excel's Profile
2nd Visit.....What should we not miss this time around?
How about steak? Where's the best place to get steak? (Rib-eye being my favourite cut!)
We are definitely considering Avec and Blackbird. If we want to go to Graham Elliott too, shall we skip Avec or Blackbird?
1st time in Chicago
Hello fellow Torontonian!
When we first visited Chicago, we got a lot of help on our post. See if it's helpful to you: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/742610
One tip, our "street meat" is very very different from the Chicago Hot dog, so definitely try one or two!
2nd Visit.....What should we not miss this time around?
Hello Chicago CHs!
The last time we were in Chicago (Thanksgiving 2010), we had an AMAZING time! See our post: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/742610
We mentioned at the end of the post that we didn't have enough time to make it to: Girl and the Goat, Blackbird, Avec, Graham Elliott, Al's Beef, and Hot Doug's. Are these still contenders under the "must go" category?
We are only here for 3 nights, so we want to avoid fine dining places. Any new "must go" places?
Thanks for all your help in advance. All your suggestions last time were spot on!
So excited!
Fresh ho fun noodles in Toronto?
Feedback on this ho-fun would be greatly appreciated. I really don't understand why it's so hard to find old school ho fun.
2nd Visit to NYC....We want to be in the "know"!
Thank you so much everyone, for all your honest opinions!! A few more questions though....
So I think Kefi can safely be cut from my list, unless someone wants to convince me otherwise?
Instead of Veselka, the Ukranian East Village Restaurant has been added to my list. Borscht and Perogies sound SO good right now!
The menu at both the Spotted Pig and the Beslin look yummy, what are the pros and cons to each restaurant?
We've added The Meatball Shop, Red Rooster, and Second Ave Deli to our list, thanks to your suggestions!
As for Pizza, we've heard of Motorino before, but what about Paulie Gee's?
For Chicken and Waffles.....Amy Ruth's or Sylvia's?
Any BBQ suggestions?
As for food trucks, we might try to find the Schnitzel truck and Wafles and Dinges, but any other specific trucks you would recommend that we shouldn't miss?
Thanks again!
2nd Visit to NYC....We want to be in the "know"!
Forgot to mention another restaurant that was interesting (featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate)....Veselka? Good for Borscht and Perogies?
Worth a visit too?
2nd Visit to NYC....We want to be in the "know"!
Hi Everyone!
We are coming for our second visit to NYC and can't wait to try more restaurants/food carts/food trucks! We want to know, what's new? What has a lot of "BUZZ" amongst foodies?
We will be staying for 8 days, so we basically have 8 lunches and 8 dinners to plan.
Just for reference, here's the thread from our first visit: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/665966
And here's some background info:
So for our last trip we ate at: La Bernadin, Jean George, WD-50, Momofuku Saam Bar, Katz's Deli, Russ and Daughter's, Prune, and the Halal Cart on 53rd and 6th.
In terms of "fine dining", we've already made reservations for Per Se and Babbo, so we don't need any more fine dining recs.
We would like to re-visit: the Halal Cart and Russ and Daughter's (amazing food!).
We have a friend who lives in Brooklyn who's taking us to Shake Shack, Luger's, and Frankie's 457.
Here's some questions:
How's Kefi? Spotted Pig?
Best Pizza?
Best Food Carts/Trucks? (no preference on type of food, just good food!)
Restaurant Recs in Harlem?
Thanks again everyone. You were AMAZING with your recs for our first visit.
French Bistro in the GTA?
I'm actually heading to Le Select this weekend for brunch. I'll report back....I've heard mainly good things about the place, fingers crossed it lives up to the billing.
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Le Select
432 Wellington St W, Toronto, ON M5V1E3, CA
French Bistro in the GTA?
could have been an off night. We'll try it again, but not until we've tried the other bistros in TO
French Bistro in the GTA?
After a few dishes I couldn't hold out anymore and I did ask the sever for the salt shaker. Just don't think you should have to ask for a salt shaker at a place like Ici....,maybe I'm wrong?
French Bistro in the GTA?
Thanks guys for keep this thread alive. Like I promised earlier, here's my Ici review. Went to Ici's on a Wednesday night, got a RSVP for 8:30 seating. When we arrived the first seating must have just finished as everyone around us seemed to have just been seated. We were a party of 5 that night and were all hungry and ready to go.
Service the whole night was very good, the server we had was very knowledgeable about what was on the menu however, there were times when I thought we had to "look" for our server - this is nitpicking though.
