Random Thoughts

Restaurant: Myeng Ga

Scott and Heather took me to Myeng Ga, a new Korean restaurant in Richmond Hill (9712 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill, ON). We did the Korean BBQ - the food was tasty and portions were generous, but it wasn't much different from less authentic Korean restaurants that I've been to. Service was friendly, but inattentive - they looked under-staffed. Most of the conversation with the servers was in Korean, though, so who knows, really.

Anyway, the company was a lot of fun, and afterward we went across the street to browse in H-Mart, a Korean grocery. We went back to Scott's house and made ceasars... my first time trying one, but I didn't particularly like it. I'm not a fan of tomato juice in general, though, so that's to be expected. We played Wheel of Fortune on Scott's PS3 while we drank - we were not very skilled at it.

Most importantly, though, I'm going to get to help out at Scott's Mary Brown's on Canada Day!

Restaurant: Solo Sushi-ya (by Jen)

[Hee. Jen reports back from Solo Sushi-ya in a comment. Happy Birthday, Jen!]

"We went last night. It was great.

Such a tasty experience. We had the Omakase, which was $50 each, but each thing tasted so good. We didn't ask what each thing was, so I can't really tell you what exactly things were called, but everything tasted great. After the first dish I would have eaten anything the guy put in front of me it was so good. I'll try to summarize what we had.

1. Raw tuna(?) chopped up really finely with spices and assorted fish eggs in a cute little bowl.

2. A plate with assorted things on it:
- A shell with salmon and mushroom(?)/mussels(?) with onion and something that seemed like melted cheese but what my dad thinks maybe was sea urchin on top. This was baked, and tasted SO GOOD.
- grilled mackeral
- Gobo some sort of root vegetable

3. an egg custard type soup with salmon, scallops, salmon, mushroom, green onions (Chawanmushi)

4. Sashimi plate with tuna, seared tuna, salmon, red snapper, shrimp.

5. Sushi - tuna, salmon, white snapper(a guess), 2 spicy tuna rolls.

6. tempura fried fish balls - some sort of white fish, these were so light.

7. Ginger ice cream

It was really really good. We showed up at 5 (when it opened) and didn't leave until 7:30. The place was packed about an hour after it opened. I'd like to go back and just order assorted sushi from the sushi bar. The fish was very good - the best sushi I have eaten for sure."

Restaurant: Wasabi

Wasabi is a new "Japanese" all-you-can-eat restaurant in the same plaza as the Walker Hill Korean BBQ restaurant. We went there for lunch to sample the all-you-can-eat sushi and other stuff.

I'm told that for dinner you can order all different kinds of sushi and sashimi. However, lunch seemed confined to salmon and shrimp nigiri, fish egg and california maki and some hand rolls. I didn't bother with the shrimp nigiri - the others were pretty good, though, especially the salmon. Items were made in a sushi-bar style display podium.

Other dishes were also available from a buffet - the usual chinese buffet standards. Everything was pretty acceptable, which is actually praise, since it was also pretty inexpensive ($12 or so). The garlic shrimp was very nice, while calamari was chewy. Desserts looked sucky and Sean didn't recommend them, so we just had a bit of ice cream.

The place was nicely appointed in a contemporary style. It was also really, really busy and a bit hard to navigate. Sushi was being taken almost as soon as it was assembled (but there was always enough). One of Sean's favorite dishes, tempura shrimp, didn't show up. Drink glasses were tiny - even for water. Don't they know that they're supposed to try to fill you up with liquids?

Overall a fun, cheap occasional experience. Might be fun to try the dinner sometime.

Wasabi
280 West Beaver Creek Rd, 1-12
Richmond Hill, ON
905-881-6288

Restaurant Review: One Up

Style over substance. Form over function. One Up is a stylish (if overdone) red/white/black restaurant that offers pretty looking food with no discernable theme. Indian curry flavors, Canadian cedar and Italian risottos all appear on a brief menu. We visited One Up today around 7:30pm and had a pretty mediocre all-round experience.

I started with the Fritto Misto ($14), a floured and fried mix of seafood that was attractively presented on a platter with tzatziki and rose dip. There was nothing heinous about it though it was underseasoned (both salt and pepper). The rose dip resembled nothing closer than thousand island dressing. The rings of the squid were cut only partially through, making for an attractive fanned presentation but an inconvenient eating experience. A friend's mussel appetizer ($10) was much tastier, despite being pretty bland for a curry sauce.

My main was a muscovy duck breast ($27) seared and topped with black currant compote. It was served with an attractive mound of weakly grilled vegetables. Unfortunately, the skin wasn't crisp and, despite being cooked to a proper doneness (medium), the flesh wasn't juicy. Possibly the duck had been sliced before resting properly, leaving the juices to boil out. The breast also had a pronounced liver flavor and wasn't thoroughly trimmed, leaving some chewy fibrous bits that were difficult to cut, much less chew.

Service was marginal to unattentive. The restaurant wasn't all that busy - one other table and what appeared to be a speed dating service that was only snacking. Regardless, the wait for each course was on the long side and food wasn't quite to temperature when served. Coffee took forever but was delivered with a belated apology - it was comped, then charged, then comped (all without our request). Despite the fact that there was plenty of staff, we had to signal them whenever we needed something and Stan had to go to the bar to request the bill.

Not recommended.

One Up
130 Dundas St W, 2nd Floor
416-340-6349
www.oneup.ca

Restaurant: Urban

Today Dave and I visited Urban Restaurant on King Street in Toronto. It was the last day that they were offering the Winterlicious prix fixe promotion. There were several options for a starter/main/dessert for the low price of $35 plus tax/tip. Service was polite without being smothering and the decor, which can be seen on their website, is cozy and very comfortable.

