You can get them cut to order from Silverstein's Bakery, but yoy must order a case at a time ( I believe that's 48). The type of bunto which you refer is a U.S. style top-split hot dog roll. You used to be able to buy the Wonderbread top-split at Loblaw's and No Frills but not now. I checked with the makers of Wonderbread and they informed me that the top-split is available in Quebec only. Good luck.

New Ho King is on the west side of Spadina, #416, about two short blocks south of College.

I have posted several times on other threads about New Ho King. This place attracts a fair number of non-Chinese, usually after the bars and clubs close. At prime dinner hours, especially on the weekends, the clientele is primarily multi-generational Chinese families. While there is an English only menu, the Chines/English menu is full of "authentic" dishes. Much like Lee Garden, there is, to be sure, a selection of dishes that non-Chinese would find less daunting. Chinese families seem to always get what they want, so I'm sure a gentle prodding by non-Chinese would get them the same dishes, many of which aren't listed. One of my favourites there is the Mui Choy (pungent preserved vegetable) Kow Yuk, an incredibly flavourful, tender and rich braised pork belly dish. The dish is of Hakka origin and is rarely seen these days.
My mother passed away a few weeks ago and when I arranged for the traditional post-funeral meal for family and friends, it was New Ho King. My Uncle ( a retired 88 year old Chinese chef) recommended NHK over all the other Chinatown choices. The service at the meal was first rate and the food was extremely tasty and in plentiful portion. Even my Richmond Hill relatives loved the meal (I think they were plesantly surprised). Each table had crab meat fish maw soup (accompanied by red vinegar), mixed seafood and vegetables in a taro nest (not overcooked), injtensely flavourful snow pea leaves with minced garlic, whole crispy chicken (very juicy), double lobsters with ginger and green onion, steamed whole pickerel (walleye), which was served already opened and filleted, beef tenderloin in chef's sauce on a sizzling platter, Yeung Chow fried rice, and Buddha's Feast (Lo Han Jai) chow mein (Lo Han is traditionally served following Chinese funerals). The restaurant gave us complimentary refreshing oranges and a delicious taro pudding soup for dessert.. As I have said before, NHK has no pretentions to high end dining, but for tasty, authentic cuisine served in huge portions at reasonable prices (the meal cost at least $100 per table less than a comparable meal in Richmond Hill or Markham), New Ho King is number one on my family's list in Chinatown.

I posted on another thread that my wife and I tried BP on Yonge Street north of Lawrence, south of York Mills, and it was practically INEDIBLE. Way oversalted and shockingly devoid of beef taste in their fresh ground beef. On the other thread, I asked if this was far different from the Beach BP and two replies indicated that they stopped going for similar reasons. I will try the Beach location because so many of you love the place, and I hope that it will live up to the hype. I think this is the only fair way of assessing the brand. In the meantime, we went to Holy Chuck on Yonge Street south of St. Clair and it was FABULOUS. It was so good, coming on the heels of our BP experience, that the contrast was even more startling.

The Burger Cellar and Wine Bar on Yonge Street (east side) between Lawrence and Yonge Blvd. is very nice, albeit perhaps more expensive. BTW CHers, my wife and I tried Burger's Priest for the first time this past weekend. I can only assume that this is a franchise location, not a corporate store. All of you who've lauded the original Beach location would be shocked by this outlet. Overpriced ( over $23 tax in for two burgers), WAY oversalted, greasy, and, despite the balls of fresh ground beef waiting to be griddled, shockingly devoid of beef flavour. Is the Beach location different? If so, we will have to try it before passing judgement on the brand.

Sadly, the only beef on weck I've had in Toronto was at a German deli in the Pure Food Building at the Ex. I've been to Charlie the Butcher's several times and it has been uniformly excellent.Fair warning though, the bun is salty (which I like) but may surprise those who don't like salt or are not expecting it.

Yitz's Deli coleslaw is terrific - uniformly loved by all of our guests who've had it.

Venti Sette on Yonge Street (west side) just north of Fairlawn is the real deal for this traditionally seasonal treat.

The Orchard on King Street at Hurontario has been the standby for decades.

