Fish Soup Noodles House 505 Highway 7 East Unit 50-53 Markham, ON L3T7P6
I was going through my friend’s pictures she took on her recent visit to Hong Kong and landed on a photo of fried fish skin. The first time I ever had fish skin was at Fish Soup Noodle House and it was only out of curiosity but to my surprise it was so absolutely delicious! I’m not a big fan of offal or skin but it just looked so crispy, I just had to try it.
Fish Soup Noodle House is famous for their fish base soups, obviously but you can also order hot pot (I’ve never been for hot pot, it wouldn’t be my first choice).
This is the Hainanese Chicken Rice which is one of the better things on the menu. If I liked chicken thighs I would definitely order this and recommend it. The meal also comes with a bowl of fish broth soup, all for $6.50. Love the rice!
This is what I got: Deep fried fish slices and deep fried fish skin with udon in chicken broth. It also comes with a piece of imitation crab and white radish.
Now for the only thing that will make me come here! Deep fried Fish Skin. It doesn’t look very appetizing but boy is it good! It’s best quickly dip in some broth so it softens up the tiniest bit.
The thing I like about this place is that you can pick the type of broth you want, the type of noodle and whichever topping you would like; I like having choices. The deep fried fish skin is a must try!
Inakaya 126 Willowdale Avenue Toronto, ON 416.224.8881
I visited Inakaya a few weeks prior and it left me wanting more so what better excuse to come back than for my birthday dinner! Blog post here.
We got there around 6:30pm and it was already packed, the waitress carefully explained the specials and we took our time deciding what to get.
We started off with the Tempera Udon & the Nabeyaki Udon, it was a great start to the meal cause it was somewhat cold outside so it definitely warmed us up from the inside out! I could eat 10 bowls of the udon myself, the best thing in the bowl is the broth.
We also got the Sushi Moriawase again, same great quality as the last time. So good and so fresh!
The Grilled Squid was perfectly grilled, not chewy at all with a light smokey, charred flavour.
I don’t remember the name of this fish but it was super meaty and served with grated daikon, a little bland but i dipped it in some soy sauce and it was great.
On my last visit I saw multiple tables get the Beef Amiyaki and I knew I had to get on my next visit. I was super excited when it came to the table, couldn’t smiling. You have a choice between the regular beef or the Wagyu Beef Grill ($40), I was perfectly fine with the regular beef. The beef was tender and you could cook it to your own preference which is great, also accompanied with a soya based dipping sauce.
This is the famous Volcano Roll, $18, that’s on everyone’s blog and a must get just to say you’ve tried it. “Butter and olive oil sauteed sliced onions, blanched zucchini, rolled and torched sliced certified Angus beef on top, served on an iron plate with teriyaki sauce and thinly sliced scallions in volcano fire”. The beef was super tender, not spicy and to be honest it kind of tasted like beef fried rice.
I fell in love with Spicy Scallop rolls a while but and since it was my birthday I had to get it. This came at the end of the meal so I was pretty stuffed and I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I could have. One complaint I have is that the scallop to rice ratio was off, wish there was more scallop! We also got a Dynamite Roll, nothing special though (no pictured).
All in all great dinner and everyone needs to try Inakaya, definitely make a reservation if you plan on visiting. One of my favourite authentic Japanese restaurants in the GTA.
It was my birthday this past week and I kicked off the birthday celebrations with The Lobster Trap, one of my favourite restaurants. I’ve been coming here for years and the quality of food has been the same, which by the way is great.
The first thing you see when you walk into the restaurant is a giant tank crawling with lobsters! There’s nothing posh about the interior, just a good ol’ family restaurant with no frills just blue and white plastic table clothes. Oh, and lots of lobster traps and maritime paintings all over the walls.
If you only get one thing here it would definitely be the Lobster Bisque; creamy, rich and packed full of lobster.
I’m drooling right now!
We all got the lobster meal which (an additional $8.95) includes super buttery garlic bread, soup (choice of lobster bisque or clam chowder), a side dish (rice, fries, baked potato or garden salad) and a non-alcoholic drink. You also had a choice from 1lb to 4lbs and it starts at $27.75 all the way to $97.00.
The set-up, individual butter, lobster fork and a communal lobster shell bowl.
Now for the star of the night! Everyone got the 1lb lobster and you have a choice between steamed or broil, I couldn’t decide so i got half half (I never knew I could do this until the waitress mentioned it!).
