Thai Senses

Location:

www.thaisenses.ca

How apt, we came to our senses and left Compass's Grand Opening to grab some real grub and found Thai Senses.

A wonderful hospitality and creative dishes made for a memorable meal.



The coconut ice-cream was complimentary!

Besides the creepy fish head, the meal was quite tasty and a welcome change in hospitality from Compass Lakeside Grill.

Spencer's Cooking Demo

This is one of those pending posts I've had on the back burner a long time.

We had a cooking demo at work from the executive chef of Spencer's, Chris Haworth.

I have the recipes somewhere and will post them as soon as I find them, but what he cooked was a poached eggs and asparagus dish as well as a peas, risotto and cheese dish. He also demonstrated how to poach an egg, most skillfully. And brought along fiddleheads!

Here are the images.

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.

Paul the Octopus + Pins

So how about that World Cup, eh?

My friend A from My Little Sweatshop has come up with these ingenious and super cute soccer buttons!

How great is this??


Check it and more over at her lovely Etsy shop Cunning and Crafty!

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! 

Hollywood Gelato

You scream, I scream, we all scream for gelato!?

Hooray for gelato!

I've never been one to jump at the chance for ice-cream. Sure, I'll admit I've stood in line with everyone else half my height at the ice-cream truck, shelling out $2 for my scoop of vanilla dipped in chocolate or whatever that stuff is.  And I do like the occasional McDonald's sundae!   And sure, Cold-Stone in San Francisco was amazing, although I've not given it a second thought or chance here.

Gelato, too, I have tried on various occasions,  and although it may have held my interest longer than ice-cream, I never got to the point where I'd be scouting locations to get the frozen stuff.

Until now.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!

OMG you guys!!

The Rocky Rocher is to DIE for.

The Sicillian Pistachio is----sorry i just drooled all over my keyboard.....----amazing!!

And the banana/chocolate is, well, it's very banana-y (if you like that sort of thing) but it's no Rockey Rocher.

And never mind the creepy-We-Believe-in-Sick-Kids (a slogan all of us agreed wasn't very well thought out) duck-like-creature riding a bicycle outside, the gelato is heavenly.

We Believe in Creepy Duck-Like Creatures

They had sooo many amazing flavours!  So if you're one who likes TANGY gelato, this place is for you (Dean). :)

Flavours

Galore!

If I hadn't been so stuffed with Amaya Express goodness, I would have cleaned up that cup! I still ate way more than my digestive system could manage, but it was totally worth it and I'd do it again in a second!

The Wine Bar

Location:

9 Church St., Toronto

So, clearly I missed the boat on Jamie Kennedy's Wine Bar, instead this place is now known simply as The Wine Bar.

And, I know I've said it before and I should've listened to me:

If a restaurant is EMPTY, go somewhere else.

The Wine Bar was eeeempty.

The Wine Bar

Aside from the wine (good thing it's called the Wine Bar), this place is a disaster!

Oh, and I still don't get "tapas" - small portions are not for me.  I love food and I love seeing LOTS of it.

First the positive:

The service.

Very attentive, polite, accommodating to dietary needs.

The negative:

We ordred the grilled flatbread (with house smoked chicken, tomato and mozzarella) and requested less mozza, to which our server suggested he could do less on one half and no mozza on the other if that was preferred.  Great! Perfect.

The flatbread arrives and the chicken looks a bit pink in the low-light.

Flatbread

The taste?   Awful.  The chicken truly is pink, is bad cuts of  meat, and doesn't taste at all fresh.

The next thing we had ordered was the artic char (smoked) - with arugula.  The smoked artic char arrived looking...smoked. And fishy smelling - fresh fish should never smell fishy - and overly salted.   Were we ever grateful for the salad!

Smoked Artic Char

Then there was the scallops - OMG!!  Both of our upset stomachs the next day verified what we'd thought all along:  neither the scallops (nor the fish or chicken, for that matter!) were fresh.  One bite of it was all we needed - it tasted like the bottom of the bay, like how you'd imagine a fish tank tasting.

Scallops

And the wine?  Besides the fact that we thought it was $10 for a glass (turns out it's $10 for a TASTE and $22 for a glass!) they were both very good.

Menu

Needless to say we drank every last drop of the wine, mostly to rid ourselves of the terrible food flavours.  Soooo gross, you guys!!  And we were so sick after!

I must admit I'm glad the portions were so small!

We ended up having to go for dinner again after that meal.
We headed over to JUMP where we KNEW we'd get incredible food, wine and service.

