Restaurant Review - Mucho Burrito

I don't know why I got on this sudden kick on burritos, perhaps it had something to do with Cinqo de Mayo, but there are a few fast food restaurants around which make burritos, a change from the normal hamburger joint. And some of them even make them a fairly authentic Mexican way. Mucho Burrito has several outlets in Mississauga, I decided to try the "closest" one, which is located on Dixie, just north of Aimco Blvd. Essentially, a burrito is a Mexican sandwich, you have a flat bread, and you fill it with various fillings, and perhaps grill it. I chose the 12" one - there is also a small 10" and a Mucho XL size; the 12" was plenty big - I could have saved some for lunch the next day!

Once you choose either white or whole wheat wrap, they preheat it. Then you can choose from the many ingredients. First comes white rice, then grilled vegetables (peppers), and either black beans or pinto beans. You can choose a meat (from Beef (Barbacoa, Carne Asada), Chicken (Pollo), Pork (Carnitas, Chorizo), Fish (pan seared Tilapia) or go vegetarian with more grilled vegetables; I chose the Pork Carnitas - this is kind of like Mexican Pulled Pork. From there, you can choose from shredded cheese (looked like cheddar and mozzarella), sour cream, guacamole (for $0.99 extra; free with the Mucho XL), mild pico gallo sauce or medium green tomatillo or hot salsa, cilantro, sliced lettuce or southwest sauce. The mixture is then wrapped into a log form, and then grilled for a few seconds.

How did this taste? Quite good, the pork was tasty and the combination of ingredients (I chose nearly everything) complemented the meat. But boy, a lot of food, and likely a lot of calories (apropos, I read an article recently that stated that very fact, too many calories and likely too much salt). Eat only if you’re really hungry, are healthy, and can afford to gain some weight!

Restaurant Review - Open Sesame Bakery

I kept this restaurant in the back of my mind, after first seeing it quite a while ago, and it popped up again recently when I was in the area. Open Sesame Bakery is located in a strip mall at 235 Bayly Avenue in Ajax (east of Westney and west of Harwood) and specializes in Lebanese Food. There is lots to choose from, including hummous (made from chickpeas), cheeses, various filled breads, kebbeh and several hot dishes, including a giant grilled flatbread called saj filled with either zattar (thyme and nut spice mixture) or cheese. It's also a small grocery, with various Lebanese products, including coffee and nuts and sauces.

The saj was really good; I chose the one filled with cheese. Better than a pita bread, grilled.

The baklava here are pretty tasty; these all contain pistachios, there are also ones with cashews and pine nuts. The baklava are sold by weight; $11.50 per lb.

The maamoul are also quite delicious; these are date (without the sugar) and pistachio filled (with sugar) ones. There were also ones for sale filled with peanuts (or perhaps he said or meant pine nuts). They are $1.25 each.

Arz Fine Foods

I first heard about Arz Fine Foods on the TV Show "Street Eats", which hilights a different cuisine each week; Arz Fine Foods was on their Lebanese episode. They focused mainly on their bakery, and their tasty baklava and mamoul. Doing a little googling, I realized that their store was quite close to my place of work, I could go a little out of my way to drop by after work. Located at 1909 Lawrence Street East (east of Pharmancy). My first attempt to find the store failed, I thought it was on Ellesmere, so I was happy to find it the second time. The store is standalone, with parking at the side and back.

This is a fairly large store, with a quite large section for fruits and vegetables just within. Next to this are sections for meats, cheeses and prepared goods, dairy products, frozen goods, dried and packaged goods, and a quite large bakery. I was struck as to how clean the store is.

Arz sells its own freshly baked pitas, both in whole wheat and white. Quite good.

The falafels they sell are quite tasty.

To go with the falafels, have some hummous. Quite tasty.

The tabbouleh I found to be very soggy, and not quite so tasty.

These grape leaves are stuffed with vegetables, you can also get ones with beef. Tasty, but quite lemony.

This is a stuffed zucchini, with vegetables, you can also get ones with beef.

The baklava are quite delicious, made with walnuts or cashews or pistachios. Yum!

Even better were the mamoul. These were also made with either walnut, pistachio or date. The pistachio and date (the most traditional) were my favourite.

