Ravi Soups

Location:

322 Adelaide St W, Toronto

Cost: $10.99 (used to be $9.99) for combo (soup & half wrap)

Soups shouldn’t cost more than a few bucks, right?  Wrong where Ravi soups is concerned!  But, consider it the HIGH end of soups where your soup eats like a meal…isn’t that what Campbell’s Chunky soup advertisers want you to believe?

At Ravi Soups your soup contains ingredients fancier than basic peas, noodles and chicken broth….instead, you will find wild rice, curried lentils, thai basil and lemongrass. 

It’s ironic that we should have ended up at RaviSoups the day after my Mildred’s Temple Kitchen mishap, ’cause as it turns out Ravi Kanagarajah is the former Mildred Pierce soup guru!  However, here there is none of the snootiness that MTK expansive temple was festooned with.

There is a bit of a line-up but it moves quickly as the ’to-go’ soups are packaged into brown paper bags and delivered to the eagerly awaiting. 

Back at work, our soups and wraps are still piping hot and ready to be devoured.

My porcini mushroom and wild rice bisque (the only non-dairy soup on the menu) was a bit greasy looking with all the truffle oil, but looks are certainly deceiving ’cause it was deeeeeliiiiiicious! 

Very hearty with all the chunks of porcini mushrooms; overall a really nice flavour.  A little hard to digest for some me, they say porcini mushrooms can have that affect on people.

My “roasted free-range chicken with roasted yams, baby spinach, caramalized onions, tomato chutney and chipotle mayo” wrap was divine!  The combo was certainly a lot of food; I saved half my wrap for later. 

The Chicken hot pot soup – a winner according to my friend who had it.

The Corn Chowder, garnished with crab, crispy shallots and thai basil:

I have not heard a single negative thing about RaviSoups!  If you want soup, this is where to get it – it’s really worth the $10-13 for lunch.  If that’s a bit steep for you, I hear everything (incl. the combos) are half price on Fridays between 5 and 6pm.

Hey, Soup’s on!

Flickr

It has come to my attention that my Flickr pics are not showing up.  Grr.

My apologies.  There are obviously some broken photo links which I must go back and fix at some point.

I am aware of it now, thanks for letting me know!

Happy Valentimes: Butler’s Pantry

Location:

591 Markham St. Mirvish Village, Toronto, ON

Cost: $28 incl tip

www.butlerspantry.ca

How fitting a name for a place that serves everything that could possibly exist in a Pantry!  (On a side note: A butler’s pantry was commonly used for the storing, cleaning and counting of silver by the butler…).

Whatever the name, this cosy nook in the Annex  serves brunch until 4pm.

And forget the Butler, who’s the chef?  His pantry must be huge!  There’s such diversity to the 2 page menu, that we’re too confused to know what to order.  There are a lot of indian inspired dishes which made us question who the chef was.  Apparently the owner is from Bangladesh and married to an Egyptian lady and they hired a chef who was working in a palace in Egypt!  He must have been well versed in international foods ’cause although the brunch side of the menu is simple…Eggs Bene, French Toast, Omlettes, Scrambled Eggs, Scones….it’s the other side that amazes us: Bul go gi, Tandoori penne, Biryani, Seafood Quiche, Jambalaya, Khowsway (a Burmese dish) , Shepherd’s Pie, Veggie curry pie, Moroccan Veg Tajine!  And the list goes on…with loooooads of vegetarian options included!  It’s incredible…we wanted to order it all! 

We especially wanted to try the Zuchini pancake but learned they were out of it but our server also confided that she enjoys it paired with a beer as a greasy pub meal since it’s very similar to potato pancakes (latkes).   Worked out well then ’cause I don’t like latkes.

We finally decide on the chicken bastilla pie and the french toast.

Another thing to note is that the main dishes (except for a select few) are served with a fresh garden salad and Butler’s famous dressing (pictured below).

Also, and as you know by now, a must for me is an Earl Grey tea, which arrives in a lovely ceramic teapot.  The loose-leaf bagged ORGANA tea is divine…almost candy-like in its sweetness.

