Price: $15+ Been meaning to visit this restaurant and finally got the chance to with a fellow foodie. We went on a weekday before 6pm, so it wasn’t too crowded. They usually gets busier after this, so try to make … Continue reading
Terroni ★★★ 1/2
Category Archives: Popular Restaurants
Bier Market – King West ★★ 1/2
Price: $15-30+ depending on the meal Met up with two other friends and decided to try Bier Market on King West. Hoped to find better service at this location than their Esplanade one. I had the poutine and fruli strawberry … Continue reading
Lenny’s Panini & Pizza ★★★
Price: 10-15+ depending on meal I was checking out places to order lasagna to feed 10-15 guests for my Birthday party and a friend of mine recommended Lenny’s. They know the owners and actually picked up my “30 pound food … Continue reading
Revisit: Aji Sai ★ 1/2
Price: Under $25 for ACYE dinner.
So I rarely make these revisit posts but felt the experience from my last visit warranted it.
I went to Aji Sai one night with a large group – about 15 or so approx. Knowing this was would be a hassle for the restaurant, I made my reservations 2 weeks in advance and even called a week before to make sure I still had my reservation. No problems so far. Well, on the day of I call about 15 minutes before my reservation to adjust my seating numbers. Only to discover they have no such reservation noted!! MY WORST FOODIE NIGHTMARE! There was nothing in their books, not my name, phone number, nothing!
I was so embarrassed, mad and baffled as this rarely happens to me (besides that time at Pure Spirits), especially since I confirmed days ago. The hostess said she couldn’t help me unless I could provide proof I called them, mentioning I could have accidentally called their other location up North instead.
I don’t think I would ever make such a mistake and fortunately I had my call history to prove it. It was crazy busy at the restaurant so I tried to be understanding but the hostess had us wait for an 1hr and 20mins before the next table was free even though she said it would be only be another 30-45 minutes. We stuck around that long because everyone was looking forward to AYCE and there were no other nearby AYCE restaurants.
I know the hostess was trying her best given the circumstances but I just didn’t like how they didn’t have any back up solutions. Whether it was offering us a greater discount or getting the manager to help, etc. All I heard was “well, what can I do?” and “I can’t do anything about it.”
They did provide a 15% discount at the end of the meal if we paid cash (something I have had before because I was a student. Saved me about $4). Still, I thought they could have done better to handle our customer service situation. We were generally cooperative and didn’t cause any trouble. Decided to just stay outside the restaurant while waiting for our table, browsing wasn’t much of an option since everything else was mainly closed in that area.
We were finally seated at 9:20-9:30pm and finished around 11pm. I guess one of our servers was tired because he seemed very lax in taking orders and was barely coherent. Felt like he might pass out or something, very strange behaviour. The sushi also started to look sloppy too. Some of them seemed like they were just quickly meshed together. I know its was late but it doesn’t excuse the laziness in food presentation.
In the end, I would probably still visit them again because realistically it is one of the few if not only one decent AYCE sushi restaurant downtown. However, I have been greatly disappointed with their service and will probably keep this in mind next time I suggest a sushi restaurant to friends.
Lesson learned: write down the name of who is doing reservation!
TIP: Suggest coming here in small groups.
Website:
http://www.ajisai.ca/
Location: Various locations. Review for 467 Queen St. West, Toronto Ontario M5C 2A9
Telephone: (416) 603-3366
Yang’s Kitchen Sushi Bar ★★★
Price: Adults – $14.99 for lunch and $21.99 for dinner. Children (9 or under) and Seniors (65 or over) are reduced.
Surprised I haven’t reviewed this restaurant before. I have eaten at Yang’s a few times in the past but just remembered to review them after a recent visit with my family.
For those of you who don’t know Yang’s, they’re an all you can eat (ACYE) sushi restaurant, offering service for lunch and dinner. The lunch and dinner menu are the same except with dinner you can order items from the sashimi, sushi bar and kitchen list. I prefer dinner too, even if it’s just for the extra food I can order. Keep in mind service during weeknight/weekends is slower and more hectic. So if you plan to eat then, I strongly suggest making reservations!! Otherwise, you’ll be stuck waiting over half an hour for a table. Also, except for dessert..order in one go to maximize your time. They might have a 2 hour seating time limit.
