Sushi Bar

Date: September 8, 2013
Location: 3369 Yonge St (
Website: http://www.thesushibar.ca/
Cuisine: Japanese
Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
So obviously I have been here on a number of occasions, and for good reason: this place serves the best eel sushi in town! 

Anyway, so I met with my usual companion to this place, my dear friend AD, and I had my usual avocado and eel sushi with brown rice - 2 actually. (I didn't bother taking a picture since I have already done so for most if not all of my previous visits here.)

I was feeling particularly hungry today and decided to try their salmon sushi pizza ($9.95). I've wanted to try it ever since I saw it on the menu years ago, but was never hungry enough to have both the eel sushi and this. 

When it arrived at our table, the array of bright colours haphazardly arranged on the disc-shaped crust of pan-fried(?) rice piqued my interest even more. Here, take a look:

And then I took a bite.

While the toppings were hearty and delicious, the rice "crust" was a major letdown. Not only was it not crispy as sushi pizza crusts should be, it was mushy. I convinced myself that I should be glad because it was probably not deep-fried and as such I saved myself a load of calories at the small expense of a less enjoyable sushi crust. 

Oh, who am I kidding? I am a foodie at heart, and I like me some good, unhealthy food from time to time, and I have to face facts, this was not up to the level of standard that I had come to expect of the great Sushi Bar! There was also not enough sauce for all the rice that there was. Well, at least now I know. This won't be something I order again here.

Just to put it out there - this place has shortened hours of operations on Sundays. They're only open from 5pm to 8pm.

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.

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.

Chatime

Date: June 20, 2013

Location: 132 Dundas Street W (west of Bay), Toronto
Website: http://www.ichatime.com.tw

Cuisine: Chinese/bubble tea

Meal: drinks

My thoughts:

I brought a friend here to introduce him to my favourite bubble tea drink – roasted milk green tea with grass jelly (less ice and no sugar). It probably sounds as bizarre to you as it did to him, so I ordered it for myself and let him have a taste. He wasn’t a big fan of it. He preferred his drink, coconut milk green tea with tapioca, which I thought was too sweet and tasted strange.

If you ever are in the area, though, trust me on this one and give my bizarre-sounding drink a shot. I’m willing to bet that after the first taste, you won’t think it tastes nearly as bizarre as it sounds. 

My only gripe is the price. My drink, a small, cost nearly $5! While the taste justified the price, I can only enjoy this drink every once in awhile, even though it is a short walk from my work. Also, be warned that at night, this place can get pretty busy and I often see long line-ups. We were lucky that we came in the early afternoon, and it wasn't busy at all.

Chinese Dumpling House

Date: June 7, 2013

Location: 3290 Midland Ave #2, Scarborough
Website: N/A

Cuisine: Chinese
Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
It was a Friday night, I had just finished a long week, and I just felt like indulging in some comfort food.

I called my dad up and he suggested this place (no surprise - this is one of his favourite restaurants.)

We ordered the usual vegetarian dumpling with egg and chives ($5.99). This is not on their menu and it comes with 15 dumplings. Everytime we have this, we reminisce on the times when this used to be $4.99. The current price is still very good, but the old price was practically a steal. Hot, in-house made steamed dumplings - soooo good.

We also had the cumin stir-fry beef ($6.99). Mmm.. The beef was incredibly flavourful and tender. The cumin was definitely discernible but not at all overpowering. There was also some green peppers and onion mixed in. Just thinking about it now makes me crave it. Just try it!

As usual, this place really delivered on some great authentic northern Chinese dishes at a great price. We'll be back soon!

Corned Beef House

Date: June 3, 2013

Location: 270 Adelaide St W (east of Spadina), Downtown Toronto

Website: http://www.cornedbeefhouse.com/

Cuisine: sandwiches
Meal: lunch

My thoughts:
I've been meaning to try this place for so long, and on this very sunny day, I really had no excuse not to go out for a bit of a walk. I checked their hours before going and decided to go right when they opened for lunch to avoid a wait (my lunch break just isn't long enough for that!)

I arrived at around 11:15am. I came hungry and ready to eat, so I ordered their "colossal" (10 oz) Montreal smoked meat sandwich ($8.75) on onion kaiser bread with honey dijon mustard. And, not knowing just how big "colossal" was, I decided not to order a side. (The other sizes are "huge" at 7 oz and "gigantic" at 14 oz).

My order came within 10 minutes, and one look at my sandwich and I knew I was going to be a happy camper (at least a full camper anyway). With the buns included, it stood at about 4.5-5 inches high.

