Pizza Girls

Location:

114 S Clematis St
West Palm Beach, FL

www.pizzagirls.com

Probably the best. pizza. I’ve ever had.

We craved this pizza, not days later, but hours later…..honestly. Go.

Aji Sai

Location:

467 Queen St. W, Toronto

It seems Queen street is constantly reinventing itself…new restaurants…new condos….new yoga studios. There are the staples: Gandhi’s, New York Sub, Subway and then the newbies: Leslieville Cheese Market and the maybe not so new anymore, Aji Sai Japanese restaurant.

These were the sorts of dishes we shared around…

I’ve been to Aji Sai twice now, and both times were hits…it’s a great work lunch spot especially if you’re one to share.

Product: Mo’s Bacon Bar

Cost:  $10  (Thanks go out to A.L for telling me about this chocolate bar and buying it for all of us to try!)

Everyone who knows me knows I love bacon.

I feast on the stuff at all-inclusive-vacation-buffets and am known to add it as a side to my french toast if it doesn’t already come with someone else’s breakfast (when that someone else doesn’t eat bacon).

So bacon chocolate, you say?

Why, it’s ultimately a chocolate bar with bacon bits.

Salty (a bit too much so) and sweet.

And strange.

I’m still undecided as to whether I liked it or not.  I’m certain I would not eat it all the time like my mint Aero, or even buy a whole bar for myself…but sharing and in small doses, it’s like an other-worldly-Willy-Wonka-esque chocolate bar that only your imaginary tastebuds could dream up.

I think the packaging could really use some work, too.  I guess the folks over at Vosges thought a greasy strip of bacon alongside a jaggedy-edged piece of chocolate with a few bacon bits tossed at the top left corner for good measure, would really sell the flavour of this unique bar.  And who the f*** is Mo?

Lola’s Commissary

Location:

634 Church Street, Toronto

Cost: Approx $25 pp

www.lolascommissary.com

I think seeing “sexy potatoes” on their online menu (although I think it’s actually “sexy sweet potatoes”  on the menu) is what sold us to eat here. That, and the recommendation from a friend at work whose paintings also hang in the restaurant
Our gaggling girlie troupe landed on the (beautiful) Lola patio for brunch this past Sunday and never before have we been able to so freely enjoy a brunch in such a large group (8).  Mil”dread”’s wouldn’t seat us, other brunch places don’t take brunch reservations but at Lola’s Commissary (open 6 weeks, now), it’s not a problem. 

We took a while perusing the unique menu and daily specials which were such a mix of dishes that we had to take another few minutes to decide. 

 In the meantime we got some drinks…

The service is friendly and accommodating. The food is fancy brunch fare (a tad pricey but tasty to boot) and gorgeously presented!

As usual I got the (straight up – challah bread dipped in egg custard) french toast due to my loctose-intolerancy and not being able to stomach the cheesecake french toast.  I also got a side of fresh fruit ($6) and a side of sexy potatoes to share around ($6).

The other items ordered were as follows.

Multigrain waffles with a side of berries, dense and filling…

The egg white frittata (goat cheese, mushrooms, spinach and hemp pesto)

 

Eggs Lola: poached eggs, ancho chicken, torillas, avocado, creme fraiche

Lobster and goat cheese omlette

Roasted trout with quinoa and tabouli

 Beef hash brunch feature

 

Therese DeGrace (executive chef) came out to greet us which was super. She’s wonderfully warm and took the time to chat with us, which was really pleasant and so uncommon in the city!

The interior of Lola’s is sort of industrial chic with brick, wood, high ceilings and tall windows. 

The paintings in the dining hall lend a certain mellow sweetness to the vibe with the upstairs catering to more of a loungey atmosphere with funky retro seats and laminated fantastical art on the walls.

Even the washrooms are spa-like and immaculate, with artwork adorning almost every surface (including a wall outside the restaurant).

The complimentary Nutella Cheesecake dessert was delish and perfect split eight ways.

