China Garden

Location:

7071 Airport Road, Mississauga

www.chinagarden.ca/

If you're ever in the west end of the city looking for some yummy chinese food, there's a little joint, that's one part ghetto and 2 parts awesome.  It's called China Garden.  Looking neither like China nor a garden, it does however, have some wicked hakka style chinese for $9-12 a dish.

Order at the counter then grab a seat...

It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes for your piping hot dishes to arrive!







A favourite whenever we're in the area, it's also open until 10:30pm on the weekends!

NEW: Jimmy’s Coffee

Went to Jimmy's Coffee and got some Earl Grey (Mighty Leaf brand) and a banana caramel cake/bread - which was tasty but greasy.

Banana caramel cake

My tea has a funny aftertaste, which I can't pin-point, tastes like the cup?
Still, I like this place - it's cosy and they have a lovely sunny patio out back. Reminds me a bit of Moon Bean in Kensington although it's a lot newer and also trendier.
Love the photographs of all the Jimmy's on the walls.

And considering our old fave Le G is now shut down due to rent evasion, we'll be back!

Over Easy & The Coffee Mill

Locations:

Over Easy 208 Bloor Street West, Toronto

www.overeasyrestaurants.com

Coffee Mill 99 Yorkville Ave, Toronto

www.coffeemillrestaurant.com

Our girlie gatherings usually revolve around food;  specifically, brunch!  What better way to start the day.

This time, our choice brunch location was Over Easy since the plan was to check out the latest addition to the ROM (mainly, The Lee-Chin Crystal addition) after brunch.

I think it's quite safe to say that brunch is easily unscrew-up-able.    Am I right?

And while nothing was screwed per se, there was certainly nothing memorable about eating there (except for the company).

I do have one gripe, however.

My tea was lukewarm.

I truly dislike a lukewarm tea which brings to mind A Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams where he describesa perfect proper cup of tea.

I've noticed lukewarm tea all over the city - ya know, that "hot" water from that hot water machine just doesn't cut it.

Anyway, here's some of what was eaten.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Eggs and chicken sausage $6.99"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="604" caption="Spanish Omelette $9.99"][/caption]

I must say, the pots that the hot drinks came in were  loads of fun!

After a blustery walk from the ROM, all we wanted was a warm hideout and a hot drink to warm up our hands.

Starbucks was full, and the next best idea was the Lettieri but before we made it there, we found The Coffee Mill!

Interior of The Coffee Mill

Nestled within the shops at 99 Yorkville is the quaint old (est. 1963!) hideaway for just these types of gatherings.   The pastry selection got us all salivating, so a chocolate cake and an apple (or was it rhubarb ?) strudel, it was.

Chocolate Cake

Strudel

Interior

As far as copy coffee shops go, this one has the cosy part down pat.

Oatmeal!

If you're looking for some good ol' fashioned hot oatmeal in the city on these cold mornings, Le Gourmand's Irish Oatmeal with berries and maple syrup, is $4.50 +tax and is big enough to share between two.

Today's came with strawberries and bananas (instead of blueberries) and raisins.