I tried Hawaiian Poké for the first time this week at Big Tune Poké Bar. I had the Big Katuna with Japanese rice. It had crunchy veggies and ponzu flavoured fresh tuna. I added avocado for $1 extra. It was all super fresh tasting!
The only thing I was slightly confused about was there seemed to be a plethora of veggies and toppings available on the board but I wasn’t really offered a choice on what I wanted.
Otherwise, I’m totally into poké and can’t wait to try more around the city!
This week, there has been some cold snowy weather. One of the nights was so bad that my commute lasted over two hours. When I got home, I didn’t want to cook so I opened up my Uber Eats app.
The road conditions were so terrible, there weren’t many choices that night. However, I learned from the app that Farmer’s Daughter in the area had closed and in it’s space was Love Chix and it was open for (delivery) business!
The full menu features a lot of chicken dishes and Uber Eats offered some of them. I had fried chicken with a delicious red sauce, dill chicken skin, tuna tartare, cauliflower popcorn with buttermilk dill dressing. It was all super tasty and came under 20 minutes! I’m glad to have a fun unique delivery option nearby.
Now I must head there for real and try out their full menu!
Last week, I went to Fabbrica in North York with my team at work. It is one of Mark McEwan’s restaurants and located right across the McEwan grocery store in North York.
We started with some appetizers including some fries with truffle and grana padano cheese. They were so addictive! We also had some warm olives (which were some of the best I’ve had) and their signature meatballs. I forgot to take a photo of these because we ate them too fast.
To drink, I tried their Old Fashion. As you know, I like to try this on every menu. Theirs was made out of Bullet Bourbon, house made Heavnly Cream syrup and tiki bitters. They did this classic well.
As my main I ordered a strip steak salad with goat cheese, beats, and an apple pecan dressing. I loved the combination of flavours and textures and my steak was cooked to a beautiful medium rare (just how I like it).
For dessert, I had a Chocolate Torta, a mix between a sponge and a mousse cake that was so good I didn’t even offer a bite to anybody.
I highly recommend this place if you’re looking for a quality place to wine and dine!
Last weekend, Nash and I had brunch at Chadwick’s where they have you can Build-A-Benny, so we both did. I picked the strangest ingredients on mine: Queso frito (fried cheese), jamon chino (chinese sausage) and instead of bread I had tortilla chips. I also had half salad and half potatos on the side.
Weirdly, it all worked together. I loved the fried cheese and their beer hollandaise sauce was creamy and delicious. The egg was perfectly poached.
Nash went the more traditional route with peameal bacon and sautéed mixed mushrooms.
He also had a house caesar made with fresh tomato juice and pickled vegetables.
I had a mimosa made with grapefruit juice.
We loved our Benny’s and hope to try more of the brunch menu soon!
I went to Wilbur Mexicana recently, home of a hot sauce and salsa bar. Apparently, it is temporarily closed at the moment to prepare for kitchen repairs, but I went before that happened.
I was unwinding for the evening so I had a Paloma with Tromba, Aperol, grapefruit and soda.
My choice of tacos were: Carne asada with pico de gallo, crispy onions and queso fundido; and the Baja Fish taco with beer battered mahi mahi, cabbage, pico de gallo, chipotle crema. Both were very flavourful and delicious but I loved the crunchy texture of the onions in the Carne Asada (steak) taco.
I can never resist grilled corn so I had to order the Mexican street corn which had chipotle crema, cotija cheese and guajillo chilli powder. It had just the right balance of spice and cream.
I found the price of everything very reasonable and the portions just right. The place always looks like there is a line-up but in reality it doesn’t take very long to get a seat. Plus people will eat these things fast!
I’ve always been intrigued by Flaming Bull in the Annex. It seemed different from the other restaurants on the block.
That’s because instead of sushi, like most of the other places in the area they serve modern Taiwanese food. The above instagram-worthy dish was the “Shangtang” abalone with radish, pepper and an inviting broth. I wanted to lick the bowl.
There was some “flaming bull” as the meat in Nash’s noodles was cooked in front of us with fire.
He had the Sichuan Style Beef Noodle which had veggies and a rich delicious broth full of spice.
