The Best $5 Lunch in Town!

I swear this place has the best Indian - veggie combo in all of the town! it is sooo tasty! They also serve other mainstream items like chicken breast, stuffed peppers and so on.
But the curries there OMG - they even have rotis! Anytime someone in my office is having that yummy smelling chicken curry, I know it's from there!
It is a little place in a food court in the Adelaide Centre. It is called Sandwich King...not too sure, but I think they inherited the sign. Anyway, you can get lunch for $5.00 there and its not just any lunch, its a number of items and a drink. Today my lunch cost $6.00 but I had 2 poppadoms, 1 can of coke, some green chillies, bryani, onion salad, dahl, potato and some really tasty veggie and curried carrots. How amazing is that!!??

It's Been Awhile BUT It's Warm!

It's been awhile but that is because I have been super busy with life in Toronto....Although that should have meant many more posts. I went to a few screenings including one for Leap Year, I recognized many of the critics in the crowd and I really do like to watch them at movie screenings just because I like to know and see what they do when they are working. And what a great job is that? Being a critic?

Anyhoo the movie was super cheesy but at least my mom enjoyed it. Tonight I am going to ruin my greata blow out by going dancing! I will be going to Footwork...a little electronic club in downtown Toronto. I have been before and though it's been a long time, I am sure that tonight there will be a mish mash of people. I do like going to places like these...the lurk in the dark shadows of the club scene.

NYE in the Citay!

I love New Years Eve, there is something special in the air. Everyone is dressed up, with a little glitter in their eye and their eyeshadow for that mater.

This year we booked reservations at Spice Route for an 11 course dinner.

Because of the past year's economical constraints, the early seating was not sold out and we were able to enjoy all of the courses and complementary champagne with no rush.

When we arrived the restaurant was not too busy so we could take in the beautiful room, with the Asian design elements.

We ordered two drinks and waited for the rest of our party. Once everyone was seated, we told our waiter that one of the people at our table is a vegetarian and my fiance has a sesame seed allergy . I was shocked when I heard the waiter say: 'I will check but you may have to eat around it because some of the items have already been prepared'.

You are kidding right? Did he just say that? I was ready to leave at that point but endured it, when he came back and had obviously cleared everything with the kitchen. It eventually did turn around. As the courses came out the more satisfied we were and the more attentive our waiter became. Initially the first two or three courses were lacking. The first course was a green salad with 4 tiny slices of tuna.

Although there were only four of us, I felt this was quite sparse for a salad. I mean we could have had at least two pieces per person. Not to mention there was no dressing...or maybe it was so light that I could not taste nor see it.

The seafood ceviche was also lacking hardly enough for the three of us to have a proper serving.

However, I will say that the highlight of the night was a delicious lemon chicken and I normally would never order lemon chicken and really I am not a fan but this chicken was soooo good! The smell alone was sweet, like a cake of some sort and tart. It was very lightly battered with juicy white chicken beneath that sweet, light batter.

So in the end it all worked out and we were very pleased with the food and the over all experience.

So we would definitely do this again, much better than our experience at Blow Fish last New Years Eve.

CopaCabana! - Brazilian Steakhouse

Last night a group of ten of us met for an annual Christmas dinner. We decided on a Brazilian steak house in the Yonge and Eglinton area called CopaCabana! We heard it was all you can eat meat and very good.

By the way this area has always been referred to as the Young and Eligible area...and this place definitely brings in a lot of young, good looking boys!

So here is the deal, the space is nice with wooden tables, friendly service and lots of room. It was a Monday night but they had live music and I have to say the two man band was pretty good.

People even got up and danced - not me, but other people.

Anyway so they have a salad bar in the back and you choose from a number of salads, anti pasta and soups. You should not fill up on the salad, maybe a small little portion would work best.

Once you are back at your table you are given a coaster with the words on either side: fire it up! or cool it down. We flipped our card to the fire it up side and they started to bring the meat on. The meat was perfectly cooked and you could enjoy a more well done piece or very rare...like bleeding rare. They also had a number of different types of chicken. All of which were cooked perfectly!

Fillet Mignon, turkey, chicken, sausage, pork and lamb kept coming and very quickly. They have 12 different types of beef alone and I tried most of them.

It was pretty amazing. The servers(Passadores) walk around with the meat on these thick metal skewers and these huge knives, they carve the sizzling hot meat right in front of you!

Warm spiced pineapple on skewers are also served and very, very delicious!

Best Thai in the City!

I hate eating there, it is loud and you have to share tables with other people (always because it is so busy). BUT the food is outstanding and one of the only places in the entire world that can cook something spicy enough for me. Salad King has been around for ages - I used to frequent there when you had to pick up your food at the counter (after they called your number). They have come a long way since then, another location (although not the same menu items), rennovated and the food is still as very good. I ventured through the busy Eaton Centre and out onto the even busier street to get a seafood fried rice with 20 chillies. 20 chillies is the hottest they make the food but it is soooo darn good. When I got there, the restaurant was jam packed with a long line for hungry patrons, luckily I was picking mine up to go.

Definitely a must try if you love spicy food and are ever in the area of Yonge and Dundas.

Milagro Restaurant

While this is not a Toronto restaurant review blog, I will post my dining experiences every now and again.

Today I manned the cold yet again...with my tuque and wool Betsy Johnson coat. We walked to a restaurant called Milagro. It is a nice little spot on Mercer st. They specialize in classic Mexican cuisine.

I ordered the pollo en salsa and two mojitos. I will get this out the way now, the waitress was so eager that she took my mojito away when I still had some left!! I did think about stopping her but the finger in my glass did not seem appealing. A little disappointing when I was savouring the last bit.

I am sitting here at my desk, sipping a hot chocolate and thinking how good of a meal it was. The polo was so tender and juicy and the rioja salsa was a perfect match!

I must say that the Mojitos were the best I have had in Toronto. The restaurant has windows all around and for a moment I almost forgot how cold it was outside.

very tasty and authentic...definitely would go again but just not let go of my glass until I am completely done!

Mercatto on Bay

It is very cold day in Toronto today...the temperature is sitting at -5 and the windchill at -16. I bundled up in my wool coat, changed out of my blue suede 4 inch heels and into my mid thigh high boots and headed out with two other ladies in tow.

We had tried to eat at the new Bay street location a few weeks ago but when we arrived just after Noon, there was a huge crowd waiting for tables. We decided to try another place instead.

So today in spite of the cold air we headed to the Mercatto on Bay street. Since we arrived at 11:40 AM there was no crowd and many available tables.

We scored a seat right in front of the kitchen and were able to eye all of the delicious pizzas coming out of the oven.

I decided on the cavaletti: shrimp, olives, arugula, tomato, peperoncini. My lunch guests ordered the tagliatelle and the quattro stagione pizza...Our pasta dishes arrived in sequence but the pizza was damaged in the baking process. But koodos to the Mercatto management who brought over a complementary salad for her to enjoy while the pizza was re-made.

When I asked the Tagliatelle eater, how her pasta was...her first response was bland.
DAMN! I thought to myself, I knew I should ordered the rigatoni with meat sauce.

Anyway I took a bite of mine and it was pretty good because I had the olives which packed a lot of delightful flavour. However when I tasted the pasta and the sauce on its own, I too found it very bland. I mean did they even boil the pasta with salt, olive oil?

Hmmm I would definitely not order the same thing but may give it a second chance.

Not to mention the prices are pretty good and the did accommodate for the delayed pizza. BUT if they hadn't, I would not give it a second chance. So basically I would give them a second chance based on other reasons besides the food.