Now for the food. I'll start off by saying that I was disappointed that most of our dishes were under-seasoned - a huge negative to me and what made it worse was that the owner/chef was there and working the pass. Seasoning food is a basic skill and it's something that should never be an issue at a restaurant that is considered to be "best new restaurants" in TO - on a side note, I am finding more and more that Toronto Life reviews and what I experience seem to be way different. I'm not sure if that's telling on my part or theirs, but I've become extremely sceptically about TL's reviews. The seasoning issue was noticed by all the dinners in our party, so I don't think it was my palate. Furthermore, I haven't had an issue with under seasoning at other restaurants in a very long time.
What was ordered.
To Share:
Steak Tartare - the tartare itself was good but seriously lacked salt to bring the tartare together. A bit strong on the onion flavour, but nothing seriously offensive. This dish came with potato croquette, which were crunchy on the outside and soft/fluffy on the inside - would have been really good if it had salt. Without salt it tasted like mash potato would if you didn't add salt
Fois Gras Torchon & Black Trumpet Croquette - Probably this best dish of the night. the croquettes were tasty (great mushroom flavour) even though it lacked salt and the Fois was buttery and delicious, especially with the fig that came with the dish.
Mains:
Chicken Supreme Beatrix - Best main of the night and was a close second to being the best dish of the night. The chicken was cooked well, although a bit on the dry side. the sauce (a mustard base sauce) was delicious.
Duo of Boeuf Bordelaise - 3 people in our party had this dish and it had so much potential to be a great dish. It came with a medallion of entrecote, short rib, bone marrow, and fried gnocchi. All of the meat needed salt, without salt the meat just doesn't have enough flavour. The medallion was cooked to med. rare, the bone marrow was also cooked well, but the short rib was on the dry side. The fried gnocchi was great and was the best item of the night. It actually came season properly and was probably the reason why it was so good. The gnocchi appeared, to everyone at the table, to be a smaller version of the croquettes that came with the tartare. This item was so good we actually order another side of it.
Sablefish with White Asparagus, Lemon Sauce & Truffle Pearls - can't really comment on this dish, as I didn't get a full taste. The dish did come with a disc of polenta, which I tried and thought it was good, although I much prefer my polenta soft and runny, like at campagnolo.
Dessert
Praline Souffle - ordered 2 of these and it was good. Nothing spectacular,but what you would expect a good souffle to be.
I can only compare this bistro to Simple Bistro - as these are the only 2 bistros I've been to in TO and I'll have to give my vote to Simple. I can tell you guys that I'm willing to give Ici another try, but I won't be rushing back. I really want to try all the other bistros listed on this thread before I go back to this place. For me, this restaurant just didn't live up to the hype - again I find this to be what I've experienced dining in TO all to often.
Hope this sheds some light on Ici.
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Simple Bistro
619 Mount Pleasant Rd, Toronto, ON M4S2M5, CA
best jamaican patties in the gta
Hey guys..wanted to raise this thread up out of the ashes, as I've recently had a craving for patties!
I was referred to a place called Ralph's Bakery in Etobicoke - Finch and 427 N. Stop by to pick up some patties and they were sold out of everything except for mild beef. Must say it was way better than any other patties I've eaten, granted I've only had the horrible patties sold at convenience stores or the so, so patties they use to sell at my high school. The patti I had was hot, and the crust was flaky, although not philo flaky. The meat was runnier than I'm use to having, not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it was tasty. All in all, I thought they were very, very good. I prefer my patties to be spicy, so I can't wait to go back and try the spicy beef and chicken
Has anyone had the patties at Ralphs? if so, how do they compare to the other mentioned in this thread?
Thanks guys
French Bistro in the GTA?
Thanks guys for all the feedback, please keep them coming. I'll have to throw my hat in the ring for Simple Bistro - last time I was there we had the tasting and added the liver - all good but the liver was fantastic!
Going to Ici today and will give feedback in a bit.
I agree that bistro food should be cheap and cheerful, close by, comforting, and well prepared. Unfortunately we live in TO, so all I really look for now is well prepared. C'est la vie
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Simple Bistro
619 Mount Pleasant Rd, Toronto, ON M4S2M5, CA
French Bistro in the GTA?
Thanks for your recs guys, maybe we should include a bit of a review and when was the last time you ate at the restaurant
French Bistro in the GTA?
