Sansotei

Funny how there's so many ramen places opening now. But of all that I've been, I would say Sansotei tastes the best.

Tonkotsu Ramen. ($10) 

I really liked the soup base, flavourful. it came with 2 pieces of their pork belly, fungus, and the egg nicely sliced with the liquidy orange yolk. It looks a lot less fancy than the one at Momofuku. I would comment that the pork belly was a bit too fatty, more fat than meat on the slices. The noodles tasted a bit different than other ramen restaurants, it was not the typical chewy style but more of an authentic ramen kind. Normally when I have ramen i cant finish the whole bowl. I don't know if i just really enjoyed it or the portion wasnt that big, but I finished all the noodles...but I'm pretty sure guys wouldn't be full from just one bowl.

Zangi, the deep fried chicken. ($4.5)

This was really good. Quite a few pieces and nicely fried. I recommend ordering this. Not bad for 5 bucks.

Food:  Excellent.
Service: Good
Price: Average
Atmosphere: There aren't a lot of tables and there's usually a line up. I went around 415 pm, so we didn't have to wait in line. But when we left at 5 it started getting busy, more people came. Yes, it starts getting busy before 6. If you want to come either be prepared to wait in line or just go at odd hours.
Overall: I heard the owners of this place actually went to school studying ramen. That probably explains the result of tasty noodles. Tonkotsu ramen is the best one of the list, I recommend trying it. If you are going to head downtown for noodles, I would say Sansotei tops Momofuku and Kinton for sure. Better ramen for a cheaper price. Only downside is, be prepared for a line up.

Sansotei

179 Dundas Street W, Downtown Toronto

Fav Cafe

I first came here when it was grand opening. It was lunch time and as I went through the menu I find some of their dishes pretty interesting. They had a wide variety of culture foods, like Russian dishes, Hk dishes, etc.

My bro ordered beef stroganoff pasta.

When the plate arrived I was kinda surprised to, the portion is a bit small for it's price. Tasted good. My bro didn't like it though cause the sauce was a bit sweet.

I tried this 豬頸肉荷葉炒飯. (Pork neck fried rice baked in a leaf)

It sounded interesting so I gave it a try. Quite a lot of pieces of pork. One thing was it didn't really seem like fried rice, since it wasn't really yellow-y and there were so little bits of egg but the rice did have some 'leaf' taste. It tasted good, but i feel like it needed more sauce.

First time seeing this! Never knew Canada Dry came in bottles too

I came back again for breakfast with my mom. There wasn't that much of a variety of choices, at least nothing looked appealing at that moment.
My mom ordered the ham and mushroom omelette.

At first i thought it seemed nothing special, and the ingredients weren't even cooked with the egg, it seemed more like the egg was just wrapping fried ingredients. But the egg didn't taste oily at all. It was actually pretty good. As sides they served beans and a baked tomato? They sprinkled some kind of crunchy bits on top when they baked it, pretty tastey.

I ordered the Egg sandwich with luncheon meat. It came with that baked tomato and beans as well.

Surprisingly the egg was really good, nice and fat. The luncheon meat isn't the thin cheap ones some restaurants give you. This one was thick and real luncheon meat. Not gonna lie but their breakfast was better than I expected.

*Note: They are closed Tuesdays.

Food: Pretty good
Service: Good
Price: Fair, their dishes range $8-16.
Atmosphere: This place is really small. Either call beforehand to check if there's tables or else you might have to wait. Of the 2 times I came I had to wait a bit. It surprises me a bit how this place is pretty busy.
Overall: This restaurant's food surprises me each time i come. I have a good feel to it for some reason. I want to go back for lunch or dinner and try more of their dishes. One thing i don't like about this place is there's a lot less choices. For example there's only around 5 options for breakfast and afternoon tea.

Fav Cafe
280 West Beaver Creek Road (inside Jubilee Centre)

Inatei Japanese Cuisine

I was meeting up with a high school friend, we planned to go to Fav Cafe but for some reason it was closed so we came here instead. This restaurant was opened a long time ago. I came here once during grand opening and thought the food was alright. I cant believe after so long, I come back and the prices have madly increased. Clearly there was no turning back, but in my mind I just kept thinking I hope they improved the quality of their fish too.

