Lo Zingaro

A groupon is what lured us to this delightful pizza joint, but in the end we left happy with good food and quick service.  Our margarita pizza was crispy and good enough for our 3 year old to eat most of it.  Shrimp risotto was delicious and mushroom rice balls was crispy and cheesy with a yummy tomato sauce.    Dessert of tira misu was a hit with everyone.  Only minor objection was price, with a glass of wine, final bill came to $65 before tip. 

Cha Cha Cha (We Eat Portland Or)

You really can't go wrong with a Taqueria in my books and Cha Cha Cha did not disapoint.   I had a pulled pork and a steak taco for about $3 each.

The menu was huge and I was tempted by the tamales.  Maybe later this week I'll head back!!

Rol San

Bright Pearl was shutdown for renovations, so it was off to Rol San across the street. It looks small at first glance, but it actually has a rather gigantic back room.   We arrived at 10:30 on Family Day Monday and had to wait about 20 minutes.  There is lots to keep a toddler amused - live lobster and crab, a semi open kitchen to watch some awesome stir frying action!

The all day order off a menu dim sum was fantastic.  We enjoyed har gow, pork pan fried dumplings, eggplant with shrimp, taro with red bean paste, sticky rice, sesame donuts and milk tarts.  Things were amazingly fast and hot. We'll be back....

Longest Yard (Bloor/Islington)

With the grandparents in town, we took advantage and had a pub night.  We were mainly comparing against our past favorite the Wheat Sheaf whose low, low prices, steamwhistle on tap and decent food is hard to beat.

The Longest Yard, was alright, but made us pretty nostalgic for our downtown days.  At $13 for a not very large nachos with almost no toppings, we left slightly glum.  No complaints re tastiness, but in general, I could have made the same thing at home for about $4.  Once again our rich neighbors take us down - this neighborhood is clearly willing to pay a premium for good pub grub.

Henry the VIII Ale House

This pub is always extremely popular no matter what the day of week, so Ian and I thought we should check it out.

My mushroom risotto was good, but for $22 I would expect exceptional.  Ian's pasta with shrimp, pea pods and tomatoes was also good with no complaints.

The only major downside here is price.   At $75 all in for two ok meals and 1 glass of wine and 1 pint, it's definitely on the steep side.   I suppose that is to be expected living in the Kingsway neighborhood.  If I could charge those prices and get away with it, I would too!!!


Here's the website link.

Dai Ichi Sushi - Mississauga

The co-workers and I went for Friday lunch.  It was my first time, but the rest of the gang had been here a couple times and enjoyed.  It's probably better suited to interviews or business lunches with the slightly higher prices that I would normally like to pay for a regular Friday lunch.  They also have cute little booths that are fairly private.

For $15 all in I enjoyed the shrimp tempura with bulgogi bento box.  It came with soup, salad, rice, potatoes and a sprout salad.   The tempura was delicious, but the bulgogi was not the best I've ever had. 

Spo Fo (Spoon & Fork Mississauga)

Once again, a whole lot of tastiness for about $16 all in for the lunch all you can eat.

Appetizers were good - pineapple salad, mango salad, cold mango rolls, hot spring rolls, calmari and beef/chicken satay.  I like that the portions are small and you can order a rather large variety of food if you have a decent crowd of people (we had 6 light eaters for lunch).

For main courses, I really liked the lemongrass fried rice and chicken red curry.  Coworkers had some sweet and sour tofu, pad thai etc and everyone seemed happy.

They seemed to have hired more waiters, so this time it was a fair bit faster and you actually have a chance of keeping lunch down to an hour or so.  Also this time, they let us pay individually, rather than have one person put on a credit card and collect cash later.

We'll be back for sure!!!

T&T Dim Sum

If you are an avid reader of this blog, you will know we are little hot and cold on T&T dim sum.  You can't beat the cheapness, convenience and tastiness, but often the food will be cold.

On Sunday, we went early, about 10:45 or so.  We seem to have timed things perfectly - everything was hot and awesome!

On the menu was: har gow (shrimp dumplings), green onion cakes (I know, only white people like these...don't judge me), sesame donuts (baby's favorite), sticky rice and pan fried shrimp and pork dumplings. 

All of this awesomeness for a meager $14 all in!!!!!!

If there has to be something bad (isn't there always), I feel that their food safety practices are pretty sketchy.  They put hot food (or what was at one time hot food) in take out type containers and leave it to sit on a table all day.  I'm no food inspection expert, but that is obviously pretty sketchy.

Dimpflmeier Bakery (Etobicoke)

I don't want to even think about the fact that I didn't know about this place despite living in Etobicoke for 2 years.

Thank goodness for creepy lady at the No Frills cornering me in the bread aisle demanding to know why I was buying bread there and not at Dimpflmeier.

I've been most impressed with their marble rye bread fresh off the line.  Half a big loaf for a meagre $2.  Icebox cookies have also been good ($2 for a rather large tray) and a square of cheesecake for $2.50 or so. 

Pies, loafs, cakes...it's all there!!!!

Big Bowl (Mississauga)

As always, this Vietnamese joint does not disappoint.  Get there early to avoid the weekday lunch mob.

44 with pork (bun, bbq pork and spring roll) for $6.95 is a bargain.

17 pho (beef) is also a co-worker favorite for a similar bargain price.

We Eat Ottawa - Wasabi

A few days later my memory is fading, but basically everything was good, although a little pricy.

