restaurants – Page 3

Burgers and Truffle Fries @ Holy Chuck

October 29, 2013October 29, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Fork in photo is unrelated to burger eating.

Last year, for Nash’s birthday, I started the tradition of taking him to a ridiculous burger joint. We do burgers all year, when they’re in the vicinity of where we happen to be but on birthdays we’ll actually travel for the next wacky thing. Anyway, this year we ended up at Holy Chuck at St. Clair Station.

Their menu has a variety of interesting creations. Nash ordered The Village Cow ($12.99), which had two patties and seared, melted kefalotiri cheese, red onions and greek olive oil. We’ve never heard of that cheese before, but it was deliciously fried and creamy. He also had a side of fries which came in a generous portion.

I went for the Le Croissant Du Paysan ($12.99), which was egg, pancetta, fries and burger on flakey croissants. The croissants were soft and sweet. Altogether the burger was like a very complete breakfast.

Ok time for the star of the show! Since it was his birthday, I totally splurged on the Black Truffle Fries. Real truffles were always a thing I dreamt about after watching too much Food Network but Holy Cow had actual shavings on their fries (and one of their burgers that we didn’t order)! There was also a nice aged cheese on the fries but we were more intrigued by the unique wood-like taste of truffle. It was really addictive. To top it off, it was also served with a truffle mayo. So much truffle, but so much delicious. These are fries I’m still thinking of a few days later.

Watch my Vlog of the day.

Bison Burgers @ W Burger Bar

Soups @ Lim Ga Ne

October 24, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Koreatown is full of restaurants that look like they serve the exact same thing. Usually for soup the destination is Owl Minerva, but since there’s a whole couple blocks of similar things, we ventured into another for fun. We ended up at Lim Ga Ne. It had a nice homey feel, like someone’s Korean mother was going to cook us dinner.

When we placed our order we were soon presented with these chive pancakes. At first I was slightly confused and thought the waiter heard our order wrong. Apparently this is one of the freebies you get and it was delicious.

Then we were presented with even more of the traditional sides.

I ordered the Yukgaejang, which was shredded beef brisket in a hot broth. The portion was very hearty. I enjoyed it for the most part, except these weird veggies that looked like coffee stir sticks, but they were easy to pick out.

Nash had the Kimchi soup with pork. Despite both our soups being red, they were actually different in taste. His was more sweet and sour and mine was more meaty and spicy.

What we didn’t realize until we got our bill is that taxes are included on the menu so everything is conveniently round numbers. This is definitely a place worth checking out, even for the freebies!

Excuse the shitty photos, I was hungry and ate the soup right after I vlogged it, so they are screen captures.

Tacos @ Seven Lives

October 8, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I finally visited Seven Lives in Kensington Market and tried their seafood tacos. The place has very little seating so we ordered a few to go.

I had the Pulpo On Mole Verde, an octopus taco with a pumpkin seed mole; and the Baja Fish, deep fried mahi mahi with cream sauce. They were both $5, but well worth the price considering I was stuffed from the two tacos. The fish was moist and reminded me of some of my favourite fish and chips (minus the chips). The octopus was not tough at all and I liked the texture of added pumpkin seeds and uh, CHEESE.

Nash ordered the Gobernador with shrimp, smoked marlin and cheese; and the Mushroom and Cactus with grilled cheese. I’ve never had cactus before this but I tried a bite and it reminded me a lot of this Chinese pan-fried bean dish.

Oh Seven Lives, I think I’ll definitely be back to eat everything else.

Rabbit and Other Meats at Big Crow

September 9, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Situated behind Rose & Sons is what looks like someone’s fancy backyard picnic. We probably wouldn’t have stumbled on Big Crow if we weren’t specifically looking for it.

Rose & Sons is pretty new and they’ve already added this cool looking BBQ cook-out to its backyard. You can see the cooks grilling everything on the make-shift fire pit situated in the back.
The atmosphere was very laid back. We were seated in between two other sets of customers. Plates are meant to be shared so we chose 2 selections from the “little crow” menu and one from the “big crow”.

The crow sizzling bacon (“little crow”) had a sweet ancho chili BBQ sauce. It was served with thuet bread and a little slaw, which we realized later were the only veggies we ate that night.

Also from the little crow menu was the miami ribs served with a creamy tzatziki sauce. This was a meal where using your hands and getting messy was necessary.

Our “big crow” and larger of the selections was this 1/2 rabbit. I’ve never had rabbit before and it reminded me a lot of pheasant. They were coated in a sweet and spicy hot sauce.

To wash down all the meat, me and Nash both had sweet teas.

