The Magic Oven

Location:

6 Wellesley

When green chillies underly an innocent tandoori chicken pizza, you KNOW the chef knows his biniss.

As he should at THESE pizza prices!!

Smelt flour or no smelt flour...I hope these pizzas have some magic in 'em 'cause they're expensive!

Not a fan of the Liberty Village location as I got sick twice as a result of their lunch time slices, but the Wellesley location made for a wonderful dinner with friends. Very cosy atmosphere, we had almost the whole (tiny) restaurant to ourselves. And those hidden green chillies? We were in tears 'cause the menu made no mention of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm always happy to see green chillies in anything, so they were tears of joy.

We've also had MO pizzas ordered into work, and as delish as they are, the four pizzas we ordered came to something outrageous as $100 and there still wasn't enough to go around. Sometimes, you just need a bunch o' $9.99 pepperoni pizzas.

Wayne Gretzy's

Location:
99 Blue Jays Way, Toronto 

www.gretzky.com 

Poutine$6.99 

Salmon Burger $14.99 

....and the BEST apple pie I've ever had!  With pecan ice-cream, what a change from vanilla, and so delish!!

(Not the greatest pics here, but I was more interested in digging in!) 

Salmon burger and poutine!

Apple Pie with Pecan ice-cream

 

The food is really great at Gretzy's and the service is wonderful.  They have a super happening (always packed) tropical-esque roof-top patio which is great for those warm summer nights.

Happy Hoggerversary!

It's Foodhogger's 4th Birthday!!

Yes, it's been 4 years since Foodhogger started (well, here on Wordpress, before Wordpress I was on Blogger and then before that on Xanga)!

Anyhow, thank you to all you loyal readers who've stuck by my little food blog through the years.  You've seen me transition from the flashy (literally) food snaps to what I hope is better food photography.

Foodhogger started in May 2006 and has grown over the years to be one of the top food blogs in Toronto with international recognition! It's featured on Urbanspoon and Ziplocal and is one of the TOP 50 blogs in Toronto. Recently, Canada's online search directory, the Yellowpages, contacted us to advertise for Calgary restaurants.

Lola's Commissary (Toronto), Miss Cora's Kitchen (Toronto) and Il Fornaio (in the States) are a few of the restaurants who have recognized my reviews and have featured them on their sites!

Here's to more years of happy dining!

Thanks for eating along with me.

Birthday Bacon

Sandwich Box

Location:

67 Richmond St W., Toronto

www.sandwichbox.ca

This is just to report that directly across from Lunchbox...our favourite frugal Chinese food spot, is this fancy sandwich-in-a-box place....which is neither frugal (unless you get the simple egg salad which is $%{{87%{{90%{{%{{dc90ee4e-724f-44f6-a28%{{c942393c-356c-4719-980d-140c7a8faa3c}}-1dd012185e69}}f6418d6-db7e-4f1e-bdc4-9b457ce48fec}}da1bc-fa1e-4e33-a809-cdeb5cdb820e}}46b71-73aa-436b-b330-6f5159730ed9}}.50) nor .....chinese.

I've yet to try it because Lunchbox always steals my lunch money, but here are some images of what my friends have gotten there.

Moxie’s, Yorkdale Mall

Location:
Yorkdale Mall, 1 Yorkdale Road, Toronto

Moxie's has the lowest lighting possible, which is really no excuse for bad photos, and these really are the worst pics ever, so I'll just leave you to them whilst I turn away.

Beer Bistro

Location:

18 King E., Toronto,

www.beerbistro.com

Was hyped to go to Beer Bistro having heard so many great things about the huge selection of beer etc etc etc...



And I have to say, although the beers were good and the selection massive...we were a tad disappointed with the food. We went for brunch and everything looked fantastic and our service was excellent.



There just wasn't anything overly fantastic about the meal.  Definitely not the place for brunch, but yes to after work drinks, me thinks.

So here's what we shared for brunch.  Some appley-type fritters...



Gorgeous presentation, but not outstanding flavour.