I selected:
Confit of Duck Salad
Osso Bucco
Banana Walnut and White Chocolate Baked in Phyllo with a Peppermint Berry Compote

The server started us off with a complementary bowl of rustic bread and hummus. Yummy - but possibly I ate too much of it as I was pretty full by the end of the meal. The server generously offered more but we declined.

The duck confit salad, instead of being served with the expected strips of duck, came with an entire thigh and leg quarter. It included a heirloom cherry tomato (very sweet, orange and no acidity). Arugulat was well dressed and very tasty, and a celeriac slaw was beside it. I enjoyed all of it immensely.

The osso bucco was perfectly cooked, with the meat of a huge shank tenderly falling off the bone into a rich wine sauce. Unadvertised pine nuts, nicely browned were pointed out proudly by the server were used as garnish. The sauted mushrooms and tiny bits of fried potato hash were also delicious.

Dessert was a bit of a disappointment after the first two courses, though it was servicable. Honestly, the bananas and walnuts were a bit heavy in the phyllo wrapping and didn't really go well with the strawberry and chocolate garnishes. The strawberry compote tasted a bit limp and I didn't detect any peppermint. I kind of wished I'd selected the more predictable creme brulee option instead.

Overall, the meal was exceptional and great value (though the a la carte menu is much more expensive). Service was attentive and polite. At this price, I would definitely go again if the opportunity presents itself. We got there early on a Saturday afternoon (5pm) and the restaurant began filling up as we had our meal.

Urban Restaurant
303 King Street W
Toronto ON
M5V 1J5
416-599-7474
www.urbanrestaurant.com

Restaurant: Oregano North

The best thing about Oregano North is easily the service. Wait staff are attentive and charming and the owner makes the rounds ensuring that everyone is comfortable and satisfied with the food. The decor was pleasant, if a bit dated. The food was flavorful and reasonably priced.

I started with Escargot Oregano ($11), which was escargot and small shrimp served in puff pastry. The whole thing is doused with a lot of cream sauce that was very tasty but made it a bit difficult to eat. On the other hand, crusty bread could be used to wipe up the sauce and so it was very enjoyable. The largish chunks of raw onion in the sauce were a bit harsh (I left them back) and their flavor just missed overpowering the sauce.

As a side note, they might want to consider leaving more than one basket of bread with a large table, as there were as many people as bread slices in the basket - and all of us had appetizers that went with bread, such as mussels and sauteed mushrooms. More bread was cheerfully provided when requested.

My main was risotto with shrimp and a lobster tail ($20). The risotto was creamy and very good and the shrimp were plump and delicious. The lobster, unfortunately, was very over-cooked, making it tough and dry. That said, the dish as a whole was very enjoyable. Portions were very substantial and I abstained from the desserts, which are made by one of the owners.

Overall, the food was enjoyable and the service was excellent. Prices were reasonable given the portion size and upscale-ish atmosphere. I wouldn't eat here often, but wouldn't object to returning occasionally either.

Oregano North Ristorante
13071 Yonge
Richmond Hill, ON L4E 1A5
905-773-2050

Sushi Itto

I went to Sushi Itto, an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, with an old high school friend on his recommendation. It was very good, and reasonably priced as well, at $23/person (tax, no tip). You mark what you wish to order, and the servers bring it to you as it is made.

The rice was not too acidic and any fried items incorporated into the rolls was crisp - never soggy. Most importantly, for all-you-can-eat sushi, the fish was amply proportioned to the amount of rice. There is, however, a $1 charge for uneaten rice rolls - I assume to discourage people from ordering sushi and just eating the fish, or ordering too much. (Perhaps the latter, as you can order fish without any rice at all.)

Fried items like shrimp and veggie tempura, spring rolls and gyoza were hot and crispy. Eel was tender and flavorful. Avocado was bright and fresh, and nicely ripe. Assembly and presentation was not perfect, but the tastes and textures were spot on. A highlight was the dragon roll - a large tempura shrimp wrapped with nori, rice, avocado and eel.

Recommended!

Sushi Itto
16775 Yonge Street (corner of Mulock and Yonge)
Newmarket ON
L3Y8J4
some more reviews

Restaurant: Lola Steak Bistro

We visited Lola's Steak Bistro[warning: annoying Flash] for Trevor's bachelor party. I delayed the review for a bit because I wanted to focus more on the party than the restaurant. (There's a time to critique and a time to enjoy!) I sampled the Lobster Bisque ($5), Filet Mignon ($26) and Maple Cake. The service and company were great and I had a lot of fun. The food, unfortunately, was slightly sub-par.

The lobster bisque was tasty but slightly salty. More offensively, it was barely tepid, which gave it a slightly greasy feel in the mouth. Ordinarily, if something arrives too cold, it's the fault of the server, not the kitchen. But in this case it tasted like the soup had been chilled and insufficiently rewarmed. It did have some nice chunks of lobster in it, though.

The filet mignon was fine, but nothing all that special and very slgihtly overdone and underseared. In fact, I'd cooked one earlier that day that was better. That being said, it was very reasonably priced. It was served with some anemic pretty vegetables (baby carrots, a couple of pieces of squash and zucchini) and a drastically over-salted garlic-truffle mashed potato. Seriously, there had to be a mistake with the potatos - I'd ordered it hoping to taste the truffle oil but nothing, not even the garlic, made it through the brine. It was bad enough that I didn't eat it.

The maple cake, which I only tasted, was very sweet, but very nice.
The wine list was extensive, but I only tasted a couple of wines and champagne, and I'm not an expert. They tasted fine.