We realized after we ordered that all we ordered was meat, but it was delicious. Like Homer in Simpsons said, “You can’t make friends with salad!” I’m not sure what will happen when the weather gets to cold to eat outside, so get your meat on while you can.

Pour Boy Pub

August 30, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Pour Boy was listed in The Grid’s Guide to Being Broke and Living Large. Doing cool things on a budget is certainly in our interests at the moment. It’s close to Nash’s but we never thought to look around the corner of Bloor and Manning. The decor is unique and isn’t really asian nor white, but the menu is a mix of both.

I ordered the Gnocchi with shrimp ($7). The waiter recommended the white sauce so I obliged. I wasn’t expecting much out of pub food, but this was actually flavourful and there was a generous amount of shrimp. To drink I had a Long Island Iced Tea ($6.50).

Nash ordered the Pour Boy burger which was pretty much a regular banquet burger. It was a bit on the oily side but he enjoyed it. They came with a choice of regular or sweet potato fries or a salad.

I don’t know why I never visited this place when I was in university. It’s such a cheap watering hole. A pitcher of Sangria is $17, so we couldn’t resist. Plus, cheers to the rest of summer right?

Anniversary In the Dark at O.Noir

August 15, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews3 Comments

Nash and I love adventure and for our anniversary we decided to dine in the dark at O.Noir. The restaurant, located at the corner of Church and Charles has two dinner services 5:45pm and 8:30pm. Dinner is a prix fixe with 2 courses at $32 and 3 courses at $39.

After placing our orders in a small lit bar area, we were led by our server into the pitch-black dining room. All the servers are legally blind. Our server guided us to the table with a hands-on-shoulder method. It was scary at first to rely only on another person’s voice, but I learnt to put my trust in our guide and found my way to the table. We were seated at the end of a row of tables beside a wall.

We began with some Long Island iced teas, which I made a conscious effort not to knock over. We were also brought bread which I failed to butter. It’s hard to judge how much butter I scooped on my knife in the dark, so there were blobs of it everywhere! I ordered the Surprises for three of my courses. Nash ordered from the menu for his appetizer and main dish. I think my appetizer was a salad with avocado, feta cheese, tomatoes and cranberries, at least I think they were cranberries. Nash had a grilled octopus salad. The octopus was very tender and not chewy.

I’m still trying to figure out what my surprise main was (I forgot to ask). There was green beans, mashed potatoes and what I think is steak in a mushroom sauce. Nash thinks it was pork. It was very flavourful. He ordered the shrimp and sun-dried tomato risotto. I had one of his shrimp and it was well seasoned and felt very large. We both had the surprise dessert which was a cheesecake, served on its side. Not sure what sort of cheesecake but I did taste coconut and pineapple. Maybe pina colada.

The whole experience was a lot of fun. Our appetizers and mains were served in plates that had edges like a bowl, so accidentally pushing the food off the plate wasn’t a concern. I did end up using my hands to help get food on my fork, and to feel if I was actually done each course. Technically I could have licked the plate and nobody would have noticed. It was interesting to have to rely on other senses to gauge our way in the dark. We could hear conversations around us and tried to figure out how close they were. I think there was one table separating us and the people beside us. There was a lot of accidental eye-poking to try to see how far away we were from each other.

During our entire meal, everybody kept up with the rules. Nobody pulled out a smartphone or let in any light. Conversations was plenty and it was definitely a memorable way to spend an anniversary!

Burger Day @ Wychwood Barns

June 3, 2013June 3, 2013Food1 Comment

Burger Week was last week and 64 restaurants around town put a special $5 on their menu. Yesterday, all these places gathered together at Artscape Wychwood Barns for Burger Day. Slider versions of the participating restaurants’ $5 burger were served all-you-can eat style.

The event started at 11am, but we didn’t arrive until 1:30. A few of the vendors had already given out all their burgers. If Soup Stock last year taught me anything, long lines don’t necessarily mean the best product. This pushed us to try some less buzzed places with shorter lines.

We pounced on Emma’s Country Kitchen’s line because it was short. This was a vegan burger but it was a nice light start. The crispy corn and chickpea fritter was actually very good! I could eat 10 of these.

Hey Meatball‘s slider was like a mini version of their sandwich with their signature tomato jam.

This juicy burger from Habits Gastropub looks pretty plain photo-wise but it had the best flavour. It was stuffed with short ribs and cheddar. The citrus beet-relish was my favourite part.

Gameday served up a classic tasting burger. I think mine was missing teh chimichurri.

New food start-up Bold Creations was the best finding of the day. Their burger was made with Boerewors a South-African sausage. Oh and there was also brie, and goat cheese. And a sauce with a kick. Definitely the flavour punch of the day.