It doesn’t take long at all for our food to arrive! 

The Butler’s French Toast at $7.25 (side of bacon – $1.25) is a steal!  Such a humongous portion ; it’s ideal for sharing.  It comes with two thick slices of bread, a generous helping of fresh fruit and dallops of whipped cream.  The toast is not at all soggy even though the maple syrup has already been drizzled on top.  It’s just the perfect consistancy.  A must for anyone who, like me, loves french toast. 

The Chicken Bastilla Pie is a popular order and we wanted to try their version of the famous Moroccan dish – which is pastry stuffed with chicken, omlette, cinnamon & almonds.  For $10.25, it’s a hearty meal for one; which we split into two.  It was very tasty, albeit on the salty side.  Traditionally the cinnamon appears on the top of the pie along with powdered sugar…but in this case it was incorporated into the filling, which was nice but altogether a bit too “cinnamony”. 

The salad it came with really balanced out the saltiness of the pie and the “Butler’s Famous Dressing” was fantastic!

 

Looking more like a gravy than a dressing, it had a nice sharp taste to it and paired really nicely with the onions in the salad. 

The next time you’re strolling around the Annex, keep the Butler’s Pantry in mind.   

Winterlicious 2009

The 7th annual Winterlicious has been extended for two more weeks!

February 16 – 28, 2009

Have you already been? Are you going to go?

Marcel’s

Location:

315 King St West,  Toronto
Cost: Winterlicious $15 lunch ($69 for 4)

www.marcels.com

Winterlicious has been extended until Feb 28th, and Marcel’s lunch menu was quite tasty for anyone who’s still keen on getting on the “Licioustrain”.

Here is their lunch menu:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soupe du jour
Fresh daily soup
or
Salade maison, vinaigrette balsamique
Mesclun greens with balsamic dressing
or
Terrine de campagne maison
House pâté with crostini

~~~~~~~~~~~

Filet de sole, sauce Champagne servie avec du riz basmati et légumes de saison
Filet of sole in a Champagne sauce served with basmati rice & seasonal vegetables
or
Filet de porc, sauce moutarde avec pommes purées et légumes de saison
Pork tenderloin in a mustard sauce, mashed potatoes & seasonal vegetables
or
Penne au saumon fumé, sauce rosée
Penne with smoked salmon in a tomato cream sauce

~~~~~~~~~~~

Crème caramel
A bistro classic
or
Sorbets au choix
Daily choice of fresh sherbet
or
Glace vanille, sauce au chocolat
Vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate sauce

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soup of the day was Beets and Carrot soup.  I love beets so I had to try it.  When our server brought our dishes to the table, he quite rudely requested us to move our plates to the side.  We were slightly taken aback, but soon forgot about it as we indulged into our appetizers.

The soup was thick and creamy, posing a potential problem for my lactose-intolerancy, but nevertheless, tasty.  It had a real “beet-i-ness” to it!  

My friend ordered the House pâté with crostini which she claimed was very good and not as fatty as can be.

For her main, she opted for the pork tenderloin in a mustard sauce, with mashed potatoes and veggies.

The rest of us went for the penne with smoked salmon in a tomato cream sauce.  I was assured that there was only a “little bit of cream” in it….

Didn’t look that way to me.  Aside from eating around the cream sauce,  I found the tomatoey chunks of salmon to be very flavourful and  overall the dish was fantastic.  To be honest, I had to refrain from slurping up the remaining sauce.

For dessert, we all went for the Crème caramel:

I probably should have gone with the sherbet since by this time I was all creamed-out, but it was so cold outside that the idea of crème caramel appealed to me; for some reason I thought it would be warm (?).  Also, it’s probably listed as a “bistro classic” because it can be made in abundance and kept aside for when it’s needed (ie. for a Winterlicious crowd). It was good, but I don’t think I am a fan of crème caramel [*shrug*].

All in all, a nice experience at Marcel’s…and the rest of our service was totally fine.