Date: Thursday, November 27, 2014
Location: 4848 Yonge St (north of Sheppard), North York
Website: http://www.nomeizakaya.com/
Cuisine: Japanese tapas
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
Had din with my pops tonight and he suggested a place his coworkers have been telling him about. It wasn't until we were standing outside the restaurant that I realized it was Nome, which I myself had heard pretty good things about.
We sat at the bar and ordered a few things to share. After 45 minutes, the food still had not arrived and the manager explained there was a mix-up in the orders. She was very apologetic and continued to give us status updates throughout the evening, and in my opinion, she handled the situation very well. As a plus, to appease us, she gave us the following things on the house:
Edamame ($5.00) - steamed edamame with salt. Meh, nothing special. We noticed on the menu after the fact that this normally is served with a black sesame sauce, which we were not given.
Kara-age ($6.80) - chicken poppers with wasabi mayo. This was surprisingly really good and both our fave dish tonight. The breading was very crispy but the chicken retained all its juices, and the dipping sauce was a nice complement that gave a nice punch. A definite must-try.
And finally after about a total of an hour, what we ordered arrived.
Unagi risotto ($8.80) - risotto topped with BBQ eel. This was listed as a chef's recommended item, which we found puzzling, because the 'risotto' was a big mess of mushiness, with no discerning granules that would be what risotto is! The unagi was also uninspiring.
Marinated Chilean sea bass ($11.80) - Chilean sea bass marinated with citrus soy sauce served with steamed veggies. Another highlight. Fish was very flaky, fresh and flavourful.
Spicy short rib ($10.30) - beef short ribs marinated in their signature hot sauce. Another winner. The ribs were cut thick and the sauce was lip-smackin' good. Yum.
Overall, despite the delay in receiving our food (which was made up for by the manager's professionalism and of course the freebies), we were content enough to come back at a future date. Food seems to be hit or miss. I think it is overhyped, so keep your expectations in check.
Date: Saturday, November 22, 2014
Location: 1070 Major Mackenzie Dr E #F103 (at Bayview), Richmond Hill
Website: http://thaibasil.ca/
Cuisine: Thai
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
I was treating my parents for dinner and decided to play it safe by choosing someplace I'd been before. We made reservations for 6pm (highly recommended if you go on a weekend night). I knew I'd made the right choice when I saw my mom's look of approval as we entered the restaurant (ambiance is really important to her.) And sure enough, I can see why. The decor is very zen-like and is complete with large buddha statues and waterfalls. As for the food, I took the reins and decided on the following, which we shared:
Thai BBQ Pork ($8.95) - Tender pork grilled in Thai style served with pickled vegetables and homemade spicy Thai BBQ sauce. The photo in the menu piqued my interest, and I'm glad I gave it a try. This is not like the Chinese-style variety, but still delicious in its own right. Extremely tender and slightly crispy on the outside. I can't say I really cared for the sauce, but still highly recommended!
Thai Red Curry Duck ($14.95) - Thai red curry cooked with boneless grilled duck, Thai eggplants, grapes, tomatoes, basil leaves & coconut milk. I'd had this years ago when I used to frequent this place, and it was just as good as I'd remembered. My favourite part, asides from the heavenly coconut-heavy sauce that I wanted to drink as a soup, was the big juicy grapes and sweet pineapple. I can't express in words just how good this is. Just order it!
Thai Basil Eggplants & Tofu ($9.95) - Stir fried eggplant, basil leaves, onions, mushrooms, red pepper, chilli & tofu, served in hot pot. Nothing really remarkable about this dish in the sense that there wasn't any real "Thai" flavour to it, but on its own, not bad.
Mango Sticky Rice ($6.95) - Black & white sticky rice served with fresh mango, topped with coconut milk. Never had this here before, but decided I had to order this after my dad told me he'd never tried this. This turned out to be a really good pick, and everyone was thoroughly happy with this. If I really had to be very critical though, I thought the coconut milk, which was served on the side, was a bit salty. Nonetheless, still highly recommended!
An all-around very enjoyable meal we had this evening. Will be back with the whole fam!
Date: Friday, November 21, 2014
Location: 5985 Steeles Ave E, Scarborough (west of Markham Rd)
Website: http://www.chinacottage.ca/
Cuisine: Hakka and Thai
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
I first noticed their flagship location on Ellesmere years ago when I used to take a class in the area. Why it stuck in my mind I am not sure, but I think it may have had something to do with the name being odd but intriguing. Even still, given the shabby-looking exterior in a rather sketchy strip plaza, I was never compelled enough to try it.
Fast forward a few years later. A friend of mine happened to be telling me about this restaurant and mentioned that he and his family "eat here all the time" and that it's "sooooo good" - that was enough for me to look past its dingy appearance.
So my dad and I had dinner together tonight. Our initial plan was to go for dumplings at Northern Chinese Dumplings, but a sign on the door indicated that they were closed for the rest of the month. I suggested this place as our Plan B. We went to their Steeles location because it was closer to where we were. This location's exterior is a lot nicer than the one on Ellesmere, and I certainly would not have had any reservations coming here.
