Niwatei

My friend wanted ramen so I took him to this place to give it a try. I've never been before but my bro said their ramen is alright.

They only have 6 kinds to choose from, not much of a variety. But I suppose this way it will be more specialized. All 6 kinds basically have the same toppings (except for the chicken ramen), the only difference was the soup base. Too bad they didn't have a ramen that came with gyoza. They do have a ramen set to choose sides, but it was only available on weekend and for dinner. But I went for lunch on a weekday. =/

I ordered the Soy Sauce Ramen. ($7.80)

The soup base was strong and good, the texture of the ramen was chewy and tastey as well. 

For some reason I wouldn't say it's amazing though. I've had better. I do think their ramen noodles are comparable to Kenzo though. I did like the chasiu (pork) meat, it wasn't too tight or rough like other ramen places.

My friend ordered the Pork Tonkotsu Ramen. ($8.80)

I found it funny how the soup looked kinda 'milky', but it actually did have a strong pork bone soup taste. Those who like spicy should probably try adding spicy miso to it, +$1.25 though.

Food: Good

Service: Good

Price: Average, each ramen is less than $10

Atmosphere/Decoration: The place is pretty small, but quite busy when I went for lunch. Funny thing is everyone eating at the restaurant were chinese, not japanese. The deco/environment is cute and cozy, but tables are pretty close to each other. Not really a place to go for a date or have a secret convo.

Overall: Their ramen is good, I wouldn't mind coming here again for a quick lunch with a friend. It's a good option if you are looking somewhere for some decent ramen.

Niwatei

3160 Steeles Ave E, (Inside J-Town Plaza, at the far back past Ju)

Dragon Pearl Buffet

It was my uncle's birthday on the weekend and he wanted a buffet, so we came and tried Dragon Pearl. I've been hearing a lot of people mentioning about it recently too, so I was a bit curious in trying it. But of course, considering its a buffet, you never expect to have amazing food when its mass produced.

I thought this was cute. The huge "dragon pearl" (I would say dragon ball :P)

Too bad you cant take the whole ball but only pieces of it. I never tried it though.

I must say there was quite a variety of food to choose from. I briefly took some snapshots of what I ate that night.

Their sushi was alright. Nothing amazing of course, but not horrible to cause a stomach ache.

The white colored sashimi on the right is 'abalone tuna' sashimi. They only served salmon and tuna sashimi though. Others were either sushi or rolls. Their spicy salmon roll wasn't even spicy.

The middle is a slice of prime rib. It was alright, not great enough for me to finish it though. The squid ring was actually pretty good, not the crappy ones that you would still be chewing 10 mins later. The small green onion pancake on the side was good, but nothing special. Incase you were wondering, yes, the yellow thing stuck in a stick is a bbq-ed pineapple. Random, yes I know. The pineapple was actually really sweet. 

Of course there was a lot more variety food-wise, but I just didn't take a picture of it. There was peking duck! But of course the skin wasn't crispy, but still acceptable.

If you go on weekends, they give each customer one free HALF lobster. (there is 2 here lol)

Tasted like..lobster? Don't know how else I could describe it. You add garlic or butter yourself.

Near the entrance there is a station where they make "hand pulled noodles" at the spot. My dad claimed it being really good and chewy. A must-try.

I must comment that their desserts are quite good. They have a wide selection of cakes, and what I like about it is the desserts were either cut into a small piece or already divided into a small portion. 

Yes, they have strawberry dipped chocolates! But I have a feeling they probably didn't wash the strawberries before dipping it into the chocolate. I swear the chocolate cookie is from pilsburry and not made from the house. Beside the cookie is bread pudding, super sweet. In he middle of the plate is a nanaimo bar! I was surprised to see that there, quite sweet though. Below it (the white blob) is rice pudding, tasted bad in my opinion. On the right next to the nanaimo bar is cheesecake! This was really good, I recommend trying it. I also recommend trying the creme brule (at the right of the picture). It tasted really good, especially the burnt brown sugar coating at the top, delicious! They also have waffles, and I made my own green tea ice-cream waffle.

Thought I should share a funny scene that happened when I was picking my dessert. I saw brownies at the table and since I love brownies, I wanted to try one. But I saw lumps in the brownie so I wondered if it had nuts inside it. I asked one of the ladies that was working there in the kitchen, seemed to me like she didn`t understand English. I asked if there were nuts in it and she was mumbling. I swear I heard her mention hazel nut. When I tried to reassure, she said 'cuhcu-nut". Then I realized she meant coconut. I asked if its only coconut and how sure she was, she just smiled and mumbled. At that moment, I gave up and just said I won't try it. Not only that lady, but I found that a lot of people working there didn't seem to really know much English. Quite sad if you ask me.

