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breakfast... After a crazy night of partying downtown, my friends and I woke up craving for some breakfast/ brunch. We decided to go to ZOë’S Bakery Cafe at around 10:30 am. It was a Saturday morning and when we got there we were the only ones. My first impression of the place was that the decor looked really nice inside, while also being very spacious with plenty of seats. For food, we went right to their breakfast items. Two of us got the Scrambled Eggs meal ($8 + tax/tip) and another got the Zoe's Omelette Meal ($10 + tax/tip). We also got a Good Morning Quesadilla ($10 + tax) to go as the waitress recommended this as one of their popular items. More info of what was included in the meals below:
HOME STYLE SCRAMBLED EGGS served with Black Forest ham, multi-grain toast & your choice of paprika scented roast potatoes or fresh sliced tomatoes
ZOë’S OMELETTE
filled with fresh spinach, mushrooms & cheddar. Served with multi-grain toast & your choice of paprika scented potatoes or sliced tomatoes
GOOD MORNING QUESADILLA
filled with scrambled eggs, diced smoked ham, red onions, Cajun spiced trio peppers, melted cheddar & fresh avocado. Served with tomato salsa & sour cream  |
The food was all of pretty high quality and tasted great. Breakfast items like scrambled eggs, omelettes and roasted potatoes are all pretty simple items, but Zoe's Bakery Cafe does simple well. At around $10 a meal, Zoe's isn't the cheapest place for breakfast, but you get what you pay for in their quality food and service. We also got a strawberry smoothie and orange juice, which were both prepackaged in plastic bottles, so I'm not sure how fresh they were although my friends said they tasted pretty good. Zoe's Bakery Cafe is located at 548 King Street West (West of Spadina). For parking, we parked at the Pizza Pizza parking lot right next door, since Pizza Pizza doesn't open until 11 am.
the lounge... A bunch of friends and I were looking for a place to watch one of the Lakers/ Rockets round 2 games and we walked into the St. Louis Bar and Grill on Yonge in North York. The place was packed, so they told us to go upstairs, which is part of St. Louis, but separately named The Lounge. The upstairs is much nicer than the usual St. Louis setting, with a much darker and modern decor, while you can still order St. Louis wings. They also had plenty of TVs which is definitely a plus for these types of places. It is quite a spacious place and you can get different cocktails, pitchers of beer and they even cater to the surrounding Korean community with mixed soju drinks (12 oz Charm Soju + Peach Juice: $13.95, 13 oz Jinro Soju + Peach Juice: $13.95). Unlike other typical bars they even serve pitchers of Green Tea and Chivas Regal Whiskey (1.5 oz: $7.95).
We ate dinner elsewhere, so we decided to get some pitchers of beer (~$15 for domestic pitchers). The place is a good addition to the busy area on Yonge, unfortunately the service in "The Lounge" is pretty bad . The waitresses were not very polite and seemed very rushed. Also, the Lakers game was the one big game going on that night (other than a Jays game), and they only showed that on one little TV in the corner, while they had informercials (yes, informcials) running on 2 giant TVs and a Nascar race on another one. When asked to change one of the big TVs to the lakers game, the waitress replied that she was too busy and brushed off the question. The place seems alright, especially since you can still order the St. Louis wings (as it is connected with the downstairs), but they need to step it up with some better service.
The Lounge is located in North York at 5307 Yonge Street (across from Turbo Lounge). Easiest way to get there is the North York Centre subway stop or if you want to park, parking is free after 9 PM on Yonge Street.
wendy's... I went to Wendy's recently to grab some of their value meals and I noticed that they have signs on every table advertising a "Free Single Hamburger." Upon further inspection of the sign, it says that you can get the free burger by doing a survey from the receipt you receive. I remember that you could do this before and get a free small frosty.
How to get the free burger:
- Save your receipt and on the back of the receipt, look for the website or 1-800 number
- Either call the number or log on to the website, complete the survey to recieve validation code
- Fill in validation code on the back of the receipt
- Go to Wendy's and redeem the free hamburger (within 14 days)!