Then I took a bite. Mm-mm-mmmh! I thought. Now I knew I was going to be a full, happy camper. The meat was lined with a bit of fat, which I didn't mind because it made it very juicy. I couldn't taste the onion in the bread, but the honey dijon mustard pairing with the meat was excellent. The bread-to-filling ratio was also perfect, too. Delish! I'll definitely be back and will order this sauce again, but I'd like to try their other sandwiches.

The colossal turned out to be just the right amount of food for me. I think I may try the gigantic next time or order a side with my sammy. The service was mediocre, but oh well, I'm there for the food anyway. Check this out!

Moxie's Bar and Grill

Date: May 31, 2013

Location: 3401 Dufferin St #30, Yorkdale Mall
Website: http://www.moxies.ca/
Cuisine: Canadian

Meal: dinner and drinks

My thoughts:
I came here with girlfriend HF because we both had had a long week of work and needed to unwind at Yorkdale Mall - because what better way than with some booze, food and shopping, right, ladies? ;)

Anyway, since both of us were starved, we didn't feel like putting too much effort into trying to find a place. Then Moxies caught our eye.

We headed on in (down, actually, the escalator). We sat in the lounge and each ordered a nice, fruity cocktail - that's what girls do!

We decided to share the bruschetta ($7.99) for starters. This was the evening's show-stopper. While you may scoff at my claim, give it a try and you will agree.The baguette was perfectly crispy and the toppings fresh and flavourful. With a generous serving of chewy bocconcini balls, a light drizzle of olive oil and reduced balsamic vinegar, you've got a winning combination.

We also shared the double stacked turkey club ($11.99), which was house-roasted turkey with crisp bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo & cheddar on toasted multi-grain bread. We upgraded the side to sweet potato fries for $2.50. While I had no complaints about the sandwich, I much preferred the fries. They were very crispy and the roasted garlic chipotle aioli was delicious.

So while I try to avoid mainstream franchise restaurants like Moxies, I left very happy. I will definitely be back soon for the bruschetta and sweet potato fries!

Holy Chuck

Date: May 30, 2013

Location: 1450 Yonge St (just south of St. Clair), midtown Toronto
Website: http://holychuckburgers.com/

Cuisine: North American

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

Ryoji Ramen & Izakaya

Date: April 5, 2013

Location: 690 College St (east of Ossington), Downtown Toronto

Website: http://www.ryojiofcanada.com/

Cuisine: Japanese

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

If you read my previous posts, you'll know that I have only recently developed a love for ramen. I happened to stumble upon this place on my way to a spa appointment just a few steps away. I looked up this place and found out it was opened just  and was really excited about trying this place.

I invited one of my sisters to join me. She had just had an exam so I felt like spoiling her a bit. The first that I noticed when I stepped foot inside the establishment was the fact that over 75% of the workers were Caucasian (all of which were blond). Let me quickly clarify that I have nothing against either Caucasians or blonds, but given the fact that this is a Japanese restaurant, I was afraid that the food might not be authentic if it was run by a non-Japanese operator. 

I also noticed that a lot of the things on the menu were a bit more expensive Everything was relatively pricy for what a lot of other places charge. But I decided not to let this preface my take on the food.

We decided on the following:

TAKOYAKIS ($7): Fried mashed potato balls with octopus, tonkatsu sauce and mayo. All I can say is, blech! Hands down the worst takoyakis I have ever had. Major miss!

POKI SALAD ($10): Hawaiian-style salad with fresh fish sashimi and fruits on top of mixed greens with Ryoji sweet chili dressing. The moment I saw this, I knew I wanted it. This salad was featured on the Hawaiian episode of Guy Fieri's Triple-D show on the Food Network. It looked so good on the show. When it came, I was somewhat crestfallen to see that it was a rather simple salad. Taste-wise, there was a lot of less common tropical fruits, like star fruit, which gave it more value, but way overpriced for what it was worth.

OTOKO-AJI/TONKOTSU RAMEN ($11): Original Ryoji style pork bone broth, topped with pork belly Chashu, bean sprout, scallion and kirage mushroom. My second least favourite today. Non-chewy noodles, salty yet bland soup. A miss.

TON-TORO ($11): Grilled pork neck with freshly chopped wasabi. Holy cow, this was soooo good. Pork neck is rather common in Asian cuisine and is known to be rather fatty and therefore juicy. I'm no pork aficionado by any means, but this is one of the few exceptions! A must try! A hit.

So two misses, one hit and one mediocre. This place does show some promise. It is on the pricey side, which I think in part reflects the ambiance. Add pretentious service to all that.. No, I will not be back.

