[North York] Han Ba Tang

Location Review
4862 Yonge St
Toronto, Ontario
(416) 5 46-8218

Just when you thought the Yonge and Sheppard area in North York already had enough Korean restaurants, along comes Han Ba Tang (@han_ba_tang), the newest addition to the block. With a name that translates from its native language as "one full round", Han Ban Tang's restaurant owner aims to combine her decade long experience in authentic Korean cuisine, with modern culinary ideas. She refers to her cuisine as "young fusion Korean" and maintains a menu which she constantly revises in hopes to inspire appreciation of the Korean cuisine from a younger population. Young or old, Han Ba Tang's deep background story, warm hospitality, innovative dishes, and original drink menu will easily win over many a crowd.

Han Ba Tang

[Toronto] Azure Restaurant and Bar

Location Review
225 Front Street West
Toronto, Ontario
(416)597-8142
Website

Continuing with the Winterlicious expeditions after a fantastic meal at King Street Social, I had the pleasure of dining at Azure Restaurant and Bar at The Intercontinental Hotel (@ICTorontoCentre) last week. This would not be my first time dining here; it was only a few months ago that I was sitting under their wall-to-ceiling glass canopy dining room, enjoying noteworthy cocktails and an inspired Summerlicious menu. With an empty stomach and a huge appetite, I had nothing but high hopes of once a gain being wow'd by their Winterlicious offerings.

Bread Basket

Azure Margarita ($12) -tequila, blue curaçao, fresh lime, blueberry purée

[Toronto] Reds Wine Tavern

Location Review
77 Adelaide Street West
First Canadian Place
Toronto, ON
Tel: (416) 862-7337
Menu

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending Vickie's birthday dinner (@kiki_BFF) at Reds Wine Tavern (@REDSWINETAVERN). Along with the company of 15 others, which included Justine (@foodigatorJ) and my boyfriend Rob, the restaurant crafted a pre-fixed menu for us. Normally I like having the flexibility of choosing my own dishes, but considering all the great things I heard about this newly renovated restaurant, I didn't mind it too much. And with the Executive Chef in the kitchen being Season 2 Top Chef Canada contestant, Ryan Gallagher (who by the way, was one I rooted for), I had some faith in the pre-set menu.

Reds Wine Tavern

[Coupeville] Mosquito Fleet Chili

Location Review
12 Front Street Northwest
Coupeville, Washington

They say that small towns have the best food. With all these big celebrity chefs, emerging fine dining restaurants, and commercialized food processing techniques, it's sometimes easy to forget how a homestyle handcrafted meal can be perfection. But it only took one road trip to Seattle during my West Coast trip to be reminded of this fact.

Somewhere between Vancouver and Seattle is a little town of Coupeville. I spent about a half a day here, and all I can tell you about it is that they have a beautiful lavender farm there, and a small downtown area by the water of Penn Cove. Their downtown consists of only a couple streets, and feels extremely historical. Kind of like Main street Markham, except instead of trying to make it look old on purpose, everything there probably was old.

So lunch time comes around, and we walk down a "busier" street that had a few stores and less than 5 restaurants. They were all pretty similar, so we scoped out each one for their menu. But really, it was one restaurant's sign that decided it all.

Mosquito Fleet Chili

A chalkboard from Mosquito Fleet Chili displaying daily specials and the words: "Award Winning Mussel Chowder". Well that settles it. Award winning food is more than enough to convince me to go anywhere!

Peridot Resto Lounge

Review Location:
81 Bloor Street East
Toronto, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Yonge and Bloor)

MENU

Despite what my blog says, my coworkers and I rarely go out for lunch. Even if we do, its usually a quick place. Today however, was a special ocassion so we took the time and went to a fancier place to fill our starving mid-day tummies. Peridot is right by my office in yorkville. I have been here on a couple of occasions. Usually we sit in the dining room, but because of the weather we opted for the rooftop patio.

[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.