My friend and I shared a Sushi dinner. I swear their menu is so confusing. They have "sushi dinner" listed in their menu 3 times with 3 different prices without stating what the difference is. We assumed the higher the price means the more variety of fish? My friend and I just gave up and just picked one. (16.99)

8 sushi and 6 maki. I appreciated how none of the sushi were duplicated. The fish was fresh, pretty good. The maki they served, 3 were spicy salmon and the other 3 were spicy tuna.

Spider Roll. ($8)

It was nicely placed. 5 pieces. The typical spider roll, tasted good.

On top we both ordered a Crab Chawamushi. ($4) Funny how this appetizer came last though...

Basically steamed egg with ginger bits, mushroom, and crab meat. It was alright. Nothing special in my opinion.

They gave us dessert. I suppose it was free? Lychee pudding I believe it was.

In my opinion it tasted kinda funny for some reason...A bit soury? For some reason I felt like there was Soho in it or something LOL but my friend said I was crazy. But yes, there is no alcohol in this dessert.

Food: Good.
Service: Good.
Price: Too expensive - Good is good but the price doesn't make it worth it. My friend told me they kept increasing the price every few months, which is when she stopped coming.
Atmosphere:
Overall: If I wanted sushi I wouldn't come here. I'm not sure if I'm just being picky, but I dont think this meal was worth it. The quality of the fish was good, but still not worth the price. I rather spend the same amount at Shinobu - the fish is more fresh. Or at least it just felt better. I just wasnt fascinated by my meal and considering we didnt order much, it was just expensive. I saw some things on the menu that I would have wanted to try but the price just wasnt promising.

Inatei Japanese Cuisine
9021 Leslie Street, Richmond Hill

Momofuku

My bro and i headed downtown wanting to go for Sansotei ramen. After we parked, we got to the door and it said "closed sundays". What a bummer, so we went to momofuku instead.

We walked in and it was around 1130? Not busy yet, there were still empty tables. But the hostess decides to seat us at the 2 leftover seats next to a huge group of asian family. I would understand sharing tables when the place is busy, but why would they sit us next to a family like that. I saw some others didnt need to share tables. That instance already ruined a bit of my mood and perception of the place.

We tried the pork buns. If you ask me this seems more like a fusion dish, not really a japanese traditional thing.

Oh, one funny thing. When we sat down a waitress came over and told us they are featuring a special Hong Kong style ramen. Couldn't exactly hear what the ingredients were but i still found that a bit strange. Just gave me a feeling the place wasn't that Japanese authentic. Anyhow, it tasted good. The sauce under the cucumber was the sauce you add when you have peking duck lol.

Me and my bro both ordered the momofuku ramen. He's been there before and said theres nothing special with the other ramens. It was around $13 for a bowl of ramen.....

I suppose they did give a good variety and portion of sides. Came with pork belly & shoulder, fish cake, egg. Maybe because it's ran by korean so they decided to add kimchi in it? I found that kinda odd.The egg was really good. I love ramen eggs when the orange yolk is liquidy. 

On the side my bro wanted to try their spicy chicken wings. ($12)

I guess he thought the wings would be a small dish? But turned out there were so many. It was pretty good though, marinated and cooked well.

Food: Pretty Good.
Service: For some reason I just didnt have a good feel for the service. The hostess was not friendly taking us to our table, or when she took our order. Another male waiter was just stupid. We ordered 2 of the same ramen, and sharing the bun and wings. As he was giving us our food he asks to take away our plates and gaves us spare bowls instead. I dont get it. Did he think we were going to share the ramen instead of the bun and wings? I was surprised none of the waiters/waitresses were japanese or asian.

Price: Expensive - a bit overpriced imo
Atmosphere: I think the design of their place is really nice. Apparently each level serves different types of food. The ground floor is the ramen.
Overall: Maybe it was just me, but i didn't enjoy my visit here. I mean the food was tasty but a bit overpriced. I would prefer going to Sansotei - the ramen is better and less expensive. I'm not gonna lie the service did piss me off a bit, especially the hostess.

Momofuku

190 University Avenue, (downtown Toronto)

Butter Avenue

Every review I've seen online or heard through a friend liked their experience, so I had to come myself to believe it. My friend and I wanted to try their high tea here but we never ended up making reservations so we just paid a walk-in visit. Considering I had my hopes high and was really excited to come, they definitely didn't let me down.