Lola’s is a definite must-try in the Bay/Bloor area – the patio alone will make you want to spend your whole afternoon there. We certainly did! And unlike so many other places in the city, our patronage was welcome! We’re already planning our return!

Dimmi Bar & Trattoria

Location:

140 Cumberland St, Toronto

Cost:
$9-15 for a pizza

www.dimmibar.com

We walked around for about an hour before deciding on a place to have dinner. Somehow the places on Yonge St. (Green Mango, Friendly Thai) didn’t appeal to us and Craft Burger further North didn’t entice everyone. Finally, after checking the menus at Nervosa Trattoria and Hemingways, we decided that Dimmi’s had the best options (or maybe by then we were just really, really hungry).

(I didn’t want to lug my giant camera along all day, so these photographs are courtesy of my friend A.R.)

We ordered a couple of pizzas to share around: The Bruschetta ($9), the Funghi ($15)…and the Margherita ($11) to go. And my friends got the calamari ($12 which came with a side salad); they claimed it was tasty and filling (I refuse to eat calamari after a horrible – mostly exaggerated- life-changing experience).

The Bruschetta pizza was quite tasty and moist which was what was lacking in the Funghi mushroom pizza. The Margherita also tasted good (flavourful with the basil, which I love) on the drive home (I had to try a slice!).

Our service was attentive in a nice, non-intrusive way…perhaps the standard for Yorkville restos? All around a quaint little restaurant in Yorkville with, I’d say, reliably good food.

Thai Satay & More

Location:

187 Cross Avenue Oakville, ON

Cost: buffet $11.95

www.thaisatayandmore.com

“What’s the ‘more’ in Thai Satay and More?”

That’s the question I was asking on Sunday when we discovered that TS&M was one of the only few places open for dinner on a Sunday evening in the Ville. Stoney’s was closed.

The buffet at TS&M seemed quite scarce…so I asked whether the stainless steel containers would be refilled. The answer was yes, so we thought we’d give it a try since our options were limited anyhow.

My vegetarian friend pointed out that the restaurant was authentic because of the paintings of Thai royalty on the walls. She also wanted to order off the regular menu seeing as most of the items in the buffet had eggs in it. The owner (I believe) came up to us and told her that she could have the same items from the buffet made to order without eggs instead of her ordering from the menu. On the one hand, it seemed nice and personal of him to offer to cook the items sans eggs, yet on the other hand (and as my veg friend pointed out) it was perhaps a bit lazy of them to not want to cook anything off the menu.

I don’t think we could really taste the authenticity from the buffet – the mango salad was good – probably the most fresh tasting of the items. The eggplant that my veg friend received wasn’t terrible but at the same time lacked any real flavour. (As usual, I had to douse it in hot sauce). We were reminded of how good Flip, Toss & Thai is!

The pad thai in the buffet was stuck together in a dry heap and the little morsels of chicken dish I tasted (although peppery and good) did not get refilled until we were done eating (!).

The pad thai my veg friend got was better than the one in the buffet…

but by then we’d filled up on the scraps….like chicken wings, veg fried rice and spring rolls.

Overall, there was nothing really authentic about the whole dinner. And the dessert of fried bananas and fruit (if you can call one small square slice of cantaloupe – cut into four to share (!) and a few slices of oranges, fruit) did nothing for us.

As my other friend retorted as we left, perhaps the “more” in Thai Satay & More is the personal touch we were given although it certainly would be far better if there were “more” food in the buffet, instead.

I may give this place another try and order off the menu next time.

Zimbel’s Cafe

Location:

410 Adelaide Street West

In place of Mosaic, there now is Zimbel’s Cafe! It must be hard for them to get everyone’s attention being hidden away in such a quiet street as Adelaide especially with Timmy’s on the other corner and Le Gourmand and Starbucks dominating the Richmond/Spadina area. However, I think business will pick up ’cause they’re really good!

They’ve done a great job with the interior design – love the Eames furniture – and photography on the walls. They also are a catering company and cater all sorts of events from Weddings to Corporate Lunches to Film Sets and have been in the business since 1981.