In terms of food, they are okay. I love salmon so I ordered dishes like their salmon rose sushi, spicy salmon rolls, salmon maki and sushi. All of which were fine. I would also recommend their unagi (eel) rolls, green dragon rolls, steak dishes (meat’s sliced up) and maybe fried rice if you are in the mood. Stay away from the bland cucumber sushi and overly salty miso soup though.
Yang’s a pretty popular place in Markham so I know it will have a variety of responses but I’m actually surprised at the amount of negative reviews (ie.Avoid Yang’s Kitchen Forum Post). I haven’t really experienced anything so terrible with the service as mentioned in the post but I do somewhat agree with the service complaints (whether that is because they don’t understand English or not). There have been many a time where I had to repeatedly wave my hand or just physically go up and ask for service or extra napkins/cutlery. I don’t really mind it much, its sometimes frustrating but I kind of almost expect it.
Maybe its just the Asian in me but I have more patience when it comes to Asian restaurants. I set a different pair of standards for them, not sure if this is because it is a habit from childhood, being a stereotypical Asian or both. Haha. I mean, all Asian restaurants have to do is provide the standard complementary tea, clean utensils (I wipe them again), serve food at the correct temperature within 30 minutes and I am good. 
Dress code: Casual, good for friends and family. Possibly for socializing with co-workers if you are in the area.
Website: N/A
Location: 4261 Regional Rd 7, Markham, ON L3R 9W6
Telephone: (905) 944-0818
Hours: N/A – Please call ahead.
Bannock ★★★
Price: $15-25+
Wanted to try something new and thought this would be a good chance to check out another Oliver & Bonacini restaurant (huge fan and making it a point to eventually visit all O&B restos). Bannock’s located next to the Bay store on Queen, with it split into a dining area and a café/grab and go area. The interior has a lot of wooden furnishings and seating here is a little cramped (unless you are with a big group and have a table in the center or back of the dining area).
On the day I dined here, the weather was pretty brisk and cold out…you know typical Toronto weather. I had walked up from Union to Queen and Bay..breaking in my 3.5 inch heels no less. Safe to say, I was freezing and ready to sit down to escape from the cold and pain in my feet. Haha. Now, my first impressions of Bannock while walking in is it’s another “business-casual” restaurant. It was pretty empty when I came (4:30pm) and all I saw were a few workers doing paperwork while eating. There was even one table where a woman had a laptop and just spread her papers everywhere. However, by the time I left (6:30pm) it got considerably more busy and louder. So if it’s some quiet time your after, come before 6pm and if you’re into a more after hours vibe, 6pm and later is the most opportune time.
Anyway, I digress. I was in the mood for a hot dish and debating between the chicken pot pie with mashed potatoes ($16), the peppered flatiron steak with duck fat potatoes ($23) or their burger ($16) — which looked big by the way. I saw someone order it on the table next to me. Decided to go with the chicken pot pie though, it just beckoned to me. Turns out this was a great choice on my part, I LOVED IT! It was foodie-licious with its peas, chicken slices, sauce, etc. The side of creamy smashed potatoes and gravy was a nice addition as well. Well worth my $16 bucks. As for my friend, they had the noodle of the day ($14) and claimed it was good too. Didn’t get a chance to sample it so can’t really comment. We both also ordered the same drinks, the HBC cocktail with peach schnapps ($9), predicting it would be sweet and fruity. It was and tasted nice enough but I am not sure its worth the $9 price tag it has. Kind of expensive for just a nice enough cocktail.
Onto the restaurant service, the servers were suitably polite and attentive. Sometimes a bit too attentive I think, as my server came over to our table so many times I eventually felt rushed to leave. Over the course of our meal, I think our server came to our table over 10 times! My rough count: 2 times to ask for our order, 4 to ask and get our drink orders, 2 to place and get our plates, 2 to ask if we can pay and bring out our checks and finally 2 to ask us if we wanted anything else. Don’t get me wrong, its great they are attentive but my friend and I were trying to catch up and got interrupted too many times for my taste.
Dress code: Business casual. Good for lunch/dinner with friends, coworkers and your boss. Probably not for large families with children though.