Restaurant Review - Ghizale Restaurant

While on our way back from seeing the Sakuras in High Park, we made a detour (read, we drove farther away) to buy some food from this, as we found out later, award-winning Lebanese restaurant on Bloor Street. I've seen it lots of times before, and more recently when I was dating my not-as-of-yet Bride, but I've never had the opportunity to try what looked to me like wonderful Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean food. Located at 504 Bloor St. West, just down from Honest Ed's and east of Korean Town (which is where I had already eaten at on my date, thus I was not hungry enough to want to partake of any of this food). And, certainly eating the meal that we got, I can say that one needs to be hungry in order to finish this feast. And cheap, certainly a lot of food for $7. There is also now another location at Church and Wellesley.

My meal was a Chicken Schawarma, with lentil rice and tomato-eggplant and tabbouleh salad. All tasty. We also got two chickpea falafels, which were also tasty. There was enough for half a lunch the next day.

Save for the chicken livers, this one was all vegetarian, with curried cauliflower to replace the chicken.

The best part of the meal was saved for last. The very yummy desserts were honey-packed; my triangle with phyllo pastry and pistachios was delicious; my Bride ate her pistachio round and realized afterwards that she didn't offer me any. Ah well, I had mine to enjoy, all alone.

Restaurant Review - Roti Boys Restaurant

Today I had occasion to visit the second best Roti shop in the immediate area around where I work, this despite the first best having gone by the wayside in the name of progress. That restaurant which I name first best would be Tony's Roti, run by, oddly enough, a fellow from Guyana name Tony. He made the best roti in his little hole-in-the-wall-sometimes-standing-room-only restaurant in the mall at the northeast corner of Victoria Park and Consumers Road, even if I preferred the curries on rice - Oh, the Curry Chicken!; Oh, the Curry Goat! - I don't mean to wax philosophical, but man, he made a mean roti (and, if he ever reads this, or if anyone knows where he is, I want to ask - where are you?! Do you have another restaurant?! At least tell us your secret recipe!). Tony was from Guyana, as I've said, so perhaps it is Guyanese curry that I like.

So saying, Roti Boys serves up a very similar menu to Tony's, you can have rotis with chicken or goat, and beef and shrimp, and over rice; they even serve curry duck, something Tony never did. For the vegetarian, you can have their Potato/Channa (chickpea) or Pumpkin or Spinach Bhaji (cooked spinach with spices). There's jerk chicken and jerk pork, and several stews, including oxtail. They're located on Sheppard Ave., a little east of Victoria Park and west of Pharmacy, in a little strip mall on the south side of Sheppard. They're reasonably priced (though Tony's seemed to be more generous with his portions) and the dishes are tasty and flavourful, though the curry chicken over rice I had today was a little too salty for my tastes. Still, even second best is pretty good.

Restaurant Review - The Host

We've been to The Host's Mississauga location several times (33 City Center Dr., at the corner of Robert Speck Parkway, just west of Hurontario, by Square One), there are two others, one in Yorkville and one in Richmond Hill, and enjoyed their all-you-can-eat buffet (only at lunch Thursday to Sunday - about $15 per person on the weekend); we'll likely go back again. You can also eat a la carte at other times, prices are fairly reasonable ($9-15 per dish). The buffet has a number of interesting South Indian and Indian dishes, including meat and vegetarian ones, with appetizers, soups and salads (pretty typical of most buffets). Some of our favourites are the Murgh Makhni, or Butter Chicken (an award winning dish); Rara Goat, with a brown curry of tomatoes and onions (ok, I like that one); Fish Amritsari, Punjabi white pasa fish marinated in spices and deep fried in gram flour batter (excellent!); Panir Makhni, homemade cottage cheese cooked in buttery tomato sauce; Gulab Jamun, a dessert made from milk solids and flour in a syrup flavoured with cardamon and rosewater (wonderful! I could eat half a dozen of these, and have!); their Nan is also tasty.

Restaurant Review - Jean's Vegetarian Kitchen

I read in the latest Eye Weekly about Jean Seow, the owner of Jean's Vegetarian Kitchen, she is one of several Chefs in Toronto that they admire, and I want to add my second to that (or thousandth to that...). Her restaurant is located on the Danforth near Greenwood (on the north side and east of Greenwood), and is all vegetarian, yet she serves mock-meat (made from soy) dishes that are almost as good as the thing it replaces. Certainly the dishes are Thai and Malaysian, in flavour and style, and my beautiful Bride and I went there, because it serves Thai food, and because it serves vegetarian dishes, and because it serves delicious food.