(Above photo courtesy of Andrew Zimbel)

The teas are from Language of the Leaf and yummy (pricer than Le Gourmand though but it’s loose-leaf and Le G is known to mix up my Earl Grey with Earl Grey Green tea and not have the water hot enough sometimes).

The food is tasty at Zimbel’s, as well. From the muffins, croissants and the banana bread (with sunflower and cranberries = excellent!) to their lunch menu (I had the salad with grilled chicken once), it’s all very fresh and good.

And the service, although still novice, is getting there.

Great place to try out instead of your usual coffee/tea train destination!

***My friend who recently tasted the “knee buckling” brownie had this to say about it:

“To classify its deliciousness and sugar power, I’d say it was a spectacular punch to the back of the head, kapow!” – Mack Carruthers

PYO: Farmer’s Market

The Farmer’s Market on Thursdays is kind of fun…it’s a bit of the burbs in the city.

$.75 sunflower (from Andrews’ Scenic Acres), blueberries & strawberries (from Warner’s Farm, Beamsville – blueberries are not that sweet), corn AND an apple crumble (from ASA)…..

Getting home should be interesting.

Wanda’s Belgian Waffles

Location:

331 Yonge Street, Toronto

I love that this is called a cafe, yet there’s barely enough standing room for two! Meant to be more of a street vendor (order through the window) this little ‘cafe’ serves up the best waffles I’ve ever had from the street! Forget morning breakfasts and brunches, you can pick up a tasty hot waffle after a horrible dinner at Salad King and be totally content.

Run by a father and son team:

I’ve read some complaints about the sanitary conditions of the joint (not washing hands after taking money) but when we went and as you can see in the pics, gloves were worn throughout.

Sure it’s a bit messy and gooey if you order the ice-cream and strawberries on top, or if you wait a bit too long to eat it (like in our case but still damn tasty!):

I’d say it’s a marvellous way to grab a fun treat split between friends!

Charley’s Crab

Location:

456 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL

www.muer.com

Our first place to dine in PB was Charley’s Crab…a highly recommended restaurant along the beach.

Apart from the Guinness that was poured out of a bottle (egh)…

the sandwiches we ordered were amazing and I’m not a huge sandwich person! (We quickly realized that most of the lunch fare in PB was sandwiches and/or burgers.)

Our server suggested the Bistro Chicken Sandwich with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, field greens & balsamic vinaigrette, which looked like this:

and tasted great although it was a bit heavy on the goat cheese (for me, but then I don’t do cheeses well). The second sandwich, the Chili Dusted Ahi Sandwich – chargrilled with bacon & pepperjack cheese, and honey mustard aioli, served with French Fries and coleslaw was kick-ass!

Juicy and very filling!

We got it with green beans instead of fries, and I could have done without the slaw entirely. Still a very satisfying lunch for a day at the beach.

Hamburger Heaven

Location:

314 South Country Road, Palm Beach, Florida

Cost: $25 for two

Hamburger Heaven is a cute little diner in Palm Beach and one of two places suggested to us to get breakfast in the area – I’m sure there are more joints to grab freshly squeezed OJ, but HH was super close to our hotel and the beach which made it perfect.

We didn’t make it in time for breakfast the first day…missed it by more than a few hours (breakfast is served until 11am and we were there around 3!), but our lunch consisted of what we considered to be makeshift breakfast dishes…ie. quiche (eggs and spinach) and fruits!

It was gloooooooooorious!!!! Ta DA!

And we thought we’d try the special of the day – Blackened tilapia on salad….my oh my was it ever delush! SO glad we missed breakfast! It was the perfect 3pm meal!

We did make it in time for french toast and eggs the next day though! And they remembered us and sat us in the same booth – so sweet! The service was amazing, they didn’t make any fuss seating us in a booth even though there were just two of us and even though they had a lineup later for lunch with groups of four waiting. It just reminded me of horrible Mildred’s Temple Kitchen and their huge a** fuss of seating us!

We had freshly squeezed OJ (how could you not?). Omg you guys, soooo good!

The eggs, toast, side of potatoes and….bacon….

