Situated at 828 Bloor Street West, Mexitaco is much closer to Nash’s place and Exclaim! than Tacos El Asador so we thought I thought I might as well try it at least once. I was actually told their food is mediocre by people at work, but I’m the kind of person who will give everything a chance. Yelp reviewers also had very mixed feelings about the place.
We were in a taco mood. The chorizo taco was recommended by people on Yelp so we ordered them. For $8.99 there were four tacos. They were topped with coriander and onion. The chorizo meet was a bit better than at El Asador but other than that, there wasn’t really much to the taco.
A ring of toppings was brought to us with the tacos. There was two salsas, a green and a red as well as onions and limes. We weren’t exactly sure what the green one was. Our estimation was green tomato and jalapenos. Both salsas were a bit bland and runny.
We also ordered Tinga tacos which were described as chicken in chipotle sauce. There wasn’t really any other special toppings with it, just chickens in a taco. They were just okay, but either we don’t know what chipotle sauce is supposed to taste like or it tasted like burnt shoes.
Anyways, the tacos weren’t bad, just ok. Edible, but not anything special. The portions were also really small. Even though we had 4 tacos each, it wasn’t totally filling. Whereas at El Asador I could order 2 or 3 things for the same price and be sufficiently full. I will probably just make the extra walk to Tacos El Asador for now on when I have a taco craving.
Banh Mi Boys have been quite the hype around Toronto for the past little while. We were in the area for a concert recently and finally decided to try it. The menu was pretty extensive for Banh Mi sandwiches. I didn’t know you could put more than just ham in them! I ordered the Five Spice Pork Belly Bahn Mi.
The sandwich was was way bigger than I thought for a price of $5.99. Delicious sweet pork belly was sandwiched into the traditional Vietnamese sandwich ingredients of pickled carrots, radishm cilantro and cucumber.
Nash ordered the Braised Beef Cheek Bahn Mi. The baguette was filled with meat! Even with just the sandwiches we would have been stuffed.
However, not knowing what the portions was like before we ordered (remember we’re big eaters), I also had the Kimchi Fries. Yes you heard right. Kimchi on fries. Oh, and pulled pork. These 3 ingredients don’t normally sound like things that go together, but it did. And it was pretty damn addictive. I gobbled most of it up. The fries and 2 sandwiches was way too much food for the both of us though.
For a fad restaurant, I expected the prices to be way higher than they were. I’m glad it isn’t because they offer a nice selection of sandwiches as well as tacos and steamed baos. My only concern about the place is that you have to prey like a hawk for seating in their small squishy location.
One day the Exclaim! office all ordered tacos, and they looked delicious so I asked them where they were from and immediately went right after. Tacos El Asador fit in perfectly for my continuous journey of eating all things adventurous and ethnic.
The atmosphere was friendly and the staff helped me interpret what some of the things on the menu were. An interesting thing to note about the Annex establishment is that it’s not entirely Mexican food, but a Salvadorian interpretation of Mexican food as the name of the place suggests. This is why there are all those silly reviews on yelp or urbanspoon complain about it being different! I first walked into this place a month ago, and I’ve already been back 4 or 5 times.
Jalapenos and Salsa
If you eat in, your table automatically gets a giant bowl of jalapeno, coriander, onion and yellow pepper mix as well as a spicy salsa. It’s really hard not to pick at the mix when waiting for food, even if the seeds can get you heated!
Burrito and Enchilada
Nash likes to get the $10 combo that includes a burrito and an enchillada or quesadilla and a drink. The burrito by itself, is already enough to fill a person!
Fish Tacos
My favourite are the fish tacos. The fish combined with avocado, salsa and carmelized onions have a lovely creamy texture that melts in the mouth.
Crunchy Taco
Tacos come in crunchy or soft and in a variety of meats including chicken, pork, beef and chorizo. I tried chorizo which is like a spicy pork sausage, but I wasn’t completely a fan. It was a little dry. They tasted better with chicken (or fish!). I love that they double wrap both kinds of tacos to prevent any sauce leakage or have back up for accidental breakage.
Enchilada
Their take on the enchiladas was interesting. They were done in a kind of Honduran style with the black bean almost like a spread on the tacos which were served open face, instead of wrapped in rolls with sauce on top. Pupusa
Pupusas were one thing I learned about for the first time when coming here. They are a truly Salvadorian dish and was almost like their take on a fried crepe of some sort! I had one filled with pork and it was served with sauce that reminded me of marinara.
Tamale
Lastly, I also tried the chicken tamales. They reminded me of sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf that my grandmother used to make, except this was with corn and chicken. It may appear small, but one of these things definitely fills you up.
What I love most about this place is the price. All menu items are around $3, so you can mix it up and have multiple items. For the price, the food is fresh and delicious. When I have time (and the budget) I’ll hit up Grand Electric to compare, but I think I may end up favouring Tacos El Asador. I don’t care about pretension, only how things fare on the taste meter and if it doesn’t hurt the wallet, it’s a double win.
I always wanted to try Korean pork bone soup and there was probably no where better to try it than Korea Town’s Owl of Minerva which I have previously read about on BlogTO.