We've only been there a few times, (it is too far for us to travel from our end of the city - but well worth the trip), and had occasion to try some of their offerings. We've tried their Crispy Spring Rolls, which were good; their Mango Salad, fresh and tasty; Malaysian Curry, my beautiful Bride enjoyed it; Mee Siam, which I enjoyed; Garlic Mustard Greens, very tasty; and their Honey Lemonade, interesting and tasty. I don't recall any dish not being at least good, and there are a lot of dishes that I have not had the opportunity to try but wanted to.

As I've said, Jean's Vegetarian Kitchen is a little far for us to go, but it's easy to get to if you are in Toronto, take the TTC Subway to Greenwood station on the Bloor-Danforth line, from there it's a short walk. There's also lots to check out on the Danforth, a lively part of Toronto.

Restaurant Review - Makimono Japanese Restaurant

We were given the heads up about a new Japanese buffet restaurant in Pickering, and, since my beautiful Bride likes Japanese food, we decided to check it out the other Sunday. Makimono Japanese Restaurant has several locations, one in Ajax and several downtown Toronto, the only one that has a buffet is the one at Pickering. Located at 1790 Liverpool Road, where the Pizza Hut used to be, west of Durham Centre Mall and just north of the 401, on the west side of Liverpool Road; walking inside you can see that they have transformed the place from when it used to serve pizza, there is Japanese decor all around, including the large screen beside our table that hid the entranceway from our view (and prevented us seeing her brother and friends arrive just before we left ourselves - it was her brother that told us about this restaurant, ironic...). The restaurant appears to be owned by Japanese; at least there are no Korean dishes available indicating it was owned by Koreans. The buffet is not traditional in the sense that there are no buffet tables, instead you order a la carte, and they make the dishes fresh as per your order and bring it to your table; if you want more, then you order more. I think this is good in a number of ways; there is little wastage for the restaurant and the restaurant can get feedback as to what people prefer; you don't order as much as you would take from a buffet table and thus you don't eat as much; food is fresher and hotter as opposed to waiting under a heat lamp; and you can sample a greater variety of dishes as opposed to eating what they have out on the buffet table for that day. Weekdays lunch is $14 and dinner is $21; weekends (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) it's $15 and $23 respectively).

How was the food? Good, very freshly made and hot, but there were some misses - I thought the Katsu Don (deep fried pork cutlet with onion and egg served on a bed of rice) was a little too runny for my tastes, the Gyoza were okay, and the Chicken Udon was also not that tasty, mostly because of a weak broth. There were some great dishes, I especially liked the Dynamite Roll (shrimp tempura, tobiko, avocado and cucumber) and the Salmon Teryaki, Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura was good. You can also order take-out, I went back and bought some sushi, Dynamite Rolls again, and Spider Rolls (soft shell crab, tobiko, avocado and cucumber), some vegetable spring rolls and gyoza, all of which suffered from the trip home across the city. I wish this restaurant were much closer, driving close to an hour to get there is on the border of not worth the drive, but I would recommend it to lovers of Japanese food.

Restaurant Review - Masamune Japanese Restaurant

We decided to try this Japanese restaurant we googled one weekend, it's located at 5200 Dixie Road in Mississauga, south of Matheson, on the west side of Dixie, in a strip mall in the end unit. Masamume Japanese Restaurant has from my first impression quaint Japanese decor when we entered (we were the only customers), and, as we found out, like a lot of Japanese restaurants, it's either owned or run by Koreans, there are quite a few menu items that are Korean. We arrived too late for lunch (a direct result of having a time-stealing baby), so we were prepared to pay the much higher prices that are associated with most Japanese restaurants for their dinner menu. We didn't order any sushi items, so we have no opinion on that, other than another two came later to order sushi takeaway (the only other customers we saw), and what we did order was a bit from the Japanese menu, and a bit from the Korean menu. For appetizers, we ordered the Shrimp Tempura, which also comes with vegetables in tempura batter, with sweet ginger sauce (which we both liked); Korean gyoza, which have a mixture of beef and pork meat within (which I really liked, and would order again); and Wakame salad (which did not impress us in the least). For the main dish, my beautiful Bride ordered Seng Sun Chi Gae from the Korean dishes, which is a mildly spicy clear fish stew with vegetables and tofu in a daikon radish broth (you had a choice of three kinds of fish, she picked whiting fish, which she didn't care for; there was also cod (probably a better choice) and another fish). I also ordered from the Korean dishes, mine was Pork Dup Bap, which is stir-fried pork and vegetables in a spicy sauce over rice, which I enjoyed. Overall, I think there was enough here that we liked, that we would want to go again. I do think that this restaurant suffers from its location, it's kind of hidden (the strip mall is below street level; there were also high snow banks), but it's worth checking it out.

