Location:
410 Adelaide St W
www.leatcatering.com/home.htm
In the cursed location where Zimbel's Cafe and before that, Mosaic used to be, L'eat Express is the newest addition to the building beside Toronto School of Art. Herbal Infusions is faring quite well so far, so maybe there is hope for L'eat (such a difficult name to wrap my head around. Sometimes I think "teat", wrongly, of course).
I hear the brownies are amazing, but I walked by earlier today and the door was locked! Will try again in a bit and keep you posted.
** So went back with some co-workers but they were still closed. Someone did inform us that they were open this morning for a training session which included free pastries and plan to open again later this afternoon for another training session. We were told they'll be open again tomorrow, so fingers crossed!
*** Went back on Friday and they were OPEN! Found out a few things.
Most importantly it's pronounced "ELITE", literally pronounce the letter "L" and the word "EAT". I feel so much better, now.
Owned by Tony Loschiavo with hand-crafted goodies and gourmet meals made by Chefs Christopher Palik and Eric Walker, L'eat Express looks promising, especially with their original full service catering business (started 1983) in full swing at their Bathurt location. I DID try the brownie, and it did not disappoint. Shared with several co-workers, it was a huge hit!
The complimentary bran muffin and double chocolate fudge cookie I scored was equally as satisfying, although I have to admit the cookie can't compare to Le Gourmand's chocolate chip walnut cookie which still reigns supreme.
The teas on hand are from Language of the Leaf, which I love and which Neeta Khanna had sent me a package of teas to review in 2009. I've also heard great things about Paese, the sister restaurant to L'eat on King St W.
I really hope L'eat Express does well in this district, it's such a beautiful space and after speaking to Christopher, Tony and Rahim about their vision for this location, it looks like it's got all the ingredients to being as successful as the original.
Open Monday - Saturday (7:30am - 7pm)
Recipe: Waffles
TRAVEL: Boston: Tory Row
Location:
3 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA
www.toryrow.us
YOU GUYS, I'VE FOUND MY FAVOURITE FRENCH TOAST!
It's at Tory Row, in Cambridge, Massachussettes!
At first I was a little dismayed by it's small portion size, making sharing all the more difficult.
But with the blueberry jam and the New England maple syrup, and for only $7, with a side of applewood smoked bacon,
I was in love.
And to think I almost went with the english muffin egg sandwich. Wtf.
(If you know me, or have been reading this blog) I always get french toast for brunch). Always.
N gave me a look when I said, "Maybe I won't get french toast, this time." hahahaha! Who was I kidding? SO glad I did. It was perfect...not soggy in the middle or eggy smelling, which I hate, but crispy and moist and just cinnamon-y enough..and with that blueberry jam and NE maple, I want to go back.
Besides that, the "hashbrowns", which are really cut up potatoes were incredible! Especially with the pico de gallo (salsa) it came with.
One thing they could definitely improve upon is to serve hotter coffee! As it was, when served, it was luke-warm at best and then our server took longer still to bring the as-is cold milk, which further cooled down the coffees. We asked to get our cups warmed, but then received new coffees, which were still not hot enough. And, no Earl Grey tea?!Fo' shame. I did enjoy my OJ, though and the Spiced Apple Cider was lovely.
The flatbreads are served on wooden boards, looking very rustic and also easy to cut into if needed. The jalepeño chicken sausage, black bean, egg flatbread ($9) was good, but the pico de gallo would have been better as the sauce spread atop the flatbread instead of the black bean.
The vegetable frittata arrived in an iron skillet. The only problem with this is that the egg overcooks sitting in its heat, and is too hot to eat before it overcooks because its sitting in it's heat - see where I'm going with that?
The greek yogurt filled with berries and bananas and granola (from Nashoba Brook Bakery) is a steal at $5 and a great light breakfast.
Next time, would love to try the parmesan prosciutto black pepper scone ($3) from the Nashoba Brook Bakery and something from the lunch menu - those burgers were massive!
The decor is simple and modern.
Perched on the high stools at long commune tables, the place was mainly filled with Harvard students, with their friends or parents. There are Shepard Fairey pieces on the back wall. That's the artist who did the famous Obama "Hope" poster.
As an aside: those coffee shop white mugs with the wide-as-your-lips-rims, have gotta go. Come on, people; drinking from them makes you feel as though the coffee's going to dribble over the side of your mouth.