Overall, the atmosphere and service would make this a great date spot. To keep things in perspective, the prices are impressively low - cheaper than The Keg, even. But honestly, I've had better food at The Keg, too - and that's just a big franchised steak house! I sort of wanted to try the deluxe burger that was on the menu featuring foie gras ($60) but I'm not sure I'd trust them with the premium ingredients anymore. I'm in no hurry to return.

Lola Steak Bistro[flash]
2070 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON
M4S 2A3
Tel: (416) 932-0290

Restaurant: Sapphire Restaurant

I've been to my share of Dim Sum restaurants, and this one is my favorite. The food is good - not too salty or greasy - and the prices are really really low. For $10, you can easily feed 2 people. For $20, you'll have a better variety and leftovers (or be really really full). Each dish costs about $2 for about 3 pieces. Service, like Swatow, is pretty brusque but ultra fast.

I tend to only do Dim Sum with people willing to cater to my neuroses about spit swapping - Chinese custom is that everyone just goes into the main dish with their chopsticks. Not something I can handle. Predictably, the only words I can speak in Chinese have to do with food. In the picture are some of my favorite Dim Sum dishes. From top right: wu gok is a taro/pork/shrimp fried dumpling in light pastry, har gow is a steamed shrimp dumpling wrapped in glutinous rice wrapping, cha sui bao is a steamed bun filled with bbq pork, sui mai is steamed pork dumpling in a bean curd wrapper - this one has a shrimp tucked inside the pork and orange fish eggs for garnish, the big pork meatball in bean curd wrapper I have no idea - sui mai is better!, in the bottom left is har cheong and char sui cheong fan - shrimp and bbq pork rolled in a white flat rice noodle and usually topped with sweetened soy sauce.

I do eat with chopsticks in the restaurant, but these are leftovers at home, hence the forks!
Uh, contact details when I remember them.

Restaurant: Spring Rolls

Catching up a bit here... been a while!

I went to Spring Rolls with Dave for some Thai food. Upscale atmosphere with reasonably priced food explains why this restaurant chain is so popular. We started with an order of scorchingly hot shrimp rolls ($6) which were simply medium sized tiger shrimp tightly wrapped in spring roll wrappers, deep fried and served with a pungent fish sauce for dipping.

I ordered a spicy Szechuan style seafood dish with perfectly cooked shrimp, calamari and scallops and a large amount of brocolli. ($10.95) All the seafood was tender and juicy, though the sauce was a tad sweet for my liking and the brocolli was a bit large to eat with chopsticks. It was accompanied by a delicious side order of pad thai ($3.50). Excellent value for a large portion of food.

For dessert I ordered mango creme brulee ($4.99). It was rich and yummy and the torched sugar on top was pleasantly crunchy. The actual custard had curdled slightly (overcooked) and was a bit cold from the fridge.

Recommended, especially for the entrees. I'd like to go back and try some more of them.

Spring Rolls
40 Dundas St. W, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C2
T 416 585-2929
F 416 585-7733

Restaurant: Big Papa's Trattoria

Went to Big Papa's Trattoria on Thursday for the office Christmas party. Most people left after that, but I had some work to do at the office (sigh) so I went back to finish it. Anyway. It's an Italian chain restaurant with an extensive menu. I selected the calamari appetizer ($5) and Linguine Fruitti di Mare ($9).

The calamari was excellent. It was tender, lightly breaded and fried. It was served with a tangy tzatziki to dip it in on a bed of romaine. It was great. The calamari was just barely cooked and very flavorful. The portion size was quite large - perfect for 2, though when my tablemates didn't eat very many, I ate them all.

The seafood pasta, by contrast, was lack-lustre. An immense portion of linguine was only sparsely dotted by seafood, and the advertised crab meat was imitation crab - when you can see the crab, but not taste it - it's imitation and was mushed up throughout the sauce, which was overly thick and gummy. It was also too heavily spiced, and tasted more of spices than tomato.

Atmosphere and service was perfectly accepable. But if I were to return, I'd skip the entree and just get the calamari.

Big Papa's
16655 Yonge St.
(south of Hwy#9 in Weston Produce Plaza)
905-830-9292

Restaurant: Seoul Garden

This is a Korean BBQ restaurant located in the Pacific Mall in Markham. We weren't in the mood to cook at the table (we were hungry!) so we ordered from the menu. The food was really tasty and relatively inexpensive ($20 including tax and tip). The usual appetizers were served before the meal - an assortment of sweet and pickled dishes. I ordered the BBQed pork and kimchee. It was very spicy - the tofu was a welcome palate soother. The pork had an appealing sweet taste. Portions were generous. With an extra bowl of rice this could easily have fed 2 or 3. I managed by not eating any rice and ignoring the soup.

Decor was impressive - the restaurant is arranged on a raised circular platform with a fountain in the center. Faux stonework and greenery along with a very high tower-like ceiling completed a very sophisticated look.

Staff were prompt and courteous. They were attentive in filling up the (complimentary) Korean tea and asking how the food was. We had to ask for the bill, which was a bit odd, since the tables were filling up. It was nice not to be rushed, though. Overall it was a very pleasant dining experience.

Seoul Garden Korean Restaurant
4350 Steeles E
Markham, ON L3R9V4
(905) 305-0699

Restaurant: Tandoori House

Today I went down to RHQ at Sheppard and Yonge to meet with some fellow techs. For lunch we went to Tandoori House, an Indian buffet a few doors south. It was very good and relatively cheap - $10 + tax and tip.