Eggs benedict sandwich, something something.   Disappointing.



Certainly had interesting beers...we got a taster ($6 for any 3).





We thought the interior looked like a rock climbing gym...funny blue coloured ceiling with holes in it, stuccoed walls and lights that look like hanging harnesses....

Or maybe we'd just had too much to drink...

It IS called Beer Bistro and not Brunch Bistro for a reason.  Go for the drinks.

Quesada's

Location:
234 Wellington Street West, Toronto

Cost: $8-15

www.quesada.ca

My friend who'd just moved to Toronto from Calgary treated me for lunch at this place; I'd heard many good things about the food, so I was excited to try it out.

Let me first say though, that I have yet to find a really tasty burrito. Burrito Boyz failed to impress. After three tries and various combinations, it still hasn't wowed. I'm still wondering what the fuss is about. But I digress.

Back to Quesadas...

A narrow space on the corner of  Wellington and John which outlines their ordering procedure on the far end of the wall prior to the assembly of burritos.





I ordered a small spicy chipotle chicken (hot) ($5.35) which claimed to be "tender chicken marinated in our own spicy chipotle heat".  I must confide...there was no heat in this whatsoever.



The hot sauce helped some...but  I still wanted the flavour to come from within the burrito.  Is that too much to ask?  Thank goodness for sauces!



My friend ordred the Chile-lime shrimp, "burrito in the buff" which is the burrito minus the tortilla.  AKA, a salad.



And a Tango Mango Odwalla drink:





Fully packed during lunch, the burritos must be impressing some people.  My quest for a tasty burrito however, continues...

Messis

Address: 97 Harbord Street, Toronto

Phone: (416) 920-2186

Cost: Valentine's Day special prix fixe menu at $35 pp

Messis sports a minimalist, airy interior, definitely a good thing when seated elbow-to-elbow with love-sick couples on Valentine's Day. We were lucky to score a reservation that wasn't after 9!

Although a prix fixe menu, Messis boasted a much greater selection of dishes (including seafood, chicken, duck, steak and liver!) than other restaurants on the Winterlicious circuit (even though Messis was not on the Winterlicious circuit this year). After sneaking peaks at the items ordered by the patrons beside us, we decided to go with the curried shrimp and crab cakes and the grilled scallops to start.

Curried shrimp and crab cakes with coconut, mango, red pepper slaw and cilantro green onion drizzle.

The curried shrimp and crab cakes were pretty darn tasty with a crispy outer crust and a tender, flaky and savory filling.

The coconut, mango, red pepper slaw on the side added a nice contrast to the cakes and cilantro sauce.

Grilled scallops with a small salad of blood orange, and fennel served with pepper coulis and a mango drizzle.

The grilled scallops could have used a little more of something...more heat in the coulis, perhaps?

Next, we had the chicken and the fish.

The roasted free range chicken breast stuffed with pancetta served with zucchini, portabellini-mushrooms, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted sweet potatoes in a gorgonzola broth (we ordered it without the cheesey broth) was the tastiest dish we ordered and I wanted it back after promising to share half with my husband.

Roasted free range chicken breast stuffed with pancetta served with zucchini, portabellini-mushrooms, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted sweet potatoes in a gorgonzola broth

His fish dish wasn't quite as good. Bland, actually. The shrimps were okay, but again, lacked flavour. I also always feel that bok choy is filler on a plate, much like sprouts.

Pan seared black cod with a jumbo shrimp brochette served with roasted potatoes and sauteed baby bok choy with a shrimp essence.

Dessert was much better. We ordered the "Grand marnier chocolate mousse cake with raspberry ice" which was entirely too dense but quite good. We simply could not finish it and "had" to take it to go.

Grand marnier chocolate mousse cake with raspberry ice

Messis is just West of Spadina on the South side of Harbord, steps away from where Eduardo's (formerly Latitude, now The Harbord Room) used to be. So for now, and for the area, Messis is one of the nicer places you could go for a sit-down dinner.