That said, Tory Row is a keeper. Kept!
Mitzi's Sister
Location:
1554 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON
www.mitzis.ca
Best place to go with your best friend after getting your hair did?
Mitzi's Sister.
Absolutely, hands down, the best brunch place I've eaten at, yet.
Challah French Toast
Served with home fries, fresh fruit, pure maple syrup & fresh whipped cream. $13.50
This week's topping was pomegranate!! Amazeballs.
And the Huevos Rancheros (Scrambled eggs in a grilled tortilla with refried beans, guacamole, tomato salsa, sour cream, home fries and fresh fruit. $10.95) was incredible!
Oh yes, I had a Side of English Bangers. $3.50
No photo of them because our server forgot my order and they arrived a bit late; after I was almost done with my French Toast. But fat and juicy, the bangers were really good.
As is our hair.
Mitzi's is highly recommended.
Flo's Diner
Location:
70 Yorkville Ave., Toronto
www.flosdiner.ca
Granted, it has a lovely rooftop patio, and the fabulous diner-look going, but the food is average, if not below average and the service ins non-existent.
I had Flo's Big Breakfast - Belgian waffles, 2 eggs, sausages, bacon, home fries $10.95 and "Freshly squeezed orange juice". While the waffles were were lukewarm, it wasn't terrible.
Beerhogger had a Coke Float (!)
and a GRILLED CHICKEN with sundried tomatoes. Fried mushrooms, fried onions & basil on foccacia bread $8.25
The sandwich was uber bland and the chicken was pink in parts and chewy. Gross? Yes.
While it's fun to dine at a 50s diner, if the food (and service) were more 50s-like, we'd be talkin'.
NEW: O&B Canteen
Location:
330 King St W, Toronto
Another one of Peter Oliver and Michael Bonacini's babies, O&B is part cafeteria, part full-service restaurant, with all the wood, glass and metal (and gorgeous pops of orange Le Creuset dishes) that entails opening up a restaurant these days, it's also in the new Bell Lightbox building.
In the company of several foodies, including Hobography, his family, AC, and AL who is our resident food and drink expert and founder of Foodies Toronto, our verdict is?
Well, O&B Canteen is no great shakes.
Here's what we ate:
I started with a Soltice Mojito (it's listed on the menu as such, but makes me wonder if they meant Solstice?) with loads of raspberries - a juicy, refreshing drink with a hint of mint, I slurped every last sip, and not only because it was $10.
They have only two beers on tap: Mill St. Tankhouse (sm $5, lg$7) and Stella Artois ( sm $6 and large $8) and the sizes arrive in tiny glasses. The wine was served in a slightly more reasonable portion. The rest of the beers (more Mills St., Keith's, Bud, Guinness, Leffe etc.) are bottled.
The Steak Frites ($21) was the best dish on the table, but discussions were had on how it was cooked.
The "Chef's Daily Creation" was a hand-made pappardelle with some type of sausage and mushrooms, which took forever to arrive and once it did looked like an appetizer in size.
It didn't fare well in flavour either; I'd like to quote Hobo here on how it was:
"It was overcooked, bland and flavourless."
The Gallo Mussels ($18) arrived in a hot pot looking quite beautiful, as did the french onion soup; I can't vouch for the taste.
The Basket of O&B Artisan breads (with spread and olives $8), I wish had more craft to them...as they were, they didn't excite.
Hobo ordered the Chicken Liver Parfait (cumberland sauce, pickle, baquette $8) and ended up having to request several refills of "baquette" as there was decidedly more parfait than "baquette" and I think we'd have preferred the entire "baquette" instead of only slices of it. Interestingly, you can find Michael Bonacini's Chicken Liver Parfait recipe, here.
The refills were also greatly needed since Hobo's fresh pasta didn't arrive for 45 minutes.
My All Day Breakfast ($14) was decent - the sausages and bacon absolutely delicious but the potatoes were luke warm and the bread, kind of boring. It didn't help that the butter and jams had to be requested several times before making an appearance and the hot sauce didn't make it to the table for a while.
The house-made "Canteen Catsup", spiced with cinnamon, coriander and celery seed, wasn't very good. I think it's best not to mess with what Heinz has perfected.
The desserts, however, managed to impress.
