Cafe Mirage

I was craving for crepes Sunday night, so I called up a friend and we decided to head to Demetres. As expected, there was a line up. We didn't want to wait so we walked over to Cafe Mirage. I remember I went to Cafe Mirage before, the one located down yonge and finch I believe? From my memory, their crepes were horrible. But, recently I've been hearing my friends going to cafe Mirage for desserts so I assumed the possibility that they improved or may have a different chef at the hwy 7 location and decided to give it a try.
It was a definitely a bad idea.

The crepe, was just really bad.
My friend ordered the 'perfect couple' on crepe. I had the brownie one on crepe, which is the one in the picture below. You definitely wouldn't be able to guess this is considered as a 'brownie' featured crepe.

I have never had such a bad crepe before. I don't even know how to describe what it tasted like. It was really sweet, not chewy yet a had a soft crunch..? When ordering a crepe, if the crepe sucks, there is pretty much nothing else to eat. I mean the icecream was honey vanilla, and there was strawberry sauce all over the plate. Including the brownies, you can't get any sweeter.
I totally did not fulfill my crepe craving, and didn't even finish half of my plate either. There goes $10.

Food: I normally don't blog about the restaurant unless I've tried more than one thing, but I suppose the crepe was just that horrible that I just had to post about it. My friend said she had their cakes last time and it was alright. So I suppose, or hopefully, their other desserts are much better.
Service: Good. I was tempted to complain about my crepe though, but I'm pretty sure the server wouldn't be able to do much.
Price: expensive considering how bad my crepe was
Atmosphere/Decoration: I'm not gonna lie, I did like the atmosphere of the place. Had a comfortable lounge feeling.
Overall: I strongly suggest you to NOT go here for crepes.

Cafe Mirage Grill & Lounge
160 York Boulevard (Hwy 7 & East Beaver Creek)

凱龍船 (Dragon Boat Restaurant)

I went to a good dimsum place on the weekend. It's been there for a long time but my parents and I just never paid a visit there. I guess because everytime we went, there was always a line up to get a table.

We ordered the basics. Shrimp dumpling and Siu Mai.

In my Siu Mai there was a piece of chestnut. That was unusual as normally you wouldn't find that ingredient in Siu Mais. But the other 3 pieces didnt' have it. I suppose the kitchen accidently placed it in one of the Siu Mais..that ruined a bit of the taste though since I personally hate chestnuts.

These fish balls were really good. The texture inside was so soft, not like other places really chewy. I recommend this.

The top one is chicken strips rice noodle. Not the common ones at most dimsum restaurants. The bottom one is bbq pork rice noodles. It was good, unlike other dimsum restaurants, their bbq pork pieces weren't tiny and only fat meat. I thought the rice noodle skin part wasn't thin enough though. Don't get faked by the top piece. The rice noodle skin for the bottom two were thicker.

On top of dimsum we ordered this dish. Tiger shrimp noodles. This was actually pretty good, the sauce was tasty. The shrimps were big, but as expected they were frozen shrimps. But, for a price of $8.99, it was good.

Food: Good

Service: Good

Price: Wasn't really a dimsum special, more of the high-end places for dimsum.

Atmosphere/Decoration: looks nice and grand.

Overall: Good dimsum place with quality food. Never tried their dinner meals yet.

凱龍船 Dragon Boat Restaurant

160 East Beaver Creek Road #4

鴻官 Elegant Restaurant Cuisine

Came across this chinese restaurant that seemed to be recently opened. They have a huge aquarium at the entrance. When you walk into the restaurant, you get this really fancy and grand feeling. This pulled off a bad impression thinking the food would be just as good...

At first they had a special saying if you eat up to $30 (i think it was) and add $1 you get a free dish. So we thought, we have four people, most likely will be able to order up to $30. So we pick and then the waiter all of the sudden brings up so many requirements. So the few dishes you order up to $30 cannot be a dish listed on the "add $1 dish" list. One of our dishes was on the list, so we decided to order fried rice. The waiter says yes at first, but 2 mins later comes back saying the up to $30 has to be dishes, can't be rice/noodles. In the end like any customer, we got annoyed. In the end we had to go through a 30 min discussion to actually get our food ordered. Points deducted there already...

咕嚕肉 (Sweet and sour chicken). I thought this was good, it was a bit more sweet than sour though. It was crunchy.

豆腐煲 (Tofu stone pot). This was nothing special, and I'm personally not a fan of tofu.

節瓜粉絲 (Melon & vermicelli). I actually liked this dish. Probably because it was one of the dishes that didn't have such a heavy taste to it, like not too much taste to it, nice and plain. Or should I say oridnary with it's original taste.

千島排骨(Pork with thousand island sauce). Can someone please tell me why this dish is so small?

椒鹽軟殼蟹. Soft shell crab. I've had better. This dish was a bit too salty.

Food: Alright.

Service: Alright, I actually started finding it annoying when they kept coming over.

Price: More expensive than average.

Atmosphere/Decoration: It looks really fancy inside. They have a huge fish tank at the entrance. The interior design is really nice, they have a lot of chinese drawings and paintings hanging on the walls. I suppose they are the owner's collection.