Hey guys,
Well, like the title suggest I'm looking for the best french bistro(s) in the GTA. Now I know there are a lot of posts on this subject, but there doesn't seem to be anything recent. So, if you guys would be kind enough to help me put an up to date list of great french bistros that would be fantastic.
Thanks!!
Looking for: Guava Paste and Vienna Sausages
Thanks guys. Just to clarify, it's the long, hot dog-like vienna sausages I was looking for. I remember as a kid seeing them in the same section in the grocery store as the deli meats (pre-packaged bologna, etc etc.).
Short Visit (Unfortunately!)
Hello All!
I appreciate all the opinions/advice/recommendations coming in from SD's CHs.
My original question for you guys was what were the restaurants that represented SD the best. If it's Japanese/Chinese, then so be it. To me, good food can be found anywhere and I can appreciate good Asian food anywhere in the world.
Thanks so much for this ongoing conversation, it's also giving me great insight into the people in SD and I'm liking you guys so far!
Looking for: Guava Paste and Vienna Sausages
Hello!
I've been looking for these two items for a while now. They are NOT meant to be used in the same dish, so don't worry. Haha.
Guava paste is for a dessert of Puff Pastry stuffed with Guava Paste and Gouda Cheese.....YUMMY.
And the Vienna Sausages are for hot dogs as I visited Chicago in October and now want to try and re-create the Chicago Dog. I remember seeing Vienna Sausages in grocery stores when I was a kid, but can't find them anywhere now.
Thanks for your help!
Short Visit (Unfortunately!)
Thanks so much for the clarification. Done. MG and Aqui Es Texcoco are both on the list and the Fish Market is out.
Is BLAH the type of place that needs reservations?
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Aqui Es Texcoco
1043 Broadway, Chula Vista, CA 91911
Short Visit (Unfortunately!)
Ok. But if we don't feel like a Mexican/Taco lunch two days in a row, where else can we go?
Short Visit (Unfortunately!)
Thanks for all your suggestions!
So far we've decided to definitely have one of our lunches at MG/Super Cocina. The 2nd lunch will either be Aqui Es Texcoco or the Fish Market, but we are open to more suggestions here.
Dinners will be: BLAH and Linkery (awesome recommendations as we love restaurants that use locally sourced produce!).
2nd trip to LA
Unfortunately, there isn't much of a Taiwanese food scene here in Toronto. There is one in Vancouver, which I moved from, so I'm missing it!
2nd trip to LA
Thanks for all the suggestions! We've updated our itinerary considering all your advice.
Sat Dinner: Park's BBQ
Sun Lunch: Ricky's Fish Tacos
Sun Dinner: Spago
Mon Lunch: Langer's
Mon Dinner: Mario's Peruvian & Seafood
Tue Lunch: Wurstkuche (?)
(Gone to San Diego)
Thurs Dinner: Pizzeria Mozza (reservation pending)
Fri Lunch: Cacao Mexicatassen
Fri Dinner: Hatfield's
Sat Lunch: ??
Sat Dinner: ??
We also just thought of something....when we were younger, we always ate Taiwanese food in LA, and I remember there was a concentration of Taiwanese restaurants on Garfield(?) street? Any suggestions for Taiwanese food and Taiwanese shaved ice dessert places?
If you could only eat in five Seattle restaurants for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
I just moved away from Seattle, so it PAINS me to write this since I miss the food so much!
Paseo
Tacos El Asadero (Taco bus near Rainier and MLK)
Lark
Cafe Presse
Red Mill Burger
Taste of India
Phuket
(OK that's seven, but one of them is a bus!)
2nd trip to LA
Thanks so much for all your help so far!
Here's our draft itinerary thus far:
Sat Dinner: Park's BBQ
Sun Lunch: In N Out Burger
Sun Dinner: Spago
Mon Lunch: Langer's
Mon Dinner: Mario's Peruvian & Seafood
Tue Lunch: Wurstkuche (?)
(Gone to San Diego)
Thurs Dinner: ???
Fri Lunch: Cacao Mexicatassen
Fri Dinner: ???
Sat Lunch: Ricky's Fish Tacos (?)
Sound good so far?
2nd trip to LA
Thanks for the suggestion. But we are from Toronto/Vancouver and we are really lucky to enjoy Chinese/Viet Seafood pretty often.
Short Visit (Unfortunately!)
We don't have a hotel yet, but are probably going to be staying in the downtown area. We will have a car and are willing to drive to where ever you tell us the GOOD FOOD is!
