PhilH's Profile
Alberta Premium 30 Year Old Limited Edition
Whisky snob friend of mine told me about it so I just wanted to return the favour for anyone interested. It's been on the shelves of LCBO for the last few weeks. Picked up a bottle for myself and a friend today at the Queens Quay/Yonge location where it has the most stock. At $50/750 ml, I'd say it's pretty damn affordable considering what it is.
There is a review here: http://www.canadianwhisky.org/reviews/alberta-premium-30-year-old-limited-edition%C2%AE-40-alc-vol.html
Looking for best post-Hoof brunch
Another rec for Beast. Try the burger if you haven't yet.
Stockyards has been open for Sunday brunch for a long time now. If you go I'd recommend the Eggs Tommy (2 deep fried poached eggs, garlic poached shrimp, andouille sausage, biscuits, home fries) or the Fried Chicken and Waffles. Also get some beignets while you're there.
David Chang x Shangri La ... here's hoping!
I was so excited to hear this when I woke up in the morning. It's actually what got me out of bed (as I was reading the news on my phone). So glad this was confirmed for real.
Big changes in Hoof Land
Did my last brunch today with a friend.
Had the french toast with foie gras, shrimp and grits, scrapple, and donuts. Everything was delicious. Definitely going to miss this.
Big changes in Hoof Land
Tried to go on brunch on Saturday. Hour and a half long wait at 11:30 for 2. Ended up going to Saving Grace instead.
Went yesterday to try the fried chicken. Despite getting there at just a little after 6 (6:03?), and probably ordering at 6:15-6:20, the fried chicken for my table didn't come out until about 7:20.
Meat was drier than Stockyards, less greasy in comparison, I liked the batter more than Stockyards, but I still like Stockyards' chicken more overall. Really not worth the wait though. If you're going to go tonight or next week, get in at 6 and order it first thing is my advice.
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Saving Grace
907 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON M6J1V9, CA
Big changes in Hoof Land
Haven't been keeping up with CH for the last 2 months. Started reading again and find this and all I have to say is:
NOOOOOO.
I will miss you, brunch. ;-;
what restaurants have kitchen-view tables?
Beer Bistro has a counter looking into the kitchen as well.
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Beer Bistro
18 King St. E, Toronto, ON M5C 1C4, CA
The Burger's Priest - Queen and Coxwell
Oh man, just came back and I am a convert. Reading this thread for the last couple of months every so often but I never felt like making the trek out. Finally made my way there today with a friend after my dinner plans fell through with someone else.
Had the double double with fries and a cookie. I was not full from this... (I actually consumed a coffee crisp and a root beer afterwards and still felt hungry) Kind of disappointed that it was more medium than med rare (especially since the guy behind the counter told they cook them to medrare normally after I asked specifically) but it was juicy and moist enough to be an easy thing to overlook.
I agree that it is totally worth the price (fries are nothing to write home about but yes, like others, I can't order a burger without them). At this pricepoint, there is nothing better.
Caplansky's - New Menu!
I've still got to try Goldins but never seem to find the chance to. While I haven't been to Caplansky's in a longggg time, I actually prefer the tongue sandwich to the smoked meat.
I think that Black Hoof has a tastier tongue sandwich strictly on a flavour level.. (but it does of course have those little extras to bump it up like tarragon mayo) But texturally, the thickness of Caplansky's tongue vs machined sliced at Black Hoof's.. gotta go for Caplansky's.
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Caplansky's
356 College Street, Toronto, ON M6J, CA
The Black Hoof
928 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON M6J, CA
Caplansky's - New Menu!
http://www.caplanskysdeli.com/menu
So I only gave it a quick once over just because I'm busy with work right now but there's a few new items on there.. and the fried chicken caught my eye....
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Caplansky's
356 College Street, Toronto, ON M6J, CA
Marben monday brunch or O & B Canteen
Yeah.. I haven't tried Canteen either but the menu never really caught my eye.
I would pick Marben over Canteen but I find Marben's brunch menu is not as interesting as their dinner..
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Marben
488 Wellington Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1E5, CA
Brunch at The Beast, a review
haha I pretty much had the same experience on a smaller scale.
Went with a friend last weekend for brunch, I had a duck dish and he had the burger. By the end of it, I'd totally wished I had gotten the burger instead. Nothing really wrong with what I got... it just didn't wow me. Those tater tots are amazing.
Looking for a great downton T.O. restaurant with a good bar for after dinner?
