A snapshot of my week of dinners (and lunches) in Toronto and Halifax
Bier Markt // Spring Rolls // The Keg // Guu-Izakaya
The Battered Fish // Cut // The Maxwell Pub // Bitter End
Five Fishermen // Salty's // The Old Triangle
This entry is going to be relatively long because I'll be talking about the food adventures. Maybe in the next entry I'll talk about my packing (else this will get too excessively long)
I had the boar tourtière with mini roasted potatoes, carrots and sweet potato, since it was the special for Monday and it sounded tasty (it was $18 + tax). I didn't order any beer because I didn't want to bust by $30 budget per night, since I was looking to save some of it for the Thursday night we were going to Guu Izakaya.
Verdict on the food: it was tasty - the pie crust was flaky and buttery, but not too heavy. I could not really taste any specific flavour in the boar - it was covered by a mixture of "warm spices" per the menu, and as such to me it just tasted like ground beef with lots of spices. I wasn't a big fan of the spice mix - it tasted too much of a mix of cloves and anise for my taste (I don't like either taste). However, I did think the vegetables tasted good.
One of my co-workers had the chicken flatbread - it didn't really fill her up but it did look tasty. It was not anything "WOW". My other co-worker had Ahi-Tuna steak, which was done just right and per his comments, it was worth the price he paid ($28).
Overall, I think it may be a little overpriced - perhaps we didn't go on the right night because the next night, the special was short ribs and we saw people on the terrace ordering it and it looked tasty. Oh well! Next time I would go to sample the vast variety of beers that they have. Service was prompt and friendly, although our waitress spoke very fast and not very loud so it was at times difficult to hear her (unless you had a very astute ear). I think Bier Markt might be a better place for a 5@7 rather than an actual meal.
The second night we wandered around further down on Front street in search of something interesting to eat - we ended up coming across Spring Rolls. Now, I'm honestly not a huge fan of all-you-can-eat sushi places with a lot of cooked food (there's a bunch where I live and a) they are expensive and b) they are not as fresh and tasty as those that are not AYCE), but my two other co-workers were game to go and try it out. We were lucky because it ended up being a special price on Tuesday nights at $19.99 per person (add $3 for the premium menu, which includes lobster and steak). So with a reduced price we ended up all getting drinks, which brought us back to the budget of $30 exact.
The unique part of Spring Rolls is that they had dim sum on the menu. There was Har gow (shrimp dumplings) and Siu Mai (pork dumplings) - both were decent, although I'll admit it's hard to satisfy by standards for dim sum after eating dim sum in Hong Kong for 7 years +. These were on the same level as regular dim sum restaurants, so that was a plus. Other things we ordered (from my memory - no photos because I didn't want to look stupid in front of my co-workers):
-S&P squid - was like fried calamari but with salt and pepper and a sweet chili dipping sauce. The squid wasn't tough and rubbery-chewy, which was good, and the dipping sauce had a nice kick to it to help offset the greasiness of the fried batter
-Sushi - many of their "special rolls" were not really that "wow" and I could pass on them (it doesn't seem like sushi is Spring Rolls' forte). However, I do have to say that I liked that there wasn't massive amounts of rice in each roll
-Tempura - was on par with many AYCE restaurants that I've been to. Nothing special
-Coconut shrimp - liked it a lot, surprisingly. The coconut had a really good flavour (thankfully they used unsweetened coconut) and the batter wasn't too heavy - there was more coconut than batter which was good because it made it less greasy. With a little lime juice it tasted excellent
-Pad Thai - tasted better...definitely too red and not enough fish sauce
-Singapore noodles - good dose of curry, great yellow colour (usually only imparted if using curry powder) and there was a good mix of ingredients (vegetables and meat) in it. Pretty much on par with one of my favourite Chinese restaurants back home
-Mongolian beef - I remember we ordered it but don't remember much about it, so obviously not very memorable, just your average stir fried beef
-Sashimi - here's the catch with Spring Rolls: you can only order 5 slices of sashimi at a time. Which sucked because 5 slices does not go a long way. Our first order was 5 slices of tuna, and the next order 5 slices of red snapper. I will admit though they were very fresh tasting, although I found the slices to be relatively thin compared to many sushi restaurants (and some AYCE) that I have been to
-Sushi pizza - we got the spicy salmon one, which was tasty (it had a great kick to it and the salmon was chopped into larger chunks to you could still taste the fish through the spiciness), however, the rice "cake" it was on top was very thick. I would have preferred if it was thinner so that the "crust" could be crunchier
I don't quite remember what else we ended up ordering! But those were the things that I can remember off the top of my head. Dessert would have been included if we had added $3 for the premium menu but we decided not to.