Wait staff were a bit slow today, but I'm assured that it's usually better by my co-workers, who are regulars. In the buffet were fresh naan (tandoor cooked flatbread), butter chicken, chicken tikka masala and, of course, tandoori chicken.

Well worth the price. Of course, I stuffed myself and ate a tiny dinner tonight - just an Oktoberfest sausage.

Tandoori House
4862 Yonge St
Toronto, ON M2N 5N2
416.733.2283

Swatow

Although I'm usually clueless about where I am, my stomach has a very good memory, and it reminded me I was near Swatow - one of my favorite restaurants. A few wrong turns later and I was there! (For future reference: Get off at St. Patrick's, west on Dundas past the AGO and turn right (north) on Spadina. (Or take a Spadina streetcar south from Spadina station.)

Anyway, I had the "Special Soup" (read, organ meats, noodles, fish balls, fish slices, pork balls and shrimp balls in a killer broth) and the Swatow fried duck (135 on the menu). The duck this time was even better than the duck last time, and not just because I had it to myself! It was moister. I packed a few pieces to go home with me.

Restaurant: Mexicanos

After Dave helped me move, we went to wander around Barrie's beaches (Lake Simcoe). We ended up getting dinner at a newly opened Mexican restaurant called Mexicanos. The experience felt very authentic, though I don't really know what constitutes Mexican cooking.

The new venture seems to be an arrangement of friends, who were hanging around in the dining room. The place is decorated in mexican style, with lots of vivid color and mexican tiles. They're not yet serving alcohol and couldn't accept anything but cash. We got a sampler combo for 2 ($23), and while there didn't seem to be much food, it did fill us up. Maybe the spiciness (though fairly mild) had something to do with that.

Quesadillas were fairly ordinary - melted cheese in a flour tortilla. Flautas, a deep fried small corn tortilla rolled around a filling of chicken were tasty and crunchy. Sopecitos, little corn tortillas with salsa, beans and cheese were also good. My favorite were the Enchiladas Verdes - large soft corn tortillas in green salsa with chicken and cheese.

Portions were a tad on the small side, though they seemed to be more satisfying than their size suggests. I was pretty hungry, too, having just moved all my furniture to the new apartment.

Worth checking out if you like Mexican food.

Mexicanos
53 Dunlop Street East
Barrie, ON
905-737-1053

Restaurant: Cynthia's

Got take-out from Cynthia's Chinese Restaurant, the "higher end" chinese food restaurant in Newmarket. I'm not certain that their food qualifies them as high-end, though their service is. Prices are reasonable, though.

Service is exquisite and ambience is muted oriental when you dine-in at Cynthia's (we didn't today). It goes a long way to giving a high-class feel to an otherwise unspectacular, though pleasant, meal.

The "dim sum" ($2.75 x 2 for 6 pieces) appetizer (rather ungainly pork meatballs in a bean curd wrapper - inelegant shiu mai) was ordinary. The spring rolls (same price) were the same and crispness suffered somewhat from the moisture of transportation in a cardboard box.

Shrimp fried/special fried rice ($7 x 2 orders) was competent and tasty, though nothing special. It could have used more shrimp. Chicken satay ($11) and black pepper beef ($11) were good. Interestingly, you get bigger portions with the takeout than you do dining in.

Dai Dop Voi (Beef-Chicken-Shrimp-Scallops-Veggies, $10) was scant on the advertised seafood and had imitation crab in it (not conducive to high-class dining).

Finally, General Tso's Chicken ($11) was greasy and overly sweet - I couldn't really detect any chicken flavor under the sticky sauce and batter. Rucell liked it, though, and it's Dave's favorite dish.

Overall, though, it was reasonably priced at $75 (incl tax, no tip for takeout) for 6 people with a bit of leftovers. (Hmm, doing the math now, I realize that we all owe Eric/Catherine a couple bucks more... I'll have to buy them lunch some time.) However, as far as food quality goes, I'm not sure that Canaan Chinese Restaurant (a buffet, 404 - 1111 Davis Dr, Newmarket) isn't better value for about the same price (albeit zero atmosphere).

Cynthia's Chinese Restaurant
16715 Yonge St/Mulock
Newmarket
905-836-8113

Restaurant: Boston Pizza

Ate lunch yesterday at Boston Pizza, with whom I have a love-hate relationship.

BP definitely has the best pizza out there right now. On the other hand, so many people seem to have bad experiences with it.

The Bad: Service tends to be slow - really slow. A while back, one of my friends found a dead fly in her salad. Not that this kind of thing doesn't happen once in a while, but it was very off putting! Also, the prices for pizza are a bit insane. $24 + tax and tip is pretty expensive for a large pizza. The personal pizzas are too small, though, and still cost $7 per piece. Pizza sizes are inconvenient, too. A large is too much for 2 people, but not enough for 3 hearty eaters.

The Good: The pizza is fantastic. The top is nicely browned and the meat is crispy. The toppings are first class as well. We got the meat-lovers pizza. It's all real meat, no kibble. It had slices of ham and thick slices of hot sausage. Interestingly, it had large quantities of minced beef in the sauce, which was delicious and a nice variation.

Boston Pizza
18195 Yonge Steet, Newmarket ON
L3Y 4V8
Phone: 905-953-0229
Fax: 905-953-4146

Restaurant: Swatow

This is one of my favorite restaurants. (Toronto.com)

There's no ambience, service is perfunctory but very efficient, and you may be asked to share a table if the restaurant is busy (it always is).

But the food is both cheap and great. And that makes up for everything!

I love the Swatow roasted duck with special sauce (item 135 on the menu). It's a boneless 1/2 duck that is lightly fried and served over pineable. Just $10! It's maybe a bit dry, but the sauce remedies that. The duck fat has been rendered out of it, so it's not as greasy as duck usually is.