Because we waited in line for quite a long time, the manager said he'd give us each a macaron for free! So generous. ($2.50 per macaron)

The left is "White chocolate strawberry", and to the right is "matcha chestnut"(this flavour was a weekend special). I normally don't like macarons, but I gotta admit the macarons here are amazing. Crispy yet chewy. I really liked the white chocolate strawberry. I didnt take a picture of the inside, but there's actually a small piece of strawberry jam mixed with the white chocolate coating in between. I expected it to be really sweet considering it's white chocolate but to my surprise, it was quite acceptable.
They have a large variety of macaron flavours. They have a cup of mini macarons with a variety of flavours, good for taste testing. ($7.50)

I decided to try a cake. I dont remember the exact name but it was a dark chocolate mousse cake. ($7.50)

It wasn't that sweet since it was 60% dark chocolate. I liked the bottom piece of the cake, it was similar to the "crunch chocolate bar". It had those crunchy pops in chocolate. One good thing was the cake didn't feel very heavy or filling. Not bad, but not the cake that I originally wanted to order, they sold out of the other mousse cake i was hoping to try.

I ordered their Iced salted caramel latte ($4.95)

I've actually never tried this drink anywhere else, but it sounded cool so I gave it a try. I couldn't taste any caramel in the drink, but you can clearly see the caramel that's added. Strange eh? The drink tasted good, kinda reminded me of a cappuccino, but would I pay that much for it....not so sure.

My friend ordered this. I really don't remember the name of it.

I believe the 2 macarons' was raspberry flavour with pistachio cream tart. The pistachio cream was really really good. It didn't taste heavy or creamy at all, but really smooth. I definitely recommend trying this. Not to mention their macarons are a must try.

*Note: they are closed on Mondays.

Food: Very declicious, amazing macarons.
Service: Amazing service
Price: Expensive. However, macarons are all normally priced $2.50 in bakery/cake shops. So I would say their macarons are standard priced.
Atmosphere: They place is very small but pulls off a fancy yet delicate feel. There are approximately only 5 tables? I would recommend making reservations or else it might be hard to get a spot when its busy on weekends.
Overall: I really enjoyed it and definitely will be coming back. When i come back, I will be ordering macarons or their macarons on a tart. You can't leave this place without trying their macarons.
They have 2 options for high tea, the light set ($30 per person) or the deluxe set ($45 person). For both sets you get the standard plate with the selection of tarts and cakes. The only difference of the 2 is a different selection of tea choices and the light set only comes with 1 macaron, whereas the deluxe set has 3 macarons.  Yes, I will be coming back to try this.

Butter Avenue
3467 Yonge Street, Toronto

藍海餐廳 (Blue Ocean Cafe)

I remember the very first time I came here was when it was grand opening, and I thought the food was bad. Until more than one person told me it was good, I decided to give it a second chance. To my surprise, their food is actually pretty good.

My dad ordered 海南雞飯 (Hai Nan chicken rice).

The chicken was pretty tender and had the "hainanese" taste. The rice wasn't too oily. This dish is comparable to Phoenix' Hai Nan chicken rice.

I ordered the 海鮮意大利幼面條配龍蝦汁 (Seafood linguine in lobster sauce). I believe it was $15 including soup and drink.

It was the Chef's recommendation. I really really liked it. The sauce was really good, creamy but also having a lobster taste to it. They put in a lot of seafood in too so it didn't feel like a rip off. Surprisingly a wide variety too; imitation crab meat, squid, shrimp, clams). I highly recommend trying this dish.

避風唐海鮮伊麵.

I know it doesn't look that appealing, but it tasted good. It's the first time I had noodles in this type of sauce, a bit spicy, which is how it's supposed to be. However, I did find it kinda strange how it was mixed in seafood and minced pork, as the 2 don't really tend to go along.

My bro ordered this. I don't remember what it was called though. It's some sausage/ham/bacon spaghetti in Japanese tomato sauce. The sauce leaned more towards being sweet than sour so my bro didn't really like it. I did though.

Please excuse the blur. (I'm not gonna lie my camera skills suck lately)

Food: Pretty good.
Service: Alright
Price: Fair, their dishes range $8-16 on average. They do have cheaper dishes such as their breakfast meals or the more typical HK food selections.
Atmosphere: For some reason, I noticed majority of the customers that come here are a younger crowd than a family style (mid 20s-30s).
Overall: I like this place and I do recommend it. In general, they do have a wide variety of food selections - Taiwanese/Japanese/Malaysian/Western. This restaurant's style is quite similar to Phoneix, however I personally feel that their HK dishes' aren't their selling point.

