Gary's Profile
Brewpubs
The Steam Whistle brewery is right downtown, basically at the foot of the CN Tower near the Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome). They do give interesting tours which include a free beer or two, however, it is simply a functioning brewery and doesn't have a restaurant, so you'd need to eat elsewhere. They make only one beer, a pilsner.
The 3 Brewers brewpub at Yonge and Dundas (Dundas Square) is very central downtown and may be more what you're looking for. The French brewpub chain Les Trois Brasseurs has many locations in France and Quebec and opened this Toronto offshoot a few years ago. They have three standard brews that they make in house, and then one or two special seasonal brews that rotate each month. The beers are decent and drinkable though not super adventurous for hardcore beer fans. The place is large (three floors) and the brew tanks and other equipment are visible throughout. It's boisterous and fun and the menu is varied but unspectacular -- think typical US chain restaurant with a slight European twist. http://les3brasseurs.ca/eng/toronto_yonge.php
The Mill Street Brewpub in the historic Distillery District (about a 10-20 minute walk east from Union Station) is another option. These days they brew most of their beers offsite and only a few in the Distillery, but the pub is very large and it's an interesting area to walk around. I haven't eaten there for a while but in the past I've found the menu to be hit-and-miss. The beer selection is quite wide with a dozen or so varieties available at any given time. At peak hours (such as weekend evenings in the summer) the place can get really busy with tourists so you if you go there I'd aim for a weeknight or something like that. http://millstreetbrewpub.ca/
You might also want to check out places like C'est What (http://cestwhat.ca), the Beer Bistro (http://www.beerbistro.com/) and Bar Volo (http://barvolo.com/) for other very good beer-centric bars/restaurants in the downtown area that are not actually brewpubs. Enjoy!
Best noodle soup near Queen & Spadina?
Bun Saigon on the west side of Spadina south of Dundas has great reliable pho with delicious broth. Though I've not scientifically analyzed it for MSG, I've never heard anyone complain about it. Their "bun" which is basically really vermicelli rice noodles with stuff on them (lame description, sorry) is stunningly delicious as well. They all come in many variations, ie beef, veggie, chicken, etc. Friendly and fast service.
Favourite Cheap-and-Cheerful Indian?
Little India Restaurant on Queen West near Duncan. The food and service is slightly better when it's not the lunch buffet, but that's not bad either.
St. Lawrence Market - "World's Best Food Market" in National Geographic List -
Yes! Eagerly awaiting that but the completion dates keep being pushed back by years and I'm always afraid something will happen to the funding. So I pretend it's not going to happen and hope that one day it does.
St. Lawrence Market - "World's Best Food Market" in National Geographic List -
I'm a Torontonian who visited the Union Square Greenmarket only once (so admittedly I can hardly claim to be an expert) but my impression is that it's a very different beast from the SLM. Firstly it is only open on certain days of the week, for parts of the day, and it's outdoors. So you could only really compare it to the Saturday North Market at SLM. Even on those terms, the number of vendors Union Square felt small, at least when we went on Memorial Day: perhaps turnout was low due to it being a holiday.
Additionally, many of the vendors were selling very specific and "gourmet" products, great stuff, but not exactly what you could use to do your day-to-day grocery shopping -- but there's a handy Whole Foods right nearby. Union Square itself, however, is much more beautiful than the North Market bunker in Toronto. So I'd say SLM stands above in terms of number and variety of vendors, but Union Square wins on vibe and focus on specialty products. Really, like all lists, it depends on what you're looking for.
BTW, it's very predictable to see so many scoffing at the high ranking of the SLM, but it's comforting to see so many stepping to its defense.
$5 meal?
Gale's Snack Bar, a diner at 539 Eastern Ave. Fish and chips $3.25. Club sandwich $2.50. Have one of those, then splurge on a 60 cent coffee. Insanity. http://www.foodpr0n.com/2010/02/09/gales-snack-bar/
Restaurants around Yonge and Front (St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts)
The food at Swish is great but you'll need reservations for sure these days -- and service can be slow, so perhaps better for after a show than before when you're on the clock.
