Hog Tails

Thought I should blog about one of my favourite restaurants in waterloo. That's right, even though I always complain about how bad waterloo food is, this place is one of the few restaurants that are decent. This place has really good BBQ food.

They have daily specials, but I always tend to go for the 2 meat platter. Each order comes with 2 sides and a corn bread. They have a long list to choose from. The portions are huge, I normally only eat half of it and pack the other half home.
The choices of meat include: BBQ chicken, BBQ ribs, brisket, chicken wings, pulled pork. I personally think the bbq chicken is one of the best.

This is the 2 meat platter: BBQ chicken and BBQ ribs ($17)
Sides: Cold saw and Cajun Corn.
The ribs were not fall-off-the-bone ribs, but they do taste good. The cold saw was not great though. The bbq chicken was really good, love the sauce.

This is the 2 meat platter: BBQ chicken and pulled pork. ($17)
Sides: Sweet potato fries and Cajun Corn.

The pulled pork was good, the meat texture was not tough at all. My bbq chicken was a bit too burnt though. I normally don't like sweet potatoes, but I love these sweet potato fries. They are crispy and the seasoning makes it even more delicious. I definitely recommend trying that side dish.

This is the 1 meat platter: half chicken ($15)
Sides: Mixed veggies and Cajun Corn

I kinda thought this half chicken was a bit small. My friend ordered it another time and it had twice as more meat =/. I guess all I can say is I was unlucky and got a small chicken. The veggies are really oily, not really the best choice. But, at least they don't serve you the frozen veggies. The cajun corn is pretty good too, (as you can see since I order it every time) not too spicy and has some tomato bits.

One thing to mention, I came here with my parents before and we ordered the family platter since it seemed like it might be a better deal, and more variety. But I found it a bit disappointing as the portions weren't as big. Even if you go with a group, I would still suggest ordering your own meals separately.

Food: Pretty good
Service: Good
Price: Their daily specials are quite a deal (burgers, etc.) But I like to stick with the meat platters since I know it's good. If you choose the meat platters then you are expecting your meal to be a bit less than $20 after tax considering you didn't order a drink.
Atmosphere/Decoration: A small place, not really good for large groups. Each time I go, the place is busy. Yes, even on weekdays. So either go early or go late, or be ready to wait for a table.
Overall: If you ever randomly head down to waterloo, make a stop at this restaurant. Worth a try compared to the other crappy restaurants in waterloo. If you like BBQ food, you will love this place. Careful for itis after your meal though. :P

Hog Tails
645 Laurelwood Drive, Waterloo

Ichiban Fish House

Before exam period, my friend took me to a sushi place. I'm sure everyone's heard of "Ichiban" since there are a lot of them around, but we went to the one in Richmond Hill. Even though there are many franchises, I've actually never been to one. This time was my first visit.

There were a lot of choices on the menu, and pictures of their combos and boats. 

We decided to go for one of the sushi and sashimi boats, it was definitely enough to fill 2 tummys.

Surprisingly, this boat was only $33. I thought it was a good deal, considering they did give quite a good variety and the fish was fresh. For that price, I wasn't expecting scallop sashimi (under that shell in the centre).

On the side we ordered spicy salmon handroll, as I always like to try.

However, this was disappointing and overpriced. It was basically a piece of salmon sashimi wrapped in their not-so-spicy mayo sauce. Definitely not worth $4.95! Aoyama sushi's handrolls are only $2 and yet so much better.

Food: Good.

Service: Alright, to my surprise the owner and the people working there were Chinese.

Price: Decent, fair price for the fish they serve.

Atmosphere/Decoration: Typical japanese restaurant, place is quite small and not good for big groups. It actually get quite busy during dinner time, we had to wait for a bit for a table.

Overall: Not a bad choice for a decent casual sushi dinner. I think their sushi/sashimi boats are a pretty good deal with good portions. I never tried their cooked food though.

Ichiban Fish House

9425 Leslie Street, Richmond Hill (In the chinese plaza)

Taipei Station

Happy 2012! During the christmas holidays I had my knee ACL repair surgery, and since then I've been spending my whole holidays sitting around at home. Meaning, I never got a chance to eat out. Sigh, I know it sounds disappointing, but no special holiday dinners to blog about. 

A few weeks ago I went to try Taipei Station for an afternoon snack. I did realize it's a bubble tea place and they probably would mark up the prices because they expect people to sit for a very long time, but to my surprise, everything on the menu was pretty expensive. Most importantly, not worth the price.

