Wheat Sheaf vs the Maddy

In an unusual turn of events, Ian and I went out both Friday and Sat night for some pub/bar fun-ness.

Friday night was at the Wheat Sheaf on Bathurst. Highlights included:

• Cheap food (like $9 for a humongous plate of nachos, $8 or so for chicken finger and fries)
• Steamwhistle on tap
• OK patio
• Fun painted moose near the patio
• Lots of TV's for blue jays or hockey fans
• Extremely close to our place
• Somewhat cheap beer
• TO's oldest bar (like pre 1900 I think)
• Not exactly friendly service, but not unfriendly
  

Saturday night was at the Madison (aka Maddy). Highlights included:

• We did not order food, but in previous outings, the food is also pretty decent and cheap
• Also somewhat cheap beer (especially if you come pre 8 pm)
• Gigantic place with lots of patios
• A somewhat odd mix of people - t-shirts & jeans as well as the fully dressed up to go out crowd
• Rather far from us, but lots of good exercise when we walk there and back
  
• Surly service last night - other times not so bad
• Ian liked the heaters on the patio

Restaurant Asha (Montreal)

The coworkers & I went to Restaurant Asha on Parc Ave in Montreal. Despite somewhat awkward service, we received a whole bunch of tasty food.



Dinner started out well with some papandum. Dip of some sort would have been helpful.

Appetizers consisted of samosa and onion bhaji. A little too much deep fried action for me, but the other two guys seemed to enjoy quite a bit.



We each picked a main course and I was a little surprised when veggies trumped the meat-i-ness. Chana masala, curried mixed veg and my choice, chicken korma, were all tasty and did not suffer from the usual Indian affliction of greasiness.



We ordered a naan and some rice on the side too.

Ferreira (Montreal)

A couple nights ago, we went out for a "fancy" meal at Ferreira's on Peel. I started with the Portugese tomato and onion salad - it was a delightful mix of onion and tomato (obviously), olive oil, balsamic, mini croutons and salt/pepper. It was pretty simple, but extremely tasty. Probably enought to share, but since I was mainly dealing with tomatoes, I ate it all myself!

Apparently grilled calamari not that hot. Green salad guys didn't say much.

Main courses were the star - my blackened cod was extremely tasty and perfectly cooked. Two others had seafood stew in a fun little copper pot with a lid. The forth guy had a salted cod gratin - it came with a rather involved conversation with the waiter re how salty salted cod is. Perhaps worth ordering for the entertainment factor?

My fish came with some mashed potato, red wine reduction and some rather chewy mushrooms that even a knife could not saw through. I overlooked the mushroom debacle because the sauce was so good!

Dessert was also good - my creme brulee was indeed creme-y. Fruit tart and cheese plate were good too.

This place was quite busy - even for a Wednesday night! I would recommend sitting by the kitchen - it was pretty impressive to see these guys in action.

Including two bottles of $50 wine and some coffee type action x 3, final bill came to about $450 or so for 4 including tax and tip etc.

Mongolian Hot Pot Fun (Montreal)

Robyn and I went out for some Montreal China Town hot pot action. Apparently, this joint is a chain in China and has only recently come to Canada.

Dinner started off rather poorly, when they asked if we wanted regular, spicy or half and half. Having NO IDEA what they were trying to ask me, I just said regular. It turned out to be the broth that we cook the stuff in. The regulars pretty much seemed to have half and half. Note to self, go with half and half next time.

Then, they bring out a plate of beef and a plate of mystery meat. After further inquiry, we find out that is it lamb. Robyn seems happy, me less so.

While walking in, we spied some rows of veggies, seafood etc. Our waiter thought that we were complete idiots when we tried to ask him if the stuff up there costs extra. He didn't appear to speak english or french, so we ventured up and hoped for the best.

I grabbed some bok choi, mushrooms x 3 types, squash, broccoli, fried tofu etc. Robyn got all sorts of shrimp and fishy type items.

We further appeared like idiots when I grabbed a mini plate to load up. Apparently, EVERYONE knows that you should stack your stuff up on the large plate.

The first cooking went reasonably well and the food was pretty tasty.

More stupidity ensued, when all that salty broth made us thirsty. I tried to ask for water, but had no success. During the next round of bok-choi round up, I noticed a drink dispensing station. It was pretty much the world's slowest drink dispenser, but the water had a deelightful lemon flavour.

The next mini crisis was due to the water balance. Robyn was scooping up her stuff with a slotted spoon, hence no water problems. I did not notice the slotiness and instead was fishing out my food with a normal spoon. Soon, I had my little bowl filled up with liquid and we were starting to run out in the hot pot. The waiter came and bailed us out of our problems with a timely replenishment of broth.

Dessert was surprisingly good - Chinese style donuts and cookies etc.

Total was $40 including tax, tip and beverage station.

Porticello

Ian and I went out for a nice dinner for a variety of celebratory occasions all rolled into one. After consulting with out Toronto Life Eating and Drinking Guide, we hit up Porticello on Queen's Quay.

Dinner started off well with the super friendly host/probably owner guy helping us make our selections.

On the recommendation of friendly guy, I went with a glass of the house red - some sort of 2 grape combo of weird grapes I've never heard of. Apparently in 8 years, only 2 people have disliked. Ian and I were in the majority here.

The bread was fresh out of the oven and very yummy with olive oil & balsamic.

The fish cake appetizer was generally decent.

We both went with pasta for the main course - I had ricotta stuffed pasta with rose sauce. Ian, penne with chicken and rose sauce.

Overall, only so so tastiness. The ricotta stuffed pasta was ok, no complaints, but I don't think I would order again. Same deal for the penne pasta.

The price was certainly reasonable for a somewhat fancy meal.

Crazy Sushi Mississauga Style

I was formerly against this place, but am now a moderate convert to this suburbia sushi joint conveniently located near my office.

I went with some veggie bento action. Came with miso soup and assorted korean side dishes = potato pancake (a bit greasy but yummy), sprouty bean sprouts, grated carrots and mystery white veggie with vinegar and cucumber type salad.

Bento came with salad, rice, veg tempura, 2 california rolls and mystery white veg in sauce (possibly potato, but could have been squash or turnip etc).

Gordie has a sushi combo that he seemed to moderately enjoy.

Price was decent at about $25 for 2 including tax, tip and tap waters.

Pizza Pizza and the Blue Jays

The smell of free pizza is once again in the air. The blue jays obtained the requisite 7 strike outs at their home opener on Friday and Janice was nice enough to give me her ticket for my lunch today.

[Update on Wednesday]
Contrary to what I posted earlier this week, the rules this year are that qualifying Friday, and Sunday games are all claimed on Monday (unless it's a holiday). Pepperoni or cheese. I'm still not sure if substitutions for a few are allowed - that may be up to the stores.

Since I had gone on Monday and they told me to come back on Wednesday to use the Sunday Jays ticket, it wasn't looking good for today's slice since they now had the rules clearly printed out at the store. But my arguing and their great customer service allowed the issue to be resolved with me leaving with a free pizza. And now our faithful blog readers know that you claim your slices on Monday!