The lobster is always perfectly cooked, sweet and meaty. I definitely like steamed lobster much better but the broiled lobster was also good, just a personal preference. The broiled lobster is broiled with a garlic-y, buttery bread crumb mixture.
After being absolutely stuffed and completely satisfied with our meal, our waitress came to the table with some cake! We mentioned that we were celebrating my birthday and before we got the bill, she surprised me! The cake was nothing special and it was still a little frozen in the middle but it was the thought that counts! Besides I ate it for breakfast the next day and it was great.
Needless to say I was doing my happy dance all night.
I’ve been dying to go to Diana’s s Oyster Bar for quite sometime now so I made Viv, Jason and Philip go with me. We decided to go a little earlier since they don’t take reservations on the weekends. Luckily Philip got there incredibly early and started waiting for a table (30 minutes) . As soon as the rest of us got there, we sat down right away! (Thanks for waiting Philip!)
It’s a tiny restaurant with probably only 50 seats and another 20 for the enclosed patio. The first thing you see when you walk in is the oyster bar filled with tons of different varieties of oysters.
Instead of getting our own separate entrees we just a bunch of appetizers to share. We started off with a dozen oysters (Kumomoto, Fanny Bay and Fat Bastard) and half a dozen cherry stone clams. They were some of the freshest oysters I’ve ever had! I wasn’t a big fan of the clams but they were still really good, a much firmer texture compared to the oysters. Diana’s has an incredibly large selection of oysters but given they started off as a seafood market, I wouldn’t except anything less.
I love crab cakes and I always tend to get them when I see them on a menu. This one was pan-fried and packed full of crab, served with spicy smoked paprika aioli and baby arugula in a lemon vinaigrette. So-freaking-good! I swear I could have eaten 10 by myself.
We also got the Yellow Fin Tuna Carpaccio, sashimi grade tuna thinly sliced, served with honey, maple and soy glaze, toasted sesame seeds, toasted slivered almonds, chili oil and baby greens. This was just alright, the tuna was fresh but the flavours didn’t wow me.
In-House Hickory Cold Smoked Salmon which was served with grated egg, pickled red onion, capers, lemon horseradish cream and crostini. Absolutely delicious, the salmon wasn’t overly smokey, fresh and when eaten with everything else it was like heaven! It only came with three pieces and it left me wanting more!
Last but not least we got the Grilled Seafood Platter for Two, $52, it came with Shrimp Cocktail, Mussels, Grilled Calamari, Grilled Octopus & Grilled Scallops. I can honestly say the grilled scallops were the best scallops I’ve ever had, perfectly cooked and super sweet. The grilled octopus was super tender and the shrimp were huge!
If you’re a seafood lover and willing to splurge a little, definitely check out Diana’s Oyster Bar. Can’t wait for my next trip!
Green Grotto Tea Room 7030 Warden Avenue, Unit D2 Markham, ON
If you live in Markham you know there’s only a couple of things to do at night: 1. go to Demetres, 2. drink bubble tea, 3. drink bubble tea. Oh, and drink bubble tea.
There’s not a lot to do unless it’s food related. I’ve had my fair share of bubble tea and I’ve been to quite some bubble tea places if I do say so myself. My new favourite bubble tea joint is Green Grotto!
The bubble tea is less sugary in my opinion and you can actually taste the tea flavour opposed to just flavoured sugar water. Another bonus is that they serve you unlimited bowls of buttered popcorn! I got the Original Green tea with Tapioca, so goood! And they serve different sized tapioca balls! Unlike most other places, Green Grotto has much more than the regular flavoured jellies and tapioca balls, they have aloe, grass jelly and…I don’t remember the rest!
I don’t usually get meals at bubble tea places but I was hungry so I decided to get the Minced Pork on Rice with Marinated Egg, $4.99. Yum, filling and cheap!
One thing you must eat at any bubble tea place is the Condensed Milk Toast. An ultra thick slice of Chinese bread drowned with condensed milk and toasted! So-absolutely-delicious!
Green Grotto is a tiny place so I wouldn’t recommend coming with a large party. Picture taken from where I was seated (the back corner of the restaurant). They also have an extremely large collection of magazines ranging from Japanese, Chinese, Magazines for men and I’m pretty sure English magazines.