藍海餐廳
8392 Kennedy Road, Unit A6 

Loui's Kouzina

My friends and I randomly decided to go for Greek food, something different i guess. Of the many times I've been to this plaza, I actually never even noticed this restaurant's existence. I actually looked forward to my visit after seeing the good reviews and likes on urbanspoon.

They have a few platters, which is good for sharing and trying a variety of foods. I personally wanted to order one, but my friends all wanted to order separately. I suppose I'll try next time.
For starters they serve garlic bread using hot dog bun bread. lol Isn't that a cheap option.

When I was looking at the menu, I was pretty confused. They had "gyro on a pita or bun for $5.45 in the sandwiches section", but also "gyro plate served with grilled pita for $8.95 in the appetizer section". Is it just me, or both options sound like they serve the same thing? I tried asking the waitress but I have no idea what she said. I think she thought i was referring to the gyro small plate. Anyhow, so I just let that pass and went with ordering the gyro small plate ($10.95). But my Gyro plate didn`t come with a pita, which i was kinda disappointed. I would have ordered one of the other 2 in terms of price and food preference.

For those who don`t know, gyro is a mix of beef and lamb thinly sliced. It was pretty good. I would have preferred having it in a pita though. But most importantly, the humus was good and went well with the meat. The salad was a typical greek salad with a strong sour-y vinegar greek dressing taste to it. I did not like the potatoes at all. I thought the potatoes would have been grilled or roasted (it does say roasted, but this wasn`t the kind of roasted I had in mind). The potatoes were skinless, very soft, and dunked into some I don`t know what or how to describe sauce. I personally don`t like soft potatoes to begin with, and with the sauce just made me dislike it.

One of my friend ordered the chicken soulaki small plate. ($10.95)

Look at the size of the chicken. If you ask me, I don`t think the chicken is a reasonable size. I mean, just look at the sides. The sides are almost quadruple the size. My friend said the chicken was good, juicy and not dry. However, the piece my friend gave me was quite miniature to actually taste it, but based on that small piece, I thought it was a bit dry.
Note: For large plates, only the sides (potatoes, fries, rice, etc.) are bigger in portion, you still get the same amount of meat. So don't be expecting more meat if you order a large plate.

I didn't take a picture, but my other friend ordered the lamb shanks ($15.95). I tried a small piece and damn, the lamb is good! The meat was really tender, not dry at all. It is literally fall off the bone lamb meat. I would actually recommend trying the lamb!

Food: Pretty Good
Service: When we got there, the waitress kept asking us if we were ready to order even after telling her many times we are still waiting on some people to arrive. I don`t understand why she was rushing us the whole time. Even when we were finished our meal, she was rushing to give us our bill. It wasn`t even packed. If you ask me, I don`t like the service at all. One, considering she couldn`t even explain or make an effort to explain to me about the gyro pita, Second, annoying us to order food.
Price: Average. In my opinion, I don't think the plates are worth it. Being that I dont eat much of the carbs.
Atmosphere: Nothing special.
Overall: I'm not gonna lie, the food is pretty good. But then again, I don't eat greek food enough to be the best judge. I would pay another visit to try their other foods on the menu though. I want to try their Moussaka (layers of potato, ground beef, zucchini and eggplant topped with bechamel sauce) - sounds like a Greek style lasagna to me. One cool thing I witness was some kind of cheese  that they were serving another table. I believe it was a grilled piece of cheese? They lit it on fire and had to say a word in greek language while burning it or else the cheese wont taste good or something. I found that pretty interesting.

Loui's Kouzina
9255 Woodbine Avenue (in the TNT plaza at Woodbine & 16th Avenue)

Wanda's Belgian Waffles

I was waiting in line for my noodles order, and across I see this waffles place. I told my client I feel bad for the owner since every time I pass by, he has no customers. My client agreed and seeing their deal of $2 a vanilla waffle, we decided to give it a try.

After it was freshly made and given to my hand, i was surprised at the weight of this waffle.