Bakery Review - Panera Bread

The other week I noticed a new sign near the Walmart at Square One, a section of the land next to the mall is filling up with some new restaurants and stores (Boston Pizza, Running Room, Spence Diamonds), this one said Panera Bread. Intrigued, I pointed it out to my beautiful Bride, who also expressed interest, then we both promptly forgot about. That is, until about two weeks later, when we, again, saw the sign, this time we thought to finally check it (I guess we were hungrier then). We weren't disappointed, at least initially.

Panera Bread is an American-based chain of what might be called "fast casual" food; each franchise is a bakery-café, serving breads, baked goods, soups, sandwiches, coffee and drinks, plus more.

We initially tried their wild blueberry scone (as you can see in the picture), which we liked very much and have since bought again, and again, and a loaf of multi-grain bread. The bread was okay, and we did experience an issue with it, that was promptly rectified (so kudos for their customer service!).

We have not tried any of their soup (they feature about nine kinds of soup, you can have them in sourdough bread bowls) or sandwiches, only their baked goods. We always seem to arrive too late for their orange scone, which my beautiful Bride wants to sample. We did not like their sunflower bread, made from white whole wheat, it was way too soft inside, but that's likely to be a problem with the less gluten content of the white whole wheat. We did like their honey whole wheat bread, quite tasty, and a good sandwich bread.

Overall, we like it enough to go back again, it is a little expensive for some of their products (not unlike StarBucks), and we want to try eating there one day.

Book Review - The Fruit Hunters

It was with a mixture of joy, surprise and growing interest, and occasional anger, that I read Adam Leith Gollner's book "The Fruit Hunters". Joy because I enjoy fruit, and have some wonderful experiences eating fruit, climbing a peach tree as a teenager and eating a sun-warmed large juicy peach, the best I've eaten; picking wild blueberries in early August along the rail tracks north-east of Espanola, Ontario, they tasted tart and sweet; canoeing across Cuttle Lake near Fort Frances to again pick wild blueberries. Suprise because I found out about different varieties of fruit available, different heirloom apples with amazing tastes, red and white durians, the miracle fruit (eat it and sour things taste sweet) and its story of intrigue and big business, the lady fruit (looks like a lady's, er, private parts). Growing interest, because I have a desire to taste the fruits I have read about, where they are grown at the time they ripen, rather than waiting for the few picked-too-early-and-not-properly-ripe, crunchy or crisp rather than juicy, fruits we can only buy in supermarkets, and the hundreds of vastly superior in taste varieties of fruit available around the world. And occasional anger, at the bureaucracy that decides which fruits we can and can not have, the banning by the Government of imports of certain fruits for what I can see is little or no good reason, the decision to allow fake chemical potentially-cancer-causing sweeteners to be sold rather than natural alternatives like miraculin (what makes miracle fruit so interesting). Read this book if you are interested in fruit in any way, it will open your eyes to the world of tasty fruit and the activity of fruit hunters, who search the world for exotic and interesting and tasty fruits before they are lost. Fascinating. Intoxicating. Delicious.