Overall verdict: I think I would go back (on Tuesdays of course), but I'll admit I may prefer to go to an AYCE Korean BBQ instead if I was going for an AYCE. It just tastes better for what you pay. I rather pay for a la carte sushi nowadays/
The third night we ended up craving for something lighter so we ended up going to The Keg, which was across the street. Right, I know what you're thinking - The Keg? Isn't that a steakhouse?
Yup...but there's salad! I ended up getting the spinach salad (baby spinach, strawberries, dried cranberries, pecans and red onion in a vinaigrette with crumbled goat cheese) and added tiger shrimp on to for an extra $9 (that made the salad come out to around $16). One of my co-workers went for the same salad but with chicken, and my other co-worker went with onion soup, calamari and crab cakes. The salad was really good - I love baby spinach and the mix of sweet and salty is something that I've been enjoying lately. I got a lot of shrimp for $9 and they were pretty big (tiger shrimp aren't those dinky ones you get in your Chinese fried rice). I'll admit that normally I wouldn't put shrimp on my salad but seeing that adding sirloin steak, chicken or shrimp would've been the same amount, I opted for the most expensive.
The ambiance at The Keg on Esplanade is definitely different from the other ones that I've been to in the past - this one had a more classy "club" vibe in certain areas. I remember going once and it felt less restaurant more social gathering spot. We got a spot in the booths so it felt more restaurant-ish.
Our last dinner in Toronto brought us to Guu Izakaya - I was looking forward to this since day one and had a huge list of things I wanted to eat that amounted to almost $80 tax NOT INCLUDED. We ended up with a bill of around $41 per person (tax and tips included), which wasn't so bad if you think of it, but I missed out a few things on my list.
First batch that got brought to us:
1) Okonomiyaki - deep fried Japanese pancake with squid, tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo
2) Kurage - marinated jellyfish
3) Gyu tongue - grilled beef tongue with salt and pepper
3) Takoyaki - deep fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo
My thoughts: the okonomiyaki was tastier than the one that I had tried for the first time at another restaurant, but did not seem to have enough squid. But I still enjoyed it (as did my coworker, who ended up eating the last piece because she didn't eat the raw items we ordered). The kurage was nothing special to me because I eat that all the time at Chinese banquets and if we order a certain chicken dish at restaurants. The Guy tongue was good - it may sound gross to be eating a tongue but the texture is much softer than steak, despite the fact that it tastes like steak. There is a much more beefy flavour. It was not dry and was very tender and flavourful, definitely a re-order for next time. The Takoyaki was good too - it reminded me of those that I had in Japan when I was a kid. They were nice and soft inside with large chunks of octopus. I ate probably 2?
Second round brought us:
1) Kakimayo - BC oyster with mushroom, spinach and garlic mayo, topped with cheese
2) Hotate carpaccio - Hokaido scallop sashimi with wasabi mayo
3) Maguro tataki - BC tuna (seared) with ponzu and garlic chips
4) Saba - grilled saba mackerel with dill, garlic, onion and lemon
5) Yakiudon (no picture) - stir fried udon
My thoughts: the oyster was good (there were two), but I like my oysters raw so I didn't care too much about this one. The raw scallop was amazing - they were sweet and the wasabi mayo was not too overpowering. I'll admit though, when I eat raw seafood, I prefer it plain so I can taste the fish/seafood flavour.
The tuna tataki was tasty too, although I would have liked more garlic chips since those were particularly tasty haha. Either way the fish was very fresh and tasted soft and oceany. The sauce was different too (not your typical soy sauce concoction). Would have ordered again. As for the saba - as much as I like mackerel, I had better at a little fast food Japanese restaurant in HK and would not have bothered to order it here (although we ended up only getting it upon recommendation of another co-worker...never listening to TO coworkers again). Still good, but nothing explicitly different.
Yakiudon - nothing to write home about.
After all that...we still had room for some dessert!