Pizzeria Libretto - Awesome pizza!!!
We'd never tried Libretto because it's far from us and the no-reservations policy sounded tiresome. But we were happy to finally try the pizza at their new location on the Danforth. They are open for lunch and have a great Pre Fixe deal: $15 for an app, a basic pizza (margarita or marinara), and a dessert. You can switch it to any other fancier pizza type for another $5. It was delicious pizza with a thin but chewy crust, in beautiful space, with friendly and efficient service. If you're looking for a lower stress way to try Libretto I recommend this method: they take reservations there, or you can just arrive a bit earlier or later and sit and at the bar, as we did.
Bier Market (king st) vs Beer Bistro vs Other
For sure, Volo and Beer Bistro win over Bier Markt (or however they spell it) which I really hate. Beer Bistro usually has the better food (though consistency is a problem). Volo had changed their menu for the better from the red sauce Italian last time I was there, but I don't know if those changes are still in place.
Other beer centric places would be C'est What at Front and Church (enormous draft list but all craft Canadian beer, and food has improved notably over the past year), and the Town Crier Pub on John St across from Hooters (a huge European-centric beer list, food is average but frites very good). There's also the new Smokeless Joe up near College and Bathurst but I've not been yet nor heard how it compares to the original.
dondon izakaya
I'm going to pipe up and be a dissenting voice in this thread -- I really liked this place. We went with a group of 7 on a weeknight, and it was packed, and everyone unanimously agreed they would easily return. The place has a really nice decor, fun vibe (hey I like the drum, regardless of who "invented" the idea) and the service was really friendly and efficient throughout the night. I was impressed that over several hours of chaotic ordering by 7 people that not one single drink or dish was forgotten or incorrect. I suspect some of the negative early experiences were a result of the place getting up and running and working out kinks.
We ordered food from almost every part of the menu, and most of us tried a bit of everything. The japa-dog imitation was a hit, and it was barely charred at all, not the least blackened as others described previously,. The beef sausage itself had great flavour. The pork kimchi dog was also enjoyable, though most of the flavour there was in the kimchi itself and the pork dog didn't add much. The pork belly buns were tasty: but I found the pork wasn't as fatty and flavourful as it could have been and the overall ratio leaned towards too much bun, so they weren't Momofuku delicious, but they are certainly acceptable substitutes until Chang comes to town!
We also tried a variety of other things including deep fried mushrooms, some blow-torched mackeral sashimi, potato and shrimp croquettes, a bizarre dish involving rice and cheese, and various grilled meats on sticks. Everything went down easy and was the perfect sort of stuff to chow down on with beer and sake, which I think is really the point of a place like this. Even the desserts were better than I would expect from a Japanese restaurant.
Is Don Don the best restaurant in the history of all time, faithfully recreating every detail of authentic Japanese izakayas? No. But it's a fun place with decent food, and contrary to what I read above it didn't seem abnormally expensive for what you get. In comparison to Guu, my opinion would be that the food at Guu is a little bit more refined, but the atmosphere at Don Don is cozier than Guu, which is a nice space but quite cavernous. All in all, I look forward to returning to both places and I'm happy to see a variety of places like this opening in Toronto. And the packed house on a weeknight seems to indicate that a lot of other people like it, too.
ISO/ What is the best Home proconsumer Espresso machine?
Too bad! I was duly impressed that someone spent $11K on a home coffee machine. $1100 is still pretty respectable, though :)
Loblaws weekly flyer
The weekly flyers are on the loblaws.ca website... just pick your store location and then click "My Flyer" to see the current week's flyer (the first view will list individual flyer products, but you can click "Page View" to browse the regular printed flyer pages.)
Bar areas in Toronto
Or Queen/Spadina working westward... Horseshoe Tavern, Rivoli, Wide Open, Cameron House, Hideout, Java Hut and others are all within a short distance, and then you can just keep going west on Queen though it doesn't get that interesting again for a while.