For three of us, we spent about $100 for dinner including a couple beers.

The meat eater got a $30 sushi platter and really enjoyed. We were all in awe of the massive pile of good looking sushi and sashimi!

The veggies got edamame, age tofu, pan fried dumplings (particularly good), veggie & shrimp tempura plus three rolls - mushroom, avocado and yam. This place was surprisingly busy for a cold Monday night - I imagine on a Friday or Saturday you either have to make a reservation or come early.

Here's the link.

We Eat Ottawa - Horn of Africa

I have a new favorite restaurant, too bad it's in Ottawa and I live in Toronto!!!!

Last night for dinner, we had the veggie combo x 2 and meat combo x 1 with 0.5 L of house red and tea for $40 (including tax and tip). Wow!!! The food was great - the veggie combo came with lots of injera, good salad (lettuce/tomato), curried cabbage and three or four kinds of curry lentils.

The meat eater got a hard boiled egg, a chicken drumstick, maybe some beef plus most of the veggie dishes.

We all left food behind.

Here's the link to the website.

We Eat Ottawa - Pita Pit

I have fond memories of the Edmonton Pita Pit from university days, but not that I've revisted in later years, the place is not that great.


I think it was a lack of pita & burrito joints in E-town at the time that made the Pit so yummy.


Last night while in Ottawa, I swung by for a quick dinner of falafel with baba ganoush and a whole bunch of veggies on whole wheat. It was decent, but realistically doesn't compare to the saucy goodness of almost any falafel hut in Toronto (or Pita & Grill in Mississauga).


You probably can't beat the healthiness though with a ton of fresh veggies and whole wheat pita.

Pita and Grill

Once again, the Pita and Grill in Mississauga was consistently packed at lunchtime with large crowds picking up shawarma sandwiches. My falafel for about $5 was delightful, saucy and humongous. We'll be back!!!

Fat Bastard's Burrito

I'd love to love this joint in Etobicoke since it's close to us and we are burrito obsessed. Alas, it's rather inconsistent with the latest folly being burnt burrito shells. It appears they had their grill cranked up a little too hot. It should have been pretty obvious to the burrito assembler that every one was coming off blackened, so I have no idea why they didn't correct for it. Obviously quality is not a high priority for these people.

The veggies, mainly lettuce, was also watery creating patches of icky-ness.

All that being said, the pulled pork is delightful and guacamole is free!!! So there are some positives here.

Here's the website.

Suko Thai

This has made it into the regular Friday lunch rotation (even back to back weeks) due to excessive yummy-ness and cheapness.

We go to the Mississauga location on Winston Churchill.

For $7.95, I like to order red curry veggie tofu with a spring roll and little salad. All in with tt&tw (tax, tip and tap water) you can spend about $12.

My coworkers have ordered cashew chicken, mango chicken, pad thai etc and left happy.

My only extremely minor beef with the place is rather small portions, but for the price and quality, I suppose that something has to give. For big eaters, order an extra appetizer or soup and you should be ok.

Here's the lunch special menu.

The Lazy (Wo)Man's Sushi (Salad)

For the cheap and/or lazy, this is pretty easy to make at home to satisfy some maki cravings. Assemble in a salad the following:

• Short grain Japanese sushi rice - white or brown.
  
• Splash on some rice wine vinegar with sugar and salt premixed. Let cool slightly.
  
• Cook some fish (salmon, or really any fish will do so long as it's not battered or fish sticks etc)
  
• Chop up red peppers, cucumbers, carrots
• Tear up some nori, toss on at the end
• Cubed avocado
• Optional - roast some butternut squash or make into veggie tempura
  

California Sandwiches

A couple weeks ago I went to the Dundas and Winston Churchill location in Mississauga with co-workers and I was pretty impressed. For about $8, I got a fresh bun loaded up with yummy eggplant and an extra $1 worth of mushrooms. Coworkers were happy with their veal and steak etc.

For the low staffing of 3 people, this place pumped out a rather amazing quantity of food in short order!

As a side note, for the single ladies out there, I would suggest you start frequenting this joint. The clientele was about 90% men!!!

Here's the web link.

Chorizo (Mississauga)

This burrito joint is ridiculously busy with the local engineering company employees happily picking up and munching on delicious cal-mex food.

With a ridiculous number of extremely efficient employees, the line keeps moving allowing the next wave of happy customers to get their burrito in a timely fashion!

My only beef about this place is their ridiculous use of Spanglish - like "Salsa Verde" is actually red etc etc. Either get it right, or stay away from the Mexican terms for things.

Spoon & Fork (Etobicoke)

For a Sunday night, this place was shockingly busy and reservations are definitely required!!! This place is one of the nicer looking joints in Etobicoke.

The format was all you can eat Japanese, including sushi, and thai.

Some stuff the table got:

• Coconut shrimp was awesome (and I'm not even a shrimp fan)
• Beef & chicken skewers - good
  
• Veggie tempura was decent
• Gyoza - so so no major complaints
• Mango salad had a weird flavor
• Edamame was meh
• My avocado-cucumber roll was meh too
  

The highlight of the night for me was a veggie/tofu golden curry and pineapple fried rice. The sauce was awesome with a great assortment of veggies. The fried rice had lots of good mystery items in there - shrimp, chicken, currents (I think).

At about $30 a person for the dinner buffet, the best plan is to come hungry!!