I always get french toast for breakfast…and these were tasty (I have to admit Testa’s was better, though especially with their serving of fruit on the top) but I was loving the giant Texas style toast.

The breakfast was all very good but I think it’s called hamburger heaven for a reason and we really wanted to come back for one of their burgers but they were closed on Sunday, our last day there! Oh well, next time for the hamburger! We ended up jokingly calling this place Hamburger Helper but it truly is a little taste of heaven.

Is David’s Tea overrated?

Is David’s Tea overrated?

I just had David’s “English Breakfast” tea from Dark Horse and (with milk added) it looked the way a half-drunk-cup-of-tea-filled-with-water looks like in the sink and it tasted like how you would imagine that half-drunk-cup-of-tea-filled-with-water in the sink would taste like.

Gross. Yeah.

Overrated, I think.

Julie & Julia

Saw this last night – fun chick and food flick!

Not enough Julia though…wanted more of Meryl’s Julia Child – what an incredible performance!

I’ve never tried cooking any of Julia Child’s recipes so the movie was a definite inspiration.  Is there such a thing as chicken bourguignon?

PYO: Berries!

Location:

9365 10th Sideroad, Milton/Halton Hills

www.andrewsscenicacres.com

So, this was my second time at Andrews’ Scenic Acres in Milton – the first was for pumpkin’ picking.

As we walked in (***update***no admission fee), we were told that there were strawberries and raspberries ready for picking – and were given two baskets – a larger one for the strawberries and we were told to hop on the berry bus which was just coming down the road.

So, we hopped on and were taken down a little way to the strawberry fields. Upon our descent I asked one of the three teenagers where the best place would be to start picking. She directed us to the far end of the fields and said we’d get some good strawberries there and for the raspberries to go equally as far behind a thicket of trees. So we set off with our baskets in hand. The farm was fairly crowded; full of people doing the same thing. We didn’t see too many berries but we plucked quite a few that we thought were decent.

We noticed that the strawberries weren’t that big and decided that what we’d gotten was enough and went on in search of the raspberries.

Near the raspberry bushes, we saw more strawberry fields and what’s this?? GIANT strawberries!!

Why, it seemed that girl sent us off in the wrong direction – perhaps to scatter the crowd? Boo. There were far better sized strawberries in this location. Too bad our basket was almost full! Nevertheless, we plucked some more and then went to check out the raspberries, which were plentiful towards the back of the raspberry rows.

We went through the aisles and finally discovered some really nice fat ones, ending up with a juicy basketful.

Then we hopped back on the berry bus which stopped to pick up some people in the blueberry fields – I didn’t know we could pick blueberries too, so we decided to get off the bus and look for some blueberries (my favourite!). The bus tried to take off while a family (the mom had a baby in her arms) was still climbing on board, which I thought was irresponsible, as did everyone else who shouted at the driver (just a young boy, again).

I had no idea blueberries were so gorgeous! Some didn’t look ready but we managed to find a nice batch that were. Yum!

After this, we jumped back on the berry bus and back to the farm.

We decided to check out the playground area as my 9 year old niece was with us and wanted to play, and then we decided to get something to eat at the food stand…a hot dog and a veggie burger.

Now, we were seated near the food stall, and close to the entrance and were just about to begin eating…I was literally starting to take a bite out of my hot dog, when this man came up to us and scolded us for not having paid for our berries first. I was like…huh?Wha?

He said we couldn’t just buy food and eat before paying for the berries! I was absolutely dumbfounded, “Excuse me?” I said. To which he replied that once we got off the bus we were to pay for the berries immediately and that’s what they tell you on the bus when you get off. At this point I started to get annoyed by his tone and accusation of what, stealing the berries? I told him that we were going to obviously pay for the berries and were not aware that we had to pay for them before doing anything else on the farm and that nobody on the berry bus (or at the entrance, for that matter!) bothered to mention this and that I could go in and pay right then and there! At this, maybe feeling bad for accusing us of stealing, he half-heartedly said we could finish eating first. I decided it would be best to pay and get that done, so I started to head to the barn to pay, and saw him following me. Honestly? I turned to him and told him that I thought he’d been quite rude and that he shouldn’t have assumed that we were stealing the berries because we had really been having a nice time at the farm enjoying the warm weather and he’d completely ruined the experience for us.

