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

The Melting Pot

Yes, they opened a melting pot in toronto! I was so excited when I saw it..although I've never been to the one in the states but I've always heard good things about it. So, on my birthday weekend I decided to come here with my friends as a birthday dinner. 

Apparently you can make reservations online, which I did. I made reservations for 8:15 but we weren't seated till 930. Yes, I was not happy. Their explanation was basically saying the person hogging our table was sitting around and didn't want to leave yet. They noticed I wasn't happy and after waiting more than 20 minutes, I went back asking them how much longer the wait is going to be. They apologized and gave us free drinks. I ordered the Yin-Yang. Apparently it is their house special cocktail? (originally $13)

Looks nice tastes good. It's basically a mix of icecream and smirn-off, with godiva white chocolate. Yes, the chocolate is godiva, my favorite chocolate.

Finally, we were seated. They gave us a VIP room with our own tv and air conditioned room, pretty cool eh? I guess I can comment they are very polite as they kept apologizing for the wait. 

We ordered the "big night out" 4 course meal. You can order in singles or couples. (the pictures below are couple portions)

The first course was the cheese fondue. They provide cut bread, mixed raw vegetables and green apples for your to dip with cheese. If you ask me, green apple tastes really weird with cheese, no lies. I just ate the apples alone as a side. But one thing is you can ask for refills, we got more bread.

This pot is the spinach artichoke cheese fondue.

I loved this. Well, i always loved spinch artchoke cheese dip (the one at Crabby Joe's is really good) But I highly recommend getting this flavour. 

The other is the cheddar cheese fondue. 

You can actually taste the beer mixed with the cheese.

The second course was salad. I actually forgot to take a picture of it...but I ordered the spinach mushroom salad. In the menu it says it is served with baby portobello mushrooms, but I didn't taste any. 

The third course was of course the entree, the meat platter. We chose the Fondue Feast.

To the top left is chicken, the right is sirloin, the middle is beef, bottom left is pork, and bottom right is obviously shrimp. The meats were heavily marinated and didn't require more taste, although they did give you a lot of sauces to dip in. Funny thing is the sauces were mostly asian sauces (sweet and sour, terriyaki, curry, etc.) The quality of the meat was really good though. The sirloin was tender, but one thing I found kinda odd was it was marinated in terriyaki sauce. Surprisingly I think I liked the shrimp the most. I personally didn't enjoy the herbs on the chicken. 

To cook the meat you get to choose which type of cooking style you want the broth to be. It's like western style hot pot. 

The pot closest to you is "Coq au Vin" (add $7), which featured mushrooms, wine and a bunch of herbs and spices. At first I didnt quite like the taste of the wine mix, but after a few bites I think I got used to it. The other pot is "Mojo" (add $7), garlic and citron flavoured. Our server recommended this flavour and I actually did like this flavour more.

And lastly, the fourth course was chocolate fondue. 

This pot is the "cookies n' cream marshmallow dream". Sounds mouth watering already. Yes, the big blob of white thing in the middle of the pot is the marshmallow; oreo bits were added too!

As for the other pot, my friends ordered "the original", which was milk chocolate with peanut butter. But I didn't try it since I'm allergic, but I'm sure peanut butter fans would love this fondue.

As for the dippers, there were pineapple, strawberries, bananas..The black cylinder in the middle is marshmallow wrapped in oreo bits (really delicious). To the bottom left is cheesecake, brownies, and pound cakes. 

Food: Pretty good

Service: Very Good. One thing I really liked is they talk you through the process of how they are blending or making the fondue in front of you.

Price: It ended up being around $55 per person including tip, pretty decent for a 4 course meal.

Atmosphere: We were seated in the VIP room so...the atmosphere was great? It was a bit noisy outside though. One thing I do mention is, it smells pretty bad inside. You would think chocolate fondue would smell awesome, but no. There's some weird smell. I think it has to do with the broth, when you get into that meal a weird smell just comes out. If you walk around in the restaurant I'm sure you wouldnt enjoy the smell. So if you go, your clothes are bound to smell horrible after.

Overall: I enjoyed it. I actually never had cheese fondue before and it was my first time. If you ask me, I was only looking forward to try the cheese and chocolate fondue. I didn't really enjoy the entree - not because of the smelly broth, but I just didnt find it that tastey or amazing and the marinated meat just didnt fit my taste buds. If I were to pay another visit, which I probably will, I would just go for the cheese fondue or chocolate fondue rather than going through the 4 course meal again. Our dinner actually took us 3 hours, not including the 1 hour wait.