A new bakery/cafe has opened on Yonge Street just north of Fairlawn. The bright, cheery cafe is called Venti Sette and it features wonderful pastries and cookies, grilled panini,feature hot table items, fabulous coffees, espressos, capuccinos etc., and, their pride and joy, gelati, which owner Mario insists is the true gelati and not the ice cream-like product offered up in many other GTA gelaterias. We've tried their tiramisu, lemon cornettis, cannolis, chantilly eclairs, amaretto cookies etc. and all have been uniformly terrific. I can't wait for their zeppoli when the season arrives ! Their coffee is wonderful, as is their capuccino. We've had the grilled veg and goat cheese panino and it was excellent. Absolutely everything is made fresh daily on the premises. What a welcome addition to the neighbourhood !!!

Sorry for the delay. The food was about the same. Based on one visit, it's hard to make a definitive comparison, especially since we went to Yiu Wah regularly. On one visit, the limitation on the number of dishes we could sample makes a blanket statement impossible. What we had was fine and about the same as the old place. Because the service is by cart, not all of the items we used to have at yiu Wah came around that day. We will be going back for further investigation.

It's OK, not great; some hits, some misses. Typical economical Chinatown dim sum. A lot of the old Yiu Wah staff are still there, and the maitre d' recognized me immediately. Service is fast and friendly. I really missed Yiu Wah's lobster with ginger and green onion chow mein ( a Yiu Wah perpetual daily special) which was not available the day I went.

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Wah's Restaurant
23 Simcoe Plaza, Terrace Bay, ON P0T2W0, CA

Call Barbara (416) 305-9526.

Is there anywhere in Toronto that serves a reasonably good Buffalo style white pizza?

Ah !! Canton Terrace !! Such memories !! I still crave their Vancouver ribs ( we ALWAYS ordered two of those). Places like China House and Sea Hi were the "names" in Uptown Chinese back then, as were Sai Woo, Lichee Gardens and Kwongchow in the old Chinatown. Going way back, Number 12 Elizabeth Street was probably the most well known "secret". It is extremely difficult to find this 50's stlyle stuff anymore. Maybe we will all have to wait until Lichee Gardens finally re-opens in the theatre district as their website has been promising for so long. Any of you out there have any info?
I haven't tried the Honey Bee on Queen Street in The Beach, but it sure looks like old school. Further east on Queen is the "Goof" (Garden Gate), a throwback to the days of the Canadian Chinese Cafe with Canadian and "Chinese" menu sections. I haven't been there for ages but it probably hasn't changed much. Sadly, I think the style of food which we are all talking about pretty much is left to the takeout joints to provide.

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Lichee Garden
1416 Centre St, Thornhill, ON L4J8A1, CA

My wife and I came into Syracuse last weekend and had (thanks to CNY Chowhounders) some great experiences.
On Friday, we went to Daniella's Steakhouse. While waiting for our table, we had some great cocktails. Dinner began with nice warm fresh-baked bread served with incredible sweet butter. Our appetizer was the crab stuffed artichokes, which were tasty, crisp, and not the least bit greasy. The salad with a crumbled blue cheese dressing surprised us with roasted peppers and black olives.The mains of prime rib were served as ordered and paired with tasty mash and risotto (for me). A very serviceable bottle of Cab Sauv set us back only $23 !! For dessert, the staff surprised my wife with a "birthday" Creme Brulee (served with a fireworks flaming candle) and a hearty rendition of Happy Birthday. Service by a gal named Beth was superb.
On Saturday, we had a late lunch at Aunt Josie's Italian restaurant. We received delightful service from Barbara, the grandaughter-in-law of the restaurant's late founder. Barbara also introduced us to her husband Michael, who came out of the kitchen to say hello. We started with "Mike's White Pizza" as an appetizer, knowing we wouldn't finish it (huge) but ordering it because for some mysterious reason, white pizza is hard to find in Toronto. Our meal came with soup, on this day a very flavorful Italian Wedding Soup. Our pastas were exactly al dente. Mine was with white clam sauce, classically and correctly prepared (you can't believe what other restaurants frequently pass off as white clam sauce). The portions were so huge, we couldn't finish. Barbara informed us that the portions used to be bigger (!), but she cheerily packaged up the leftovers for us. Our dessert was a delicious home-made cannoli with chocolate sauce, graced by a birthday candle as the staff again serenaded my wife (she's celebrating a special birthday but we won't mention the number !!).
As an aside, that evening we attended a concert at the Westcott Theater with the legendary blues/rock band Savoy Brown, with the incredible band founder, guitarist Kim Simmonds and his current Savoy Brown band of three fabulous CNY musicians, Joe Whiting, Pat Desalvo, and Garnet Grimm. We attend a lot of concerts and this was the best we've seen in a very long time. The Westcott serves drinks all through the night, something we don't see all the time in Canada.
After the show we decided to have a late bite, so we went to Dinosaur Barbeque, often recommended by contributors to this board. We shared two combo platters. The pulled pork was just OK. The ribs were disappointingly dry and burnt, although very tasty. The brisket was superb, as was the smoked prime rib. The sides of cornbread, coleslaw and mash and gravy were great, and the service by a cheery and helpful gal named Jezebel was excellent. The house draft beer was really good. This was all-in-all a very good experience that we anticipate repeating in the future. Oh, and the music makes for a fun atmosphere !!
We hope to come back to the arear soon and we look forward to trying other Chowhound recommendations.