Pork bone soup known as “Gamjatang” was listed on the menu for only $6.20. Since the price was so low, I assumed it would be a small portion so I included the $3 add on of dumplings and noodles.
Not only was the portion pretty large and comparable to that of Pho, but it also came with a bowl of rice and a few sides. The soup was chocked full of pork. I expected a single pork bone, but there were many and the meat was fall off the bone tender. The red colour meant it was spicy, however it was a manageable heat. I totally did not need the add-ons though, there was plenty to eat for $6.20.
We never order the same thing (because that is silly), so Nash got the “Kalbitang” also known as Short-Rib Soup.
It came in a white broth that had a black pepper and garlic aroma. Ingredients included green onions, short ribs, onions, egg and glass noodles, which were very tricky to pick up! I have to admit I like my soup a bit better.
For under $20 the meal was filling and tasteful. We will definitely go back to try the non-soup dishes of which there are plenty!
I took Nash out for an early birthday dinner tonight. We decided that instead of something fancy we’d hit up one of the many burger places that we haven’t tried yet. We headed to The Works Burger on the Danforth. There’s also plenty of other locations for those of you who don’t live in Toronto.
The restaurant played on a construction work-site theme. It was very casual; like a burger joint should be. We even got our soft drinks in measuring cup-esque glasses.
The best part about this place is they have over 72 different burger combinations. That’s right 72. The menu also includes other delicious sounding things like fried pickles and an onion tower. However, we came for a burger, so that’s what we got. crazy menu
The menu was categorized by types of burger combinations, from the most popular, strange, sauced, bold, meat and veggy. You could also choose from a variation of meats (beef, chicken, salmon, portobello, ground turkey, veggie). We both had the elk. I had the Beverley Hills Lawsuit with a side of Bold Slaw.
My burger had egg, leaf spinach, Havarti and double smoked bacon. The elk was lean and delicious. I gobbled the entire thing up and did not feel like death afterwards. The combination of ingredients tasted like a very delicious quiche in a sandwich. The Bold Slaw came in a generous serving size and had a little bit of a kick from the jalapeno juice and white pepper. I would have been happier with a smaller serving of that, as I did not end up finishing the slaw. The flavour was too pungent for me to have such a large portion of it.
Nash had the Neil Young burger with a side of cucumber. Who optionally chooses cucumber??!!!.
The toppings included grilled eggplant, fresh avocado, salsa loco and feta cheese. I stole a giant bite of it. I really liked that the avocado was a literal piece of fresh avocado and not some mushed guacomole-like paste. There was a nice texture to it and the grilled eggplant went really well with the salsa and the feta. Flavour explosion in one bite!
This was seriously one of our favourite burger places (and if you are a regular reader you know we’ve been to a lot of them). We’ll definitely be stopping by again to eat one of the other 70 combinations!
Yesterday I attended Soupstock at Woodbine Park. There were over 40,000 people in attendance trying out soups from 85 different booths. Bands also played in support of their land. The festival existed to raise funds to stop and raise awareness for the high-land mega-quarry. To put it shortly, the Highland companies want to blast a pit deeper than the Niagara falls in more than 2300 acres of farm land in Ontario. It would also require tons of water to be removed from the pit every day, water that people who live downstream from it need. All this just for some limestone. Though many people (including myself) originally came just for the soup, most learnt about and supported the cause.
Nash signing a giant petition.
Soup tickets were $10 for 3 and me and Nash bought 6 altogether. I brought my own bowls from home. I brought these old ugly ones because we chucked them away before heading off to a concert for the night. The first soup we had was a Pumpkin, squash and pear soup. Pumpkin, squash and pear soup
The booth was in a corner, and lines were non-existent, but it was actually one of my favourites. I generally love butternut squash soup but this was perfect in texture. It was bursting with flavour and the hint of pear was lovely. It wasn’t something we immediately tasted, but when thought about, it was definitely there.
Next we braved a line at the Rock Lobster soup tent. disappointing lobster soup
We both unanimously decided that it was definitely not worth the wait. The broth was too thin, and almost water-like. It was also pretty flavourless, or rather had a strange after taste that felt like spicy, but was definitely not spicy. There were a handful of mini lobster pieces, but not enough for it to have been worth the long line.
Chilli
After that thin soup, I wanted something with more substance so we tried the chili. It wasn’t spicy, but they had plenty of hot sauce at their station to add whatever amount of heat was desired. We dabbed quite a bit and enjoyed the filling beans, meat and cheese combo.
Susur Lee serving me soup
Up until this point we were just wandering about looking at the stands without a map, but while in line for chili, I heard one of my favourite food network chefs Susur Lee was serving soup! I haven’t been to his restaurant yet (not in my budget) but I have tried a couple of his items at various other food festivals. Sunday he was serving hot and sour soup!
Hot and sour soup
To be honest, I’m not regularly a fan of hot and sour soup. I always thought it was one of those fake Asian foods made for white folk. However Susur’s was delicious! There were a ton of flavours going on including a mouthful of flowery coriander. The ingredients in his soup reminded me of shark fin soup (which I have had plenty as a kid), without the shark fin.