Overall: I don't think I will come back. There was nothing special about the food, I would rather go to another not as grand looking chinese restaurant with better food at a cheaper price. I went on a friday night and there were probably only 3 other tables, quite quiet for a friday night. Not sure how long this restaurant will survive...

Elegant Chinese Cuisine

5328 Hwy#7, Markham, ON

(along the bunch of restaurants near Lick's)

Wildcraft

After moving back into Waterloo with my family, my brother wanted to try a restaurant that wouldn't be found in Toronto, yet of course with decent food. Then and there, we went to Wildcraft. To my surprise, their food was really good. (considering all the crappy food/restaurants you get here)

There was some special set dinner (appetizer, main, and dessert) for $35, which my brother and I both ordered.

Wild Mushroom Soup. This was really good, the mushroom was grinded so smoothly you couldn't taste the bits of mushroom yet still having a rich taste of mushroom. I recommend getting this appetizer.

For the main I had the Erie Pickeral. Normally I usually think western restaurants can't cook good fish. However, this fish was the best one I've had at a western restaurant. It was cooked just right so the meat was soft, not chewy. I did dislike the fact there were some bones though. The fish did lack a bit of taste though, there wasn't enough spice.

My brother had the pork belly. Look at that huge chunk of fat. The actual meat was very little, but still tasty. I think ordering the Pickeral was more worthwhile portion-wise.

I thought the dessert was cute. It was supposed to be a brownie lollipop wrapped with pecan nuts. However, since i'm allergic to nuts they gave me an oreo flavored one instead. The inside was full of the white cream you taste in between the two oero cookie pieces. Although it was a bit sweet, but really good.

My mom ordered the wild mushroom flat bread. This was good. (Or maybe just because I love portabella mushrooms.)

Food: Pretty Good.

Service: My waiter was really friendly, professional service.

Price: Pricy. The price is somewhat similar to Moxies or a bit more expensive depending on what you order. 

Atmosphere/Decoration: I do like their setting. Looks classy yet bar-y at the same time. However I did find it a bit loud for an elgant place.

Overall: A good restaurant found in Waterloo. I would come back. But if I were to dine here again, it would probably be for a special occasion/outing. Not likely a choice of restaurant for a casual dinner.

Wildcraft Grill Bar

425 King Street North, Waterloo

澳門街

Of the 3 times that I went, there was finally that one time I tried this restaurant. Each time I went, there was always a massive line up. They are constantly busy between all dinner hours, starting from 6? Even when I finished eating (8:30ish), there were still people waiting for a table. I just had to give it a try to find out whether it was just the hype of a new chinese restaurant, or because the food was actually that good.

What I found interesting was, the name of the restaurant before this was "Golden Horse Restaurant". They used the same english name for the restaurant..I wonder if it's the same owner..?

When you open the menu, they have 2 things they recommended. Although these two aren't really famous Macau dishes, my friend and I still decided to order those two selections.

1) House Special Porkchop Rice. (豬扒飯) This dish was good as well, but nothing really special.

2) Beef brisket noodles. I normally don't like eating these type of noodles, but I must say this dish was pretty good. The soup base was good and the meat was really tender.

On the side, we ordered the famous Macau pork bun (豬扒包).

I thought it was nothing special. Just a normal fried pork sandwich.

I really wanted to try the 葡國雞飯, since it is a famous dish in Macau. Guess I'll give it a try next time.

Food: Good.

Service: Good.

Price: Average.

Decoration/Atmosphere: Their 抽油煙機 is crap. I really dislike the "air" in the restaurant, there is such a strong smell of their kitchen oil/gas? You walk in and stand there for 10 seconds and the smell is already attached to your clothes. My advice is, if you do plan to go, wear clothes you plan to wash.

Overall: Worth going. I noticed this restaurant is pretty similar to the one in Hong Kong (menu-wise). It has a lot of foods that typical Hong Kong style cafes usually have. The food is not bad as well. 

澳門街 Golden Horse Restaurant
4580 Hwy 7 East, Unit 3

Seoul Garden

I was near Pmall area with my friend and she had a sudden crave for korean food. She suggested to try the one at Market Village since we both couldn't think of any other korean restaurant nearby.

I think the only thing I liked about this place was the side dishes. There were so many, and it had my favorite one: the potatoes. The fish cake (second top right) was good, but it was a bit too oily. To my understanding, every korean place I went to, the side dishes are refillable. But apparently not here. i asked for more fish cakes and potatoes but they said those ones cannot be refilled.

For main, I had bulgolgi. I have never had such dry and tough bulgolgi beef before. It was so dry, there wasn't even any the bulgolgi sauce.

My friend ordered the bibimbap. It definitely tasted better than my cardboard beef though.

Maybe their korean bbq is better...? I don't know but I know I wouldn't want to try.

Food: Bad

Service: Not great.

Price: Not worth it. The mains on the menu are mostly $10+.

Atmosphere/Decoration: The interior does look pretty nice.

Overall: I don't think I will come back again. Unless my friend decides to drag me there. The food was bad and not worth the price I paid for. The place runs by Chinese people, so its not authentic at all.

Seoul Garden

4350 Steeles Ave E, Market Village Unit A1