Harbord Fish and Chips

The final verdict -highly tasty but not very healthy (obviously) and possibly a bit overpriced (at least vs what we recall paying a few years back).

Halibut x2 + chips x 1 + pop x 1 = about $23. Friendly service I suppose makes up for it a bit - at least your moola is going toward nice, hardworking owners who try hard to make customers happy.

Oliver and Bonacini

The final installment of Summerlicious '09 was Oliver and Bonacini. A $15 lunch was well worth the trek out to Bayview mall. We managed to fight off crowds of families and seniors and snagged our table after a minor reservation system glitch.

We enjoyed our drinks - $6 glass of Inniskillin pinot grigio and a $4.50 juice of the day.

Appetizers started very well for Ian was a shrimp pate and cracker, but less well for me with a chilled spicy tomato cucumber soup. I kinda suspected I wouldn't be a huge fan, but it sounded more promising than a salad with my arch nemesis blue cheese dressing (well I guess #2 nemesis after the evil olive).



Main courses improved lunch. A gigantic bass fillet with Israeli couscous with corn salad.


The star of the meal was a braised short rib and monterey jack quesadilla with corn salsa and coleslaw. Much more meaty than I expected and three rather large triangles. Stawberry-rharbab buckle for dessert was a delightful white cake with fruit and cream.


Ian of course, went for the chocolate in the form of chocolate caramel tart with toasted nut gelato. Mmmmmm....

T&T Supermarket

Seriously get yourself to the local T&T for a quick and easy dim sum replacement meal!

Pan fried pork dumplings, steamed shrimp/beef balls and a pork/egg sticky rice package for about $7.

Packed with authentic looking asian people with a minimum of white people like ourselves!

Burritos from the Last Week

I've had a few burritos over the last week and bit. I've been to all of the places before but here my most recent thoughts:

Z-Teca (on King ) - Janice and I go here frequently. It's her number 1 in the Toronto area and she specifically likes the beef barbacoa. I find the burritos a little dry and of course I dislike the lack of free guacamole. That said I still go once a week. The overall product is tasty. Chicken though isn't their strong point so go for the beef or pork.

Burrito Fresh (on Bloor) - This is my lunch time favorite. It's close to work and the burritos are decent. Again no guacamole and the amount of meat you get is fairly variable depending on who is serving. Once when I went for dinner they burnt my burrito which was upsetting. That only happened the once though. I usually get the chicken on whole wheat.

Que Bueno (in DEN) - This is the family favorite for the Denver airport. I had a chicken. They seemed grouchy about everyone (myself included) getting waters with their burritos and they were secretly discussing (well it wasn't really in secret since they spoke in the language that is native to 400 million people) that they should charge 15 cents or something for each water.

Chipotle (on the strip but also near Yonge & Dundas) - The place was packed but the line moved so I was in and out with my burrito pretty quickly to get back to the tables. It was surprisingly spicy with the mild Salsa. It's nothing special and in terms of chains I prefer La Salsa and Baja Fresh.

Big Fat (in Kensington Market) - This is my Toronto favorite by far. The burritos are moist and tasty. Janice got a yam and I had a pork. Both have guacamole. Enough said.

Summerlicious Brasaii

After a successful outing to Brasaii for Winterlicious, we swung by again for a summerlicious dinner ($35). Basically I was craving steak frites and with Ian's aversion to french food, I don't think I've had since the last outing here!

I liked that they actually brought around some bread - perhaps not the norm for 'licious events" trying to cut costs.

Appetizers were 4 crispy shrimp and dipping sauce for Ian. Yummy as usual.


I didn't like the sound of the soup of the day (chilled pea), so went with baked goat cheese. Mmmm....We both went with a medium brasaii bistro steak with shallot juice and fries. This really was too much meat to possibly eat, although it was so good we definitely tried to!! The best steak I've had in a while! Fries were crispy and good too.

Dessert was a very good take on my all time favorite - creme brulee. This version was white chocolate and orange!

Summerlicious - The Drake

For a three course lunch at the Drake for $20, it seemed worth an outing to Parkdale. We tried to walk fast to avoid getting mugged, but in general encountered no sketchiness except for the restaurant itself!!

After positive reviews by the New York Times and Toronto Life we were expecting something a little more high end.

For starters, we were seated in their cafe section that was pretty casual and that included a mix of clientele (more to come on that later).

Appetizers went poorly with a bait and switch scam whereby the website offered a "Drake Maki roll with shrimp, crab and avocado" for lunch but the printed menu only had soup or salad.

The tomato soup ended up being delightful with some nice creaminess and spiciness all in one!

Ian on the other hand, wasn't thinking clearly and got swayed by the bacon in the iceberg wedge salad and didn't pay attention to the blue cheese in the dressing. Ian making a play for my soup was the result.


Ian's main course was pretty delightful - shrimp with grits and peas. The grits were particularly delicious, although from a presentation perspective, it was something we could have cooked up at home with little effort!

My main course was a very small portion of steak and a miami beef rib. Decently tasty, although the beef rib was a touch overcooked. Baked potato promised "salt baked old cheddar" but in the end only appeared to be overwhelmed with sour cream.

More entertaining than our meal itself was that of our table neighbors. They were a rather grouchy, not talking family of three. At one point, older lady had 2 baked potatoes loaded up on her plate, of which she was nominally picking away at. The younger lady had the meat from all three diners stacked up on her plate to take home. Odd to say the least..especially considering the rather puny portions dished out? Maybe they pre-ate at home before arriving?

Dessert was a favorite - Ian was very happy with his chocolate passion fruit pudding with generous amounts of whip cream and a fun take on an oreo cookie.

I really enjoyed my triple cream vanilla cake with rice krispies and strawberries.
At this point, the neighbors on the other side kicked in some entertainment. They seemed to be ex-workers of the Drake or possibly real regulars. They seemed desperate to know who was working where and for this or that person to say hi from them. At one point, they were freakin out about how busy it was and where they could possibly sit, but they were basically standing at an empty table for four at that point, thus making a freak-out seem rather silly.

In the end, a decent meal for $20, although the summerlicious experience has not converted me to a customer at regular price.