TRAVEL: India: Delhi: Haldirams

Location:

somewhere in Delhi

www.haldiram.com

Anyone who has ever visited an Indian family's home or is Indian is familiar with the Haldiram's symbol.  See below (image from Google)


No Indian tea-time is complete  without Haldiram's.

A bag of bhel puri or chiwda will always be kicking around the cupboard of an Indian home.

So think of the impact of going to a Haldiram's RESTAURANT.  I was amazed, astounded, in awe of the industry that is Haldiram's.

Look at the number of servers behind this counter as you walk in:

now that's service !

There were three people asking me what I'd like.

And then there's the sweets.  My God, the sweets!  Imagine the biggest Indian Mithai (sweet) shop you've been to in Toronto, then triple that!  Row after row of delectable goodness...all so fresh, too!

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeets

Then there's the "restaurant" part of it, more like fast food, where you pre-order then wait in line and bring back your goods to round tables that you stand at to eat.  It was lunch time when we went and incredibly packed so at least they've figured out that putting chairs into the equation would be a waste of time.

The chinese food was delish!!!  Made specifically for taste buds that can appreciate spice.  I don't know why fries are a chinese dish in India, but we saw it a lot.  Spicy fries.  Can't complain though, I'd never be able to get spicy fries in the Western world unless I made it myself.

the chinese food (with fries)

The channa batura was....well, see for yourself.

channa batura!

HUGE!

You even have to go through a security check/terminal to enter Haldirams.

Now, that's hard-core!

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!

MoRoCo

Location:
99 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto

www.morocochocolat.com

Our friend whose baby shower we threw treated us to a fabulous evening at Morocco, er, sorry MoRoCo, not like the North African country.

A very lush and lavish, sumptuous, velvety, romantic place.

Interior

Interior

Menu

We had tea and more tea. The selections were highly unusual and came in little test tubes.

Teas

Tea pot & cups

Chocolates

The mac n' cheese according to my friends (I'm lactose-intolerant) was better than any other they'd ever tasted, and I'm assuming they weren't comparing it to Kraft.

Mac n cheese

The different creme brulees!

Chocolate fondue

The food is indulgent and makes you feel like a queen.

Also, the bathrooms are gorgeous little rooms in pretty black and white.

The service could have been better and more attentive but we were too busy being girly, to really care.

Yeah, this is a wonderful place to go with your girlfriends or on a romantic date.

Cafe Cinquecento

Location:

791 King St W., Toronto

www.cafecinquecento.com

Went here for a friend's birthday, one who is a trusted foodie with great taste, and she was right.

I loved the atmosphere and the service and the story behind Cafe Cinquecento.

The Fiat 500

Cafe Cinquecento

The menu left me absolutely TORN...there were many routes I wanted to go: there was pizza, pasta, the specials...and then....I saw BRICK PRESSED CORNISH HEN.

Our server explained it to me as follows: they cook the hen with a brick placed on top (exactly how you imagine) so that it cooks both sides crisply and keeps all the moistness within (like so).

I was convinced.

And pleasantly surprised.

Gallo al Mattone: Brick-pressed Cornish hen [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Gallo al Mattone: Brick-pressed Cornish hen $19"][/caption]9

Everyone else's meals looked wonderfully put together as well, and although it all took a while to arrive, to be fair there were 20 orders made!  In the meantime we enjoyed rounds of bread, bowls of mussels and anitpasto plates.  Yum.  There was a spicy salami on there that was very memorable.

Antipasto Grande: Cured Italian meats, grilled vegetables, grilled seafood and spiced olives [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Antipasto Grande: Cured Italian meats, grilled vegetables, grilled seafood and spiced olives $18"][/caption]8

Calamari con Salsa di pepperoni: Grilled calamari with roasted red pepper sauce on a bed of arugula [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Calamari con Salsa di pepperoni: Grilled calamari with roasted red pepper sauce on a bed of arugula $13"][/caption]3

Salmone al Ferri: Grilled salmon fillet with a side of orzo [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Salmone al Ferri: Grilled salmon fillet with a side of orzo $17"][/caption]7

Costoletta de Vitello: Veal chop grilled with fresh herbs [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Costoletta de Vitello: Veal chop grilled with fresh herbs $18"][/caption]8

The only dish that didn't stand out was one of the specials: The tilapia on a bed of risotto with sausage.  Which, at least, four of us agreed, was bland and the sausage tasted like Oscar Myer weiners. 

Tilapia risotto special

But, the wine was flowing and it was simply a lovely evening of celebration.   There also suddenly appeared a lovely vase of red roses for the centre of the table!

Roses for the birthday girl!

And, I'm still astounded that the birthday girl picked up the whole tab!!

TV, the next one's on me!