This time out, we also got the Swatow special soup (item 1 on the menu). For $5 it's a full meal in a bowl. An excellent broth contains abundant noodles with fish and pork balls, a shrimp dumpling and some fish slices. It also has various organ meats that can be eaten or avoided at your preference. Strangely, the includsion of liver doesn't negatively affect the taste of the broth - it is likely added at the end. I could barely finish the large bowl - I left back some broth and mourned that I was too full to drink it.

Only cash is accepted here, no interac, no credit!
Try to get there early, as it fills up quickly.

309 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON M5T2E6
Phone: (416) 977-0601

Stir Fried King Redux

We went back to Stir Fried King for dinner after the movie and tried a couple more dishes.

Apparently, 'special' is a euphemism for 'mystery organ meats" because that's what was in the Special Congee ($3.75 for a huge bowl - and it wasn't even the "super bowl" from the menu!). It tasted pretty much like standard congee - a thick rice peasant soup.

I ordered "Shrimp, Scallop and Squid in Bird's Nest" ($15). It was ok, but nothing exceptional. The nest noodles were different - noodles made of some sort of root vegetable rather than rice or wheat flour. I also tried a mixture of chicken scallops and shrimp bound together with milk and egg and steamed.

We preferred what we had the first day, but still enjoyed ourselves. We ended up without any major starches - mostly because we had no idea what we were ordering.

Restaurant: Stir Fry King

After looking at apartments in Newmarket, Dave wanted to look at condos in Toronto. We were around my regional headquarters at lunch, so I suggested a stripped down looking Chinese restaurant that I had noticed being busy with Asians the last time I was there for training.

It was really good.

The smells when entering the restaurant more than made up for its bare-bones (but clean) appearance. In fact, I was tempted to just say "get me whatever it is that's smelling so good!"

Instead, I took a look through their extensive menu and selected "Crab meat withi e-fu noodles" for $8.95. Dave selected a baked curry chicken dish. Now, $8.95 is pretty cheap for crab, so I feared getting fake crab, but I couldn't really ask wtihout being insulting.

Fortunately, it just meant that the crab meat was sparing in the pasta. And it didn't matter, because it was flavoring all the pasta. It tasted good enough that I gave Dave a taste of them and he agreed. Highly recommended.

Dave's curry was more pedestrian, using pre-blended curry powder that lacked any distinctive qualities. It still tasted good, and it had been broiled in the oven until the potatoes had a nice crust on them.

Service was friendly - I was especially impressed when the servers were handling "problem customers" at the next table. Even after the customers were rude and a pain, the servers tried to run after them with a forgotten belonging. The meal included free jasmine tea. Our meal came to $20 + tip, and the portion sizes were very generous. In fact, I would have only eaten 1/2 of my plate - but it tasted too good and I stuffed it all in. I can't wait to go back!

Stir Fry King
Yonge Street, North of Sheppard
on the West side

Restaurant: India House

Picked up dinner at India House, on the north-east corner of Yonge and Mulock in Newmarket. It was a tasty buffet, though things were still being set up - they're not licensed to serve alcohol yet, for example.

The selection at the buffet was pretty small. Butter chicken was a bit odd, as it looked like the chicken in the sauce had been baked in red tandoori seasoning first. It tasted good, though. Curried lamb was very nice. Pureed spinach with paneer was good. Curried vegetables and chick peas rounded out the buffet.

Fresh naan bread dotted with spiced butter was a highlight, though they were still baking it and it didn't come until near the end of the meal. The dessert, a liquid rice pudding, could have been a bit more heavily spiced.

I wonder if the menu changes daily - I'd think it must as one would get bored with the same thing every day and not return. I'll have to check. For $15 + tax and tip, it was a reasonably priced meal and something that Newmarket doesn't already have.

Restaurant Review: Milestones

Went to Milestones on Monday. I got the 1/2 rack of ribs and a 1/2 chicken, with roasted potatoes and a low-fat (no mayo) slaw/salad. ($21+tax) Honestly, I'd have preferred Swiss Chalet for both, though dessert was yummy.

Nothing was really wrong with the chicken, it was tender and juicy, slightly blackened. The ribs were covered in a lot of sticky sauce that interfered with the taste of the meat. The potatoes were bland. The salad/slaw was actually pretty good, though vinegar-laden.

Dessert, on the other hand, was very nice. I had the Ibarra Chocolate Cake with Vanilla ice cream. The cinnamon flavored chocolate cake was richly warm and moist. It was drizzled with sublime caramelized goat milk and a generous dollop of whipped cream. For $5.99, definitely worth it.

So yeah, dessert 1, dinner 0.

Restaurant: Ackee Tree

Before the show, we went walking in the Eaton Center in Toronto, where we picked up dinner at The Ackee Tree, a Jamaican eatery with things like curry, roti, rice and peas and jerk chicken.

I got a roti and goat curry, which was tasty, but very bony. In retrospect, I should've gotten the boneless chicken. Service was pretty sullen, too, not that it really matters at a fast food place. The roti was tender and yummy, though.

Restaurant: Seoul Kal-Bi Kariya

While training, we went to a Korean/Japanese restaurant called Seoul Kal-Bi Kariya within walking distance of the hotel. The restaurant was very atmospheric. Entering involved crossing a miniature stream over a bamboo bridge. The staff were very helpful and friendly, and the food was very good.

Read on below.

The menu was extensive (8 legal pages) and had a wide range of prices. Traditional Korean dishes and Japanese dishes predominated, including the tabletop Korean BBQ. It was so extensive that I asked the waitress for her recommendation.

