Eating in Toronto

Splendido

2008-02-20T14:15:00.002-05:00

okay, so Splendido is located at Spadina and Harbord.

Went during the winterlicious when David Lee was cooking with Normand Laprise. It was really excellent.

I don't think it would be a very useful review seeing how this was a special event, but the dishes that were created by splendido were excellent. The wagyu with lobster was unbelievable.

Anyway, not going to say anymore, except that Splendido is awesome. Can't wait to go for regular dinner.

Pretty pricey.

http://www.splendido.ca/

5/5

C5 Restaurant

2008-02-20T13:57:00.003-05:00

It's been a long while, but here it is.

C5 is located in the Michael Lee Chin crystal at the ROM.

I have no pictures but everything was pretty good. The decor was chic modern with very high ceilings. For those of you who like to watch the kitchen can be seen from the dining area.

I would say the food at C5 is sort of modern continental. Quality ingredients met with current technique. Menus change frequently, but the Foie gras and quail that I had was excellent, as was the butter poached grouper.

The cheese course featured 5 cheeses that was easily shared by our table of 3 and dessert was not bad but also not spectacular. My friend really enjoyed the red wine sorbet.

All in all, excellent.

4.5/5

Pretty expensive, 4 courses plus 1 shared cheese course and 1 drink, including tip was around $140 each.

http://www.c5restaurant.ca/

Vaticano

2007-05-22T12:01:00.000-05:00

Vaticano is an italian restaurant located in Yorkville. It's located in the lower portion of a 2 storey building on Bellair street.

Pictures of celebrities fill the wall of the front entrance and the decor is sort of classic italian restaurant, like the kind of place you would see on TV. I'm not quite sure how to describe it but even if you didn't know the name, you would know they were an italian restaurant when you saw this place.

The menu is pretty typical italian with seperate sections for the fish, meat and pasta. The beef carpaccio was very nice, thinkly sled beef with olive oil and cheese. The mussels were pretty good but the clams were definately forgettable. Guess it was clam season.

The lamb chops were a good sized portion and the meat was tender, although slightly undercooked, I ordered Medium rare, it came out rare. The side vegetables were grilled but not very flavourful.

Dessert looked pretty nice but wasn't what I thought. I ordered the souffle and asked if I would need to wait, I should have known it wouldn't be a real souffle when the waiter said no. Anyway, it was like chocolate cake.

3 out of 5, good but nothing truly exceptional.

http://www.yellow-net.com/trattoria-vaticano/index.htm

Cava

2007-05-22T10:15:00.000-05:00

Cava is located in a plaza at Yonge and St. Claire. You can't see it from the street but it's definately worth looking for.

Serving a tapas style menu, your choices are both plentiful and different than most places. While I wanted to order and try everything, the waiter told us when he thought it would be enough and for once we listened. So the 2 of us ordered about 9 dishes before dessert which is 2 less than the planned 11.

Now i'm not going to talk about them all, so here are a few of my favorites. The Charcuteria consisted of 2 types of chorizo sausage (1 spicey, 1 not), and some kielbasa, but the best part of this dish was definately the squab liver and foie gras mousse. It was rich and creamy and absolutely wonderful. The swiss chard with pine nuts and currents was a nice combination. And the beef cheeks were excellent. The most tender pieces of meat i've ever had (in picture above), they melted in my mouth.

Dessert was good, but was up to the quality of the rest of the meal. Still worth trying though, I mean who doesn't like dessert.

4 out of 5

9 dishes + 2 dessert + coffee + drinks was under $150.

http://www.cavarestaurant.ca/

Diamond Banquet Hall

2007-04-26T20:30:00.000-05:00

This chinese restaurant is located at First Markham square, Woodbine and Hwy 7.

Diamond was very nice. Service was very good and fast. May have been because we went on a Wednesday evening and the place wasn't that busy, but still good.

The food was very typical chinese. Ordered a peking duck. The duck was crispy and not too fat, I mean it was a little fat but you're eating duck skin, so what do you expect. The vegetables were fresh and prepared very well, again not too greasy. The geoduck (in picture) was fresh, however the pieces were a little small.

All in all definitely worthy of a repeat.