Website:
http://www.oliverbonacini.com/Bannock.aspx
Location: 401 Bay St., Toronto, M5H 2Y4
Telephone: (416) 861 – 6996
Hours: Monday to Friday: 11:30am – 10:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am – 10:00pm and Sunday: 11:00am – 4:00pm
Cafe Hours: Monday to Friday: 7:30am – 8:00pm, Saturday: 9:00am – 8:00pm and Sunday: 9:00am – 4:00pm
News
Hi everyone!
Just letting all my foodie readers know I will not be able to update for the next 2 weeks. Going on vacation! However, once I get back I’ll add more reviews and maybe something new! 
Also, any comments will probably not be approved till after this time as well.
Thanks!
Winterlicious 2012 – Canoe Restaurant
Canoe is one of my personal favourite restaurants, which is evident from my previous review.
However, I recently ate here on the first day of Winterlicious and I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed with the food this time. Maybe it was because this was the first day of Winterlicious or the menu itself but I found the food somewhat bland in taste for certain dishes.
My starter was fine, I had clover roads duck rillette with gribiche, pretzel bread & forbes’ wild flavours. With the main dish however, I had braised Alberta lamb pappardelle with walnuts & mill st. coffee porter sauce but felt the noodles were a bit undercooked? My dessert, birch syrup pudding with bacon caramel & ginger foam was good but the portion was incredibly small. I’m usually one not to complain about portions because I know most fine dining restaurants don’t offer you large portions like more main stream restaurants. However, this was a bit too small for even me. As for drinks, I enjoyed the Winterlicious special pear and cranberry non-alcoholic drink. It was very fruity.
Overall, I did enjoy myself at Canoe. Even if sometimes I felt it was hectic (there were 2-3 people coming to our table, the waiter and 2 staff members), who were very nice and friendly but came too frequently for me to fully enjoy my meal with friends. I also felt a little rushed at the end to leave but our group did stay for almost 3 hours, so its understandable. Would still recommend visiting here.
Website:
http://www.oliverbonacini.com/Canoe.aspx
Location: 66 Wellington Street West, 54th Floor of TD Tower, Toronto, ON M5K 1H6
Telephone: (416) 364-0054
Hours: Monday to Friday: 11:45am to 10:30pm, Saturday & Sunday: closed for private events
Salad King ★★★
Price: Under $15
It has been remiss of me not to review Salad King as it is one of the most popular restaurants to eat phud thai at. This place is so popular the business survived what I still think of as a curse.
I recommend the siam fried rice and phud thai fry noodles in shrimp or chicken. Salad King gives you an option of how spicy you want your dish as well. From mild/medium/1 chili to 20 chilis.
If you are new to Salad King you might be surprised at the seating arrangements. They have these long metal tables where you would need to eat next to strangers. This is to fit the maximum number of people in the restaurant. They also added small tables so now you can sit in groups of 4 or so too, however getting seats there are kind of difficult.
Tips: go in smaller groups, its easier to get seating that way. They only do reservations at lunch and you can pick up any food orders there but no delivery.
Great for lunches and dinners with friends, family, coworkers and casual dates. Its pretty loud so don’t come here with your boss or have an important meeting to discuss.
Website:
http://www.saladking.com/
Location: 340 Yonge Street, Toronto ON M5B 1R8
Telephone: (416) 593 – 0333
Hours: Monday to Thursday – 11am to 10pm, Friday – 11am to 11pm, Saturday – 12pm to 11pm, Sunday – 12pm to 9pm
PURE SPIRITS Oyster House & Grill ★★★
Price: $30+
Located at Distillery District, I went here during the Christmas Market event in the middle December.
The service could have been better here, I felt like we were imposing for just wanting to eat there and perhaps we overstayed our welcome (we were there for over two hours) and didn’t order much. I had the oysters and tried the calamari. Both yummy but pricey. Half a dozen oysters were $18 and 2 pieces of calamari were $14.
Good for dates and with friends. Dress code: semi-dressy/casual
Website:
http://purespirits.ca/
Location: 55 Mill Street, Toronto, ON M5A 3C4
Telephone: (416) 361 – 5859
Hours: Monday to Sunday (Lunch) – 11:30am to 3:00pm, Monday to Sunday (Dinner) – 5:00pm to 11:00pm
