[Toronto] Little Sister Indonesian Food Bar

Location Review
2031 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
(416) 488-2031
Website

For such a multicultural city like Toronto, there is much to be desired when it comes to Indonesian food. Enter Little Sister Indonesian Food Bar (@LittleSisterTO). This newly opened eatery located in Midtown is a modern eatery serving up a menu created by Dutch-native chef Michael van den Winkel. Having cooked Dutch-Indo cuisine his entire life, you can be sure he's included all his favourite authentic dishes on the list.

Little Sister

[Toronto] Tabule Middle Eastern Cuisine

Location Review
810 Queen Street East
Toronto, Ontario
(416)465-2500
Website

Following much success of the first Tabule Middle Eastern Cuisine restaurant (@TabuleToronto) in Midtown, Riverside welcomed the second location of this Middle Eastern eatery with open arms mid last year. Admittedly, I am not a regular in this neighbourhood of the city. Being in the area a couple weeks ago with my friend Meghan (@Meghancheung), we scoured the internet and polled social media for the best spots to eat in Riverside. Because this was unanimously recommended, we dropped by for a quick meal.

Tabule

[Los Angeles] Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles

Location Review
1514 N Gower St
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323)466-7453
Website

I didn't know what I was in for when I stepped foot into this dimly lit establishment of Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles (@roscoesofficial). With no windows, and barely any light coming in from the cracks of the doors, this almost felt like a secret underground society for fried chicken of some sort. Perhaps it was just this location of Roscoe's chain of restaurants, but at some point I couldn't help but ponder: why did most people recommend this as a "must eat" for a visit to Los Angeles?

Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles

[Vancouver] Shady Island Bar and Grill

Location Review
3800 Bayview Street
Richmond, British Columbia



Today's restaurant review is located in the historical village of Stevenston nearby Vancouver. The area has lots of little shops, and a boardwalk guiding you along the scenic fisherman's wharf. I was told if you wanted to get fish and chips in the greater vancouver area, Stevenston was the place to do it. Shady Island Bar and Grill, claims that they have "The Best Fish and Chips on the Boardwalk". Those were some powerful words that warranted a try. Taste test time!

Shady Island Bar and Grill

[Yorkville] MBCo

Review Location:
100 Bloor St W
Toronto, ON
(416) 961-6226


Despite working relatively close to Yorkville, I am not one to say that I've tried much of the food in the area. Many establishments offer dine-in meals, which may not be very accommodating to a typical individual's one hour lunch timeframe. Enter  MBCo (Montreal Bread Company) : a lunch-friendly spot right at a convenient location in Yorkville. Coupled with the fact that my co-worker, Gary has been advocating the MBCo quesadillas for a while now, naturally I wound up here on a Friday with him for a mid-day meal.

[Toronto] Kinton Ramen

Location Review
51 Baldwin Street
Toronto, Ontario



I can't remember the last time I was so excited about a restaurant opening. Oh wait, I do. It was for Guu Izakya, still one of my favourite izakaya's in Toronto. Now enter  Kinton Ramen (@KintonRamen). Being run by the same people who brought us Guu Izakya (@GuuToronto) and Guu Sakebar, naturally I was euphoric as I counted down the days to their official opening on May 18.

To be quite honest, I had no idea what to expect. With the astounding amount of Japanese restaurants in Toronto and the GTA, there is still a less than sufficient number of impressive ramen establishments. Was Kinton going to revolutionize ramen in Toronto as we know it? I didn't have a clue. I did however, anticipate two things : 1) the line ups outside would be insane, and 2) it would be a rowdy crowd on the inside.

Dinner at Nelson's House

a couple weekends ago, my brother-in-law Nelson's family invited us over for dinner. His family being from Taiwan, we were in for some traditional Taiwan and Shanghai influenced dishes! Not being Taiwanese myself, I probably don't have the right names for most of these dishes, but delicious none the less!