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Daniella's Steakhouse
670 State Fair Blvd, Syracuse, NY 13209

Michael-Angelo's Marketplace at Highway 7 and Woodbine in Markham, or Erin Mills Parkway north of Burnhamthorpe in Mississauga, was founded primarily as an outlet for the freshest prime produce. From its inception, it grew to serve the community with the best meats, seafood, poultry, and especially prepared foods. You will find that both Michael-Angelo's have far more staff on the floor to assist you.

Try the soft shell crab fried rice. It's slightly spicy but incredibly flavourful.

The last non-Cantonese preparation of lobster I had was at Lobster Royale on the east side of Yonge Street in Thornhill. It was very well prepared and served simply with drawn butter. The lobsters we had were whole. Invariably, any lobster tail meal you have in any restaurant is a frozen one (as Charles Yu has pointed out) and not of the "Homarus Americanus" ( Maine or Canadian Maritime) variety of lobster. These tails may be from Caribbean waters, Central America, or South Africa. The texture and taste of these tails are totally different from the whole lobsters we get in T.O. restaurants. If you do insist on simple tails with butter, any suggestions from CHers above will do.

Kyoto House Japanese Restaurant on the south side of Dundas at Elizabeth Street is not fancy but it is raesonably priced and is certainly acceptable quality AYCE.

Tone Tai, the Asian supermarket in the Peanut Plaza in Don Mills, regularly carries small eggs.

It is in fact a new venture by Lorne Pancer. I'm sure the commute to the old Pancer's was hard on Lorne. It's clear, though, that the deli business is in his blood. Lenny Gould, who bought the old Pancer's from Lorne told me about lorne's new place a couple of weeks ago. The people of Richmond Hill are lucky to have a branch of Pancer's for themselves !!

The service counter was extended to the wall so there is no longer any opening or gap. There aren't any flatscreens yet. As to the hours, I can't say because we've always gone on the presumption that dining service ends at 8:00 pm and take-out at 8:30 pm.

You are not wrong. None other than Lorne Pancer himself is reopening. Lenny Gould told me about this when I was at Pancer's a couple of weeks ago.

I'm sure this has happened to most of us on these boards. But, from time to time, we all hjt on a previously undiscovered gem too.

The Smoked Meat Poutine at Caplansky's is out of this world ! Enormous portion too - at a reasonable price !!

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Caplansky's
356 College Street, Toronto, ON M6J, CA

You can see from my post that to me, "passable" dim sum is better than no dim sum. FYI, in Monterey Park, the name of the restaurant eludes me because I lost the menu. I believe it may have been Ocean Star Seafood.

Charles is absolutely right. Unless a dim sum chef has a proprietary interest in a particular restaurant, the revolving door of dim sum chefs in GTA will continue and subsequent mediocre /inconsistent dim sum in Toronto will continue. Actually, the best dim sum I've had on this continent in the last two years was in Monterey Park, a mainly Chinese suburb of Los Angeles. The establishment was much like LWH but the prices more reasonable! Having said that, my feeling is that dim sum is like sex: when it's good, it's wonderful; when it's bad, it's still pretty good!

Quite a number of establishments were selling food, but the selection was rather limited. It was the same as Taste of the Danforth, where restaurants offered up modestly priced sample items from their restaurants.Some vendors don't have establishments on College Street. My guess is that they pay a (hefty) fee for the privilege.

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College Street Bar
574 College St, Toronto, ON M6G1B3, CA

It was an absolutely gorgeous day down on College Street yesterday. Great people watching, great drink, enjoyable entertainment. Too bad the food was meh. Anyone else go? Did you have any better food experience than I did?

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College Street Bar
574 College St, Toronto, ON M6G1B3, CA