Restaurant Review - Zen Gardens Vegetarian Restaurant

We were in Cambridge on the weekend for my brother-in-law's birthday, being late for his birthday dinner, we decided to take advantage of this opportunity to try a restaurant we had seen several times but never gone to, the vegetarian restaurant Zen Gardens, located near the old City Hall on Water Street. The decor as we entered, and in the main room is designed to be soothing and calming, Japanese architecture. The tables were arranged prettily, each set of chopsticks lined up perfectly next to the menus. We perused the menu, seeing lots of choices, some with vegetables and tofu and rice (what I would call normal vegetarian dishes), and some with the "fake" soy protein version of chicken. There were also a fair number of interesting teas, some health-oriented, some green teas, some served cold. We decided each to take a lunch combination meal, I chose the Kung Po Soy-Chicken, while my beautiful Bride chose Enoki Mushroom balls. We each selected a Health-Tea, mine was something called Gynostemma Pentaphyllum (also known as jiaogulan or the Herb of Immortality); hers was Red Zizyphus-Longan tea (also more commonly known as Red Date). We found the service to be a little slow, at least in taking our orders, but, once they were taken, the food came quickly. First, that came as part of the Combination Lunch, was Wonton Soup, which, along with wonton filled with mushrooms and vegetables, has carrots, mushrooms and bok choy in a vegetable broth, very simple and delicious. Our teas were served next, the Gynostemma had an intriguing smell and a good taste, the Longan tea was quite sweet but good. The rest of our Combination Lunches arrived in Bento box format, there were several side dishes along with the main meal - 2 soy chicken nuggets with plum sauce (which I found to have an odd texture); a lettuce salad with grapes, cucumber and carrots, and a fruity, tangy dressing; and steamed rice made from wild rice, brown rice and red rice. My Kung Po chicken was very delicious, the "chicken" had the mouthfeel if not the flavour of chicken, there was also pillow tofu, celery and green peppers and bamboo chunks, and a very spicy sauce that was very good. The Enoki Mushroom balls were deep-fried, very interesting in flavour and texture, pretty good. My beautiful Bride also ordered a dish to go, to eat later, one that she was contemplating selecting earlier, Fried Bean-Curd and Veggies, a house specialty, which has beancurd with a seaweed crust, but ended up not tasting so good. We were served 2 complimentary desserts, one was an orange mousse cake, mine was a chocolate-coffee mousse cake, both tasted pretty good. After the meal, we perused the many teas available for sale, I selected a tea that smells wonderfully of peach, called Osmanthus Fragrance Dancong. Overall, we enjoyed our visit to Zen Gardens, and would go again, perhaps to the one on Augusta Avenue in Toronto, it's a little closer.

Restaurant Review - Pho Big Bowl

Having seen this Vietnamese restaurant on Rogers Television's Cable 10 show Restaurantours, located at 2655 Liruma Road in Mississauga, west of Erin Mills Parkway and Dundas, and liked what dishes we saw, we decided to check it out. We had also gone to another Vietnamese restaurant before that, that we didn't like much, so we had high hopes for this one. And we weren't that disappointed, it was definitely better than the other place, a good Vietnamese restaurant but not a great one.

I ordered the Vermicelli bowl with B.B.Q. chicken, my beautiful Bride ordered the same thing but with B.B.Q. prawn and spring roll, and she was also in the mood for soup, so she ordered the Spicy Thai's Style Seafood with Vermicelli in Soup; this she didn't care for much. Mine was fairly good, I got handed the chicken from my beautiful Bride's dish, I couldn't eat it all, so we took some home. Overall, as I said before, it was fairly good, I am sure there are better dishes available (they featured the Beef Pho on the Restaurantours show), the menu featured a lot of the typical Vietnamese dishes that you can find in most Vietnamese restaurants, perhaps we will come back some time to sample them.

Restaurant Review - Ba Shu Chinese Restaurant

Wanting to eat something while being out and about, we ended up choosing this Sichuan Chinese restaurant over our first choice, it's a fairly new restaurant and we didn't know it was there. Located in the mall at the southeast corner of Hurontario and Eglinton, stuck in the middle of Pizza Hut and KFC and Quizno's and Harvey's, we entered to find a fairly large restaurant with pretty decor. Having initially wanting takeout, we decided instead to eat in, and chose a booth over a table, which was a mistake, we found out, as it seemed we were forgotten about, or perhaps that's the norm in terms of service, it seemed a little slow, despite there not being many patrons when we arrived. The other big thing I noticed, is that I was the only Lao Wai, or Foreigner, there; as the customers arrived as the evening progressed, there were only Chinese waiting for tables at the door. A good sign, if one wants to eat authentic food.