She suggested a spicy shrimp dish ($20CAN) and helpfully offered to have the chef make it a bit milder. Knowing how spicy Korean food can be, I was glad I agreed - the dish was very spicy even when "mild".

We were also brought lots of extra food, which surprised us. Traditional Korean appetizers like pickled eggplant, kimchee and 2 slaws accompanied the salad starters. Complimentary tea also accompanied the meal. No less than 3 soups were brought for us to taste: a miso soup, a VERY tasty tofu soup and (while we were eating the entree) a clear broth with a mussel in it.

My shrimp entree had prodigous amounts of shrimp (well worth the $20) in a sweet spicy sauce with asian mushrooms (bat ear type) and sweet peppers. It was very tasty, though the shrimp were maybe just a touch over-cooked.

After dinner we were brought a clear sweet rice liquid that the staff said was good for digestion and a small plate of fresh fruit. (All complimentary!)

Service was excellent, both helpful and attentive. The manager also passed by to ensure everything was acceptable. We left in a flurry of goodbyes and
well wishes as the 4 or 5 waitresses and 2 chefs followed us the door. That was a little excessive and maybe a bit unnerving! ... but we certainly felt welcome!

It's really too bad that I left my camera at the hotel. All of the dishes were artfully presented. Strangely, the placemats had advertisements for the Fuji-U japanese restaurant across the street - so maybe they're owned by ths same people.

Highly recommended.

Seoul Kal-Bi Kariya
Tel: 1 905 615-9065
Address: 265 Enfield Place
(off Hurontario Street)

Restaurant: Alice Fazooli's

After seeing Big Fish, we went to Alice Fazooli's for dinner. I had the Spicy Chicken and Seafood (left).

Read on for the rest of the review.

It was pretty bad, overall. They seemed to be short staffed, and service was very slow. Glasses took forever to be re-filled and we waited about 20 minutes for the bill. The server did apologize, though.

The appetizer, shrimp in a lot of spicy sauce, came long after the bread was finished - it would have been better with the bread so that the sauce could be sopped up.

The chicken was very dry (almost hard) and the sauce, though spicy, wasn't particularly flavorful. The shrimp were good but the scallops were pretty much drowned out by the spicy sauce. The wild rice was nothing special, though nothing was actually wrong with it. The mixed vegetables were in a light cream sauce that was actually pretty good.

Looking back on it, I guess I'd have to say that I'd prefer Swiss Chalet, even if Swiss Chalet is less than 1/2 the price! ($30/person, not including drinks)

Meh.

Alice Fazooli's
20 Colossus Drive
905-850-3565

Mr. Greenjeans

At the Eaton's Centre in Toronto, we went to Mr. Greenjeans (www.mr-greenjeans.com is down) for lunch. (I was keeping a friend company as he finished off his Christmas shopping.) I had a Wildcat Burger with their home-fried potato chips.

The atmosphere was pretty neat, the bar/restaurant is on 3 or 4 floors with an entry from outside and inside the mall. There was a great view of the church that is nestled on the Eaton's Centre grounds. Surprisingly, there wasn't any wait for a table, though they were pretty busy with other Christmas shoppers

Though they claim to cook the burger "to your specifications" on the menu, it came well done with no trace of pink, even though I ordered medium. I guess that's understandable from a food safety/regulations point of view. It was still juicy and tasty and the buns were lightly toasted. The tiny tomato slice was kinda silly though - a slice that covered more of the burger would've been nice.

The chips were ok, but they could have been so much better had the kitchen salted them when they were taken out of the hot oil. By the time they reached the table, they were dry and salt from the table shaker just rolled right off them. For 99c more you can get "fresh cut fries", which are hopefully better.

Service was nice and quick. Prices were reasonable ($10 + tax/tip).
With salted chips and a bit more tomato, it would be a perfect lunch.

Mr. Greenjeans
220 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
(416) 979-1212

Restaurant Review: Funnel Cake! Update

Updated with pictures...
Mmmm, funnel cake!

The best deal at East Side Mario's is the funnel cake dessert. Just $4CAN! This didn't really start out as full fledged restaurant review - it's more in the nature of a public service announcement.

Read on for the full scoop!

You know those funnel cakes that you get at Canada's Wonderland for $8(CAN)? They're awesome, yeah?

Well, at East Side Mario's you can get an even better one for only $4! How are they better? Let me count the ways:

• $4 cheaper
• Nice seating so you don't have to balance it on your lap
• Cutlery that doesn't break when you use it
• Premium vanilla ice cream instead of soft serve
• Strawberry sauce that actually has as much strawberries as sauce

I don't think I'll ever go to Wonderland again!

Also of note is the Scallop Carbonara, which has lots of lovely grilled scallops, some wrapped in crispy bacon in fake-but-still-yummy carbonara sauce. (Yes, it's a heart attack and a half.) I actually forgot to take the picture until I had eaten 2 skewered scallops.

For reference, real carbonara should be made with butter, cream, bacon and egg yolks... basically, the four food groups - fat, fat, fat and fat. Oh, and parmesan reggiano cheese is optional if you don't have enough fat already.

At the Newmarket restaurant, they usually forget to caramelize the spanish onions. The Richmond Hill franchise does caramelize the onions to a sweet golden color, making it even nicer. You can see in the picture that they actually did attempt to caramelize the onions this time! And a good (fattening) starter is the deep fried Extra Large Cheese and Spinach Ravioli. Both the pasta and the ravioli are reasonably priced.

I don't usually order more than one dish (funnel cake, pasta, ravioli) per visit, as any of them are enough for a full meal. I do get some odd looks when I order the funnel cake for dinner, though.