3 out of 5

Lai Toh Heen

2007-04-26T18:32:00.000-05:00

This place is on Mt. Pleasant south of Eglinton.

This place is definitely not like many of the other dim sum places around town. The menu consists of many interesting choices ranging from foie gras in pastry to some of the traditional favorites like shrimp dumplings (hah gow). Many items on the menu consisted of chinese cuisine with western influences. I must say I have never seen so much truffle used in dim sum, actually I have never seen truffle used in dim sum. The picture to the right is a $9 crab rice roll, there was no crab inside, only a small piece of crab on top.

The special items were overly expensive and not that great. The one exception was the phoenix dumpling with truffle, it was a shrimp and crab mixture wrapped in a dumpling skin with truffle on top, it was pretty good. Now, I absolutely love foie gras, but the foie gras pastry was pretty bad. The foie gras was chopped up beyond recognition, and the pastry was a deep fried ball as opposed to a pastry.

Onto the traditional items, the hah gow was done nicely but nothing special, in fact everything was okay and nothing really stood out.

Overall, it was nice but not great and relatively expensive.

Dim sum for 3 was over $120.

3 out of 5
http://www.laitohheen.com/

Colborne lane

2007-04-15T00:39:00.000-05:00

Located on colborne lane (close to Tom Jones).

Went during volume 1 of the menu which was available a la carte. We ended up ordering and splitting about 90% of the dishes on the menu.

Everything was very good, particularly the squab. Dishes were prepared sort of tapas style with asian influences in most dishes. The waiter recommended about 3 dishes for each person, but I think we ordered more. 3 would probably be enough for most people. As I said before the squab was very good, full of juice and wonderfully flavoured. The potato tart was excellent, as was the striped bass. The rare tuna came with a wasabi infused foam and frozen soy sauce which was both interesting and very good.

Dessert was good, but not great.

4 out of 5
-went during the first couple weeks of it's opening.
- spent about $130 per person (included 1 bottle of wine)
http://colbornelane.com/

Canyon creek chophouse

2007-04-15T00:36:00.000-05:00

Canyon creek is a chain steakhouse. The one I went to was out by vaughan mills.

No ribsteak so I ordered the sirloin. It was very average. Flavour was okay, and it was a cooked a little more than I like, but not too bad. Flavour was pretty good, however there was definately a quality difference between Canyon creek and the other steak houses I had been frequenting. However, with the quality difference was a huge price difference, so I guess you get what you pay for.

2.5 out of 5
about $30 for steak and side.

Tom Jones

2007-04-15T00:25:00.000-05:00

Tom Jones steakhouse is at 17 Leader lane (around church and adelaide).

Pretty nice decor, but also pretty empty. I had a clam chowder for an appetizer and again it was okay, but nothing special (i think I should stop ordering that).

Ordered a 24 oz rib steak and it was very big. Cooked up nicely and the quality of the meat was good, but again it was pretty flavourless. The steak comes with 2 sides and I had vegetables and the rice. The vegetables were unedible, absolutely disgusting. Greesy yet flavourless. Rice had flavour but again not that good.

For desert we ordered the cherries jubilee, not that great. Just wet mushy cheeries on vanilla ice cream.

Overall 2 out of 5
-cost was about $50 for the steak.
http://www.tomjonessteakhouse.com/

Carmen's

2007-04-15T00:09:00.000-05:00

I really did not like carmen's. It is in an old building that smells like an old church, probably because of the wood burning. To add to the church feeling is the stained glass and the creepy paintings.

It was about $60 or so for a steak, potato and dessert, so price was pretty good. Ordered the rib steak as usual and it was pretty small, at least compared to the other ones I have been eating, about 14 ounces or so. Not much flavour either. Desert was of the supermarket bakery variety.

Would definately not repeat. And on top of everything, they have a no jeans policy. So I had to wear pants that ended up smelling like the restaurant after I left.

1 out of 5.

Never again.

Barbarians steakhouse

2007-04-14T23:30:00.000-05:00

Barbarians is located on Yonge and Elm. Seems like it's been around forever. The decor is typical old school steakhouse, sort of like straight out of the 70's (I know I wasn't alive in the 70's but still).