The Lemon Posset w/ chantilly, berries ($6), Soma Brownie w/vanilla ice cream ($7), Fresh Fruit w/ mint, lemongrass syrup and sorbet ($8), Espresso Affogato w/ almond biscuit ($5) Gateau Basque w/ vanilla ice cream ($7), were all divine; each carrying a distinct flavour. Muah!
Overall, I think everyone felt a disappointed. While they've got the signiture O&B style down, the service definitely needs work. It was waaaaaaaaay too slow for the type of idea they're selling. If you're calling it a canteen, it should operate as one.
I'll give the service a few months and go back to try the breakfast and those butties...perhaps with Lurgs?
Product: Pita Break
I was recently sent a large box filled with Pita Break products: a variety of One Bun pitas and Lavash "Flax and Honey" crackers.
Now, it's no secret that I like to eat, so it was almost instantaneous that I broke into the Lavash cracker box! It just so happened that I'd just met up with some friends for after-work beers, and these crackers were the perfect snack for the walk over to our Chinese restaurant for dinner.
Slender maybe, but quite "Lavash" in size, the nutty, natural, fibrous flavour would appear to be rather tasteless, but instead is quite the opposite.
Full-mouthed and double-fisting the crackers, all of us agreed they were addictive!
The pitas?
Are quite simply, fabulous. And the variety that they have is astounding!
My favourite is the Breakfast Pita: Cranberry Orange. They were so good in the morning and as a snack (of which there were many while these babies were around) they were perfect with a bit of almond butter and/or jam (usually both, who am I kidding?).
My hubby preferred the Apple Cinnamon.
And because we often like making breakfast egg sandwiches the Breakfast Muesli was perfect for this.
And let me just say, what an ingenious idea to make hamburger buns THINNER!!!
What's better than the thin hamburger bun? The OneBun Hot dog bun - not only thinner, but like a taco, sits neatly on it's side. Love it. And multigrain, to boot!
We can't get enough of these pitas..they're all -natural, preservative free, kosher and made in Toronto. And they even won the Best Lunchbox Item and Best Snack for the Canadian Live Foundations LIVERight Awards.
Congratulations you guys, I'd have to agree.
TRAVEL: Paris: Boulangerie Patisserie Coudrier Geffroy
Location:
77 avenue Kléber, Paris (16th Arr)
This was my First Taste of Paris:
I think I did well.
We stopped by this bakery on our way to our hotel...and they line-up was huge! Am not surprised at all. We wanted to go back again, but got distracted by some sort of tower in the area. ;)
NEW: Wanda's Belgian Waffles
252 Queen St E, Toronto
There's a new location of Wanda's Belgian Waffles right on Queen Street, across from the 2nd Cup. It's a little kiosk within the Gardenview Grocery.
Perfect leading into fall!
LE GOURMAND IS BACK!
LOCAL FEATURE: Crepe Delicious
Location:
100 City Centre Drive
www.crepedelicious.com
If it's not pancakes or french toast for breakfast, it's crepes (from scratch) at our house, so to receive two packs of Crepes De Licious mix in the mail was quite refreshing.
That said, if you're not a crepes-from-scratch person, and you like a good crepe, these packages are worthwhile. Better yet, you can just go OUT for crepes and visit your local Crepe Delicious!
We did that, too.
There's a little kiosk of Crepe Delicious at the Square One Mall. With breakfast crepes, paninis, savoury andsweet crepes.
Ian and Michael were the talented young specialists on hand for whipping us up some yummy crepes: savoury and sweet!
I don't care much for savoury crepes in general, but the Caesar Chicken ($7.95) one made for us was quite good, and packed with filling.
The sweet crepes is where it's at. Nutella? Yes, please!
The Tuttie Fruitte ($6.99) was absolutely divine and made far better than even the crepes we had in Paris!
Nyum Nyum.
They use all fresh toppings, so much so, that they run out of popular ingredients such as apples and panini loaves. It's a kiosk afterall; it would be great to see this place get it's own restaurant as it was busy and has only a limited number of stools. Most customers got the crepes to go anyway, wrapped up neatly in foil. For the busy shoppers at Square One this type of kiosk probably works better than a dine-in restaurant, especially since you can smell the crepes a mile away and can have it as a snack or a meal.
