Restaurant Reviews – Page 9

Prix Fixe at Barque Butcher Bar

November 14, 2015Food, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

I went to Butcher Bar (by the same people who own Barque) for a friend’s birthday. We did the family style prix fixe menu of 6 courses. While I waited for everyone to arrive I sipped on the Chupacubra: tromba blanco, 1/2 oz campari, lime and grapefruit. I could definitely feel the alcohol but it was fruity and easy to flip.

Our first course was an arugula and tomato salad with feta. The vinaigrette was nice and light but paired very well.

This was followed by some smoked chicken wings that were super delicious. There was an element to the dry rub that reminded me of chocolate but I’m not sure if that’s what it was. They also came with a ketchup and mustard based dipping sauces, but I liked my wings without it.

Other sides included green beans

and crunchy potato wedges.

More meat came in the form of a platter with ribs, brisket and fried chicken wings. It was messy, but worth getting my fingers dirty.

My second drink of the night was a Sake Sour: sake, dillon’s gin, grapefruit, egg white and nutmeg. This one was less fruity than the first and was almost like drinking a latte.

We finished the night with a lovely caramel cheese cake.

Happy birthday Jess!

Khao San Road

November 7, 2015November 7, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I finally visited Khao San Road with my cousin. The restaurant does not take reservations but we only had to wait around 15 minutes for a table two during dinner service. We ordered two dishes the Kua Gling and Kha Soi.

The Khua Soi, which I ordered with shrimp, was a golden curry with coconut milk and crispy noodles. At Khao San Road, you can choose between a bunch of different spice levels. I did a level 3 out of a possible 11. 3 was already a decent level of spicy but the coconut milk in this dish helped cool down the tongue. The curry was super flavourful and I loved the crunchy noodles.

The Kua Gling was a shredded meat dish and we chose chicken as the protein. We also chose spice level 3 on this dish but it felt a lot spicier than the other one.

To go with my dinner I had some Singha, a Thai beer. I found it relatively light and refreshing between bites of curry.

You might have to wait for a table at Khao San Road, but their flavourful curries are definitely worth it!

Bare Burger

November 2, 2015November 7, 2015Food, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Every year for Nash’s birthday, we seek out a new delicious burger joint to try. Since we’ve tried so many, I looked to Zomato for suggestions and they sent me two lists. Bareburger was on both lists and it was one we hadn’t heard of yet!

The place specializes in organic, free range meats, though that wasn’t the reason we were there. We just like burgers. I ordered the Southern Caviar burger (pictured above) which had bison, pimento cheese, back bacon, stout onions, horseradish remoulade on a brioche bun. Everything went really well together and their house bacon is so delicious! The meat was juicy and cooked very well.

Nash had the El Matador which had bison, cheese curds, pickled jalapenos, guacomole, green leaf, spicy pico de gallo on a brioche bun. This was super messy but so worth getting hands dirty for. So much gooey goodness going on here.

We also ordered the Macho Fries which were crunchy fries topped with jalapeno, guacomole, pico de gallo, pepperjack cheese and a sauce with a kick. These were so good we finished the entire giant bowl AND our burgers.

To wash things down I sipped a Figs & Bacon. I didn’t know I was supposed to put the bacon in the drink so I just ate it. Hahahahaha it was worth it (because their bacon is delicious).

Nash had The Mexican which was a happy hour drink with tequila and ginger beer.

We were super impressed with the burgers. They were both fantastic combinations of ingredients and didn’t leave us feeling like we were dying. Definitely a highly recommended burger place.

Hanmoto

October 27, 2015October 27, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Hanmoto is a super cozy izakaya just off Dundas West on Lakeview Avenue in Toronto. You could walk past it’s slight red glow if you weren’t specifically looking for it. The place is small and seats about 30. I was lucky enough to walk in and get a table for a friend and I. As I waited for my friend, I sipped a North Town Nashi, a fruity drink with mizo shochu, lemon, asian pear and shingo pear bitters.

This is a sharing restaurant so we ordered a bunch of dishes.

Hot Hot Tofu: Cold silken tofu, chili oil, pickled cucumber, onions, nori. I enjoyed the melt in mouth texture of the tofu very much. They added just the right amount of chili oil and it wasn’t too spicy or salty.

Hamachi Tartare: Sweet chili ponzu, shiso, cilantro, avocado. The yellowtail was very fresh and paired well with the avocado and the texture of the other toppings.

Uni-Bomb: sea urchin roe, chicken skin chips, sushi rice. I rarely ever have sea urchin (because finding it fresh is hard in the city) but I really enjoyed this bomb! The chicken skins were super crispy and looked so enticing that my Jewish friend (who doesn’t eat chicken) took a bite out of one. Oops.

Enoki with Miso Butter arrived on a hot plate looking like a steak. The mushrooms were cooked together as one piece and flaked like meat. You can never go wrong with cooking anything in butter.

My second drink of the night was an Arisaka Sour with green tea, cucumber infused gin, uzu, soda, lime bitter. I was surprised to actually taste the cucumber.