In looking over the menu with its huge number of offerings, I first read the bit about Sichuan cuisine. One statement I kept in mind, it would serve us later, it told us that despite being know for spicy food, who doesn't know spicy Kung Pao Chicken or Mapo Tofu, many dishes have little or no spice added. Sichuan is a province in Western China, its capital is Chengdu. Know for its spiciness, Sichuan cooking uses chili, ginger, and most importantly, the Sichuan peppercorn, with its unique, the fragrant, hot, one could even say numbing, citrusy, flower-shaped spice.

Having finally caught the eye of the waitress, we were told to write down the selection numbers of the dishes we wanted, a point of note for the next time we go there. One of the dishes that I found intriguing was called, in English, Chicken Braised with Fresh Chilies and Beer in Hot Pot, it is medium-spicy, I ordered that. My beautiful Bride wanted the Braised Diced Tofu with Fish Fillet, Shrimp, Scallop, Squid and Mushrooms. She also ordered the Basa Fish Fillet and Vegetables with Rice; the waitress couldn't tell us what Basa was, I found most of the waitresses spoke mostly Chinese and a little English (Basa is a type of white-fleshed catfish, I found out later, though one that feeds on plants, rather than being the typical "garbage"-eater). To drink, I ordered a Strawberry Milkshake; my beautiful Bride ordered a Red Bean Freeze, though they apparently did not have any red beans that day. After a few moments, the head waitress came back to inform us, that they did not have the Chicken Chili Beer dish today, a trend I did not care for, she suggested a Sliced Chicken Fillet with Sweet Bean Sauce and Green Chilies, apparently a popular dish, but rather I decided on pork, and specifically Poached Pork in Pungent Sauce, a high-spiced dish.

The first to arrive was the Basa Fish and Vegetables, which we found belonged to the non-spicy Sichuan dishes, and it seem non-tasty as well, bland even. The Strawberry Milkshake arrived as well, though I was shocked to see this small thin glass with light pink likely Bubble-Tea powder mixed with ice and milk, lesson learned not to order this the next time, not worth the $4.50. The Tofu and Seafood dish arrived next, this was much tastier, we could enjoy this one more than the Basa fish one.

Finally, after about 20 minutes, came the saviour of the whole meal, the pungent sauce immediately apparent as the dish arrived at the table, the Poached Pork in Pungent Sauce was very tasty, very spicy and filled with the taste of sichuan peppercorns and lots of oil, with green onions and soya beansprouts. It was even better the next day, over rice.

There are many items that look intriguing, including the Chicken and Beer dish that I didn't get, lots of Sichuan Dim Sum, Congee, and various Meat and Seafood dishes, that I think we will go back to this restaurant again.

Restaurant Review - Kumai Sushi Restaurant

For Valentine's Day I took my beautiful Bride to a Japanese restaurant called Kumai Sushi Restaurant, located at 35 Brunel Road in Mississauga, close to Brittania and Hurontario in Mississauga, in a strip mall with lots of different restaurants. When we arrived at 5:30, it was just opening up, we were a little early for our reservation. There were plenty of the Japanese screens set up, to separate and allow for privacy amongst the tables. We were seated at a table by a window. Looking over the menu, there did not seem to be very much there, only to discover that these were only the specials, we were then given the normal menu. They had a special Valentine's Day bento box, it looked interesting, but was more than $25 per person, and it had raw fish sushi, both of which we don't care for, so we decided to go instead for some items on the menu.

I selected a Fried Seafood and Vegetables combination, my beautiful Bride selected the Salmon Teriyaki combination, and we also ordered the Tempura appetizer.

The combination included a starter of miso soup and salad. The miso soup tasted pretty good, the salad was good, though not great.

Next came our appetizer. These were quite tasty, with a thin, crispy batter, there were two large shrimp and several different vegetables, onion, sweet potato, asparagus and a leafy vegetable that I had never seen before but tasted good.

My meal came, and I was disappointed to find that it was fairly the same as the appetizer, there were more shrimp and vegetables. It also came with Japanese potato salad and a coleslaw. The dish was otherwise tasty.

My beautiful Bride's Salmon Teriyaki was also quite good.