We wanted the Crunchy Caramel $5.85 but they had run out of apples so Ian, who is the resident expert at that location, having been there two years, made us a custom super-duper, nutella-banana-caramel crepe!
I'll post up our own home-made crepe recipe, but until then, if you happen to stop by a Crepes Delicious, try the nutella/banana crepe! You shan't be disappointed.
Cora’s Breakfast and Lunch
Location:
277 Wellington Street West, Toronto
www.chezcora.com
Did people eat more in the '90s? I'm not sure. All I know is I ordered the 1990s Harvest for breakfast at Cora's on Saturday and it sure was a gigantic portion!
There's not a whole lot of selection for brunch downtown...I mean, really downtown, near the Queens Quay area. The closest place we could think of was Cora's. And I guess everyone else thought the same. The line-up was huge! And that too, on such a blustery cold day. Our wait was about 20 or so minutes, normally we'd have gone elsewhere, but there was nowhere else to go, except for maybe the brunch at 5 Senses (or is it Sen5es?), which didn't have a line-up, which we took as it either not being good or being too pricey. Turns out a "gourmet" breakfast buffet will set you back $21.95. A bit too much to pay for eggs and toast, me thinks. As it is, breakfast is the easiest meal to prepare and uses the cheapest of ingredients.
At Cora's it's still a little too much for what it is, but it really hit the spot that day.
Of course, I'm sure everyone could have done without the wait, but when we did finally get seated, our server was really nice and my 1990s Harvest was absolutely perfect....the raisin french toast, the bacon, the eggs, the pile of fruit (all of it exactly like the larger than life photo in the menu) . What a heaping portion. The blueberry crepes were a bit of a dud, but between the two of us we covered all of our cravings...AND some.
Recipe: Good Old Fashioned Pancakes
Just in time for Saturday morning's breakfast!
I'd only ever made Aunt Jemima pancakes when I was younger so when I found this recipe for pancakes on Allrecipes.com (with 4.5 stars and 3,327 reviews!), I had to try it. It's easily the best pancake recipe, ever, and the only one I use and will continue to use from now on.
Here it is, with my changes in italics:
Ingredients
-
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (definitely DON'T use whole wheat flour, ever! I tried this once and the pancakes were too chewy, thick and heavy)
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 C *or as desired* Ghiradelli's (or any brand) dark chocolate chips
Directions
1.In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
2.Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
Toppings
Frozen blueberries and/or strawberries tossed into a saucepan makes a lovely fruit topping
or
Fresh raspberries and powdered sugar on top of maple syrup.
Sometimes I like to spread Godiva chocolate spread over the pancakes...yep, it's delicious.
NEW: Frankly Eatery
Location:
1118 Queen Street East, Toronto
www.franklyeatery.com
So, I first posted about Frankly Eatery in April. Our friends opened up Frankly (the name deriving from them not knowing quite frankly what name to give it) in Leslieville and we finally got the chance to check it out this past weekend.
Loving the signage outside and how warm and cosy the interior is.
They had a few weekend specials, one of them being: Scrambled eggs w/ scape-jalapeno pesto topped with sausage & bacon, tomato and red scallions served w/side salad & baguette.
Everything Everything was fresh and came out hot and tasting delicious.
I got my standard: French Toast (Vanilla cinnamon French toast topped with our mixed berry compote and pure maple syrup and a side of fresh fruit. $7.75). I have to admit I knew what I was going to get when I saw the menu before Frankly Eatery even opened :) And it was incredible - we were loving the baquettes and the berry sauce on top. Perfect.
The Aloo Parantha (large Indian style flatbread stuffed with shredded spiced potatoes served with a homemade cilantro sour cream and side salad 8.50) was cooked to perfection - exactly the way we like it, tasting wonderfully homemade.
The Egg Bhurji (Spicy Indian style scramble with onions, peas and tomatoes served with green salad and sliced baguette. $8.50) was amazing!! Definitely something I would get again.
One of the other specials was the Tandoori Chicken Wrap (Tandoori chicken, slaw, roasted chick peas, garlic aioli w/ side salad) which, with the side salad, was quite filling.
And finally, there they are! The fantastic crew bringing it all together: great job guys - everyone is loving the place and we can't wait to come back!
How to etc
I've been swamped at work and with photography stuff (that I can't wait to share with you!) and haven't been able to post as frequently as I'd like.