(The picture was taken after a few bites.) It was thick and heavy. It's not the typical soft and fluffy waffles at sit-in restaurants. It was high volume, hot, flaky and crispy, dusted with icing sugar. It wasn't too sweet which I liked, but you could taste the heavy butter in the batter.  This is probably the only type of waffle I wouldn't mind eating plain without any icecream or toppings. My only major concern with these waffles would be the calories. Trust me, even though the waffle doesnt look that big, considering how filing the waffle was, I suspect it to be roughly around 1000 calories.

Food: Very Good
Service: Good
Price: The vanilla waffles are a good deal, as for other options I would say they are a bit expensive. (I've never tried though)
Atmosphere/Decoration: They are definitely at the wrong place. People that go to Pacific mall are mostly Asian or looking for cheap food options. These waffles definitely wouldn't catch their eye.
Overall: I personally really like their waffles. I actually got a waffle at my last few visits at Pacific Mall. I looked up reviews on their waffles and majority don't seem to like it. Some find it expensive and some didn't enjoy the taste - but in the end, it's all personal preference of how you like your waffles. I would suggest giving their waffles a try, but not on a regular basis since they are a bit too heavy.

Wanda's Belgian Waffles
4300 Steeles Ave, E (inside Pacific Mall upstairs)

Piggy's Restaurant

If you ask me, I think they should have made this restaurant's english name the direct translation of it's korean name, "Piggy Piggy". Would sound a lot cuter than just piggy's. Anyhow, I suppose the only reason I planned a visit here was because of the cool restaurant name.

I liked how they had a variety of combos to choose from. Basically you pick a main dish from a list, one appetizer (of the 2), and either 4 bottles of beer or 1 bottle of soju. Since the restaurant's called Piggy, clearly we had to try the pigs! My friend and I decided to go for the Piggy's soju combo C. We chose the thin sliced pork belly, with steamed egg bowl, and 4 bottles of beer. All for a total of $34.95, pretty good deal if you ask me.

They gave us quite a lot of side dishes, which I liked. But none seemed to be the usual ones you get at other korean restaurants. When I first saw this dish of onions, I was confused thinking we eat it straight up.

(Wasn't until later I realized it was probably given to add in to your pork belly and lettuce wrap.)
Now look at this dish, doesn't it look interesting and different?

Not gonna lie, even after tasting it I still couldnt figure out what I just ate.
The kimchi was pretty spicy on it's own. The dish on the right is spicy lettuce. And the small dish at the top is super spicy squid. (I couldn't tell if it was raw or cooked) lol

You have the option of bbq-ing the kimchi as well, added a bit of crisp to it and less cold.

And here is the pork belly, look at all that fat!

The waitress rarely knew/spoke any english so we had a hard time figuring out how we were supposed to eat our meal. But within time we figured out we were supposed to wrap the pork belly into the given lettuce. (I even messaged my korean friend to confirm, just because I didn't want to look like a retard in the restaurant.)

The pork belly was so crispy. I normally don't like bacon, but I enjoyed this meal, although it was a bit of too much 'bacon'. My friend kept saying I ruined his love for bacon since we probably each had roughly 10 pieces on our own.
The egg soup was really good. Smooth and soft egg texture, tasting not too salty too.

We also ordered "Bi Bim Naeng Myeon" to share. ($9.95) On the menu it stated that it's sweet potato vermicelli noodles topped with marinated raw fish in spicy sauce. by stating "sweet potato vermicelli", somehow we were hoping that it would be the korean 'glass noodles' (chap cheh), but to our disappointment it was this really thin and springy white noodles which were hard to cut off (or should I say the noodles were red since it was intensely covered in hot sauce, nothing looked non-red). I thought this dish was a bit too spicy for my taste buds. Another funny thing was there were pieces of meat, but it was crunchy. Didn't taste anything close to fish, but because the color was so red, we couldn't figure out what meat we were eating. Just as a side note, the noodles were cold; this wasn't a hot dish. I personally didn't enjoy this dish too much.

Food: Pretty good
Service: Alright
Price: Average
Atmosphere/Decoration: Nothing special, but the restaurant is quite big compared to the typical korean restaurants down yonge and finch. I do have to comment that my clothes smelled SO korean after i left. I personally dislike the strong smell of korean food on my clothes and hair, not to mention this place had bbq grills at each table.
Overall: I enjoyed my visit, although the pork belly was a bit too overwhelming for 2 people to eat. Would have been a better idea to go with a bigger group; a few friends snacking with beer. If you're not familiar with eating korean food, i would suggest coming with a korean friend, that way you wont look confused or not know what to order. I would recommend coming to this restaurant as I wouldn't mind coming back myself.