[Toronto] Spirits Bar and Grill

Review Location
642 Church St
Toronto, Ontario
(Yorkville)

MENU

One afternoon my co-workers and I went out for a quick lunch. We wanted to sit out in the patio because it was a nice day, so chose this smaller pub in hopes that it wasn't already packed from the lunch crowd. Spirits ended up being the perfect place. This place has it all. They serve brunch, lunch, and dinner, and have an awesome stocked bar. Because I was here for a weekday lunch with the co-workers I didn't end up ordering drinks, but looking through the drink menu I noticed they had an extensive beer list on tap. Even draft Strongbow! Obviously the beer offerings were no match to that of Beer Bistro or other specialized restaurants, but for a tiny pub its not too bad.

[Toronto] Paramount Fine Foods

Review Location
253 Yonge Street Toronto, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Yonge St. and Dundas St.)







One afternoon my coworkers and I were craving Mediterranean, so we decided to go to Paramount Fine Foods near Dundas Square after it was suggested by my co-worker Fatima. I was surprised to learn that this restaurant has several locations, including Mississauga and even North York!


The first impression I got coming in here was its very cultural. There was soft bollywood music playing, and the waitstaff consisted of all different ethnicities. The decor has a rustic warehouse feel to it, with it's high ceiling and dull orange brick walls. The dark oak furnishings, carpeted floors and chandeliers tops off the decor with a classier touch. It was a busy afternoon, so we were placed in the upstairs dining room.

Sofra Grill

Location Review:
8707 Dufferin St
Vaughan, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Dufferin Street and Highway 7 Road)

MENU

Out of all the places I've reviewed so far, Sofra Grill wins the award for the most visits from me! This restaurant is located in the rarely crossed upon city of Vaughan and is relatively close to Rob's house, so it's a frequent go-to place for dinner. I probably eat here once a month at least. You'd think eating here so often I would grow weary of it, but this is hardly the case. Yes people, it IS that good! 

[Las Vegas] The Henry (Cosmopolitan Hotel)

Location Review:
(inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel)
708 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, Nevada





VIVA LAS VEGAS! For Canada day weekend I headed over to the city that never sleeps. Amongst the relaxing, sun tanning, gambling, celeb-seeing, shopping, and partying, I made sure I left some time for my favourite hobby of all time -eating!


For the duration of the trip, we stayed at The Cosmopolitan Hotel  that just opened last new year's eve, making it the newest hotel on the Las Vegas Strip! If this was a hotels review blog, I would tell you that The Cosmo is probably the trendiest, most glamorous modern hotel I've been to, and how I can never stay at another hotel in Las Vegas again. But since this is a food blog, I won't.


The Henry is located inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel on the main floor right next to the Chandelier Bar (fun fact of the day, the chandelier hanging over the chandelier bar is actually the largest chandelier in North America!). It has a pink and mahogany theme to it, and was comfortable yet classy with its comfy padded seats and chic decor. 

[Ottawa] Shawarma Palace

Review Location:
464 Rideau Street
Ottawa, Ontario






This place was actually the very first place we ate at as soon as we made it to Ottawa. I was almost not going to post this review because I wasn't able to take very good pictures, but decided that it was quite good and was worth sharing.

Curtis, who is the Ottawa expert, told us that Ottawa has some of the best shwarma because the town is highly populated with Lebanese people. This was something I wasn't initially aware of. I guess now I know.

Phoenix Restaurant

Review Location:
8190 Bayview Avenue
Thornhill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Langstaff Rd. & Bayview Ave)





So it's been a while since I posted, but its partially because I've been sick! I'll try to make up for it, starting with this one! The other day I came to this Phoenix for dinner. I' believe this location is a branch of the one near woodbine and Steeles, but the sign on the outside sure was similar. The inside was really really pretty. It had a red glowing ceiling with butterflies, and a some other decorations on the wall that made it seem like some sort of enchanted forest. I couldn't resist and took a picture (while people stared at me..). We ended up ordering 3 dishes.

[Markham] Fancy Chinese Cuisine (李嘉誠)

Review location:

7750 Kennedy Road

Markham, Ontario
(Major Intersection: 14th Ave. & Kennedy Rd.)