We ordered Banana Tempura, Cheesecake of the day (ended up being corn cheesecake - nothing special) and Seasme ice cream (no picture). The cheesecake was not what I expected - I was hoping it would be like Japanese cotton soft cheesecake. So I was disappointed - I would've preferred to get the almond tofu. The banana tempura was a hit with everyone - it came with chocolate sauce and coconut ice cream in the middle (I think there was mango sauce too). The black sesame ice cream also ended up being a hit with the other two co-workers, who had never tried it and stated that it tasted a bit like peanut butter, but more smokey. All the desserts were $4 (and there not as many choices so we almost ordered all of it haha).
And that ends the trip to TO! Seeing that this got way too long, I'll have to wait until next time to blog about my meals in Halifax. On top of work starting to pick up, it looks like that might take a little longer (and my wifi at home isn't working so I'm tethering and I'm eating away at my 6GBs faster than I anticipated!)
The Bier Markt
58 The Esplanade, Toronto, ON
http://www.thebiermarkt.com/
Spring Rolls
85 Front Street, Toronto, ON
http://www.springrolls.ca
The Keg
26 The Esplanade, Toronto, ON
http://www.kegsteakhouse.com
Guu-Izakaya
398 Church Street, Toronot, ON
http://guu-izakaya.com/
Bier Markt // Spring Rolls // The Keg // Guu-Izakaya
The Battered Fish // Cut // The Maxwell Pub // Bitter End
Five Fishermen // Salty's // The Old Triangle
I did not bother taking any photos of training catering because it's not really THAT amazing (well it was tastier than Montreal catering)
The UFE was finished September 13th (yipee) and the firm I work for allows for an extra week off before starting back. Lucky for me, I had two weeks for training (missed them during my study break) before I went back to work - it was like another two weeks extra vacation, since training is a no-brainer (having come back from studying the entire Handbook anyways for the big exam I just wrote), the firm puts us up for the time we are out of town and we have meal allowance. The only drawback? Having scheduling issues that couldn't be resolved right away, meetings that were REALLY important that had to be scheduled when I got back (which I'm anxious for because it could change a lot in the coming few months in terms of workload) and of course...not seeing the boyfriend.
Toronto
Since our office is so close to the Toronto office, we had to take the flight the day of, which sucked major big time because that meant having to wake up at 4am since the flight was at 6am (although I underestimated the time to get to the airport)
Longest day out of the week so we didn't really want to go far to eat. Staying downtown TO meant that we were pretty much stuck with expensive restaurants all round (plus, being with relatively non-adventurous diners, I wasn't willing to walk all the way to Chinatown for Korean BBQ, or for sushi, even though we ended up at Spring Rolls. More later). The first day we went to Bier Markt, which had the most extensive list of beers that my mind almost exploded looking at the menu that was just for beers.
I had the boar tourtière with mini roasted potatoes, carrots and sweet potato, since it was the special for Monday and it sounded tasty (it was $18 + tax). I didn't order any beer because I didn't want to bust by $30 budget per night, since I was looking to save some of it for the Thursday night we were going to Guu Izakaya.
Verdict on the food: it was tasty - the pie crust was flaky and buttery, but not too heavy. I could not really taste any specific flavour in the boar - it was covered by a mixture of "warm spices" per the menu, and as such to me it just tasted like ground beef with lots of spices. I wasn't a big fan of the spice mix - it tasted too much of a mix of cloves and anise for my taste (I don't like either taste). However, I did think the vegetables tasted good.
One of my co-workers had the chicken flatbread - it didn't really fill her up but it did look tasty. It was not anything "WOW". My other co-worker had Ahi-Tuna steak, which was done just right and per his comments, it was worth the price he paid ($28).
Overall, I think it may be a little overpriced - perhaps we didn't go on the right night because the next night, the special was short ribs and we saw people on the terrace ordering it and it looked tasty. Oh well! Next time I would go to sample the vast variety of beers that they have. Service was prompt and friendly, although our waitress spoke very fast and not very loud so it was at times difficult to hear her (unless you had a very astute ear). I think Bier Markt might be a better place for a 5@7 rather than an actual meal.