I finally got the chance to go to Black Hoof last week with Philip and Cherry (Who always is up for one of my food adventures! Thanks!). I read about the long waits at Black Hoof so I wanted to go earlier, we got there around 6:30pm and to my surprise there was no wait at all. We got seated right away at a tiny table for 2 but converted it to a table for 3.
The restaurant space is incredibly long and tiny with a long panel mirror going across one side of the wall so you can see what the open concept kitchen is doing. I quickly took a glance into the kitchen before leaving and it was small and they only have one average electric coil stove but our meal anything but average.
We started off with the House Cured Meats (charcuterie), $19, which was served with grainy mustard and rosemary lard. How could you go to Black Hoof and not get this? We got a large variety of different cured meats, I can’t remember every single one but our top picks were the duck, panchetta, walnut studded salami, and the blood sausage (which was my favourite surprisingly!).
My favourite dish of the night was the Bone Marrow, it was served with a parsley(?) chimichurri, some Maldon salt and perfectly toasted bread. The chimichurri was absolutely fantastic and when you combine everything together, it was like heaven in your mouth. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it, hands down the best marrow I’ve had.
Had to get some vegetables in us with our meal so we ordered the Blood Orange & Fennel salad with house made Crème Fraîche. The salad was light and refreshing but nothing really out of the ordinary.
Oh wait! Did I say the bone marrow was my favourite dish? I change my mind, the Albacore Tuna Crudo is hands down my favourite! Served with parsnip purée and garlic chips, everything worked so well together and the tuna was so fresh! If I had to eat the same one dish for the rest of my life, this would be it!
For our second round of food we decided to get the Pork Carnitas Tacos. The pork was super tender but on the verge of being mushy? The flavours were good and it was served with a piece of pork crackling, lime and optional hot sauce. We put our crackling in the taco to give it a different texture which was good.
We got the Smoked Sweetbreads, it came with grilled fingerling potatoes and a buttermilk sauce. I’ve never had sweetbreads even though I went to culinary school and had to cook them…I was just scared to ever try them! But this night I felt more adventurous and ate one whole piece without gaging, I even kind of enjoyed it. It was nicely fried with a nice crispy crust and the inside was somewhat creamy and dare I say? Tasted like chicken. The smokiness came through nicely and wasn’t over powering and the tartness of the sauce did a nice job of cutting through the butteriness of the sweetbreads.
Having said all that I was done after one piece and I can safely say that sweetbreads are not something I will start craving anytime soon.
We ended with the Tongue on Brioche served with a tarragon sauce and gherkins. It’s my first time ever eating tongue, I’m not a big fan of offal. It basically tasted like pastrami, thank goodness! The brioche was nicely toasted and my favourite part of the dish were the pickled celery!
Even though we were stuffed to the brim, there will always be space for some dessert and I’m so glad we decided to order it too! One of the best dessert plates I’ve ever had. Light, refreshing and multiple texture sensations.
The dessert of the day was Meyer lemon foam on and Olive Oil Cake topped with Mini Meringue, Dried Cranberries and Micro Mint. I was blown away on how well composed this dessert was, would definitely recommend this to everyone even if you’re not a big dessert person!
I plan on coming back just to eat multiple plates of the bone marrow, tuna and dessert! I also want to try the Foie and Nutella next time! Needless to say Black Hoof is the place to go for good snout-to-tail meal.
Who loves 荳腐花 (tofu pudding)? This girl! And the only place where I get it is Health Herb Harmony. One of the top reasons I come here is cause they serve it in a bucket!
This picture makes me so giddy! The tofu is super silky and you can make it as sweet as you want. You also have the option of eating it cold or hot, I usually get cold on hot summer nights!
Song Cook’s situated right behind the Galleria Supermarket, walking up to the restaurant I thought it was going to be a lot smaller inside. When you walk in you’re greeted by the hostess and you’ll have the choice of sitting at a table or the at the tatami section where you seats on the floor, this time we opted to sit at a table but next time I want to try sitting on the floor.
Complimentary kimchi which isn’t as spicy as I would have expected, which I like. The kimchi cabbage and radish are in big pieces so you can cut it yourself with the giant pair of scissors provided. The first time I came I had no idea what the scissors were used for until I saw other tables using it to cut the kimchi into smaller pieces.
I fell in love with one particular dish at Song Cook’s on my first visit.