First off, I would like to commend this restaurant for their English name selection. I would then also like to commend this place more on their Chinese name selection, which is essentially named after the wealthiest business man in all of Asia. Not that it has anything to do with anything, just point it out.

Pho Mi Viet Thai

Review Location:
2354 Major MacKenzie Drive
Maple, Ontario

I always love going to Pho because it's fast, cheap, and relatively satisfying. I think because of that, I don't have too high an expectation for the restaurant surroundings or service (unless it's beyond terrible of course..). Pho Mi was exactly the restaurant that fills this situation. The restaurant is by no means fancy, food presentation isn't the best, and the server doesn't really do much, but the food tastes great and it was quite affordable.

 Large Special Pho

The pho I ordered came with all the typical ingredients that you find in a "special" pho like beef balls, tripe, tendon, flank, beef, etc. I have to admit, the pho here was really good. They used authentic pho noodles that were cooked just right, and the beef was a really good cut of meat. Of course the soup was basically all MSG, but I found it wasn't as bad as a lot of other pho places. The portions was also huge! The bowl was actually bigger than my head. Much much bigger than that picture portrays it to be. Good deals.

 Chicken and Pork Chop Rice Platter

The meat on this rice platter was very well marinated and well cooked. The meat was tender and went really well with the short grain Vietnamese rice. The menu actually has a really large selection of rice platters. While we were there, every table had one of these. A lot of them had an extra egg with it, so I really want to try it now!

The menu also had a large variety of fruit drinks like most other Vietnamese places, but some of the fruits they had were so exotic that I didn't even know what they were. Anyone know what a "Sweet Sop", or a "Sapodilla" is?

The name probably would've given it away, but they actually serve both Vietnamese and Thai food. We only ended up ordered Vietnamese food this time, though I wouldn't mind coming back to try the other Thai dishes. And maybe I'll finally try the rice dishes with the egg in it!

Me Va Me

Review Locaiton:
9302 Bathurst Street
Thornhill, Ontario






This location is relatively new that opened less than a month ago. That being said, the inside is fairly modern and nice. Right when you enter, there is a circular shaped bar on the right side so people can grab drinks while they wait for their tables. While this is a real space killer, it was probably a good idea since they don't take reservations. We waited for quite a bit and ended up getting some beers to pass the time. This is actually the second Me Va Me restaurant location. There is one other restaurant location, and another express location that just offers take out. I've only had the express and have never been to the original restaurant, but from what Rob tells me the food is amazing! People would line up over an hour for it. We came with a table of 10+, so we got to try lots of different dishes!

Hue's Kitchen

Review Location:
774 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario

MENU

This place is pretty close to where I work so once in a while I would grab lunch here. They self-proclaim themselves to have the best pho in Toronto, so of course I had to try. This place is really nice and clean unlike most Vietnamese places, and is very spacious. The decor is upscale and serene compared to most other take out or quick-lunch places in this area. It’s got a patio for the summer time, and an upstairs dining room for when it gets really really busy. I hear the wait and kitchen staff speaking Vietnamese, so it’s comforting to know that everything should be pretty authentic.

Vermicelli with Grilled Chicken and Spring Roll

There was nothing too stellar about the vermicelli order. Everything was pretty standard if not sub-par. The chicken was a bit on the dry size, and the noodles tasted like they weren't drained properly. As a result, it tasted like there was way too much diluted flavorless fish sauce. The spring roll was alright taste-wise, but could have been fried a little crispier. I guess the portion is considered large considering it's price and the restaurant's prime location in the Yorkville area.

Large Rare Beef Pho

The pho on the other hand, was one of the better pho’s I’ve had. The soup didn’t taste full of MSG and the meat was really tender and good quality. It said on the menu that they serve AAA angus beef. I did notice though, that at the end of the meal, the insides of several pieces of meat were still a little pink. I guess the soup wasn't quite as hot as it should have been. Other than that, really delicious!

So in the end, this place is really kind of hit and miss. Some of my coworkers tell me that other than the pho and roti dishes (they have a small variety of indian dishes too), nothing else is above average. Apparently the bubble tea is horrid as well. I guess you can't win them all.