For some reason even though I usually hate okra (when my mom cooks it), I decided to see if I would like it when it was done properly. This was cooked with parmesan and topped with bonito flakes. The flakes kind of felt like eating paper so I wasn’t relaly a fan. I also think I just hate okra in general and can’t get over the slithery texture (to no fault of Hanmoto).

Lastly, we ordered the Salmon Aburi with torched salmon and sushi rice. It resembled a deconstructed version of the blowtorched sushi we loved at JaBistro.

Who leaves without trying the Miso icecream? I haven’t eaten much savoury ice cream but this one was super refreshing and topped with nori powder and toasted rice balls. Picture miso soup except frozen and in block form. The miso soup of the future.

A visit to Hanmoto is definitely a must! But good luck getting a seat if you are more than two people.

Valdez

October 23, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

To celebrate my sister’s graduation we recently went to Valdez, a Latino street food restaurant we discovered from the Toronto episode of Day of Gluttony.

The inside of the restaurant was very modern and fit with the landscape of it’s King Street West location.

Since we were celebrating something, cocktails were totally mandatory! We happened to make happy hour so I ordered a Colombian Sour which had Aguardiente, blood orange, lemon, sugar, egg white and bitters. Nash had the Tormenta Oscura with Kraken, lime and Thomas Lavers ginger beer. We also ordered a litre of Mo-Tio: Bacardi 8, raspberries, mint, ginger syrup, soda. Their cocktails alone warrant returning.

To start things off we ordered a set of ceviche tasters. We had two sets for the table of four because a set is good enough for two people. There were 5 ceviches made from albacore tuna, scallop, ahi tuna, mahi mahi and confit tuna. My favourite was the scallop which had a sweet taste. They were all super fresh and we drank the juice (which we learned we were supposed to do from watching too much TV).

The Pastels were a crunchy wonton with cream cheese and guava inside. It was delicious.

Maduro was a delicious dish of baked ripe plantain, muzzarela, honey butter. We weren’t sure what it was at first. I thought it was eggplant so I ate the plantain skin which seemed to be edible but I’m not quite sure if we were supposed to eat it. Hahahaha, well, I’m still alive.

Their tostadas had smoked chicken, guacamole, cilantro on a corn tortilla.

Chuzos a la Plancha was 2 beef skewers paired with a delicious chimichurri and arepita (a kind of fried bread).

One of our more adventurous choices was a Fried Branzino served with greens in a lemon chia dressing, pepitas (a nut) and rice.The fish was one of our favourite parts of the dinner. It was pleasantly salty and crunchy, fried to a point where most of the bones were edible.

How could we go to a Latin restaurant without eating some chorizo? so we had a chorizo sausage with potato salad and a chimichurri!

The food was so good we couldn’t resist getting a bunch of desserts too!

The first was a crepe stuffed with fried banana with cream.

The second was a ginger cookie ice cream sandwich.

Then there was a beautiful rice pudding with brûlée plantains.

Lastly was a cool play on peaches and cream with warm ice cream.

We enjoyed all the food we had at Valdez! It is definitely recommended you go with a bunch of people so you can try everything (as with all tapas).

Wenona Craft Beer Lodge

October 18, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

We wanted to watch that epic Game 5 at Tallboys but it was unfortunately packed by the time I got out of work. I decided to head over to their other restaurant Wenona a few blocks west. It has the same great craft beer, but a different type of menu. I ordered the sliders and choose to mix up pulled pork and brisket. There was also the option vegetarian but I don’t need that! The sliders were served on a steamed bao instead of a regular bun which was a nice twist. I chose to eat mine with crunchy fries.

I also had an order of plantain chips which were like bruschetta on fried plantains instead of bread.

Nash had Catch of the Day, fish and chips battered with Trailhead beer.

My drink of the night was Brickworks 501 semi-sweet cider.

I couldn’t resist getting their smores for dessert! It’s warm baked marshmallows and chocolate served with some graham crackers of course.

This place is still relatively new but it has a lovely homey vibe and is definitely a great place to watch the game that not many people around the block know about yet!

Patois

October 15, 2015Food, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

With Toronto’s flux of tapa restaurants, it’s always much more fun to go with a bunch of people so you can order a bunch of things. My friends and I recently hit up Patois, where Caribbean meets Asian food. For example, what you see above is a Jerk Chicken Chow Mein, a twist on a Chinese classic which definitely had a spicy kick.

This grilled corn with cilantro & lime was gobbled up fast. It was a bit pricey considering it only had one cob.

We had some vegetarians at our table so the Crunchy Chinese salad with napa cabbage, romaine, wonton crisps, spicy plum dressing provided some freshness in their stomachs.

These Kimchi Potstickers “Pierogi” Style Pot Stickers were stuffed with kimchi, bacon, sour cream and scallions.

I ordered my own little scallop and shrimp ball thing which was much like the traditional one with different breading and a tangy sauce of C-Plus and vinegar!

One of our favourites was definitely the O.G. Fried Chicken & Watermelon Pickle served with a sweet Sriracha sauce and ginger.

Jerk PorkBelly with Chicharron came with traditional Asian BBQ sauce.