Once inside (and once I paid – $28 for all three baskets) I asked to speak to the owner of the farm and this young man turned up. I told him what had happened and he apologized and said that the older man who had yelled at us was in fact the owner and that was how he was. I told him how unfortunate it was for him to have dealt with the situation the way he had as it had really brought a damper to the day.

Once outside with my baskets (the handles now stamped with smiley faces on them indicating that they were paid for) I went back to my hot dog!

I was trying to get a bite of the damn thing when the older man showed up again! I think he must have either spoken to (his son?) the young man inside and realized how rude he’d been ’cause he started apologizing for his behaviour and saying that people often visit the farm and steal the berries and leave the baskets lying around. I told him that I understood but he should rather execute a better system of paying for the berries or employ more people to guide the visitors instead of going around accusing honest citizens of theft.

He agreed with me and apologized again and said that other farms had more people and that he should perhaps do the same. I reminded him that nobody on his berry bus had mentioned anything about this nor had they said anything at the entrance, so he should really make changes to that system if he wanted people to comply.

He did offer to give me a fresh hot dog but at that point I just wanted to eat the one I had (it was about 3pm by this time and I still hadn’t eaten!). Still, I thanked him and told him that this wasn’t our first time on his farm and that we loved coming to it and that I totally understood where he was coming from, and so there were no hard feelings.

We left it at that, and then my niece did the pony ride that was offered there and we left.

I’m not sure how many people know of the payment policy, but there you go, now you know and do comply with the rules unless you want to be told off in front of everyone for just trying to have some lunch at Andrews’ Scenic Acres!

Pearl

Location:

207 Queens Quay West, Toronto

Cost: $50 for two

www.pearlharbourfront.ca

Unfortunately I don’t have any pics of this experience…I did take one shot with my phone but that didn’t do any good without a macro setting.

So, we were looking for a place to dine that wasn’t pub fare and remembered this Chinese restaurant in the area that we’d never tried.

We were seated at a nice table with a lovely lake view but our server was a tad impatient while taking our order. We really wanted to try the crispy potato nest dishes (either chicken or shrimp) but were told that they weren’t anything special, and so we asked him which dishes he recommended. As you know, I like spice, so his suggestions were the chicken in a homemade hot n sour sauce ($15.50) and the Country Style E-Mein (soft) noodles with chicken, shrimp, scallops and veggies ($16.50). This sounded good to us and we also wanted the chicken won ton soup ($5.25). We almost got the grouper as well but our server said it would be a lot of food.

At this point, with the nice view (what you’re really paying for) and the fancy dishes on the menu (and fancy prices!) we were really expecting something…fancy.

[And maybe there's something that we missed out on here but we did ask about the best items on the menu, so it should have been great.]

So, the soup was pretty good (although the mushrooms tasted canned) but then, I found a stone in my soup. When we (discreetly) told our server about it he said we should have told him before eating the soup. I guess he’s right, if only stones floated! Too bad I had bitten into it on my last spoonful which scooped it from the bottom of the bowl! He was not happy with us! But nor were we.

I must say the noodles were really tasty although they were also really greasy (ring-around-the-mouth-grease) and the chicken dish we got lacked flavour (supposedly the best chicken dish on the menu). We used up all the hot sauce in our little serving dish.

They did take the soup off of our bill so that was nice I suppose, but otherwise I didn’t think it was worth it for greasy chinese food. The portions weren’t that significant either, but maybe that was the point. Certainly a disappointment for dinner, although not sure how well it fares for its dim sum lunches, which I’ve read is good.

Ichiban Sushi

Location:

262 Queens Quay West, Toronto

www.ichibansushi.com

When we lived in the city, one of the closest sushi restaurants to us was Ichiban Sushi; we were constantly ordering in from there (or dining in).

For reliably standard sushi, Ichiban doesn’t go wrong.