Now if you can get over the decor, barbarians is definitely worth a try for the steak connoisseur. Stated with a clam chowder that was not that great. There were clams in the soup but I found it a bit salty. Again, I ordered the Rib steak, and it was a very good size, I would estimate about 16 ounces or so, nowhere close to rib at harbour 60 but still good size. The steak was excellent, tender and flavourful. Cooked pretty much to the medium rare that I ordered. The side baked potato was a baked potato, nothing special.

Desert consisted of a crepes suzette. It consisted of about 8 crepes and was drenched in butter and what they called orange liquer but what I thought was tropicana. It was okay, but this being my first experience with crepes suzette, I was not blown away. It was very heavy.

Overall 4 out of 5.
- about $50 for steak and side.
- can't find a website.

Bardi's steakhouse

2007-04-14T22:50:00.000-05:00

This is going to start a run of steakhouse reviews.

Bardi's is located on like York and King. Went on a Friday night, had a reservation but didn't really need it.

For appetizers we had a shrimp cocktail, ribs and escargot. The menu promised the biggest shrimp in the city. They were pretty big but definitely not the biggest shrimp in the city. Ribs were okay, but nothing special and the escargot was buttery and very similar to the stuff you can buy from the frozen section at your local supermarket.

Now, on to the steaks. To try and be consistent I think i've ordered the bardi's special (a rib steak), in order to be consistent I order rib steaks at all the steak houses I will be talking about (at least when a rib was available). It was a large cut of meat that came with a choice of sides (fries, baked potato or rice). The steak was tender and pretty decent quality steak, however it had absolutely no flavour, guess they forgot to the salt.

Dessert was unimpressive so even though I finished all my dinner, I didn't get dessert, at least not from Bardi's.

Price was typical upper scale steakhouse prices ($50ish for the steak).

2 out of 5.

http://www.bardis.com/menus.html

Sushi Kaji

2007-04-14T22:32:00.000-05:00

One of the best if not the best sushi in town. Everything was super fresh and absolutely fantastic. The cooked dished were nice to look at as well as delicious. Wasabi was authentic and not the green horseradish paste that 99.9% of other japanese restaurants serve in this city. It was a treat to sit at the sushi bar and match Chef Kaji work. The attention to detail and quality of ingredients is second to none.

The ingredient of the day was crab, and the crab sashimi was taken from the leg of a living crab just before serving. There was not a piece of salmon in sight, all fish was absolutely wonderful.

Excellent. 5 out of 5

- a little bit pricey, there are 3 pricing options, $80, $100 and $120 tasting menus. No a la carte.
http://www.sushikaji.com/

Ruby restaurant

2007-01-27T22:46:00.000-05:00

I believe that was the name, chinese restaurant at woodside square (Finch and McCowan). Had the peking duck. There wasn't enough pieces of duck skin to use up all the wrap. Still pretty good, I mean how can anybody make duck skin suck? Service was very bad and slow. Dishes came in spurts and they forgot one of the dishes. When the food finally did come it was nothing special. Portions were of a decent size but everything was pretty greasy.

Overall, food wasn't too bad but service was horrible so I doubt i'll be going back anytime soon.

1.5 out of 5

Harbour sixty

2007-01-27T22:34:00.000-05:00

Harbour sixty is a relatively pricey steakhouse. Located on Harbour street, harbour sixty provided a wonderful dining experience. Let's start with the appetizers, the grilled ahi tuna was very good, 5 slices of grilled tuna was accompanied by some sort of pickled carrot salad. Calamari was fried nicely and although it was deep fried did not taste greasy. The most impressive appetizer however was the shrimp cocktail. 3 of what might have been the largest shrimp I have ever seen were served on ice with cocktail sauce.

Now onto the sides that we ordered with our steaks. The macaroni and cheese featured a four cheese blend and was very creamy. The seared spinach was a bit salty but still good. The scalloped potatoes may have been the best side, both creamy and flavourful without feeling too heavy. Now the only really disappointing side was the garlic mashed potatoes, tasted very bland with only a slight hint of garlic.

Onto the main course, I ordered the bone in rib eye steak at the recommendation of our waiter. It was a very generous portion. It was at least 2 inches thick and at least 7 inches long (not including the bone). Prepared exactly as I had asked and beautifully marbled. The steak was fat enough to keep it juicy while not being too fat. It was excellent.