Our vegetarian friends had their own “fried chicken” sort of with O.G. Fried Cauliflower & Watermelon Pickle.

Called the 4/20 Broccoli Buds these had roasted, hemp oil, hemp hearts, edamame hummus, Pecorino, savoury crumbles. I love roasted broccoli in anything.

To drink, I had a couple of peach-infused cocktails (that I totally forgot the name of). Whatever it was was good enough to have multiple and maybe that’s why I forgot what it was.

The plus of having multiple people is.. you can order ALL the desserts! The first was this cheesecake infused french toast. Yes, you heard that right my friend.

The second was this seemingly innocent ice cream that had a hint of jalepeno. It was definitely not for the faint of heart and we had mixed feelings throughout.

Lastly was this brownie ice cream sandwich which was rich and just want one would want in a dessert.

Our experience at Patois was definitely a delicious adventure, but I do highly recommend bringing friends to make the journey worth it.

Ramen Raijin

October 3, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

There are so many ramen places in the city that I could not possibly try them all! Recently, I stopped by Ramen Raijin, a casual dining place. Inside there were separate tables as well as a big square bar thing with a buddha in the middle.

The ramen comes in 3 different sizes: Small, Regular and Large. I opted for a regular bowl of the Tonkotsu Shoyu ramen. Shoyu is a soy-sauce flavoured ramen. It came with pork shoulder, an egg, bean sprouts and seaweed. The broth was very flavourful and there was a decent amount of noodles, though I found them quite chewy compared to some other places.

For dessert I refreshed myself with a classic green tea ice cream.

I thought the ramen was decent but there are better places in the city.

A Taste of Market 707

September 25, 2015September 25, 2015Drinks, Food, Restaurant Reviews, StreetLeave a Comment

Market 707 located at Dundas & Bathurst is full of pop-up shops in what used to be shipping containers. It’s a great place for local entrepreneurs to have a store front for an affordable price in the city. There are clothing shops, a barbershop, nail salon, jewellery and of course food. Besides my friend’s stand at Petit Nuage I hadn’t had any of the food until recently.

This indulgent dish is from Filipino stand Kanto, which specializes in a street take on tradition foods. I ordered the Sisig fries which was Offal meat that has been boiled, then grilled and chopped into fine pieces. It was marinated in lemon, vinegar and spices. The dish was topped with Lechon Kawali (pork belly) and garlic lemon aioli on a bed of crispy fries. I loved the crispy pork pieces and the fries were super crunchy.

My friend showed me her regular order at Cookie Martinez called the Patacon Pisao, a classic Latin American dish from the Colombian coast. Patacon starts by warming unripened green plantain to flatten, then fried until crispy. Hers had beef, avocado and a delicious sauce.

I also wanted to try the shrimp ceviche from Cookie Martinez. It was served with plantain chips was a bit of a weird (mostly inefficient) receptacle for ceviche. The ceviche itself was very fresh and flavourful.

To wash it down I had an iced matcha from Petit Nuage, the best in the city (Disclaimer: I know her personally but it really is the best in the city)!

La Carnita

September 23, 2015September 23, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

For my friend’s birthday, we went to La Carnita‘s College Street location. It is tapas style so everything comes out together in shareable plates. For example, if you and a friend ordered tacos they would often come together in the same serving plate. This was slightly confusing since we were in a group of more than 15 people. I opted for 3 tacos. The first one (pictured above was the) was the Tostada de Ceviche: Albacore Tuna, guacamole, coconut milk, habanero, tomato, cucumber. It was very fresh and light tasting.

I had a bite of the In Code We Trust, a fish taco, with Cod, Voltron sauce, lime crema, pickled red cabbage, green apple & cilantro. What I totally forgot to take a photo of was my Crispy Cotija taco with crispy cotija cheese, cauliflower & pinto bean, pickled carrots, chipotle sauce, green onion & cilantro. I can’t resist fried cheese.

My third taco was the Pork Belly Al Pastor Taco, a daily special with roasted pork belly, guajillo BBQ sauce, pineapple salsa, coriander crema and mache lettuce.

All three tacos were flavourful and fresh and would’ve filled me up on their own but I felt like splurging a little so I got a few extras.

Funny story about the corn. I looked at the menu and was like “who the hell would pay $9 for corn?” and then I saw a little kid eating it at the table behind us and it looked amazing, so I ordered it. I have no regrets. It was the best grilled corn I have ever had with Mexican crema, queso anejo, arbol & ancho chili powder. Who thought corn could pack so much punch?

The table also shared nachos with guacomole and corn salsa. Both were fresh and delicious. The chips themselves were lightly salted and could totally be eaten on their own.

To was things down I ordered a few of their sangrias that were infused with peach, mango and raspberry. I could’ve drank a pitcher of these (which was available).

It was my friend’s birthday so the waiter bought over some birthday churros with a candle. The churros were crunchy and served in a cajeta, a silky nutty sauce. These are the same churros that can be ordered over at Sweet Jesus.

I was super stuffed from ordering too much but I highly enjoyed my meal at La Carnita. Everything is fresh, flavourful and relatively inexpensive (if you don’t go overboard).