The second night we wandered around further down on Front street in search of something interesting to eat - we ended up coming across Spring Rolls. Now, I'm honestly not a huge fan of all-you-can-eat sushi places with a lot of cooked food (there's a bunch where I live and a) they are expensive and b) they are not as fresh and tasty as those that are not AYCE), but my two other co-workers were game to go and try it out. We were lucky because it ended up being a special price on Tuesday nights at $19.99 per person (add $3 for the premium menu, which includes lobster and steak). So with a reduced price we ended up all getting drinks, which brought us back to the budget of $30 exact.
The unique part of Spring Rolls is that they had dim sum on the menu. There was Har gow (shrimp dumplings) and Siu Mai (pork dumplings) - both were decent, although I'll admit it's hard to satisfy by standards for dim sum after eating dim sum in Hong Kong for 7 years +. These were on the same level as regular dim sum restaurants, so that was a plus. Other things we ordered (from my memory - no photos because I didn't want to look stupid in front of my co-workers):
-S&P squid - was like fried calamari but with salt and pepper and a sweet chili dipping sauce. The squid wasn't tough and rubbery-chewy, which was good, and the dipping sauce had a nice kick to it to help offset the greasiness of the fried batter
-Sushi - many of their "special rolls" were not really that "wow" and I could pass on them (it doesn't seem like sushi is Spring Rolls' forte). However, I do have to say that I liked that there wasn't massive amounts of rice in each roll
-Tempura - was on par with many AYCE restaurants that I've been to. Nothing special
-Coconut shrimp - liked it a lot, surprisingly. The coconut had a really good flavour (thankfully they used unsweetened coconut) and the batter wasn't too heavy - there was more coconut than batter which was good because it made it less greasy. With a little lime juice it tasted excellent
-Pad Thai - tasted better...definitely too red and not enough fish sauce
-Singapore noodles - good dose of curry, great yellow colour (usually only imparted if using curry powder) and there was a good mix of ingredients (vegetables and meat) in it. Pretty much on par with one of my favourite Chinese restaurants back home
-Mongolian beef - I remember we ordered it but don't remember much about it, so obviously not very memorable, just your average stir fried beef
-Sashimi - here's the catch with Spring Rolls: you can only order 5 slices of sashimi at a time. Which sucked because 5 slices does not go a long way. Our first order was 5 slices of tuna, and the next order 5 slices of red snapper. I will admit though they were very fresh tasting, although I found the slices to be relatively thin compared to many sushi restaurants (and some AYCE) that I have been to
-Sushi pizza - we got the spicy salmon one, which was tasty (it had a great kick to it and the salmon was chopped into larger chunks to you could still taste the fish through the spiciness), however, the rice "cake" it was on top was very thick. I would have preferred if it was thinner so that the "crust" could be crunchier
I don't quite remember what else we ended up ordering! But those were the things that I can remember off the top of my head. Dessert would have been included if we had added $3 for the premium menu but we decided not to.
Overall verdict: I think I would go back (on Tuesdays of course), but I'll admit I may prefer to go to an AYCE Korean BBQ instead if I was going for an AYCE. It just tastes better for what you pay. I rather pay for a la carte sushi nowadays/
The third night we ended up craving for something lighter so we ended up going to The Keg, which was across the street. Right, I know what you're thinking - The Keg? Isn't that a steakhouse?
Yup...but there's salad! I ended up getting the spinach salad (baby spinach, strawberries, dried cranberries, pecans and red onion in a vinaigrette with crumbled goat cheese) and added tiger shrimp on to for an extra $9 (that made the salad come out to around $16). One of my co-workers went for the same salad but with chicken, and my other co-worker went with onion soup, calamari and crab cakes. The salad was really good - I love baby spinach and the mix of sweet and salty is something that I've been enjoying lately. I got a lot of shrimp for $9 and they were pretty big (tiger shrimp aren't those dinky ones you get in your Chinese fried rice). I'll admit that normally I wouldn't put shrimp on my salad but seeing that adding sirloin steak, chicken or shrimp would've been the same amount, I opted for the most expensive.
The ambiance at The Keg on Esplanade is definitely different from the other ones that I've been to in the past - this one had a more classy "club" vibe in certain areas. I remember going once and it felt less restaurant more social gathering spot. We got a spot in the booths so it felt more restaurant-ish.