I have. Only once though. I got their shortrib burger and it was mighty tasty. I've heard good things about other items on their new menu, too but I haven't had the chance to go back yet. I sat outside so only glanced at the bar for a bit when I walked in to get seated. It looked pretty great from what I recall.
Scotch/Whiskey Tasting in Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge
Probably cutting it way too close (super early Christmas present?) but a quick google search came up with this:
http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/c56e308f49bfeb7885256abc0071ec9a/DC3169DAD7D454F285256CDF00651595?OpenDocument
October 14
Scotchtoberfest: Travel Scotland through one of its most celebrated exports, Scotch. Savour four single malts from districts known for their distilling excellence with our knowledgeable tasting expert. $35 for tasting and nibbles to cleanse the palate. Dinna’ ferget to reserve.
Black Hoof
Bumping this up again with a report of my recent trip. I haven't gone for dinner in like a year (on and off for brunch when I can) so I was excited to see what had changed in the menu since then.
Went in with a friend of mine, we ordered 3 dishes at the cafe and 2 dishes + a large charcuterie when we actually got in. In hindsight, that was a bit ambitious and way too much food for two people. Halfway through the charcuterie board and it was just all way too rich for my friend. I had to pick up the slack and eating should never feel like a chore...
Anyway. At the Cafe, we ordered pork belly (sousvide with sous vide apple in a pork reduction with hazelnuts and a puree of some sort which I forgot, our fave out of the three), bbq pork ribs (battered and forgettable), and the special for the night (bc sockeye seared skin side, raw on the other + kimchi, brussels sprout leaves, and bacon, felt that the salmon would have been better off raw, seared on just the skin side still managed to cook it more than I would have liked, kimchi overpowered everything but it could have been worse, I still liked this)
We were actually kind of in a rush and made a sudden decision to walk down the street to Libretto after hearing it might be another half hour wait after the 45 minute wait we just had.. but right at the moment we were getting the receipt, we got the call from across the street so away we went.
The charcuterie board had fois gras parfait, genovese sausage, prosciutto, blueberry and bison, a terrine of tongue and... walnuts(?), duck breast prosciutto, wild boar lardo, wild boar and fennel salami, horse mortadella, smoked summer sausage, and chorizo. I won't comment much on it except that I think I'll stick to getting the large in a bigger group... our fault for ruining our enjoyment of it.
The other two dishes we got were a seared duck heart with foraged mushrooms (our favourite out of the entire night, heart was tasty, tender and the mushrooms were great) and the tongue on brioche (do I really need to say anything about this?)
For those who want to know what's on the menu at the moment: I didn't really catch what's on at the cafe but at black hoof, the menu currently has a smoked mackerel salad, turbot crudo, tongue on brioche, duck heart + foraged mushrooms, pappardelle + giblet sauce, tripe + merguez, roasted bone marrow and their raw horse sandwich. I may be missing a few items (something with boudin noir? and.. something else?) but that's the bulk of it..
Downtown and North York AYCE Sushi
I tend to just pass by the huge AYCE Sushi thread (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/311815) whenever I see it because of its huge size and my disinterest in AYCE but a friend recently asked me about choices for downtown and north york so research must be done!
Reading through the recent (all the 2010) posts in that thread, I see a few good posts for Ninki (and one bad one) downtown as well as one post for Echo Sushi. In relative proximity to North York, I see a few posts about Sushi Fun and Hockey Sushi in Thornhill but I think they'd probably want something a bit closer..
Could someone please chime in and elaborate on any recent experiences at these places or offer other suggestions for good quality AYCE in the DT/North York area?
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Echo Sushi
2036 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4S1Z9, CA
Ninki
40 King St W, Toronto, ON M5H3Y2, CA
Hockey Sushi
1102 Centre St, Thornhill, ON L4J3M8, CA
Bistro Camino Closed?
Gave me a slight scare here. I keep meaning to try this place out but never find the time to. Would have been a shame if I closed before I could.
Late night dessert -- crepes & waffles downtown?
Art Square Cafe near the AGO is open until 10. Never tried it so not sure how they really are. Don't know if they have chocolate ice cream at all either.
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Art Square
334 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON M5T, CA
Best Doughnuts in Toronto
One of the servers at Hoof Cafe actually remembers me for ordering their donuts at the end of the meal rather than in the beginning.
I had a chance to try out Stockyard's brunch a few days ago and their beignets are pretty darn tasty. 4 for $4, fresh out of the fryer, dusted with sugar, insides just oozing with warm dulche de leche... oh, man.