Lion City Restaurant

Date: March 29, 2013

Location: 1177 Central Parkway W, Mississauga
Website: http://www.lioncityrestaurant.ca/

Cuisine: Singaporean, Indonesian and Malaysian

Meal: lunch

My thoughts:

My family and I were going on a day trip to Hamilton, and my dad suggested this restaurant because a) it was on route to our destination, b) he was curious to try their Indonesian offerings since that is his roots, and c) it was actually open on Good Friday.

This was what we ordered:

Satay skewers ($7.50) - pork, beef or chicken skewers served with peanut sauce. These were alright. My favourite was the beef, as I found it a bit fatty and therefore juicy.

Gado Gado ($7.00) - Indonesian salad with prawn crackers, vegetables & peanut sauce. This is an Indonesian staple, so of course my dad had to order it. It is a pretty basic dish: an assortment of steamed vegetables, Asian-style fried prawn crackers and peanut sauce. This was okay - pretty standard.

Deep fried tofu ($4.50) - This came with a peanut sauce, which was the saving grace for this dish, because the tofu itself wasn't very good (i.e. crispy).

Goat rendang with biryani ($8.50) - This was goat biryani, which came as a surprise to us, as this item was called "briani" on the menu and also because this is southeast Asian cuisine. Anyway, while I love biryani, this was nothing special. There was nothing about it that made it southeast Asian in any way.

Chendol ($4.50) - jelly in sweet coconut milk drink. This was too sweet for my liking and expensive for the lack of jelly it had.

I feel obliged to remark that the owners, who also served us, were very nice. They came by to chat with us a few times. That, however, doesn't warrant a good review. I found the menu unorganized and the food unimpressive. I won't be back.

Sansotei Ramen

Date: March 28, 2013

Location: 179 Dunas St, Downtown Toronto
Website: http://www.sansotei.com/

Cuisine: Japanese
Meal: lunch

My thoughts:
If you read my older posts, you probably know I have had ramen before. But I was never a huge fan, and I certainly would have never go out of my way for it. I was convinced though that I just hadn't had good ramen yet and this place proved me right.

I came here with coworker DQ. We were in a pinch for time, so we made the wise choice to come at 11:30am to beat the lunch rush (they open at 11am and when we left at 12:15pm, there was a line-up).

I had the tonkotsu ramen ($9.25), which had pork belly, black fungus, egg and green onion with original noodle. (For noodles, you have a choice of original, thin or thick.) I knew after my first delicious mouthful that I was going to be a changed woman (at least as far as ramen is concerned). The noodles were fresh and chewy, but the real winner was the soup. It was very flavourful, rich and creamy, which in my books is a winning combination. My only gripe is that although the serving bowl is huge, there wasn't much noodle, and I left hungry. Next time (yes, there will be a next time), I will make sure to get extra noodle for $1 more.

My coworker had the miso ramen ($9.50), with pork belly, corn, bean sprout, egg and green onion. I didn't try it but he told me he thought it was really good. This was his first ramen experience and he said he would be back. (That is, until he found out their soup is pork-based. He doesn't eat pork.)

So all-in-all, this was a very enjoyable experience. I'm glad to have found a solid and quick place in my work's vicinity. I'll be back soon.

Khao San Road

Date: March 25, 2013

Location: 326 Adelaide St W (east of Spadina), Downtown Toronto

Website: http://khaosanroad.ca/

Cuisine: Thai

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
After two unsuccessful attempts to come here (i.e. to actually dine here), I finally made it! I came here with fellow (closet) foodie aka coworker aka DQ for an early dinner. Initially, we were going to just head over to a work convention after work, and he was close to bailing in favour of studying, but after I suggested coming here, he quickly changed his mind - if that says anything.

Anyway, enough non-food chit-chat. This is a food blog, after all.

This being my first time here, and having heard wonderful things about everything here, I allowed my companion to take the reins in deciding what to order. Worried that I might be disappointed with his order, he decided to play it safe and ordered his usual Khao Soi with Chicken ($13) - egg noodles in a coconut milk enriched curry, garnished with crispy noodles, green onion, coriander and lime.

When our order came, which was a mere couple of minutes after we'd ordered, I was doubtful that we'd ordered enough. I'd been anticipating this meal for ages and I came hungry and prepared to eat!

But by the end of it, we were full. The egg noodles were fried - I know, unhealthy, but oh-so-good. Who knew that deep-frying egg noodles would produce such a light and crispy texture? Also, the creamy coconut sauce was so rich and extremely flavourful that I drank the whole thing like soup. (Yes, seriously.) Needless to say, I ate like a barbarian and made a complete mess of myself. Even my coworker said he was surprised I was such a messy eater. I replied that I only am when I am this hungry and the food is this good.

