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JOONS KOREAN RESTAURANT

January 5, 2012September 19, 2019Leave a comment

Our main goal to going to Joons was to get the DakGalBee that Jess and Joyce have been raving about. Basically DakGalBee which consists of stir-frying marinated diced chicken in a gochujang (chili pepper paste) based sauce, and sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallions and onions together on a hot plate. You also had the option of adding rice cakes, noodles, cheese, rice and fried rice to the pan. You can also pick the level of spiciness you would like: non-spicy teriyaki sauce, Joons original spicy sauce or suicidal spicy sauce (an additional 50 cents).

We started off with the typical Korean appetizers that were just mediocre, I don’t think we finished any of them because we were too consumed with the DakGalBee. Top left going clockwise: broccoli with chilli sauce, pickled radish, mashed potato salad? and kimchi.

At it’s raw state, not so appetizing. We got an order of rice cakes, noodles, cheese and at the end we added rice. Also they cook the whole dish in front of you!

All done! Just look at all that cheese! The cheese tastes better than it sounds, seriously! The cheese is what made me fall in love with this dish the first time I had it a few years ago.

When you’re almost or half way done the dish, you order a bowl of steamed rice and get them to fry it up for you so it soaks up all the sauce. So amazingly good, also another meal in itself.

I didn’t get to try anything else from Joons cause we were all too stuffed but I will definitely make Jess and Joyce take me back for another round!

TURTLE JACK’S

December 26, 2011September 19, 2019Leave a comment

10 Vogell Road | Richmond Hill, ON
http://www.turtlejacks.com/

My friends and I always have an annual Christmas dinner gathering and this year we decided to go to Turtle Jack’s. It was a lot of our first times heading there so didn’t really know what to expect.
I honestly thought it was going to be super casual somewhat like Jack Astor’s. Boy were we taken back when we stepped into a cozy cabin like restaurant, lots of stone & wood decor and warm lighting.

We started off with a couple of orders of the nacho extravaganza for $13.95. I don’t have anything special to say about it, just mediocre.

We also got the 3 cheese dip which was served with nann and crispy tortilla chips for $10.99. The nann was absolutely delicious, it was soft, warm and perfect. The cheese dip was was good but again nothing special.

For my entree, I got the Basa Fish Tacos for $12.49. Soft flour tortillas stuffed with lightly fried basa fish, tomatoes, guacamole, mango salsa and a chipotle lime aioli. You had a choice of salad, fries or soup and I got french onion soup for an extra $0.99.

I absolutely loved my meal. The onion soup was great, not overly salty and packed with onions; the cheese was gooey and crispy at the same time (not burnt at all, it’s just a horrible picture). The fish was perfectly cooked with a crispy crust. Oh! and the coleslaw was delicious too!
I would definitely recommend this!

Everyone else enjoyed their meals as well, no complaints from anyone!

Oh yea, Turtle Jack’s has really good mashed potatoes too, I kept picking as Jess’ even though I was beyond stuffed.

BAKING IN HEELS

December 26, 2011September 19, 2019Leave a comment

8099 Weston Rd., Unit 2 | Woodbridge, Ontario
http://webakeinheels.com/

Baking in heels also has a little stall inside Vaughn Mills mall (where I got these cupcakes), they are only there from Thursday – Sunday and they only have a limited amount of cupcakes to sell. Their cupcakes are kind of pricey, $3 per cupcake or $15 for 4.

From top left going clockwise: ferrero rocher, dulce de leche, lemon & chocolate. Hands down my favourite one was the dulce de leche but a close second was the lemon. All the cupcakes were moist and flavourful, not too heavy and the butter creams we delicious too.

They also have a retail store that sells custom cakes, macarons, designer cookies and cake truffles. One day I will make my way there to satisfy my stomach.

WONTON CHAI NOODLE

December 26, 2011September 16, 20191 Comment

8360 Kennedy Road | Markham, ON
http://www.wontonchainoodle.ca/

Wonton Chai has been my go to place for some cheap, delicious and quick bite. They only have about 5 different toppings (shrimp wontons, sliced beef, fish dumplings, beef brisket, and dumplings) they sell but with different variations on the type of noodles or the different combinations you can get.

Oh wait. Did I mention the only thing I get there is wonton noodles? They are the biggest shrimp dumplings ever, they are just in between the size of a golf ball and tennis ball!