One more interesting story that made my day. They give everyone a fortune cookie when you pay for your bill. This is what mine said.

I must say, never got a 'dirty' fortune cookie. Creative I guess?

Food: Alright

Service: Poor. At first my mom and I asked for hot tea. My uncle later asks for a pot of hot water only and they tell us they ran out of pots........The waitress actually said "as you can see we have a lot of customers today and really busy so we don't have any pots". Funny, cuz when I passed by peoples tables I never noticed people drinking tea but mainly just cold water. With such a big restaurant, it would be smart to buy more pots. Aside from that, we asked one waitress for more cold water, and she replied "I'm not a server". Some service huh?

Price: Expensive. For dinner, weekdays is $23 and on weekend is $26. The extra 3 bucks is for the free lobster.

Atmosphere/Decoration: I have to admit I do like the decoration and it is quite nice. One thing I found really awkward was, they sell jewellery. Who would actually buy jewellery at a buffet restaurant...

Overall: I personally don't like buffets though since I can't eat that much to begin with. Or maybe it was because I didn't have much expectations to begin with, I actually thought the food was alright. I would say this place is quite decent quality-wise in food if you are looking for a good buffet place. Compared to Wasabi, or Mandarin, I do think they have more variety instead of only chinese food.

Dragon Pearl Buffet

865 York Mills Rd.

Mi-Ne Japanese Restaurant

After being in Waterloo for a full 2 weeks, I started my reading week with sushi for lunch! My brother's recommended this place and it's close to home so we gave it a try.

I ordered spicy scallop rolls and spicy salmon rolls. 

When i saw spicy scallop rolls I got a bit excited, because I was picturing it being hug chunks of scallops. However, when my dish arrived I was a bit disappointed. The rolls on the left are the spicy scallop ones. If you look closely, within the mix of orangey-red chunk there are white spots. Those are the scallops. But the pieces are quite small and eating one piece all combined together, you could rarely taste the scallops. On the right are the spicy salmon rolls. Looks like they give you a lot eh? But no, within that orangey-red chunk, most of it is bits of crunchy fried pieces. This was definitely not worth $12.95. Their rolls aren't packed with a lot of rice, I do give credit for that though.

My brother ordered the nigiri sushi and spicy salmon rolls. (11.95)

The spicy salmon rolls taste the same as mine of course. As for the nigiri sushi, its good. Comparable to Sushi Tei. Nothing amazing or outstanding though.

Food: Alright

Service: Good. My cup was always full, which I really like.

Price: Quite expensive, their lunch menu is at least. I think the cheapest lunch item was at least $10.

Atmosphere/Decoration: The place is kinda small, they have those japanese style rooms along the sides. It was quite busy lunch time on a week day.

Overall: I wouldn't say the food was bad, but it's nothing amazing. I don't see myself returning though. I think it was a bit pricey and not worth it, at least for the lunch specials we ordered. Didn't really seem like I was getting a "deal" from it.

Mi-Ne Japanese Restaurant

10815 Yonge Street, Elgin Mills

星河餐廳

I personally quite like this chinese restaurant, but for some reason its never 'really' busy and it seems like not a lot of people have heard it before. I suppose because it's not located in a common area where a lot of people would pass by and notice it. However, its beside "Yogi", and I would pick coming here instead of "Yogi" any day. 

Sweet and Sour pork rice. (咕嚕肉飯)

The texture was crispy, pretty good. I like how their rices are all displayed in star shapes, which matches the name of their restaurant.

Pork Neck rice. (豬頸肉飯)

Although this was really fattening, but it was really tastey. It actually didn't taste too greesy or oily, considering all the fat attached to the pork neck meat.

Lemon grass tomato sauce Porkchop rice. (香茅煎茄汁豬排飯)

When I first read this dish name I was curious has to how it's actually supposed to taste like. I believe they marinated the porkchop in lemon grass sauce and after frying it added the ketchup sauce. The mix is acceptable and tasted good. 

Here is their 奶油多士.

Can't really go wrong with this dish.

For afternoon tea, I like ordering their porkchop sandwich 煎豬排飽. 

I remember once I ordered it and they gave me chicken inside instead. >< but both had the same taste, just different meat inside. Their 煎豬排湯米粉 is good too. I guess it's mainly cause they marinate their porkchops good.

Baked fish in spinach cream sauce. (波菜忌廉焗魚)

The sauce was really good. I`m surprised there were quite a lot of pieces of fishes.

Beef and egg in tomato sauce. (番茄牛肉蛋飯)

Just a note, the rice is not under this huge bowl, they gave me the rice in a separate plate. So much sauce eh?

All their meals come with a drink. I personally think their milk tea is pretty good.

Food: Good.

