oil in which it was fried was not very fresh. Still passable, though. The soup - nothing really worth mentioning. The beef was delicious, although standard. The rice was dry, but there was enough black bean sauce to mask that fact.

My issue was the service. I understand that customer service is not typically a dim sum restaurant's forte, but I felt like the several of the waitresses were not very willing to serve me.

With all the competition there is in Chinatown, I'm sure that I can find other places with $5.99 lunch specials. I just hope that the service will be better. Not returning here.

Wrap and Grab

Date: August 22, 2013

Location: 171 Dundas St W (west of Bay), Downtown Toronto
Website: http://www.phenu.com/wrapandgrab

Cuisine: Lebanese/Middle Eastern

Meal: lunch

My thoughts:
After entering Garden Restaurant and realizing that my party and I wouldn't be seated any time soon, we came here upon the suggestion of one of my co-workers.

I had the chicken shawarma plate - which is what I always get at shawarma restaurants. The total came to $9.60 tax included. Pretty standard for a shawarma plate.

The goods: The portion size and the food, or more specifically, the garlic butter. It gave the dry chicken the juices that it was missing. In fact, it made everything taste a whole lot better! Let me clarify that the food itself really wasn't too shabby. Everything was very flavourful, but was either too salty (turnip, rice), sour (turnip, salad), or oily (salad). If butter wasn't so unhealthy, I would've asked for an extra slab of it.

Now the bads: The dingy decor, cramped space, poor air circulation.. and the worst offence of all.. an eyelash in my salad. Before you point out the possibility that it could belong to me, I was wearing mascara today and the eyelash that sat on a piece of lettuce in my salad was bare. I was nearly finished my meal at that point, so I decided to turn a blind eye. I'd enjoyed my meal enough anyway.

So there definitely are some major 'bads' to this restaurant, but it was still good enough for me to make a second visit the following week.