This is the Steamed Ribs marinated in Special sauce. Holy moly the meat is incredibly tender and flavourful and the sauce is savoury and sweet but more so on the sweet side. If you go to Song Cook’s you have to get this! This is the small size, $10 but there is also a larger one for $20 but totally worth every single penny.
We also got the JaJangMyun which is basically beef and black bean sauce on noodles. I was never a fan of JaJangMyun but my mom said her co-worker raves about Song Cook’s JaJangMyun so how could I not order it. One bit and I was hooked!
The noodles were cooked perfectly and still a little chewy but in a good way. The sauce was so good, I could’ve eaten the whole bowl myself and I intend to do so on my next visit!
This the Grilled Spanish Mackerel, I’m not a fan of grilled fish unless it’s salmon but my uncle wanted it so we got it. When it came it smelt super fishy so I was already put off from even trying it. I had a tiny piece and it tasted like it smelt, gag.
Last but not least we got the Spicy Stir Fried Pork it was basically pork stir fried with kimchi. It wasn’t my favourite but it wasn’t bad, it was just okay.
Delicious food to satisfy my stomach and good prices to satisfy my wallet!
Mr Fish & Chips has been around since I could ever remember, I have driven by plenty of times but I’ve only been here a couple of times. The inside is super dated and is plastered with fish posters and posters on the benefits of eating fish. This is a family run business cause I remember coming here quite a while back and the owner had his kids serving on roller skates (not the safest but got the job done).
Small menu but the only fish and chips joint I’ve seen serve Scottish meat pie, Haggis, and Black pudimealie (not quite sure what that is though). I would love to try haggis one day but I don’t think I have the guts to!
The view from where I was sitting. I’m not looking for anything fancy when I go to fish & chip joints but I think this place could use a little maker over or at least a little sprucing up.
My mom and I got one order of halibut and one order of cod and chips to share. I really enjoy the the batter on the fish, incredibly light and crispy and my favourite part, is that the batter is this so you can actually enjoy the fish. The chips were also good, crisp, not greasy and perfect soft in the middle.
The mushy peas on the other hand were a little weird, not the normal mushy peas you would normally get. I wasn’t sure if I liked them or not but I managed to finish them.
Needless to say I’m still in the search for the best fish & chips in the GTA.
The Keg Steakhouse & Bar 162 York Blvd Richmond Hill, ON
My dear friend Carmen is going to Korea to teach English for a year, we headed to The Keg for one last dinner together before she left! Going to miss you! 😦
The Keg annoyingly doesn’t take reservations on the weekends which is kind of ridiculous in my opinion considering we had a party of 13. We got there at prime dinner time and we were told we would have to wait 1.5 hours for a table, the wait wasn’t as horrible as I thought it was going to be. They passed around little appetizers to people who waited which I thought was nice but sadly none of us got any and she never came back with more.
After waiting for quite sometime we were finally seated, our waitress introduced herself, told us about the specials and gave us complimentary warm bread which was served with butter, yum! She gave us some time to decide on our drinks and appetizers while nibbling on the bread.
A few of us shared the Calamari, lightly fried, with red peppers, jalapenos and a spicy sweet ginger garlic sauce. I thought this was an overall good appetizers, everything was nicely fried, crisp and tender. I really like the fried jalapenos which gave a settle kick of spicy and you don’t normally see deep fried jalapenos. I also liked how the calamari was small, it’s a good dish to share.
Probably half the table got the Grilled Top Sirloin. If you’re looking for something super meaty and packed full of grilled-summertime-outdoor-steak flavour.
A bunch of us got Prime Rib, classic hand-carved with horseradish and au jus. Prime rib was incredibly tender and the au jus made it extra moist and flavourful. I got the mashed potatoes and it was so buttery and delicious, love how they kept the skins in.
All steaks are served with the choice of: baked potato, roasted garlic mashed potato, fries, twice baked potato, rice pilaf and mixed vegetables.
Despite being absolutely stuffed to the brim, Jess, Jen and I decide to share a dessert, Billy Miner Pie which is mocha ice cream on a chocolate crust with hot fudge with caramel sauce and almonds. Everyone loved this, I really liked the almonds with the ice cream cause it gave it some crunch. Oh and the caramel sauce, I love caramel sauce!
Overall the meal was good but I guess you can’t go wrong with good company! I would definitely recommend The Keg if you’re looking for a less expensive steak house.
P.S. Carmen I’ll miss you! Have a safe flight and have LOADS of fun in Korea! Updates and pictures as often as you can!
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