Since the lobster soup was a fail, we decided not to judge a soup by its line. Instead for the last two, we went to booths with virtually no line at all. The first was the Fraser Cafe which had a lemongrass noodle soup. Lemongrass noodle soup
There was a strong flavour of lemongrass, and pieces of it were visible in the soup. The noodles were thin and soaked up the flavour. Strangely, it almost kind of reminded me of the pumpkin soup in aftertaste.
Lastly, we got a potato leek soup with sweet breads in it. Potato leek w/ sweetbreads
Sweetbreads, just as a reminder is weird organ meat. We’ve tried it once before at last year’s Food and Wine festival. The potato leek soup was perfectly thick. The sweetbreads were thick and this time, we didn’t mind the texture at all. In this soup it was a soft meaty delicacy.
Though I hope the mega-quarry doesn’t happen, I hope another Soupstock does, even if to raise support for another cause. It was a lovely Sunday, with a lovely mixture of happy people, food and music.
I’ve been to other Pho Hung locations including the one in Chinatown and the other in the Annex, although I’m not sure if the latter exists any more due to redevelopment projects in the area.
The one in the Junction may not be of the same owners as I have yet to see the location listed on their website. It was much nicer renovated than the other places I’ve been to and they had fancier shaped plates. The prices are very similar to other Pho locations with most meals being between $6-9. Hue-style noodle
My favourite so far has been their Hue-style noodle soup. It has a bit of a kick to it (as indicated by the red broth), some thicker noodles. It’s also packed full of meat. I ignored the fact there was a pig foot in my soup though. That thing is too hard to eat. Otherwise, its so nice to have as the weather gets colder. shredded pork vermicelli
We’ve also tried the vermicelli dishes. The portions here are a bit smaller than normal, but the meat is always flavourful and there is plenty of little shredded peanuts. They don’t skimp on the bowls of fish sauce either (or any of the sauces for that matter). Sugar cane shrimp, sausage and chicken vermicelli
Me and Nash are used to places with way bigger portions, so sometimes we wander around for desert after. I have yet to try just regular Pho here, but I am sure I will soon. The food is cheap and good here, but don’t expect the normal sized portions!
I don’t normally dine at bars unless someone recommended an item on their menu. This was the case with Hurricanes, located at Bloor and Dovercourt. I was told their Fish and Chips ($12) were off-the-hook, so that’s what I got.
There was a gigantic piece of fried fish on a bed of home cut fries. There was tartar sauce and coleslaw at the side. Fish and chips is not a thing I usually order from restaurants (unless the place only serves that) but this was delicious! It was nice and crunchy and the fish in the middle was soft and moist. I didn’t even use much of the tartar sauce.
Nash got a burger. It was nothing special, but the grilled flavour was nice. A bit pricey though with a base price of $11 considering that every ad-on (bacon, cheese, egg, onion ring, jalapenos etc) was $2 extra and could result in a $20 burger that we could get much cheaper elsewhere.
Their menu has some other neat things I want to try including Doritos crusted mozzarella sticks and “The Big League Dog”. The atmosphere is very relaxed, so it’s a nice chill place to hangout and have a drink with friends and eat some bar food.
On my way to work every morning, I pass by The Wing Company. Though, I have yet to try their wings, I was drawn into the place by their sign advertising burgers. $6.99, burger, fries and drink included. As me and Nash are currently on tight budgets, it was worth a try!
I ordered the BBQ Bacon and Jalapeno Cheeseburger. It wasn’t as massive as some of the other bugers we’ve had recently, but it was pretty delicious.
It was exactly as it’s name described. A burger with bacon, jalapeno, cheddar cheese with the perfect kick of BBQ sauce. I enjoyed the kick the peppers gave and the BBQ sauce was nice and tangy. It was a simple burger, but it was definitely more flavourful than some of the other ones I have eaten lately. Plus, this was a meal for under $10.
The fries were made skin-on and gave it a lovely crunch texture. They were warm and tasted fresh. The only thing wrong with them was that they weren’t served salted. Although that was easily fixed since each dine in table had salt, pepper and vinegar for customers to season their food to their liking.
I had a pleasant dining experience at The Wing Company. The staff was friendly and I’ll definitely be back to try some wings next time!
Last week we dropped by La Revolucion at the corner of Keele and Dundas in the Junction. The place is very modestly decorated and I didn’t know at the time, but there is also a back room that holds live shows sometimes.
I ordered the Chicken mole enchiladas. Usually I’d be turned off by brown mush on my food (and I was totally hesitant), but when I tasted it, it was quite the experience in my mouth. Traditionally mole has around 20 different spices and I definitely tasted a variety in these enchiladas. I gobbled it all up.
Nash had the taquitos which were brighter in colour (more appetizing looking). They were crunchy and delicious.
Maybe we’re just giant eaters but I kind of wish there were bigger portions. I guess we were supposed to order more than just one dish each. The food is fresh and delicious but a tiny bit pricey if you’re on a budget!
Tiana Feng 