Date: March 31, 2014
Location: 177 Dundas St W, Toronto (near University & Dundas)
Website: http://www.gyugyuya.com/
Cuisine/Specialty: Japanese rice bowls
Meal: lunch
My thoughts:
I noticed this place on my way to work recently and was looking forward to trying it. This place specializes in Japanese style rice bowls.
I came here with a coworker, and we each ordered Gyu Cheese Curry ($12.99), which came with an egg over a beef and cheese curry with rice. While the curry was very flavourful, the beef was extremely fatty and the portion was small given the price. My coworker and I both left hungry and disappointed.
Nothing special here. Take your business elsewhere.
Date: March 26, 2014
Location: 275 Dundas Street W #19, Toronto (inside Village by the Grange west of University)
Website: http://www.meanbaotoronto.com/
Cuisine/Specialty: Chinese-style buns and dim sum
Meal: post-lunch snack
My thoughts:
I had already had lunch and still had a bit of room in my stomach for more, so I headed over to The Grange to pick up a small bite to eat.
I chose Mean Bao because I've been here before and can attest to the quality of their food and I also knew that they would have something bite-sized that would satisfy my hunger.
I decided to try their Tofu Mean Bao with a spicy peanut sauce. I think it came to about $3 and change. It was by far my favourite thing I've had from this place! The contrast between the spicy sauce and the calming effect of the pickled vegetables was intriguing. And of course the fried tofu was delish! And at that price point, you really can't go wrong. Highly recommended.
Date: March 14, 2014
Location: 8515 McCowan Rd, Markham
Website: http://www.torosushi.ca
Cuisine: Japanese and Korean
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
I took my mom out for dinner on a whim and chose this place based on positive reviews on Yelp. With every bite I took of the food, I began to suspect more and more that the the reviewers were either employees or friends of them. The entire experience was very disappointing, and here's why.
Prior to ordering, my mom noticed oysters on the menu. I flagged a waitress over to inquire if these were raw or cooked oysters. She did not know. I was floored that she lacked very fundamental knowledge of menu items. I mean, it's not like I'm asking about specific ingredients within a roll. Anyway..
We ordered a large sake for mom, two Kumamoto oysters, a 16 piece sashimi boat, and a pa jun seafood pancake.
The sake ($9.95), which my mom had ordered hot, came within minutes after placing our order and about 10 minutes before the banchan appetizers arrived. This is not the first time I've encountered such mindlessness. Do they expect people to start drinking the sake on an empty stomach? Or maybe expect people to want to drink it cold? No, wait a minute, if that were the case, people would order it cold in the first place! (Duh!)
The banchan appetizers consisted of potatoes, pickled vegetables and chap chae noodles. The potatoes were pretty good, not stellar, but still quite probably the best thing I had tonight, the vegetables were unremarkable, and the noodles were severely undercooked.
We were also each served a bowl of miso soup and a savoury steamed egg custard. Nothing worth mentioning for the miso soup, and the steamed egg's texture was very smooth. Both were too salty for our liking.
Then came the oysters (which came at $2.99 a pop - pricey, according to my mom, who I consider to be an oyster connoisseur, but wanting to treat my mom, I ordered them anyway.) Oh boy. Where do I begin? First, they did not have any horseradish sauce, and then they didn't give us forks. After asking for forks, we were given regular forks (I suppose they don't have the smaller forks meant for eating raw oysters.) Also, there was only a tiny little pea-sized dot of seafood sauce in the oyster. Talk about not being accommodating. These were ordered for my mom, but if I were eating them, I would've asked for a whole bottle of the seafood sauce in the absence of horseradish sauce, which is actually my sauce of choice. As for the oysters themselves, I didn't have one, but my mom said they didn't taste fresh. Stale raw oysters? Blech!
Next to arrive was my mom's sushi boat ($15.95). Again, nothing remarkable. Like the oysters, the fish was not particularly fresh.
Finally, my pa jun seafood pancake ($13.95) came. I was so excited to try this, but was left feeling empty and disappointed after my first bite. With all that was apparently in it, the pancake had a lot of potential. But alas, the batter needed some/more seasoning and had the texture of rubber. Don't be fooled by the nice presentation!
Adding to the disappointing food and the obvious fact that the waitresses clearly required additional training on their menu items, the service was spotty. Stay away!
Date: March 7, 2014
Location: 2245 Bloor St W (Bloor/Runnymede), Etobicoke
Website: https://www.worksburger.com/
Cuisine: burger joint
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
My friend HF and I originally had our hearts set on going to Buddha Pie, but after walking for about 20 minutes, we were dismayed to find that it was closed. We arrived at 5:17pm, and according to the sign posted on its front door, its hours of operation are Tuesday to Sunday from 5pm to 9pm. This is the second failed attempt I've made to come here. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
Our Plan B was to head back to Bloor Street and my friend suggested The Works. We were promptly seated by a young, friendly host who was able to provide us with a table by the window.
HF and I decided to share a burger and an app so that we could each try more things. This is what we got:
Tower-O-Rings ($10) - Crispy breaded onions rings served with 2 dipsticks (aka dipping sauces). There were literally 10 onion rings, which if you think about it has is crazy markup. That's not even a whole onion, for crying out loud! The batter was good though, just expensive.
Grills Gone Wild (about $12) - Grilled eggplant, avocado, salsa loco & feta cheese. Comes with a side, which we paid $1.50 to upgrade to sweet potato fries. The toppings complemented one another well and the burger itself was very good. The sweet potato fries were not bad, but were nothing memorable. The dipping sauce though, was a really disappointment. It was very spicy but didn't really offer much in terms of flavour. I'd rank the fries as one of the worst ones I've had recently.
All in all, this is a nice place to hit up if you're in the mood for burgers as there are lots of options and there is surely something to suit every taste. But if you're also in the mood for some good sides, you won't find them here. Very limited apps (there were maybe 5 or so when I went).