You get 4 gigantic dumplings in each bowl, which is plenty. Best eaten with chilli oil and your choice or red vinegar or soy sauce.

P.S. They get pretty packed on weekends but don’t worry, the turn over is fast.

OLD COUNTRY INN RESTAURANT

November 28, 2011September 19, 20192 Comments

198 Main Street | Unionville, Ontario
http://www.oldcountryinn.ca/

Old country inn is located on Main Street and one of the only non Italian restaurant there. I remember coming here a lot when I was young for family dinners but all of a sudden stopped (reasons unknown). I decided to check it out once again since Satya wanted to try schnitzel.

Such a cute house and the interior is super old fashioned but I wouldn’t want to see it any other way. We sat beside a wall of windows and right under a giant sky-light, I loved natural lighting!

I got the Rindsgulasch mit Knödel which is cubed rump roast simmered Hungarian style served with dumplings. I wasn’t impressed with this dish at all, the meat was dry and I wasn’t wow-ed by the flavours; everything on the plate seemed a little bland. I finished my dish but I left unsatisfied, the whole time I was eating I was just staring at Satya’s sandwich and tried to sneak in a bit every time he wasn’t looking.

Satya got the schnitzel sandwich, the chicken was super crispy and piping hot and the kaiser bun was crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. The only complaint was that the sandwich as a whole was kind of dry, it needed some sort sauce and our solution was putting some of the coleslaw in the sandwich it’s self; it made it 10x yummier! I would definitely order this again. Did I mention how good the coleslaw was? It was the perfect balance of flavours, not too vinegar-y and the cabbage had a nice crunch to it.

I would definitely come back and get the schnitzel!

CINNAMON BUN PANCAKES

November 15, 2011September 16, 2019Leave a comment

After stumbling upon this recipe, I knew I had to make it. I mean who doesn’t love cinnamon buns or pancakes? They’re easy to make and quite delicious, hands down one of the best pancakes I’ve ever had.

The recipe can be found here!
*Note: You could also just use pancake mix for an easy morning breakfast.

You kind of have to work fast once you squeeze the cinnamon filling onto the pancakes or it’ll just melt!

I didn’t make the cream cheese glaze because I think the pancakes are sweet enough already. They are crisp and somewhat chewy on the outside and soft and fluffy in the middle.

Served with sweet pepper, carmelized onion scrabbled eggs and super crust bread!

LEMON TREE PATISSERIE

November 12, 2011September 17, 2019Leave a comment

St. Lawrence Market, Lower level | 93 Front St. E. | Toronto, ON
http://www.lemontreepat.com/

We headed down to St. Lawrence Market one early Saturday morning to visit the farmer’s market also I wanted to check out Lemon Tree Patisserie myself! After wondering around a bit, we headed downstairs and my mission to find the little stall was on. After much shoving and dodging (super packed on Saturdays), we found it! A cute little table with a sign was set up right beside another store. We were greeted with big smile from the creator (it’s nice to see independent bakers and for some reason I’m more willing to support them).

I got 6 macarons for $10, quite a steal if I say so myself. She was selling 6 flavours that day: vanilla bean, salted caramel, cinnamon brown butter, pumpkin spice, earl grey…and one I don’t remember.

My favourite was the salted caramel but it had a slight hint of bitterness (probably from over cooking the sugar a tad bit?). All the other flavours were quite mild, you had to think about which flavour you were eating to actually taste the flavour of each macaron. They were nice but I would probably not trek downtown early Saturday morning to get one of them. If you’re ever downtown on a Saturday morning, head over to the lower level of St. Lawrence Market and taste her macarons for yourself!

P.S. She also sells cake pops and other goodies but this particular Saturday she only had macarons…or maybe I was just too late.

Syogun Japanese Cuisine

November 11, 2011Leave a comment

Syogun Japanese Cuisine
8261 Woodbine Avenue
Markham, ON
L3R 8Z5

After much deliberation on where to eat one Friday night, we headed over to Syogun because my dear Jessica was raving about how good the food was (as she was there already eating). I had such high expectations walking in but left quite disappointed.

That’s the menu where they didn’t have a lot of the items. $21.99 seems a little steep for not having a lot of items on the menu.

The fish was really fresh but that’s all I can say about Syogun. I can honestly say the only thing I actually enjoyed that night was the scallop sashimi.
Everything else was mediocre at best (sorry Jess!).