Piggy's Restaurant
5 Glen Cameron Rd, Thornhill

Cafe Mania

For a girls night out, my girl friend and I went on our dessert hunt and landed at this restaurant.

It's been awhile so i actually don't remember the name of the dishes, but I ordered one of their classic waffles. Topped with strawberry, banana, and a scoop of vanilla icecream.

Nicely displayed but I must say the scoop of icecream is quite small. Only the middle white ball shape is icecream, its squished by 2 blobs of whipped cream. The waffle was alright, I think the crepe tasted better.

My friend ordered the apple crumble crepe.

There were tiny pieces of walnuts inside, we both didn't like walnuts so we had to pick them out one by one, quite a hassle. The cinnamon taste wasn't too strong, so it was acceptable. It was slices of green apples inside, which i really liked. The crepe was just right, not too crispy and not too chewy. This felt like a light dessert selection, which was a good choice.

Food: Alright
Service: Alright
Price: Reasonable price, ranged under $10
Atmosphere/Decoration: It's quite small but I like the atmosphere. It was funny because for some reason this restaurant gave me a feeling that it would be a good location to schedule a blind date. The place is small so you can clearly see everyone, meaning it would be safe to meet up with a random, yet having still a romantic feel/atmosphere. Just a random thought.
Overall: I don't see myself paying another visit though. It's far from where I live and the food wasn't that amazing. If i were to head for dessert I would choose Spin instead. Not that the experience was bad, but it just didn't match my taste buds.

Cafe Mania
605 Yonge Street, Toronto

Shinobu

Yes I know I've disappeared, its been like forever since I updated this blog. I feel like i'm losing visitors like this too..I've actually been visiting a lot of restaurants in the past month, but just too lazy to update :P

Finally, I paid a visit to Shinobu with my brother. He's always been telling me their food is really good. For some reason, I didn't find it that amazing. I guess i'm still not over my awesome sushi experience at Mikado.

Shimesaba, seared mackerel sashimi. ($9.50)

Torched mackerel sashimi. It was alright, nothing special in my opinion. They do torch it infront of you at your table though.

This was actually my favorite dish of the night, Salmon Tartar ($7.50)

It's basically a big blob of raw salmon chopped into really shredded pieces. I suppose it would take a lot skill to cut it into that texture, soft and mushy not tasting like the normal thick salmon sashimi. Don't you think it looks like the raw shredded pork made through machine that you buy at the super market?

Tompei Yaki, Pork & egg Japanese pancake with onkonomi sauce ($8.90)

I know the flakey things are blocking the actual pancake, but its basically egg wrapping slices of pork inside. Sounds like an omelette, but pretty tastey.

Spicy Shrimp Tempura ($7.90)

It's really just shrimp tempura with spicy sauce on it. Yes, there are only 4 pieces of shrimp, meaning almost $2 per shrimp. If you ask me it was nothing amazing or special. Although I would comment they were nicely fried, but still definitely not worth the price.

Chicken Tempura with tartar sauce. ($9.50)

It was nicely friend, but then again nothing special to me.

and here comes the a-la-carte sushi we ordered.

I would say they don't make much effort in displaying their food, at least for sushi. There was a bit too much rice with their sushi. From top left to right, red tuna, yellow tail, salmon. From bottom left to right, scallop, sweet shrimp, unagi. Their fish is pretty fresh though, which is good.

Lastly, we finished our dinner with a spider roll. ($13)

Nothing special, other than mentioning it was huge but i still managed to stuff the whole piece in my mouth.

Food: Pretty Good.
Service: Good
Price: I would consider it Mid-priced. However, some dishes were overpriced in my opinion.
Atmosphere/decoration: There isn't really much decoration, but the place is really small. Probably 6 tables? You literally see the whole restaurant in one glance when you walk in. So make sure you make reservations if you decide to go.

Overall: Although my experience wasn't too enjoyable for some reason, (I do think it's because most of the food we ordered were fried, and im not a fan of fried food.) I still think the food was pretty good and I would come back. Apparently their Donburis are really good; definitely giving that a try next visit.

Shinobu
3403 Yonge Street, Toronto

Oliver & Bonacini

On my actual birthday, we went to Oliver & Bonacini. I was debating here or Joey's, but I suppose O&B would have been more classy so we came here. To my surprise, it wasn't what I was expecting. My visit was quite disappointing. 