The Melting Pot

125-135 York Blvd, Richmond Hill

Kinton Ramen

Yes I know it's been a long while since I've blogged about food. I went on vacation and been busy with work..but here I am. My friend saw someone post awesome pictures of ramen and suggested to go give it a try. Kinton Ramen is a restaurant opened by Guu that only serves ramen. My friend and I went on a tuesday evening at around 7pm and we had to wait in line for a whole hour. When we got inside and ordered, it still took pretty long for our food to arrive. The random person sitting next to us said they waited 30 minutes for their order to arrive.

We ordered the spicy karaage, which is basically fried chicken.

It was alright, I wouldnt say amazing. If you ask me, I think Cafe Michi makes it best.

My friend ordered the Kinton Pork ramen with pork shoulder. ($12)

Why is it so big you ask? Because my greedy friend added an egg ($1.5), extra pork ($2 I think), and extra noodles too ($2). I thought the soup base was a bit light.

Cheese Ramen with pork shoulder. ($9.50) I have never seen this one on a menu before, but as we all know since I'm a fan of cheese, obviously I ordered this one.

It was really cheesy and really filling. Cheese with noodles is just always so awesome. The texture of the noodles was good too, not too soft yet a bit chewy. I actually liked the soup base more than the one my friend ordered. I added an extra egg too, but i would definitely recommend adding it. It was not fully cooked but the yolk was made perfectly - the melting orange yolk. I don't know if it was just me, but I thought the portion was pretty big. I just felt like there was a lot of noodles and a lot of corn.

Isn't it cute how they give you the bill?

Food: Very good.

Service: Excellent. They are all really nice and friendly. 

Price: For ramen prices, i would say it's expensive.

Atmosphere/Decoration: An authentic japanese ramen place setting. I personally enjoy the crowd loudness.

Overall: The ramen is good and I definitely would come back with my friends; I think it is better than Kenzo. However, I'm not a fan of waiting for a table..especially if the wait exceeds 30 mins. For a moment I was actually wondering if I enjoyed the ramen a lot because I was too hungry and it messed up my taste buds. Japanese ramen is supposed to be a quick eat and go thing, which clearly isn't the case here. Anyhow, maybe I will return when the hype is gone and less of a wait. 

Kinton Ramen

51 Baldwin Street, Toronto

Maxx Seafood & Grill

Very random, my dad suggested on trying this restaurant after hearing the commercial many times. For those of you who don't know, it's a new restaurant that replaced Mirage. Apparently it's a restaurant serving seafood & grill owned by Chinese people. One thing I found funny was when we walked in, the place was packed (on a Saturday night), but surprisingly every table was Asian. I probably only saw 2 tables of non-asians that night. 

The bread sucked.

I went for the baked Thai Aigneau rack of lamb. ($30)

Of all the dishes, I think mine was the best. There were 5 pieces. I liked they spices they marinated the lamb it, went well with the sauce. Apparently it was supposed to have some "panko curry crust"? But I didn't really taste any of it.  Surprisingly they served quite a lot of vegetables, which was good. A bit too greasy though. 

My mom ordered the mushroom chicken penne. ($15)

You can probably tell just by looking at the picture this dish lacks sauce. I thought it was a bit too dry. But I guess in a girl's perspective it's "good" since less saucy = less fat. Portion looks kinda small too eh?

My dad and brother both ordered the filet minon centre cut 8 oz ($25).

Nothing special with the steak. Wasn't bad wasn't awesome.

Food: Alright

Service: Bad. Our waitress rarely came over, we would always have to ask her to come over. She didn't even do the typical waitress manners in starting a conversation with us.

Price: I would say it's a bit pricey considering the meal isnt that great, but average pricing for western restaurants. 

Overall: In my opinion, I don't think the food is worth the price. I do find it a bit odd how the restaurant has quite a variety. They serve pad thai...really? at a seafood and grill restaurant? However, if you were to pay a visit here I would recommend the rack of lamb. My brother didn't like the herbs, but I definitely enjoyed it. I guess it just proves that Chinese people can't cook the same standard of seafood and grill as good as white people. I would definitely choose Moxies over here

Maxx Seafood & Grill

160 York Blvd