I had the Stewed Beef Noodle which was AAA prime beef, vegetables, and a yummy beef stock with ginger and fresh basil. There was plenty of meat, but I didn’t find there were enough vegetables to balance the dish, only few slices of carrots and a broccoli. I loved the broth though. I think I loved the broth most in all the dishes!
I love what we had but I found that the dishes were unbalanced in terms of portions. It gets a little bit confusing whether it is a sharing restaurant or one where you order your own noodles!
I was sad when Whippoorwill closed down as they were home to some great cocktails. However, I went to unwind at it’s replacement Dolly’s Mojito Filipino Bar last week and thought it lived up to the location.
I ordered a small Cubano Mojito with Bacardi Maestro white oak rum, fresh cane juice (with a stalk of cane included), mint, and fresh-squeezed lime juice. It was deliciously full of booze.
Our first dish was Lechon Kawali, a crispy pork belly with cane sugar and a soy sawsawan sauce.
Next we had a Filipino Fried Rice with Longanisa which had pork, longanisa sausage, chicken, shrimp, egg and peas. I loved the loganisa sausage.
Lastly, we had Seafood Palabok with Panic Pusit a homemade egg flour squid ink noodle and thick rice noodle with fish, cuttlefish, shrimp, little clams and served with crushed pork chicharron. This was so flavourful and delicious.
I haven’t had that much Filipino food in my life but now I’m eager to try more of their cuisine.
I went to a 3 Brewers finally this week. The one near the Eaton’s Centre is huge! Going to the bathroom is like navigating a labyrinth.
Anyways, I couldn’t go there without ordering a bunch of beers so I had the Traditional Et Cetera which was 4 4oz tasters of their White, Blonde, Amber and Brown beers. I liked the blonde the best. It was dry and had a fruity bitterness.
I paired my darker beers with their version of a Steak Frites. My steak was perfectly cooked to medium rare and seasoned with an herb butter. The fries had a hint of garlic.
This is a decent place with many locations to casually hang out with friends, have a drink and some food.
Recently, I went to Barrio Cerveceria, a Mexican restaurant in Leslieville with a friend.
We began with an order of Ole Ole Guacomole. The guacamole was decent. I think it was supposed to have pico de gallo but I didn’t really see any.
Next we had the Hole Mole!, a tuna tostada made of tuna tartare, butter lettuce, beans pureé, mole sauce, crema, cotija cheese on a baked tostada. I found that the mole and cheese overwhelmed the fish. There was also a slightly weird flavour in it.
We shared an order of Mexican Street corn in a cob with spiced mayo, cotija cheese and scallions. I can’t resist a grilled corn and this one was full of flavour.
The El Cartel shrimp ceviche had a cucumber broth with coriander pickled tomatillo and pickled red onion. It was a very interesting combination of flavours.
My favourite was the Marinero, Marinero cod ceviche with mango sauce, pico de gallo, anise-hibiscus flower, inferno salsa and coriander. I loved the presentation with the mango sitting on top of the inferno sauce. One sauce calmed the other and added a nice tart sweetness.
I washed the food down with Smoked Margarita.
For desert I had the Pastel de Reyes made with corn bread tres leches, carmelized banana, chocolate ice cream and mint. There were also fresh berries. This was a beautifully delicious dessert that didn’t last long!
I thought the dishes here had hits and misses but it was worth coming here for the dessert and cod ceviche.
For Nash’s annual burger birthday we checked out Burgatory which is located at the former home of Hey Meatball!
I ordered the Envy Burger which had fried egg, tomato jam, guacomole, tortilla chips. It was not too heavy and I loved the tomato jam.
Nash had the Wrath Burger: Hell Sauce (homemade roasted poblano and chili de arbol sauce), pickled jalapeño, red onion, lettuce, tomato and havarti.
I couldn’t resist getting the truffle oil and parmesan fries. They handled the truffle oil delicately so it perfectly balanced the parmesan for an addictive side.
They had homemade sodas. Nash had a cherry coke.
I had a delicious grape and ginger soda.
We enjoyed our burgers and Burgatory. I think we grew up from the ridiculously gluttonous burgers and now just appreciate the ones with a great flavour profile.
Tiana Feng 