Ba Shu Ren Jia

Dec 31, 2009

Location:
Ba Shu Ren Jia
4771 Steeles Ave. E. (at Kennedy)
416-335-0788

Items ordered:

Rice Noodles with sour and hot sauce


Comments:
-Very 'smooth' noodles like you've never had before!
-A perfect sauce combining spice and sweet/sour/sesame flavors
-I would recommend that people give this a try

Sliced pork with hot and garlic sauce

Comments:
-This dish has same sauce base (as the noodles above) dwelling on the bottom of the bowl
-On the meat there's a sweet/garlic sauce that is grainy in texture which works well with counter acting the spice
-The thin slices of pork have a good blend of meat/fat ratio providing great texture while chewing

Lamb in pot


Comments:
-Humm.....I was actually disappointed with this dish, there was nothing special about it
-Slices of lean lamb meat ended up being tough, I'll stop here.

Fish with sweet and sour sauce

Comments:
-This dish was not bad, you can smell/taste the sweet & sour flavor quite well
-There was a right amount of batter covering the fish so that it wasn't too "doughy"
-One thing that we noticed was that this dish was a tad bit too oily

Soup filled steamed buns

Comments:
-Who doesn't love these! All I can say is that this is on par with all the other Asian restaurants, not bad but nothing special

Konichiwa

Dec 28, 2009

Location:
http://www.gokonnichiwa.com/


Items ordered:

Pork ramen noodles with shoyu broth
-Noodles resembled more of the instant noodle style as oppose to the yellowish type noodles


Comments:
-The broth was a mild shoyu flavor, not as rich in flavor as I'd have liked
-Pork wise it was rather tender, acceptable
-I miss the perfectly made egg in Japan that has the yolk semi cooked =(
Overall I still can't find any ramen in Toronto that compares to Japan, sigh!

Beef curry rice


Comments:
-One thing I loved was that the carrot was tender and VERY sweet, as if it was soaked in sugar water
-The curry was rich in flavor and was blended with sweetness and a mild spice, just the way I like it, this would be one of the better places that I've tried for curry rice.

Guu Izakaya

Dec 27, 2009

Location:
Guu Izakaya
398 Church Street
(416) 977-0999
www.guu-izakaya.com/

Items ordered:

Sweet shrimp sashimi


Comments:
-If you've never had this before, try it! Sweet shrimp also has this creamy taste/texture


Seared albacore tuna


Comments:
-I thought that the tuna was seared a tad too much, overcooking the middle more than I would have liked

Oden-mori

Comments:
-So so, noting special

Dinner @ The Black Hoof aka Charcuterie!

Dec 6, 2009

Location: The Black Hoof (click for map)

Items ordered:

Charcuterie Large ($25)
- wide assortment of sliced meats (ranging in levels of spice and fat)
-small plates of duck live mousse like mixture and fois gras



Comments:
-It was interesting to have an assortment of sliced meats as a dish, my favorite was the small plate of fois gras mixture whereas my gf loved the duck liver mousse like mixture
-Seeing as this is one of the signature dishes of the restaurant I'd suggest you give it a try, you'll be pleasantly surprised

Roasted Bone marrow ($5)
-one large bone
-few slices of baguette
-small dish of salt flakes



Comments:
-First I tried the bone marrow as is.....felt like I was eating very soft fat, interesting
-The flavor improved quite a bit after the salt was added and served with the baguette
-Overall this is worth a try but is definitely not a dish you would eat often

Testina, hazelnuts with roasted chanterelles
-Basically this dish was explained to us as being "pig face meat that is poached and slow cooked"
-Chanterelles is a type of mushroom

Comments:
-The meat was served in thin slices like bacon (fat content was similar to bacon), the favor of the meat by itself was rather bland
-The chanterelles were pleasantly sweet and refreshing
-Overall this dish I would not order again, but the pig face meat was a novelty factor =P

Duck in cabbage soup ($11)
-There was 4 fried duck tongues floating on top of the soup!

Comments:
-The tongues tasted alright, had a nice bite to it and definitely held it's own "duck" flavor
-The soup was very flavorful, cabbage provided a nice sweetness and the duck was savory making the overall product a wonderful blend

Chocolate bread pudding with smoked ice cream ($6)

Comments:
-First of all, when have you had ice cream that smelled like smoked meats?
-Secondly, after taking a bite of the bread pudding we thought there was a savory taste, did someone spike my bread pudding with bacon~!
-This bread pudding was not like any others I have tried, very unconventional, which I respect, hats off for the bold use of flavors =)

Tasting @ Drake Hotel (Brunch)

Dec 5, 2009

Location: Drake hotel (click for map)

Items ordered:
- Southern deep fried chicken + waffles ($14)


Comments:
-awesome flavor only when all the flavors combined together (maple syrup/herbed butter concoction/BBQ fried chicken/sweet cherry jam)

- Warm scone plate ($7)


Comments:
-crunchy exterior
-moist interior
-lacked the buttery fluffiness which would have made it two thumbs up
-there were blueberries within but the flavor was very subtle, I wouldn't have mind more blueberry flavor!