Overall, this is a good restaurant, a little pricey, but worth a revisit.

Restaurant Review - Avani Asian Indian Bistro

The restaurant Khaarma was recently bought out and renovated, we thought to go check it out. A big sign proclaimed an Executive Buffet, costing $9.99, for a limited time, they asked us when we entered whether we wanted go for the buffet, we said yes. There were no other customers in the dining area when we arrived, though it filled up quickly about a half hour later. Perusing the menu we were given, we found that it was a different kind of buffet, there were no tables to go and choose your own, instead you choose from Starters, Mains and Sides, and afterwards a dessert. You could choose three each of five Starters (vegetable pakoras, tandoori chicken, potato roll, Manchow soup or fresh salad); three of the six Mains (four vegetarian and two meat); there were no limits on the Sides.

We each chose vegetable pakoras and Manchow soup (a Moroccan totally vegetarian spicy soup); I chose potato rolls and my beautiful Bride chose the fresh salad. The Manchow soup came first, it was quite delicious, though quite spicy. The vegetable pakoras were quite good, though they were cold (I suspect they were made earlier in the day, but at least they could have nuked them), and the potato rolls (mashed potatoes with peas rolled into cylinders and then fried) were quite good, and hot. The fresh salad had an interesting little oil dressing that pleased the palate of my beautiful Bride.

Being mostly vegetarian, my beautiful Bride chose three of the four vegetarian Mains, I chose the other of the chose, plus the two meat-based Mains. They arrived in small sterling silver bowls with two handles. The butter chicken and the lamb curry that I ordered were both delicious. The other one, a Karahi Paneer dish, with green pepper and curry, was also good. My beautiful Bride enjoyed the Karahi Paneer, also her Paneer dish, which was tomato-based, and her Dal Makhani, which is a black lentil dish. She would have liked her Saag Ghobi, which is fenugreek leaves (like spinach) and potatoes, but she found a foreign object in it that put her off. Otherwise, it was quite good.

The sides that we could have included a vegetarian chow mein, basmati rice, which was excellent with the other dishes, a raita or cucumber and yogurt, very sour, and garlic Naan, quite good, not excellent, but a good Naan.

Overall, we thought that the food was very good, and we could come back here. I don't know quite how much it would cost for the buffet when it comes off special, but, if it's not too expensive, it will be worth going than once in a while.

Restaurant Review - AM Africa

The Ethiopian restaurant AM Africa, located in downtown Kitchener, is one I have passed by lots of times but never ventured into. A lot of times, apparently, as it's been in existence since 1996. Having recently got a gift certificate for Christmas for this restaurant from my best friend, I took my beautiful Bride and met him for this excursion into spicy African food. The first unusual thing about this place is its location, you have to walk up a steep flight of stairs to get to the second level. We chose a table next to the windows, overlooking Kitchener's main drag. We had our choice of tables, as there were no other patrons at 2 pm, I guess we missed the lunch crowd, but my friend said that every time he had been here, it was like this. I don't know why, the menu looked interesting and appetizing, there were lots of intriguing dishes to choose from. Looking at the Dinner portion of the menu, we read that each of the dishes is served with the traditional bread, injera, though rice can be substituted. Both my friend and my Bride chose the Asha (Fish Silsi), tender fish (white code) stewed in red pepper sauce, flavoured with onions, garlic, thyme and exotic spices. The lamb dish not being available at that time, I chose instead the Tsebhi Tyel (Yefeyel Wot), which is goat meat seasoned with green pepper, onion and exotic spices. My fried told us that it normally takes them a while to prepare the food, and it did take more than what I am used to. I was suprised to see the very large dish that came out, the injera is a very large flatbread, like a roti, but much larger and thin. The bread tasted very good, and is made from barley flour. The main dishes though tasted delicious. The fish was great, though it had a slightly odd flavour that did not appeal to my Bride. The goat was quite good, though too many bones for my taste. All in all, a very good meal.

