Nota Bene

I made a reservation here a couple weeks ago with Open Table and 7:00 or 8:30 came up - not exactly convenient when the Nutcracker ended about 7:15. I chose 8:30. We were pleasantly surprised when we showed up for 7:45 and they seated us right away!

Things started well with some yummy brown bread and good olive oil for dipping.

For an appetizer, Ian really liked the Tunisian octopus. The octopus was light, perfectly cooked and not all that octopus-y (so much so that I even liked it). My red curry lobster bisque with coconut milk and lime was also good and a rather large serving.

For main courses, my braised short ribs didn't even require a knife to eat and were excellent. The accompanying cucumber, pickle, lettuce salad on the side was a bit weird and probably designed to push people toward getting the sides "for the table".

Ian's seared tuna was surprisingly so-so. No major complaints, but Ian felt that he's had better. The sides were good - chickpeas and peppers.

For a side for the table - we went with onion rings. A good concept - lots of very thinly sliced onions in a light batter and deep fried. They suffered from far too much salt though.

Dessert was decent - my sticky toffee pudding was adequately sticky toffee like and the rum butter ice cream was good. Ian's molten chocolate lava cake was molten-y with a surprising orange flavor on the inside. Grand marnier banana ice cream added to the whole thing.

The evening wasn't all that cheap with dinner, a small glass of wine, tap water, tax & tip setting us back about $150.

Here's the website link.

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!

Barbados

One of the things that sold us on Barbados was the food description in Lonely Planet. Barbados did not disappoint! Added bonuses were you could drink the tap water and neither of us got sick! And that we found a $450 flight on Air Canada!

Some scenery shots first, then the food. Our beach at the Coconut Court on the South Coast.
Typical East Coast with cool rocks in the Ocean

Oistins Fish Fry was fantastic. On Friday nights (and Sat too a bit), locals and tourists gather by the fish market for a fry and party.

You must wash the fish down with the local Banks.
Flying fish with rice and beans, salad and macaroni pie. Mmmm...


And a slightly different take - flying fish with coleslaw and roast potatoes. With a banks beer of course.
2 Barbados = $1 US so this is a pretty good deal for $10!

Business people in Bridgetown go to Brown Sugar for buffet lunch. This was a great open air restaurant.
Rice & beans, flying fish, bbq chicken, greens, spinach fritter, candied potato, roast pork....Desserts where tasty - bread pudding with currants and rum sauce!
Waterfront Cafe in Bridgetown - good location and good food! Flying fish with cou-cou (cornmeal/okra dumpling I think).

Ian has a flying fish sandwich.And our favorite of the island was Pisces in St. Lawrence Gap. It was not cheap though as both times we went, we ended up averaging about $100 US for 2.

Seafood GumboShrimp Roti

Flying fish with rice

Tasty bread pudding with ice cream

All over the island there are a bunch of rum huts that also serve simple food for cheap.
Bridgetown Farmers Markets:


Fish Markets are serious business in Barbados

And finally how can you go wrong with cheap and tasty fast food roti from Papa Johns. It's literally as big as your face for about $ 5 US I think.

World's Best Veggie Sushi

At New Generation! While living in the Annex, we frequented this place more than I'd like to admit.

To break from old traditions, we spent it up and ordered an appetizer of edamame for $3.95. Not a bad value for quite a lot of salted green bean action. And is seems healthier than our usual plan of going for dessert to future afterward for cake.


I've only strayed from the G, yam maki lunch set ($5.99) a few times and I've always regretted it! I love this veggie sushi so much that while I moved away from Toronto, I would actually make the squash tempura-avocado rolls at home!


Here's a close-up of the world's best flavor combination...

Ian generally gets the #1 bento box with beef (also $5.99), but due to Good Friday he ordered one of the lunch sushi sets. All was good except for the egg sushi which he does not eat under any circumstances.

Total bill was $21 including tax and tip!!!

Auberge De Pommier

For the final installment of Winterlicious we went to Auberge De Pommier for Sunday lunch out in the "country" as Ian likes to call anything north of Eglinton.

Here's the Winterlicious Menu. Auberge is certainly not the cheapest lunch out there, but $30 is a pretty good deal for one of the top restaurants in T.

I really liked the locale - an 1860's cottage in historic York Mills. Ian liked that we got seated by a window with sunshine (and a heating vent) to warm us up after a "got there too early walk around the neighborhood outing/snowball fight".

Bread (crusty french and cinnamon spiced) with artichoke tapanade was especially good.

Ian looks on with an Auberge sparkler in the foreground (fruit juice and soda). Not fantastically cheap for $4.95, but certainly tasty with a strong tangerine flavor. To bolster the Winterlicous cause and to avoid feeling really cheap, Ian went with a $10 glass of Niagara Pinot Grigio.


The salad was particularly good - fresh greens, raisins, walnuts and great dressing.

Ian went heavier with a parsnip veloute with cardamon and creme fraiche. This is definitely amongst the top soups I have ever had!

My roast chicken with cornmeal polenta, mushrooms and maderia jus was fantastic, although I might be inclined to lose the chicken skin. I have to admit it did make the dish look really good and it tasted even better, but for healthful purposes, I left half behind. Polenta was a nice change from the usual potatoes etc that often frequent meaty dishes at nice restaurants.


Ian's grilled salmon with greens, potato with sauce bois boudran was perfectly cooked with lots of flavor. A pretty hearty portion too for lunch winterlicious!

Our waiter recommended the spice cake with frozen creme fraiche and cranberry orange sauce. This was certainly a good call - it was like dark fruitcake minus the fruit but tastier and better looking with a fun sugar thing on top.

And for the piece de resistance - Brioche Pudding Jiggles with extremely insightful and witty commentary.

Final bill was $96 for two including tax and tip. Well worth it and we might even come back sometime for a regular celebration dinner of some sort!

Oliver and Bonacini

The same crew that does Jump, Canoe, Biff’s Bistro and Auberge du Pommier also have a restaurant near Bayview Station - Oliver and Bonacini. A decidedly different crowd from the downtown haunts Ian and I usually go to. In O&B there were families and the occasional bunch of 60+!

The non-downtown location is reflected in the pricing - a mere $15 for a winterlicious three course lunch!

Juice specials seemed especially fresh - ginger/pear, mango something and apple-cran cider.


Shortly after ordering, a round of appetizers came out:

Greens with apple and tarragon for the healthy among us.


Shrimp pate with flaxseed lavish for the adventurous:

And...most of the crew ordered (and enjoyed) butternut squash soup with madras cream and toasted almonds. The almonds made the soup and gave it a bit of crunch.

Main courses were equally tasty and well done:

I had a smallish, but good, portion of penne pasta with olive oil, basil and wild and tame mushrooms. The fresh parmesan on top added to the dish. Others at our table were more troubled by the portion size, but am happy with almost anything at these prices!

Other enjoyed dory on couscous (huge piece of fish!) and beef goulash.


Desserts were my personal favorite - I got together with two others for a swap and sampled all three. My favorite of the lot was the apple buckle (fancy way of saying cake) with lemon sour cream ice cream. The lemon ice cream on top was fantastic!

Sticky toffee (my usual dessert favorite) was well done but could have used some ice cream to cut through the sweetness.

And bread pudding with creme anglaise and berries was great too.