They have lunch specials with better prices, prices that I would consider decent. But that only applies for weekdays, and I went on a weekend. You'd be surprised at the differences in prices if you don't get their lunch or afternoon-tea deals.

I ordered this, 魯肉飯 

Can you believe it? This is what they served me. The meat could be finished in a few bites, and not to mention that there were a lot of fat chunks mixed with the meat as well. Considering the fact that I don't like eating too much rice, this was a horrible dish for me. It was basically telling me to just eat the big chunk of rice, for $8.00

My mom ordered the toast: 奶酥厚多土

Doesn't look familiar eh? That's the first thing that came in mind for me too, it looked more like peanut butter. Not to mention the taste was kind of weird, didn't taste the milky condensed taste at all. I don't remember the price of this but it was definitely over $5. 

My brother ordered the taiwanese fried chicken: 鹽酥雞排

I suppose this looked the most "normal". Didn't taste very traditional, but tasted alright. It was a bit too salty though. This dish was $8 as well, I would rather pay $8 for this instead of my chunk of rice.

Food: Horrible

Service: Alright

Price: Expensive and not worth it. Food-wise, I don't recall seeing anything on the menu less than $5. If I remember correctly, their drinks were $4+.

Atmosphere/Decoration: I must say the decoration is really nice, has a bit of romantic feel to it. But the food just spoils all.

Overall: If I were to order a snack and a bubble tea drink, the bill for one person probably would be $15+. Yet to consider how the food tasted bad as well. Completely not worth a trip. I never had a chance to try their drinks, (except the tea that they served) but I suppose they should be decent. If you were to give this place a try, go for the drinks. If you want food, I would suggest you to eat somewhere else and don't waste your money.

Taipei Station

11 Fairburn Dr, Unit 14-15 (behind First Markham Place)

魚湯店

I always passed by this restaurant, but never really went in as it just didn't seem appealing to me. Until someone told me their fish soup base is really good. Funny thing is, the first time I went I didn't order their soup noodles. However, their lunch special did come with their fish soup. I must say, my friend was not right. Their fish soup base was really good, best i've had. No lies.

I decided to try their lunch specials and ordered the egg and pork neck rice. (豬頸肉煎蛋飯)

Just from this picture, it seems like there weren't many pieces of pork. But there was, just hiding. The pork neck pretty much just tasted like bbq pork, but fatty version.

The other day my friend wanted soup noodles for lunch, so we decided to head over here. This time, I tried their soup noodles. Basically you pick the soup base, type of noodles, and the 2 toppings you want. The bowl itself comes with a few pieces of crab meat, mushrooms, and melon pieces. I ordered fried fish slices and fish paste with udon in fish soup base.

Last time my brother ordered 河粉 (Pho noodles), and it didnt look good at all. I must say, I was a bit disappointed. It tasted very ordinary, nothing special. I could make this myself at home if I somehow had the fish soup base. Yes, that was the only thing that made this dish worth it. You could tell the udon was the crappy ones you buy at the supermarket. 

My friend ordered his with 油麵(oil noodles?) He ordered 3 toppings.

Food: Alright.

Service: Alright.

Price: Alright, you can get a bowl of noodles for $10.

Atmosphere/Decoration: Like any typical restaurant. They do serve hotpot though.

Overall: If you go there, you must try their fish soup base. As for the other ingredients, don't expect too much. Their food I would say is nothing special, except for the fish soup base. You wouldn't have the feeling of wanting to keep eating the noodles, yet you would actually want to finish drinking the soup.

魚湯店

505 Highway 7 East (Commerce Gate)

素聞千里

Since I mentioned about 素聞千里 last time, might as well write a review about it too. Of all the vegetarian restaurants I've been to, I must say I do think this is my favourite one.

I think the most special thing about this vegetarian restaurant is they serve vegetarian sushi, aka fake sushi/sashimi. And it actually tastes really good, they make it so the texture is actually quite similar.

This is one of my favourite dishes that I always order when I go, Valcano Sushi.

They have these chewy pieces on the top, which is supposed to be fake squid. They add the spicy mayo sauce, mocking the spicy salmon sauce idea. Pretty good.

My brother tried their Uni sushi. Even though I'm not a fan of uni and knowing this is only fake uni, I still didn't try. But doesn't it look so real? The texture wasn't as soggy as normal uni though.

Another one of their sushi rolls. The salmon texture is quite similar to real salmon, which I found impressive.

As for lunch specials, just from looking at the portion it's already a lot more than what they give you at 天之雨素食料理, considering the price is similar too. 