We arrived around 8:30pm and were shocked to see that even at that hour, over a dozen people were still lined up for a table in the medium-size restaurant. Luckily, the wait for two was only about 5 minutes. Based on what the wait staff here were scuttling to every table of hungry patrons, large (actually, more like humongous) plates of fried noodles or rice were popular items.
We decided on the Golden Fried Shrimp ($10.95). The shrimp was coated with what looked like corn flakes, was very crispy and a good portion size (there were 11 pieces), but it lacked any unique or ethnic/exotic flavour.
We also got the Szechuan Fried ($8.95), which was a very bright orangey-red, which was visually very interesting, but we found it to be try and lacking in ingredients to give it some oomph and differences in texture.
We decided at the last minute to get a small bowl of the Cottage Special Soup ($3.95), which was vaguely reminiscent of hot and sour soup, leaving us not completely sure what made it so unique to this restaurant so as to be named as such.
I forgot to mention that the interior was very modern and had a loungey feel, which was nice. The service was hit or miss (it was really just the host who was unpleasant). Overall, this being my first experience with Hakka cuisine and based on the hustle and bustle of this restaurant and the crowd waiting outside, I was pretty underwhelmed. It seems to have a pretty loyal cult following already, but I won't be back.
Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Location: 125 Ravel Road (at Finch and Leslie), North York
Website: http://www.asianlegend.ca/
Cuisine: Chinese
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
I wasn't feeling so good this evening but was hungry, so my dad decided on this place because it's quick and convenient.
We ordered a dish of sauteed snowpeas with garlic ($12.99), deep-fried dough fritters ($), braised bamboo shoots ($6.99), seasoned (salty) soy bean milk ($2.99) and boiled dumplings with pork & chive ($4.99 for 10).
My family and I have been frequenting this restaurant (at various locations across the city) since I was little, and it's because this place consistently offers quality authentic Northern Chinese cuisine. I don't recall ever being disappointed by anything, though the prices ain't cheap. To be fair, this isn't a dumpling restaurant (which tends to be on the cheap side), but still, you get what you pay for, and the quality is what keeps us coming back.
There are 7 locations conveniently located across the GTA. Check one out! Definitely try the boiled dumplings.
Date: November 8, 2014
Location: 398 Church Street (north of Gerrard), downtown Toronto
Website: http://guu-izakaya.com/
Cuisine: Japanese
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
Ah Guu. How I've missed you so! I've by no means deliberately avoiding you, because I really do love your animated, loud, thundering staff and delicious food (and everything about your establishment). I've just been waaay too busy.
Anyway, I finally paid a long overdue visit here with my sisters. My youngest sis hadn't been here before and had heard how amazing this place is from just about everyone in her circle of friends, so my other sister and I took the liberty to order our personal tried and true favourites:
So of course, this included the KINOKO BIBIMBAP ($8.80), a rice dish with mushrooms and cheese topped with a seaweed sauce served in a sizzling stone bowl. As good as I remembered it to be. Definitely one of my faves here!
Also the UNAGI DORIA ($9.30) - another rice dish topped with BBQ water eel, mixed mushrooms and cheese. This certainly gives the bibimbap a run for its money, but if if you wanted to order only one rice dish, I would recommend bibimbap because the crunchy rice base is a unique texture.
We also got the KAKIMAYO ($7.80), baked B.C. oysters with mushrooms, spinach & garlic mayo topped with cheese. This was suggested by my sister - who doesn't even like oysters! That's how good it is.
We also got a STEAK ($7.80) of some sort, the type of meat now which escapes me. But based on the photo, it looks like pork. I believe we ordered this off their specials menu.
Ah, another one of my faves. The OKONOMIYAKI ($7.50), a deep-fried Japanese-style pancake with squid, tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo. I love all the sauces on this, and the texture of the nagaimo yam is really worth trying if you've never had this.
We also got the TAKOYAKI ($5.00), deep-fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo. This tastes very similar to the okonomiyakis primarily because the pancake and the balls themselves don't have much flavour and are dominated by the flavour of the sauces. Still, the texture is slightly different - this is more doughy and fluffy while the other is more moist. I would recommend trying both to see which one you like better.
We ordered this towards the end of our meal. As you can see, all the portions are pretty small (true to traditional izakayas), and we weren't yet completely full. My sister suggested the ODEN (3 items, $4.00), which is a Japanese-style slow-cooked hot pot (i.e. items come in a soup). We chose the bamboo shoot, deep fried tofu, and fish cake. I wasn't a huge fan of the flavour, but my sisters enjoyed this.
To finish off the meal, we got the ALMOND TOFU ($3.50) and the KUROGAMA (BLACK SESAME) ($5.00), both of which are puddings. We LOVED these! The textures were light and silky smooth, and despite being desserts, they weren't too sweet. The black sesame was on their specials menu, so if it's still offered when you go, just order it!
Also, in true Guu fashion, complimentary frozen grapes were given (one per patron lol.) Still, a nice touch.
Guu, you never fail to impress me (and make my tummy very, very happy.) I promise you that I won't allow as much time to pass as last time for my next visit!