I used to dislike East Side Mario's, but now that I've found my three favorites I'm always available for a visit!

East Side Mario's
Various Locations including:
17175 Yonge Street
Newmarket, ON
905-830-6800

10520 Yonge Street
Richmond Hill, ON
905-770-4000

Restaurant Review: Mei Ling

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Mei Ling Chinese Food is a small Chinese-Canadian restaurant in Aurora. We went there for a Friday night dinner which included spring rolls, General Tao's Pork, Chicken Satay, Szechuan Chicken Beef and Shrimp, and Chinese Sausage Fried Rice.

The food wasn't exceptional, but it wasn't bad, either ($15 each before tip).

We started with a ginormous spring roll (not pictured). Though huge and fresh, they had rather a lot of cabbage in them and not enough bean sprouts. Likewise, the Chicken Satay and Szechuan Meat was somewhat indistinct tasting with that generic clear cornstarch based sauce.

On the good side, the Tao's Pork was succulent, not too sweet, mildly spicy and boneless. Mmm! The Chinese Sausage Fried Rice was also very good - the grease from the sausage lightly coated the rice with flavor. The sausage was stir-fried to a perfect crispness. At less than $6, it's a steal (it fed 3 people with the other dishes).

Update: The chicken balls are excellent too - big juicy chunks of chicken breast in just enough batter. Sure, it's not authentic chinese food, but who cares?

Not much ambience (who cares...), but service was friendly and prompt.

So yeah: uneven, but inexpensive. Once you find your favorites, you'll be quite happy returning.

Mei Ling Chinese Food
15005 Yonge Street
Aurora, ON
905 727-3101

Restaurant Review: Dhaba (Update)

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Update follows original review... We went back for the lunch buffet.

Dhaba is an Indian restaurant that I went to while waiting for a Second City comedy show (Arma-get-it-on -- very enjoyable, by the way, and they have improv after it if you go to the last show of the night).

We had (clockwise from top right) paratha and naan, Saffron Rice, Aloo Gobhi, Lamb Vindaloo and Chicken Tikka Achari.

The atmosphere and service are the best thing about this restaurant. Dhaba's new loft location on King Street is richly decorated with canopied booths. Check out their website for pictures and a menu listing. The service is exquisite - the staff is friendly and courteous without being oppressively in your face all the time. Regulars are enthusiastically greeted with a hug from the hostess and the servers are graceful and unhurried - though you may wait for food for a while on a busy Saturday night.

Dinner started with the Chicken Tikka which tasted awesome. We had actually ordered tandoori chicken, but the Tikka was what appeared on our bill and our table -- a fortuitious mistake. It was tender, juicy and wonderfully spiced.

The paratha was the best I've ever tasted - flaky and tender, with a sprinkling of sesame seeds. If you come here, don't miss this! The naan was also really good.

The saffron rice wasn't all that memorable - any subtleties were lost in the spices of the other dishes, so I'll probably order the less expensive basmati the next time I'm there -- or even better, more paratha! Likewise, the Aloo Gobhi was simply potato and steamed cauliflower stir fried in some curry. For $9, I'll just make it at home. It was tasty, but nothing special.

I didn't really enjoy the Lamb Vindaloo. Though it was nicely spicy, the chunks of lamb were on the tough and stringy side.

Portions were on the small side (the vindaloo pot is about 3 inches in diameter), but they were inexpensive. The meal above served two people comfortably and came to $45.70 before tax and tip. I was a bit disappointed by potato and lamb dishes, considering they made up slightly less than 1/2 of the cost. The rest was great value, though.

I look forward to sampling more things by trying their buffet lunch at my next earliest opportunity!

Update: The lunch buffet!
The buffet lunch was much better than the dinner. Getting to sample a greater variety of the dishes was awesome. I particularly liked the goat and chicken curry and the red battered fish and eggplant. The butter chicken was also very nice. Strangely, the tandoori chicken was heavily spiced with a flavor that I didn't enjoy - I prefer the tandoori chicken elsewhere. Unfortunately, there wasn't any paratha around. But everything else was superb. And only $9.99! Definitely the best lunch deal around!

Dhaba
309 King St. W. at John Street
Toronto, ON M5V 1J5

Restaurant Review: Golden Bell Thai

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I frequent the Golden Bell Thai restaurant in Newmarket often for both lunch and dinner - it's one of my favorite restaurants. Pictured is my one of my best loved restaurant meals: Chicken Satay Noodles.

The Thai rice noodles are nicely firm, coated with a just-spicy-enough curry sauce and mixed with bean sprouts and chunks of juicy marinated breast meat. The thin, translucent noodles are very different from the heavy thick Chinese rice noodles.

Included in the lunch special ($6.95) is a crunchy carrot spring roll with a small tub of sweet chili spiced syrup that is immensely better than the ubiquitous plum sauce served elsewhere. You can also get soup - but I haven't tried it... I love my deep-fried spring rolls!

For dinner, complimentary shrimp chips (yum!) are served while you wait for your meal and are accompanied by a tasty peanut sauce.

Though the chicken satay noodles are my definite favorite, I've also enjoyed the coconut-creamy red curries. Heaped bowls of white rice are available for just $1.25 and the sweet coconut rice ($2) is great to share either with your meal or as an informal dessert (it's a bit much for one person).

I found the Pad Thai to be a bit sweet for a main course, but that's probably just a personal prejudice against sweet foods - I've tried it elsewhere and it was just as sweet or sweeter. It does have a nice peanut flavor.

As a healthier, better-tasting alternative to a fast food lunch, this restaurant is awesome. If you're going there, be sure to try the Chicken Satay Noodles!