Despite our better judgement, we each decided to get a dessert. Khao San only has one dessert, Sa Koo Ma Prao ($4), making it easy for us to decide. This is a small personal-sized cup of small tapioca pearls in a sweet coconut milk, flavoured with pandan and strips of tender young coconut. While I liked this and the fact that there was fresh coconut in this (nice twist), this was nothing new. My mom made this all the time when I was a kid. But my coworker really liked this.

By the end of all of this, both my companion and I were so stuffed that we felt like boycotting the convention in lieu of a nap. I also felt like I was pregnant with that extra weight on my ventral side (never having been pregnant, that's what I imagine being pregnant feels like anyway.) Worry not, though. We carried ourselves, with the extra 5 pounds that I'm sure we each had packed on from dinner, to the convention.

Just one final note. Our waiter was incredibly attentive (without being overly so) and consistently refilled our waters within a minute, tops. He was also friendly and smiley - which I think is worth mentioning as, sadly, not all people in the service industry are.

Great meal! Will be back to try other things!

Ravi Soups

Date: January 18, 2013

Location: 322 Adelaide St W (east of Spadina), Downtown Toronto

Website: http://ravisoup.com/

Cuisine: fusion

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

Let me start by talking not about Ravi Soups, but another establishment called Khao San Road, which is located next door Ravi Soups. My friends - MM, AE and AB - had been raving for ages how amazing Khao San Road is and we (minus MM) finally made the trip here for their famous Pad Thai.

We arrived at 7pm, and were told that the wait was 1.5 hours. We were starved decided to instead come here. (This was actually how my friends had first discovered this place.) My friends told me to not be disappointed, because this place is great.

I opted to get the soup and wrap combo ($10.99), which is really a fantastic deal, seeing as how most soups and wraps are in the $7-9 range. I got the PORCINI MUSHROOM WILD RICE BISQUE and FLANK STEAK WRAP. Both were very good. Apparently, this is an organic restaurant. I'm no avid organic foods person, but this was good to know. There was just the right amount of food. The food itself was very fresh and tasted quite 'gourmet,' even though the decor and signage would've made one guess otherwise.

The style of this restaurant is you place your order and grab a seat at either a long wooden communal table or small side tables. The communal table was rather unusual, with an large hole at one end. The interesting thing was the table was intentionally made this way.

This place can be easily missed as the signage is very inconspicuous, so keep your eye for it. When in that area, just look for a place with a large crowd of people inside and on the street; this is Khao San Road. Ravi Soups is right next to Khao San, east of it. Check this one out!

Terroni

Date: January 11, 2013

Location: 1095 Yonge Street (south of Summerhill), Toronto

Website: http://terroni.com/

Cuisine: Italian

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

I was so excited to come here for their pizza! I had heard great things, as well as that it is a good idea to make reservations, otherwise you might be stuck waiting for an hour or more, especially on a weekend night.

I called two days in advance and was told that there were no tables available for a party of three but that we were more than welcome to try walking-in. We did just that. My friends got here at 6pm, and luckily, while the restaurant was very busy, there was no wait whatsoever!

My friends, AK and HF, and I shared the AL SALMONE ($17.95) and the DA DO DA ($16.95). When the food came, it looked like a lot, and we didn't think that we could finish everything. But the crust is so thin that it is deceivingly very little food (and for that reason, the pizzas were expensive). Having said that, though, the pizzas were very good. I especially liked the AL SALMONE. 

Note that Terroni does not allow you to make substitutions or additions to their pizzas. They believe that their combination of toppings are the perfect complement to one another. The toppings are good good, sure, but I found this strange!

That aside, I will be back for sure!

Kim Po Vietnamese Restaurant

Date: January 1, 2013

Location: 550 Hwy 7 E #61-62A, Richmond Hill 

Website: http://kimpovietnamese.com/

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

My family and I came here after watching Les Mis. We decided to come here because Vietnamese food is generally pretty quick (we were hungry as it was already late) and it is on our way home.

We ordered the SPRING ROLLS ($5.50) for starters. This was pretty good.

My sisters each ordered a noodle in soup and my dad and I shared one; we had barbequed pork with ours. The pork was incredibly juicy and savoury. 

All in all, while I am not the biggest fan of Vietnamese food, I have to say this place wasn't bad. But the service is not going to be bringing me back here again. Our waitress (a rather chubby, or even overweight, middle-aged woman) was very unattentive, rude and clearly did not understand what being in the service industry is all about.