Restaurant Review - Rex Saigon

This restaurant was recommended to me by a coworker, and I finally had the opportunity to go to this unusual buffet restaurant, unusual in that it is not a Chinese buffet, but a Vietnamese and Thai, supposedly the first in the city. Located east of the intersection of Sheppard and Brimley, on the north side, it shares mall space with a large Chinese supermarket. We arrived at 5 pm, after the evening hours began, yet the restaurant was fairly empty, though that likely had more to do with the snowy weather than the food (patrons began to appear mostly after 6, though I wondered about the buffet food, as there was little turnover since we had arrived). There were lots of dishes to choose from, some Vietnamese, some Thai, some Chinese, Tom Yung or Ginseng Chicken soups, lots of noodle dishes, curried crab legs, make-your-own Pho (Viet noodle soup with veggies), sesame balls, roti, sushi, mango sticky rice, lots to choose from and too many to remember. Lots of desserts, bananas in cream, coconut bars, ice creams. We payed $17.95 per person (comparable to what large buffet restaurants charge on a weekend), as it was a Saturday evening (likewise for Friday and Sunday evening), it is $9.99 for lunch those three days, otherwise it is $8.99 for lunch and $14.95 for dinner. There's really something for everyone, I tried lots of new dishes and ones I was already familiar with, there were lots I couldn't try because there was too much. There are some rather generic dishes not so tasty or prepared so well, but that's likely true of any restaurant. If the place were closer, I would go there more often, more likely though for lunch.

Restaurant Review - Latinada Restaurant

The Spanish restaurant Latinada is located at 1671 Bloor Street West, that's just two blocks or so east of the Keele TTC Subway station in Toronto, on the south side of the street. I like Latin American food, and enjoyed the food greatly in my two visits to Venezuela. Entering the restaurant, I hoped that they had some of the delicacies I fondly remembered. My beautiful Bride had recommended this restaurant, she had been there a year before with another friend, and she had wanted to go there again, to revisit it and to show it to me, so we took the opportunity when we were in town to go there. The inside is quite cosy and rustic-looking, we chose a seat next to the window, at the opposite end of the room sat several people enjoying good conversation and some alcohol, at the bar. This is a Tapas bar and restaurant, tapas are small dishes, or appetizers, we chose two, one being Yuca Frita, which comes with pico gallo on the side, the other a spicy chorizo sausage. Yuca, as I knew it in Venezuela, is prepared two ways, one of them deep fried, or frita, the other boiled; I'm not sure which I liked better, but I chose the Yuca Frita. We both enjoyed it. Chorizo is spicy sausage, though this version did not turn out to be that spicy. As our main meals, I chose the Camarones Al Ajillo, which is Garlic Shrimp, and comes with Cuban or white rice, Avocado Salad and Patacones. My beautiful Bride chose the Salmon, it is cooked with white wine and garlic, and also comes with those same three sides. Patacones are deep-fried plantain cakes, quite tasty. The Cuban rice was made with kidney beans, rather than black beans, which I am more familiar with. The Avocado Salad was quite delicious, I normally don't like avocado, but enjoyed it with lime juice and greens and tomatoes. Both of our entrees were delicious, I wonder why there were hardly any patrons, perhaps this was an off night. They do have live music a number of times a month, featuring Latin artists, it should be a happening place those nights. Upstairs, too, there is apparently an art gallery. If this was not so inconvenient for me to get to, I believe I would come more often.

Restaurant Review - Chi's Congee & Noodle House

Around the corner from the Lion City restaurant that I reviewed earlier, in the same mall (1177 Central Parkway West, Unit 66), is Chi's Congee and Noodle House. Sort of non-descript on the outside, we chose this restaurant over another, based on the number of people in the restaurant. I know, perhaps not a great indicator, but there were certainly not only a larger number of people, but a much larger number of tables full in this restaurant. We elected to take out what we ordered. As the name of the restaurant might indicate to you, this restaurant features congee, the Chinese dish made with rice that can only be described as rice soup, at least by me. Slightly chunky and creamy, congee is easy on the digestion, and its flavour comes from the combination of ingredients, often meat or seafood or egg, or vegetables. Deep fried dough fritters goes well with congee, though we did not order any. We chose the sliced fish congee, not noticing the sweet corn and fish Super Bowl (which has little to do with the Football season-ending championship game) on the menu, also we ordered Deep Fried Wonton (with shrimp) and Fried Stuffed Bean Curd. All of these were fairly tasty, and we came back again to order some more another day, we'll keep it in mind for a good, and closer, place to buy congee.