Heh, and you can tell them Jason sent you!

Golden Bell Thai
16925 Yonge St
Unit 17, Quaker Hill Plaza
Newmarket
Delivery/Pick-up: 905 954-0954

Restaurant Review: Aw Shucks

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Aw Shucks is a new seafood restaurant in Aurora. This is the first restaurant review that I've done - it's a lot of fun to embarass my friends with my digital camera in the restaurant!

Anyway, the dish pictured is Smoked Salmon on Fettucine with Vodka Cream Sauce. Read on for the review.

Appropriately, Aw Shucks serves 3 types of oysters at a slightly pricey $2-3 per half shell. The flavor, however, didn't seem to match the oysters I've had in the maritimes, New Orleans or Florida. Is this to be expected? I'm honestly not sure.

The entree was very tasty and very enjoyable. The vodka sauce was nicely herbed, the smoked salmon shredded and tender. The salmon eggs were very pretty and popped into salty fish flavor - that might be disturbing for some, but it lent some excitement to the dish.

My only criticism was that the vodka sauce, though wonderful on its own, was too slightly salty when the smoked salmon was mixed into it. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it a lot. Certainly, at $17(CAN) the entree was very reasonably priced.

By contrast, at $8 the deserts looked unappealing and I abstained.

Service was efficient, if a bit impersonal.
I like seafood, but it'll probably be a little while before I re-visit Aw Shucks.

Aw Shucks Seafood Bar & Bistro
15474 Yonge Street, Aurora

Restaurant Review: Boujadi

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Boujadi is a Moroccan restaurant in Toronto. We went there one day out of curiosity, having found a glowing review on toronto.com. The food was quite different from our usual fare and delicious.

We started with harira (inset, $4.25), which was the tastiest bean soup I've ever had. In fact, it tasted so good that I forgot to take a picture of it until it was almost done... It's perfectly spicy and rich with herbs, especially coriander and cumin.

Not knowing anything about Moroccan food, we ordered the Marhaba (welcome) platter ($37.95). Served in a clay tajine (though not cooked in it like other dishes), it was a sampling of veggies, chicken cooked with olives (I hate olives, but the flavor of them in the chicken was actually very good!), phyllo pastries filled with fragrant potatos (triangles) and meat (cigars), Merguez (sausage) and Kafta (meat patties), all served on a bed of couscous.

All of it was really tasty. The meat patties seemed a bit on the dry side (maybe because of the kosher meat?), but the sausages, though porkless, were excellent. The couscous was amazing - whenever I've had it before it's been either dry/hard or soggy/soupy and bland. Here, it was a fluffy, fragrant alternative to potatoes or rice. I know I've never had better.

Portions were almost too generous - this platter for 2 could probably have fed 3 people comfortably, though it would be hard to divide up the various dishes, most of which had 2 pieces provided. Skipping the harira would've been a shame. We were stuffed and couldn't eat all of the couscous.

The service was friendly and the atmosphere established by bazaar-like decor.

I'm not sure when I'll be back, as it's a bit far away from where I live, but I most highly recommend the food.

Boujadi
999 Eglington Ave. W
M5C 2C7

Restaurant Review: Walker Hill Korean BBQ

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Well, again with the restaurants carrying food that I know nothing about. Every now and again, we do the "Hmm, lets have X food today." And today it was Korean.

Yes, that is raw meat on the table.

The first thing that we noticed entering Walker Hill Korean BBQ was that there was a gas range in the middle of every stone table with a cast iron grill. Interesting.

Since we weren't really able to read the menu, we just ordered a meat and seafood combo for two. In fact, we were so clueless that we had to be told that the first 4 little bowls on the table (not pictured) were appetizers and not condiments! Hey, we had always just used the pink pickled ginger as an accompaniment to sushi...

Some feathery light tempura (inset) was a bit bland but provided a lot of variety - eggplant, sweet potato, brocolli, shrimp (mmm!) and mushrooms. The egg pancake was slightly sweet and much tastier than expected (I'm not a fan of Egg Foo Yong). Some chicken broth with veggies and seafood was a bit bland.

The main course was raw meat and seafood that we grilled ourselves after finding the switch for the gas underneath the table. The seafood consisted of squid, shrimp, salmon and some sort of whitefish. The meat was a marinated mix of chicken, beef and pork. The grill in action is the inset picture on the right.

The meat was pretty tasty, but the seafood was pretty bland until we dipped it in the chili oil provided. The oil also prevented things from sticking to the grill. Seeing as we mostly cooked the food ourselves, it's hard to criticize how the food was cooked. A staff member was pacing around the restaurant, presumably making sure that no one was setting the place on fire.

Some of the meat was a bit on the stringy side and benefitted from a longer cooking time, especially compared to the perfect boneless salmon chunks.

This had to be one of the funnest (yes, funnest - it's a word because I say so!) eating out experiences I've had. It took a bit of experimentation, and we burned our mouths a few times - it's funny that when in a restaurant you're not in the habit of waiting for the food to cool. People around us were ordering things that looked even more exotic, like a plate of raw silvery fish whole and slices of raw tongue.

We were lucky to get there literally minutes before the rush - it was empty when we got in and 10 minutes later there were no tables left! The formidable air conditioning system was chilly when we started but just barely keeping up when all the table ranges were going so it was nicely toasty before long. Decor was clean and modern - reassuring when there's so much raw meat around!

Recommended more for the fun than the food - but the food was good. It was a LOT of meat for 2 people.

Korean BBQ Walker Hill
280 West Beaver Creek Rd # 35, Richmond Hill, ON
905-709-3800