Now usually I would have also ordered dessert, and the dessert menu looked very good, however the steak was just too much and we were all too full for anymore food.

4.5 out of 5
http://www.harboursixty.com/
-the site is really annoying

Nectar

2007-01-24T23:15:00.000-05:00

Now this place is a little pricier than most of the other places, but I will review it none the less. Located at 488 Wellington st west, Nectar provides an intimate dinner setting. For appetizers I samples the kobe ravioli, which was 1 ravioli stuffed with kobe sitting on top of a scallop with enoki mushrooms on top. It was very good, however it was only 1 ravioli and I highly doubt it was real kobe beef inside. The oysters were decent and came in a variety of sauces. The soft shell crab was deep fried and a good size however I found it a bit greasy.

As an entree I had the venison, prepared in 3 different forms. The venison pie was good, a pastry crust filled with venison and topped with what I guess is mashed potatoes. Also brussel sprouts on top of a slice of bacon, now i've never had brussel sprouts before and they were decent, not bad and how can you go wrong with bacon. The rack of venison was prepared as I ordered (medium rare).

Desert was pretty good, baked alaska was okay, the citrus flavoured creme brulee was not as good as regular brulee, and i've had better cookies and ice cream. However not bad.

Overall I was very satisfied with this meal. The appetizers were definitely the best part of this meal.

4 out of 5
http://www.nectar-restaurant.com/
- I hear this place is no longer around. Please inform me if i'm wrong

Firkin

2007-01-24T23:08:00.000-05:00

Specifically the goose and firkin. Now this is not my first visit to Firkin, and probably won't be the last. Todays menu consisted of Nachos with Chicken, Spicy Fries and for dinner British style curry chicken with naan, jasmine rice and cucumber salad.

First off, the appetizers. Nachos were an absolute mess. Lots of cheese, sour cream, salsa and guacamole however, individual containers to hold the sauces would have been nice. Probably because of the cheese the nachos were really greasy and seemed to shine, even in the relatively dark bar. The spicy fries were waffle cut and pretty good, although in no way were they spicy.

For dinner, the curry chicken was pretty good. Chunks of chicken floating in curry. It was a little spicy but I don't think there was enough sauce. Naan was crispy but definitely toasted in a toaster oven.

Over all, decent but Nachos could use real improvement.

2.5 out of 5

To be fair beer selection is okay, and pitchers are decently priced.

Lettuce Eatery

2007-01-20T01:32:00.000-05:00

Lettuce eatery makes custom salads and wraps with a variety of toppings. Salads are good because you can customize them to your own personal tastes, however I do believe I prefer the wrap. The wrap comes in a whole wheat wrap and you get to choose the same ingredients as the salads. Now I do enjoy eating at this place but it's a little pricey for what it is. Adding chicken costs $2 extra and steak is an extra $3.

rating 2.5/4

Ninki Sushi

2007-01-20T01:26:00.000-05:00

Now I was at Ninki sushi last night. I ordered a chicken terriyaki bento box that contained, terriyaki chicken (pretty good), rice (not so good), 3 pieces of salmon sashimi (decent), and shrimp and vegetable tempura (not bad). We also ordered a spider roll (soft shell crab) which was pretty good. Overall everything was pretty decent, menu is very generic and food tastes very similar to most of the other sushi restaurants around town. Portions were of a pretty decent size and the prices were pretty standard. Not that expensive but not exactly cheap.

Overall rating 3 out of 5
- dinner for 2 was around $55

The Real Jerk

2007-01-20T01:24:00.000-05:00

This place is pretty decent, so far i've had the goat and chicken rotis as well as the jerk chicken. Prices on order it for the Roti are pretty good, 1 roti is enough for a meal and only costs $6.50. I also had a piece of jerk chicken, now it was chicken breast but I found it a bit dry. However the jerk seasoning was excellent and even a bit spicey.

Overall: 3 out of 5

Welcome to orderingit

2007-01-20T01:22:00.000-05:00

I seem to eat out a lot so i'll write about i've been eating. Ratings will be out of 5, value will play a part in the rankings, so don't be suprised if something costing like $6 gets the same rating as something that costs over $100.