Greasy spoon The Lakeview‘s slider had some crunchy onions.

I love The Works but I thought their (more half burger) slider was lacking the excitement that is usually found in the restaurant’s menu of 72 burgers.

Slider Revolution provided an Asian twist on our bunned friend and the other had a semi-sweet bacon jam.

We accidentally stood in Beer Bistro‘s line for fries that came in a generous portion (for free).

Utopia Cafe had a lovely Italian sausage and beef patty. It was juicy and had a spicey ketchup.

Stockyards had by far the longest line yesterday. Coincidentally we actually went to the actual restaurant on Friday to grab the full burger. It was so packed we had to sneak our burger to the McDonalds across the street to eat it. It was definitely worth the trip for their delicious chicken-fried-steak burger.

Next year I’m definitely going to try to get there close to opening hour!

Teppanyaki @ Iron Chef

May 29, 2013May 30, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Last night, our family celebrated my parent’s Anniversary at Iron Chef Steakhouse in Mississauga. Dad’s always looking for a good Teppanyaki place in the suburbs so we thought we’d give them a try.

As a starter, we had this sashimi platter ($7) with a selection of salmon, tuna, octopus. It was very fresh.
We each had our own entree off the Teppanyaki menu. They were all served with rice, salad (with Thousand Island dressing) and miso soup.

Teppanyaki anniversary dinner with parents https://t.co/S3ogaCPJzB

— Tiana Feng (@tianafeng) May 28, 2013

The chef fired up all our dishes (quite literally) performing tricks with knives. I didn’t see the salt and pepper toss that I’d seen previously at other similar establishments.
To add some humour to the cooking, the onion volcano fire was put out with this little thing (which I hope contains only water).

I ordered the Filet Mignon and it was seasoned with butter. The meat was very tender and melt in your mouth. The portions were quite generous totally 8oz no matter what you ordered (well 10oz if you had chicken). Dad had scallops and it still came in 8ozs which is usually rare for seafood. It was a little bit pricier than other Teppanyaki restaurants but the portions are definitely more worth it. Here you are paying more for the food than the show.
The meal ended with some complimentary icecream.

Overall I enjoyed the food at Iron Chef. However I want to make some comments about the service. I found our waiter to be very rushed. She had warned us that there were was a major reservation at 8:30, which was no big deal considering we got there at 7pm. The whole process of ordering, cleaning plates, asking about dessert and handing the bill seemed very rushed. The food and the chefs are excellent but I recommend a reservation if you plan on having dinner here in the future.

Lunch @ Northwood

April 30, 2013May 2, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Yesterday I was at the Exclaim! office helping out and for lunch I was looking for something sandwich-y. I remembered Northwood opened up close-by. I went in and asked if they served food. Although they didn’t have a formal menu yet, they gave some sandwich suggestions.

I had a turkey sandwich with a mini edamame salad. It was only around $5 ish. I enjoyed the light seasoning on the beans. The sandwich had an interesting dijon mustard, cheese and lettuce.

It’s a cafe, so I had to buy some coffee. I had a mocha.

I heard Northwood is also a great night-time hangout with cocktails and draft beer. It’s hard to believe this cozy little new place used to be a dingy Chinese restaurant.

Fried Chicken @ The White Brick Kitchen

April 25, 2013April 25, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

The White Brick Kitchen is nestled in the middle of Koreatown. It’s the perfect place to go to if you’re in the area and looking for something that is not bibimbap or pork bone soup. They serve American comfort food. The menu includes things like burgers, salads, fried chicken, mac n cheese, chilli and more.

On Foursquare their Buttermilk Fried Chicken ($17) was highly recommended so that’s what I went for. For my side I chose the mixed greens in a lemon vinaigrette. It also came with two scallion biscuits which were nice and moist. Nash loves green onions, so he was a huge fan.

The fried chicken, was probably the best fried chicken I have ever had. It was also literally half a chicken, so quite worth the hefty price tag. There was a honey mustard dipping sauce with it but I accidentally thought that was salad dressing. Silly me, but it still worked in the salad. It didn’t matter because the chicken batter was so delicious (and strangely creamy) that it didn’t need any dipping.

Nash ordered the Brisket Burger ($13) with a side of BBQ kettle chips. They reminded me a lot of my home-made potato chips. The brisket burger had some lovely pickles (which they brine in house). The burger itself was very light. Additional toppings were a bit expensive, but I had enough chicken to feed the both of us.

We’ll definitely be back soon for brunch where they have housemade beef bacon and deep fried eggs!