This is the porkchop egg rice.

This dish was actually pretty good. They really tried to make it similar to the japanese porkchop egg rice dish. Looks good, tastes good.

If you order the Bento lunches, there's more variety. This is the fake black cod.

The cod tastes really good. It has the crispy yet soft texture. 

I tried their roasted pork (燒肉) before too, but can't find a picture of it in my album. Of course it can't be comparable to real roasted pork, but it still tasted special and different. They actually made it so there is a layer of the 'fat' in between the meat and the skin, but of course in this case you can eat the entire piece without having to pick out the fat since its all fake. XD

Food: Very Good

Service: Alright

Price: A bit above average compared to other vegetarian cuisines, but I think their food is worth the price.

Atmosphere/Decoration: Nothing special, but the furniture is still quite new. The restaurant has a lot of Buddha decoration I would say.

Overall: I would definitely recommend this place to those who are looking for a decent vegetarian restaurant. I tend to go there often when my mom is having her vegetarian days, and it's close to where I live.

素聞千里 Joe Yee Vegetarian Cuisine

9688 Leslie Street, Unit 17-18, Richmond Hill

天之雨素食料理

There used to be a shanghai restaurant that sucked at the corner at Commerce Gate. It got replaced by a vegetarian restaurant. As usual, my mom wanted to go give it a try.

I personally think their lunch specials are not worth it. Or maybe it's because I'm not a fan of rice, so I feel like the portion is too small and not enough. Lunch specials were around $10, no drinks included.

fake Eel with rice.

This dish was fail. The piece of fake eel was SO rough and hard to chew. I would have literally needed a knife to cut it into smaller pieces. If anything, anyone would think the texture of fish would be soft and easy to chew, but I suppose I shouldn't have expected that for the fake one.

fake BBQ Pork with rice.

I think this was the best dish taste-wise.

fake Peking Duck with rice

This dish was a rip-off. So the so called "peking duck" was basically a fried crunchy piece, there wasn't even any fake duck meat attached to it. So basically if you were to order this dish alone, it would be cried pieces with rice = = what a lunch huh?

Ham and Cheese wrap, an appetizer (around $6?)

This tasted pretty good, but then again it was simple. The best part of course was the "酥皮" (pastry wrap). It was really flaky, and the fake ham actually tasted like ham.

fake beef noodles. (牛肉炒河)

This dish was normal, no comment. Can't really go wrong with noodles. But this dish definitely wasn't worth $12.

Food: Alright.

Service: Alright

Price: a bit above average compared to other vegetarian restaurants.

Atmosphere/Decoration: like any normal restaurant, nothing special.

Overall: I would not go back. If you really do want vegetarian cuisine there are better places, and considering the portions and price is just not worth it. I would rather spend the money eating at 素聞千里.

天之雨素食料理 Senwell Vegetarian Cuisine

505 Highway 7 East, Unit 98-99 (Commerce Gate)

Shisho Tree

It's been a long time since I updated my blog! Went on vacation to Hong Kong, and was just busy when I got back. But no worries, I'm back. I would never give up on blogging about yummy food :)

My best friend was going back to HK for good, and we decided to have our one on one farewell dinner here at Shisho Tree. She told me it was pasta made in japanese style. Sounds interesting huh?

Pastas come with Salad. Very ordinary, nothing special. 

However if you added $4 to your pasta,  you would get soup and a slice of cake too. I believe the cakes are from J-Town supermarket, which are good as well.

I ordered the Okonomiyai Pasta, seemed special so I had to give it a try. ($16)

It really had the okonomiyaki tasted to it. First time having this flavour of pasta, it was really good. I would definitely recommend trying this.

My friend ordered the "Smoked Salmon a la creme Vokda" pasta.

The vodka taste wasn't heavy and could barely taste it.

Food: Pretty Good. 

Service: Good.

Price: If you want to try the special types of pasta, then you should expect the price to be 15+ for a dish. If not, the pastas from the menu start at $9.

Atmosphere/Decoration: The place is kind of hidden, not really a noticeable place. It's quiet, a good place to bring someone if you want to chat. The decoration isn't fancy or anything though.

Overall: The place is really nice and I think the food is quite special, at least first place I know that serves pasta Japanese style. I would like to come back and try their other pasta flavours, and if it wasn't because I ate icecream before going, I would have ordered their set and have a slice of their cake. :P

Shisho Tree, Pasta & Cafe

3160 Steeles Ave E, (Inside J-Town Plaza)