Deep fried BUTTER offered at the Ex this year!
I would like to try this at least once. Just to say that I have and that I lived to tell the tale.
Any foodie events coming up in the next week or so?
There's the Conscious Food Festival happening at Fort York this weekend which is still happening tomorrow as well.
Where to buy a LARGE bag of raw peanuts (not roasted or salted) in the shell...
I've occasionally seen them in east Chinatown (Gerrard/Broadview) as well. Haven't been there for awhile though.
Goed Eten reopening! Proper Belgian Waffles / Gaufres De Liege
Oh what good news! I've been looking out for this place to reopen for forever now.
Victoria Day- Open Restaurants
Not sure about your other picks but I do know Black Hoof is open on Monday. They tweeted that they were on their twitter page.
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The Black Hoof
928 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON M6J, CA
Omakase at Omi?
Scratch Bekkan off that list then.
Is Bruce strictly at Yuzu these days or does he move back and forth between it and Japango?
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Japango
122 Elizabeth St, Toronto, ON M5G1P5, CA
recs for quick & tasty lunches within a 5 minute drive of the University of Waterloo
In the plaza west of Phillip:
I generally like Casa Salsa in terms of value for money for the student deal they have anyway. I think it was like 6 bucks for a burrito, nachos, and salsa. Haven't really ever gotten anything else from there aside from that but it is nice and filling.
Iron Chef next to Molly's has terrible sushi but their bento box lunches make for a decent lunch. I really like the bibimbap that they have on their menu however.
I still don't get how the Grill gets recs at all. Their basic burger is cooked from frozen, consistently grey on the inside, and bland as white paper. Their fries are terrible as well.
The cevap place is actually another chinese restaurant that isn't very good. They attract a lot of people due to its cheap prices. I don't really recommend any of the chinese or korean places in that plaza although I haven't tried any Waterloo Star's (the hotpot place right next to Iron Chef) single bowl meals. Some of the dishes in the Taiwanese place (Home Garden?) are good.
Kismet is fairly good. Curry in a Hurry is not (Their "hot" is only a mild to my buds).
Oh, I almost forgot. Directly on campus, the Bomber in the Student Life Centre has some pretty good things on its menu. I haven't been for a long time but I had a friend who went recently who liked it still.
In the plaza east of Phillip:
Mirage is the only decent Korean restaurant in those two plazas in my opinion. A negative to it is how long they take to make and serve you your food (but that's just a general lack of staff talking). Never been to lunch but I've been to dinner there 3-4 times.
I've never been to Al Madina (the egyptian restaurant) but the other end of it Just'n'pita (they share the same space) is pretty tasty. They advertise that all their sauces are homemade and they actually have garlic beets as part of their toppings.
Golden Mango doesn't do great pho but it's the only pho (since Waterloo Star stopped serving pho) around so it'll have to do the trick if you're ever itching for some.
I've never been to Meetpoint but I've generally heard good things about it. Their pides are mentioned a good bit as well.
Phew. That took awhile.
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Golden Mango Restaurant
150 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L3E4, CA
Iron Chef
285 Geneva St, St Catharines, ON L2N2G1, CA
Al Madina Restaurant
1008 Danforth Ave, Toronto, ON M4J1M2, CA
Casa Salsa
170 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L3E9, CA
Omakase at Omi?
Ahh. This pretty much cinched it for Zen then. My friend and I were planning on hitting up Inatei sometime before as well. And now I've got Yuzu on my target sights. I kind of discounted Yuzu from the original equation due to the reports I kept hearing of Japango losing a bit of its touch over the last couple of months. Glad to hear that's not really the case for Yuzu. Somewhere in all this, I want to visit Mikado and Solo Sushi Gekkan just to get a more complete picture.
Oh, my wallet is not going to enjoy this. Not one bit at all.
Omakase at Omi?
Has anyone been recently?
I was planning on going for either the omakase at Zen or Omi sometime next month. Wanted some more information to help me decide. Specifically, what's the average price of the omakase like at Omi and what can I expect out of it (raw to cooked dishes ratio, quality of the sushi, etc.) I know they're not really comparable beasts at all but that's kind of why I have a hard time picking one out of the two.
I'm willing to entertain other suggestions as well but fyi I've already read that other recent thread on omakase suggestions http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/680846 which helped me narrow down my options but other relevant data not addressed in it is always welcome (knowledge is power and all that).