Kensington Market and its immediate surrounds also have a few options clustered together with Ronnie's Local, Embassy, Graffiti's, the Silver Dollar, the Red Room/Lounge, Cloak & Dagger, Sneaky' Dee's, and then many more options westward along College if you're still upright. These are quite varied in character but most are quite divey in their own special way.
It's not as hipster, but the classic area for this sort of thing used to be Eglinton East: you'd start at Mt. Pleasant with the Granite Brewery, then work your way westwards hitting the Unicorn, Scruffy Murphy's, a Firkin and some other places along Eglinton that keep changing names, before finishing with Duke of Kent and Rose & Crown on Yonge just north of Eglinton. They're all typical dive-ish pubs except the Granite, which is a brewpub with great beer and okay food.
Toronto Brew Pubs?
As a local, I've pretty much stopped going to the Mill St for the reasons you explain: it's just a tourist trap these days. Unless you can go at a very odd time (say between meal times on a weekday in January) the staff tend to be run off their feet and don't have time to pretend to care about the beer. It's get 'em in, get 'em out. Victim of their own success, I suppose.
Best store bought ramen noodle?
I find these noodles are somewhat like pasta in that they expand a lot as you cook them. So those servings end up being surprisingly filling, much more food than in a typical dried ramen brick. They are stickier, though, so it usually requires some studious careful separating of the strands before you drop them in the water, to keep them intact and avoid having them cook in one big knotted clump.
Best store bought ramen noodle?
Take the streetcar across to Sanko at Queen and Niagara. Buy the "Toronto Ramen" in the refrigerator section, in a package that looks like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgalipeau/272912726/
These noodles have a nice chewy texture compared to the usual mushy packaged stuff, and the flavouring packets are pretty decent, too. Next best thing we've been able to find to going out for ramen.
Fusilli
I hate to just add a "me too" type of post, but these experiences are extremely very similar to ours. We went for dinner a couple years back because it's nearby and I'd read so many positive things about how it was this great legendary neighbourhood spot with warm service. Yet our visit was kind of odd and uncomfortable. It was pretty much totally empty on a Saturday night, yet the service was indifferent and kind of rushed us through. We knew it was a "red sauce" place and weren't expecting anything cutting edge, but even so, the food wasn't particularly satisfying even in a comfort food sort of way. It was not awful or anything, but we've never had any desire to return. I can only conclude that Fusilli was a good restaurant at some point in the past, but its best days are behind it.
You have $10 for a meal, where do you go in Toronto?
-Tonkotsu ramen at Kenzo on Dundas
- Pho or Bun at Bun Saigon on Spadina
- Cheeseburger Deluxe combo at the Patrician Grill on King East
- Some kind of sausage at WVRST, if you pass on the beer. Better yet, if you split some of their crazy delicious duck fat frites with a willing partner, you could probably still squeak under the $10 mark.
Cornbread in downtown TO?
I was going to suggest Harlem as well. They have two locations downtown and their website says they do takeout, so perhaps you could call ahead, order a few cornbread sides and then pick them up. I personally like their cornbread, though I'm not exactly an expert on the topic.
Ivory Thai (on Church) now L'Apero?
Yes, having walked past last week, it seems that this place definitely will be Japanese. Lots of tatami rooms along the north side. From what I saw it looks quite upscale. The name of the restaurant, however, is not "Koryo" nor is it related to the Korean fast food chain. The construction company doing the renovation had a name similar to that, and I think that signage caused the confusion.
Best Burger- Walking Distance from Eaton Center
I second this. It's been there so long it doesn't get the hype of the new gourmet burger joints, but the Senator burger is really solid. And so are their fries.
The Beer Boutique - new The Beer Store concept - Liberty Village
Mill St. still takes their own empties back, I do it all the time. I just wish their bottled beers were more consistent (I like their Wit on draught but in the bottles they taste sour at least half the time).
The Beer Boutique - new The Beer Store concept - Liberty Village
Saw a "coming soon" sign tonight in the Distillery District for a Beer Boutique. I assume it's another location of the same concept. It's on the external Mill St. side, in the space that used to be the back entrance to Fresh and Wild, next to the newish spa. Doesn't look very big, though.