Our last dinner in Toronto brought us to Guu Izakaya - I was looking forward to this since day one and had a huge list of things I wanted to eat that amounted to almost $80 tax NOT INCLUDED. We ended up with a bill of around $41 per person (tax and tips included), which wasn't so bad if you think of it, but I missed out a few things on my list.
Left: My coworker's 1 litre of Sapporo, Right: My Calpico Sour (Calpico + Vodka soda)
First off - drinks. One co-worker got beer, I got a calpico sour (Calpico is a Japanese yogurt drink) and my other coworker got a Lemon sour (fresh lemon juice that you squeeze at the table, hence the lemons in the juicer behind the beer in the first picture, with vodka soda). I think it was $6 for the drinks?
After that...I did the ordering, asking them what they liked/didn't like. We ended up with a lot of food, but they were in "Japanese Tapas" style, so we had to share everything. Still very satisfying and got to try a lot of food!
1) Okonomiyaki - deep fried Japanese pancake with squid, tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo
2) Kurage - marinated jellyfish
3) Gyu tongue - grilled beef tongue with salt and pepper
3) Takoyaki - deep fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayo
My thoughts: the okonomiyaki was tastier than the one that I had tried for the first time at another restaurant, but did not seem to have enough squid. But I still enjoyed it (as did my coworker, who ended up eating the last piece because she didn't eat the raw items we ordered). The kurage was nothing special to me because I eat that all the time at Chinese banquets and if we order a certain chicken dish at restaurants. The Guy tongue was good - it may sound gross to be eating a tongue but the texture is much softer than steak, despite the fact that it tastes like steak. There is a much more beefy flavour. It was not dry and was very tender and flavourful, definitely a re-order for next time. The Takoyaki was good too - it reminded me of those that I had in Japan when I was a kid. They were nice and soft inside with large chunks of octopus. I ate probably 2?
Second round brought us:
1) Kakimayo - BC oyster with mushroom, spinach and garlic mayo, topped with cheese
2) Hotate carpaccio - Hokaido scallop sashimi with wasabi mayo
3) Maguro tataki - BC tuna (seared) with ponzu and garlic chips
4) Saba - grilled saba mackerel with dill, garlic, onion and lemon
5) Yakiudon (no picture) - stir fried udon
My thoughts: the oyster was good (there were two), but I like my oysters raw so I didn't care too much about this one. The raw scallop was amazing - they were sweet and the wasabi mayo was not too overpowering. I'll admit though, when I eat raw seafood, I prefer it plain so I can taste the fish/seafood flavour.
The tuna tataki was tasty too, although I would have liked more garlic chips since those were particularly tasty haha. Either way the fish was very fresh and tasted soft and oceany. The sauce was different too (not your typical soy sauce concoction). Would have ordered again. As for the saba - as much as I like mackerel, I had better at a little fast food Japanese restaurant in HK and would not have bothered to order it here (although we ended up only getting it upon recommendation of another co-worker...never listening to TO coworkers again). Still good, but nothing explicitly different.
Yakiudon - nothing to write home about.
After all that...we still had room for some dessert!
We ordered Banana Tempura, Cheesecake of the day (ended up being corn cheesecake - nothing special) and Seasme ice cream (no picture). The cheesecake was not what I expected - I was hoping it would be like Japanese cotton soft cheesecake. So I was disappointed - I would've preferred to get the almond tofu. The banana tempura was a hit with everyone - it came with chocolate sauce and coconut ice cream in the middle (I think there was mango sauce too). The black sesame ice cream also ended up being a hit with the other two co-workers, who had never tried it and stated that it tasted a bit like peanut butter, but more smokey. All the desserts were $4 (and there not as many choices so we almost ordered all of it haha).
And that ends the trip to TO! Seeing that this got way too long, I'll have to wait until next time to blog about my meals in Halifax. On top of work starting to pick up, it looks like that might take a little longer (and my wifi at home isn't working so I'm tethering and I'm eating away at my 6GBs faster than I anticipated!)
The Bier Markt
58 The Esplanade, Toronto, ON
http://www.thebiermarkt.com/
Spring Rolls
85 Front Street, Toronto, ON
http://www.springrolls.ca
The Keg
26 The Esplanade, Toronto, ON
http://www.kegsteakhouse.com
Guu-Izakaya
398 Church Street, Toronot, ON
http://guu-izakaya.com/
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