Our rolls: an imitation of futo maki, philadelphia roll, salmon & mango roll, spicy salmon roll & spider hand roll.

Beef sashimi which was above decent, a little too thick though.

Baked scallops…meh.

Overly too salty, too herby escargots. I don’t know why I thought these would be decent…I mean I’m ordering sushi from a Chinese “sushi” chef.

After stuffing our faces with 80:20 rice ratio sushi, trying to get our money’s worth, we left feeling stuff yet unsatisfied.

But what I was annoyed with the most was the service, my biggest pet peeve when I go out to eat is bad service. All the waiters were apathetic about being there, they all took a simultaneous smoke break which left us waiting for a good 10 minutes trying to get the bill (we were so tempted just to walk out because the chefs behind the “sushi bar” just brushed us off. I mean if you’re in the service industry, you should at least put on a fake smile and try to be friendly but these guys just didn’t care about their job – just seem like a frat house than a restaurant to me.

And yet another unfulfilling experience with AYCE sushi for dinner, we swore never to do it to ourselves again! But if we had to have AYCE I would definitely recommend Osechi and would most likely go for lunch instead.

PATISSERIE HEAVENLY DELIGHTS

November 8, 2011September 16, 2019Leave a comment

8992 Yonge St. (Scott & Yonge) | Richmond Hill, ON
http://www.heavenlydelights-patisserie.com/

Found this neat little bakery while I was urbanspoon-ing, I would definitely say this bakery is a hidden gem. I wouldn’t have known this bakery was here if we didn’t have to look for it…and even when I was looking for it, I passed it unknowingly. We walked in and was greeted by the owner, she was super nice, friendly and explained almost all the cakes to me and what was in them.

All the little pasties & cake slices.

Some of the whole cakes.

Just some of the cookies.

We got take out, this bakery is not a cafe by any means, there is one little coffee table and two sofa chairs.

This is the first thing I picked out cause as soon as she said “it was like Piña colada flavour”, I was set. It was moist, not too sweet or rich and full of flavour! With chunks of pineapple mixed throughout the filling in between the layers of coconut sponge cake.
It was both our favourites! Super yummy!

This is the “Walnuti Pastry” which is basically a walnut cake with chocolate mousse finished with a chocolate ganache glaze. I got this cause the owner said it was her signature cake, how could I not get it? I loved the walnut pieces in the sponge, an added bonus of texture. I would recommend to all the chocolate/nut combination lovers out there.

This is the pomegranate cake (I’m not sure what it’s actually called because there weren’t any signs in the display case) but for now, I’ll just call it the pomegranate cake. My boyfriend loves pomegranate anything so as soon as he say this, he had to get it. It wasn’t my favourite because the sponge cake is quite dry but the icing had a nice hint of tartness, full of pomegranate flavour. This one was our least favourite out of the bunch but it was still delicious.

The owner rang us up and the bill came up to just under $7, both Satya and I were surprised on how cheap the cakes were.

Will definitely be back, actually I was planning on going back this weekend!

BAR BURRITO

November 7, 2011September 16, 20192 Comments

230 Commerce Valley Drive East, Unit #5 | Markham, ON
http://www.barburrito.ca

Have I mentioned how much I love coupons and discounts? Did I ever mention that my life long goal is to become an extreme couponer? Well groupon has this new tab for deal that you have to redeem the same day, it’s call “Now! Deals”. Bar Burrito is one of the many restaurants that are part of this deal, Bar Burrito is also a 5 minute drive from my house, and burritos are one of the many cheap foods I enjoy!

Why not? This was my first time trying Bar Burrito and honestly when I walked in I was “Ugh. Bad choice”, it was empty and nothing in that room made it look inviting at all.

EMPTY!

As we were waiting we were becoming more sceptical of this place…after about what felt like forever (probably just 10 minutes), we got our burritos and headed home. We settled in and opened our neatly wrapped burritos, this is what I opened up to!

Nice and toasted! Loved the extra texture it gave the burrito.

In all the burritos you get rice, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, cheese, sour cream, guacamole and your choice of meat (choice between chicken, steak, shrimp or chicken/steak mix). You can add jalapenos, salsa and corn (free of charge) also you got a choice between spiciness. . We were both surprised about how good it tasted! I got medium on the spiciness scale and I was dying near the end! So next time I would definitely get mild next time…and I would certainly come back again.

With Groupon, we spent $12 for two burritos.