So now that's it's been open in Liberty Village for awhile, is the general concensus still that the Beer Boutique sells the exact same stuff as the Beer Store? There's a huge new LCBO opening in the former Toronto Sun building imminently, so at least the selection available in this area will improve drastically. The only frustrating part is that I can now easily walk to about half a dozen LCBOs and brewpubs to buy beer, but none of them are actually Beer Stores, so I can't bring my empties back for deposit unless I lug them several kilometres to River St. No thanks.
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Distillery District
55 Mill St, Toronto, ON M5A, CA
ISO Ambroise apricot wheat beer in To.
McAuslan's St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat is in regular rotation on tap at C'est What at Front and Church. And I just checked their most recent beer list online (dated Oct 21) and it's there.
http://cestwhat.com/beer.asp
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C'est What
67 Front St E, Toronto, ON M5E1B5, CA
2011 Food and Resto CLOSINGS
Okay, good news, I walked by today and the restaurant is NOT closed, everything looks fine with tables set for dinner. It was closed for lunch as usual, though, and it looks very dark in general, and with the paper menu taped to the window I suppose could have looked like a landlord notice to someone who was just driving by. Very glad this was a false alarm, long live Weezie's!
2011 Food and Resto CLOSINGS
I hope this is false info, but I just read elsewhere that Weezie's at King and Power is closed with a landlord failure-to-pay notice on the door. Can anyone confirm? A sad loss if true.
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Weezie's
354 King St E, Toronto, ON M5A1K9, CA
Ivory Thai (on Church) now L'Apero?
That's interesting. I assume this is the same Calgary-based franchise chain that runs the food court location in the AMC building at Dundas Square? http://www.koryofranchise.com
2011 Food and Resto CLOSINGS
Same here. This was one of our go to special occasion spots for years and the food was always interesting and delicious, as were the cocktails, and the service was fantastic. The restaurant never got much traction here on Chowhound -- many seemingly couldn't get past the idea that the word "kaiseki" was in the name but it was not a strictly traditional kaiseki menu. The good news is that the offical closure email sent out from the restaurant this week said "Don't worry, Daisuke is not going anywhere!! It is just too early to announce his new venture" so there's hope for the future. Maybe he'll try something at a lower price point?
"Add New Post" button misuse
There have been a number of posts recently on the Ontario/Toronto board which seem to be full, detailed restaurant reviews -- but the restaurant is never named in the post title or body. Instead the post refers vaguely to "this restaurant" or "this place" and seems to assume that we already know what restaurant is being talked about. Obviously we don't, so there is some confusion until some detective work is done and a moderator eventually edits the title of the post to reflect the restaurant name.
I believe this is happening because of the ambiguity of the "Add New Post" button. It sits prominently right above the title of the original post in each thread. Experienced Chowhounders realize that this button is intended for creating a brand-new top-level post on the board; we know that to reply to an individual conversation thread, we should instead click on the "Reply" link down below the post, or in the discussion itself. However, it's easy to understand how new Chowhound users might believe that when they click the "Add New Post" they are in fact adding to the discussion that is happening right below it.
My suggestion would be that a second button be added, so at the top of every thread there is the existing "Add New Post" button, and beside it a new "Reply to this Post" button. That would likely cut down on the number of misplaced vague posts floating around on the board.
Just a thought! Or maybe I'm the only one who's noticed this phenomenon...
Toronto: ISO tortilla press
The housewares store in the middle of the upper level of the St. Lawrence Market sells them. I bought a compact metal one (aluminum? stainless steel?) about 6 months ago for around $20 or $25. You can also purchase bags of masa downstairs at Lively Life foods near Rube's Rice.
Although, I have to say that I've had very little luck getting my tortillas to be thin yet strong enough to survive transfer from press to pan, even after trying various water-masa ratios and tricks like putting plastic on the press. I guess I'm just clumsy -- I've reverted to buying the pre-made frozen corn tortillas.
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St. Lawrence Market
92 Front St E, Toronto, ON M5E, CA