Typical bread, nothing special.

My brother ordered the mushroom soup as an appetizer. ($4.50)

I'm actually curious how they made this soup considering no cream or butter was added. It had a really rich mushroom flavour and you could taste the shredded bits of mushroom, prefect for mushroom lovers. I liked it, I would suggest giving it a try.

I ordered sweet potato fries to share ($7)

I suppose this was actually the dish i enjoyed the most. Crispy with good spices. Expensive for a batch of fries though I would say.

I ordered the Black Angus Beef Brisket. ($25)

Sounds fancy huh? But it was disappointing. The brisket meat was actually dry with so little taste. I think there was sauce but it wasn't captured in the meat. However, the stuff under the brisket tasted much better than the beef (I actually don't know what it was..) It was squiggly lumps of some kind of carbohydrate, went well mixed with the greens and sauce. 

My brother ordered the roasted Portobello burger, came with a salad ($15)

It was alright, nothing special in my opinion. I think the portobello sandwich I had at California Sandwiches was much more tastier. 

My dad ordered the bacon and cheddar burger, which came with fries ($14)

Nothing special, just a normal burger.

My mom ordered the shrimp & scallop linguine ($17)

Tasted like normal tomato pasta? I didn't taste any wine in the sauce, not to mention you rarely see any sauce. Nothing special as well. 

Food: Alright

Service: I did not like our waitress. I wouldn't say she was racist, but she didnt seem to give us the best service as if she believed in the stereotype of asians paying minimum tips. When we told her we won't be drinking tonight, you could already sense the change of her attitude and service. 

Price: Expensive, but it actually wasn't as pricey as I expected it to be. The price seems to be similar to dining at a Moxie's, or possibly a bit more.

Atmosphere/decoration: It was a loud setting. I was expecting more of a quite atmosphere, not as fancy as I thought.

Overall: I was disappointed. Either i was just being picky with high expectations, or the food actually wasn't that great. I did not have a favorite dish that night. There wasn't a wide range of selection in the menu either, or maybe the food just didnt appeal to me. After mentioning about it my visit to a few friends, they actually told me the standards and quality of their food has went down. And you would think fluctuating meal standards don't happen to big classy restaurants like this one. I don't think I would pay another visit here.

Oliver & Bonacini

2901 Bayview Avenue (inside Bayview Village)

Thai Basil

I've been to this restaurant a few times. I always thought I've blogged about this place already, but i thought wrong. I swear ever since I started working I've been eating out a lot more...or maybe just recently since it's been my birthday week and i've been meeting up with a few friends for dinner.

I remember on my very first visit I ordered pad thai with shrimp. ($10.95)

It looks pretty good but it was actually not that great, I've had better. It didnt have much of a strong taste surprisingly. Not spicy nor sour-y, lacked taste of an authentic pad thai.

My friend ordered the coconut fried rice. ($11.95)

I think just the way how the rice is served in the coconut caught me. This tasted much better than my pad thai. Although most coconut fried rice I've had, had a big chunk of creamy sauce on top. But this is good, has a fair taste of coconut sweetness without a thick sauce making the rice soggy. This is the best dish I've had at the restaurant so far...

Now back to my recent visit. My friend and I decided to order a variety and share.

We ordered the Thai spring rolls. ($4.25)

Nothing special, and not that great. For some reason I had in mind the yellow-y crispy spring rolls. But then my friend reminded me those are viet spring rolls.

This is the "Chilli Mussel". ($10.95)

I swear they were clams, didnt seem like mussels at all. It actually wasnt even spicy to me.

And lastly we shared a "Pad See Ew" ($11.95)

It was really greasy. Nothing special. We ordered the one with shrimp and chicken, but there was no chicken. Only shrimp....

Food: Alright

Service: Good.

Price: Fair

Atmosphere/decoration: The setting does pull off quite a 'Thai' feel. 

Overall: If you ask me, the meal wasn't too satisfying. There wasn't a dish where I wanted more or wanted to keep eating. Not one of the best thai places I've tried. I don't see myself suggesting to come back. I know they have another location downtown, hopefully that one tastes better. I probably would choose Spring Rolls over this place.

Thai Basil

1070 Major Mackenzie Dr. E, Richmond Hill