Service: Alright

Price: Average

Atmosphere/Decoration: A bit nicer than typical chinese restaurants (as in the place is a bit bigger and the furniture isn't too old). I believe on certain nights they have a 'music/band night'. The winner from New Talent (I don't know which year though) comes in and sings for the night. 

Overall: As you can probably tell, I've been here a few times already; for lunch, for dinner, and also afternoon tea. Overall I think their food is good I would and do come back often. The place also emphasizes that they don't add any MSG in their food.

星河餐廳 River Star Restaurant

155 East Beaver Creek Road, Unit 26

香港仔茶餐廳

I personally like the name of this restaurant, quite catchy I'd say. Sad thing is, their food taste and quality-wise is definitely incomparable to actual Hong Kong restaurants. 

My brother ordered the baked porkchop rice (焗豬排飯).

It claimed to be one of their best dishes. It was actually pretty good, quite saucey, not too much rice though.

I wanted to try their beef noodles, 紅燒牛肉麵. (under $6)

The beef was really tough. I asked for less spicy, but they ended up making it not spicy at all. The noodles had the right texture to it and actually did have the herbs and the 紅燒 flavour.

My mom ordered the portuguese chicken rice (葡國雞飯).

I personally didn't like the taste. I still think 麗莎餐廳 makes the best portuguese sauce.

My dad ordered the steak and spaghetti. 

Of course the steak isn't anything like Moxies or the awesome steaks at steakhouses, but it was decent.  I personally think I can make a more tastey steak myself though.

Food: Alright

Service: Alright

Price: Average, their dinner meals are under $10.

Atmosphere/decoration: Like any typical chinese restaurant

Overall: the dishes are like any typical chinese restaurant, nothing too special. I would recommend trying their baked porkchop rice (焗豬排飯). 

香港仔茶餐廳

20 Apple Creek Blvd.

越南街

On the weekend my family and I decided to try a new place. It's been open for a while but never been .

One thing I found really funny, was when you open the menu to the first page, it lists the lunch menu and the afternoon tea menu, but doesn't list out the price. 

The waitress suggested us trying this, 越南腸粉 (Vietnamese rice noodle)

She claimed its shredded pork inside, but I actually didn't taste it. I did taste small pieces, but in my opinion it didnt taste like meat. It was alright, but I didnt specifically like it. I don't think this dish is worth $6 though, considering it's just a small appetizer.

My brother ordered pho, 特別牛肉粉.

Not bad, their soup base is pretty good. I do like the texture of their noodles

網卷香茅雞朦 (spring roll and lemongrass chicken vermicelli)

I think this was the best dish. I liked the spring roll. It was really crispy, the fried skin is 一絲絲, a bit different than the normal ones you have at other vietnamese restaurants. The lemongrass chicken tasted good too.

I wanted to try their seafood Pad Thai, since it looked pretty good at the table behind me.

I was actually a bit disappointed, it didn't really taste like pad thai. It was a tiny bit spicy, but not strong. The sweet and sour taste was pretty light. 

Food: Good

Service: Good

Price: Average

Atmosphere/Decoration: It looked pretty nice inside. It's recently opened so the furniture is quite new. 

Overall: Their portions are reasonable. I don't have much negative thoughts about this place, so I wouldn't mind coming back again. It's a decent choice for a dinner or lunch.

越南街 Yummy Pho

11 Fairburn Dr (next to Taipei Station)

太平香

It's always so hard to find a place with good taiwanese food considering there are so little taiwanese restaurants in Toronto. If you are looking for a place with good taiwanese food, this place is worth a try.

I ordered their bento combo, you get to choose which type of meat you want, 3 choices of sides and comes with either soup or a can of pop. It costs around $6-7 depending on which meat you order. They have a lot of choices for sides.

I ordered the 鹽酥雞 (popcorn chicken).

This tasted really good, crispy not too salty, and wasn't too oily. Very traditional. As for sides, the top corner is broccoli. The middle is sweet potatoes, similar to the korean sweet potato ones, tasted good. I'm actually not quite sure what the bottom left is, but the person that worked there said it's good. It was a mix of fungus and chicken pieces (I think), the sauce was a bit sweet.

My mom ordered the 魯肉飯 .

One thing I found really weird was it didn't look like nor taste like normal 魯肉. It tasted like mixed meat without much sauce, completely different than traditional 魯肉. I didn't think really like it.

Food: Good

Service: Good

Price: Cheap and filling

Atmosphere/Decoration: It's really small (only 3 tables), more like a take-out or eating fast food place. I must say it does look a bit sloppy inside.

Overall: I recommend trying their 鹽酥雞 (popcorn chicken) or 鹽酥雞排 (fried chicken). A good choice if you want a good, cheap, filling and quick meal.

太平香

3636 Steeles Ave (inside Metro Square)