- Eat the free hamburger..mmm!
hoops... I am a big basketball fan and with all the crazy NBA playoff games going on lately, a couple of friends and I went to check out a game at Hoops Sports Bar and Grill. The worst part about being a basketball fan in Toronto is that most bars play hockey games, and with the Raptors being so crap this year, even fewer bars are showing NBA games. I heard that Hoops had plenty of TV's so there would be some showing basketball games for sure (although its called Hoops, its more of a hockey bar). We went on a Tuesday night and the place was pretty packed, with people watching hockey, basketball and baseball games while drinking beer and eating wings.
When you first go into Hoops, you will immediately notice the large quantities of TV's they have. According to the waitress, they have over 100 TVs there, with TV's on the walls, on stands, personal TV's for booth seats and even TV's in the floors. In terms of food, we went on the right day, because on Tuesdays and Thursdays they have half price wings. We decided to order 2 Party sized platters of Wings ($24.99 + tax regular price, $12.50 + tax after half price). The Party size wings come with 3 Lbs of wings, 2 dipping sauces each and a couple carrot and celery sticks. They didn't have a huge amount of flavours for wings and we went with honey garlic, bbq sauce and hot wings. Their wings are decent and are pretty big, and at the cheap half price, they are definitely a deal to be had.
We also ordered some a pizza and a soup/sandwich combo. I don't really remember much about these as I was focused on the wings, but the pizza was crap! One another issue seemed to be pretty long wait times for food as they seem pretty packed on nights of big games. Hoops Sports Bar and Grill is a great place to go watch any game, and the crowd inside are usually sports fans who get hyped up after any jaw dropping play. It is located at 458 Yonge Street at Yonge and College. Easiest way to get there is by subway (College Station).
hot pot... A popular Chinese style of eating where you cook raw food items in boiling soup on a the table is called Hot Pot. Everyone eats around the pot and cooks prepared raw food items such as different kinds of vegetables, meat and noodles. As you cook the food for longer, the soup also gets more flavorful, giving even more flavor to food items you put in later. It is a great way to have a relaxing meal with friends as it is very casual. You can chill, eat and have fun all at the same time!
For this particular "Hot Pot Session," my friend, Florence prepared all the food (she was also the one who prepared the DIY Korean BBQ meal). We used the same "Tiger Brand" cooker that we used for the
DIY Korean BBQ meal, as it doubles as a "Hot Pot Pot" if you replace the grill with the pot. There were about 7 of us, so we had lots of food available. Some of the food items that we had included sliced beef, sliced pork, sliced lamb (which is all prepared in thin slices specifically for Hot Pot). We also had beef balls, fish balls and Korean dumplings. For those of us who weren't pure carnivores, there was also a wide selection of vegetables such as napa cabbage, bok choy, enoki mushrooms, tofu and some other stuff.
One of the most key parts to hot pot is preparing a dipping sauce. Some people like just use soy sauce to dip their hot pot cooked food items and others like to customize their sauce with satay sauce, soy sauce, peanut sauce, hot sauce and anything else mixed together. An example of this is the simple yet tasty sauce that my friend Jess makes.
Jess' Famous Dipping Sauce:
- Ingredients: Soy Sauce, Egg, Satay Sauce
- Pour Soy Sauce into a bowl and mix it with one or two spoonfuls of Satay Sauce
- Crack an egg and pour the entire raw egg into the sauce
- mix it up!.... dip anything and everything into it!
Some people might be turned off by using the raw egg, if you are you could cook the egg in the hot pot for awhile, but don't overcook it, or else it'll just be a hard boiled egg (which is awesome to eat during Hot Pot as well. The runny egg mixed with the soy sauce helps coat whatever food item you dip into the sauce and tastes HELLA good!
Later in the meal, we also threw in some Udon noodles and served bowls of Udon noodle soup with vegetables, meat and whatever was left. In addition to this, we also had yam noodles, which are prepared and eaten in knots (as in...tied in knots). These have a chewy texture and go great in Hot Pot. We also had alot of Baked Sea Bass ..mmm (quick recipe in previous post). Everything in this Hot Pot meal was bought at the T & T Supermarket Downtown (222 Cherry Street), except for the baked sea bass.
food at BMO field... A while ago, I got some free tickets and went to check out my first Toronto FC game. The first thing you notice when you go there is that all the fans are really into the game. The whole atmosphere is really live and it might be because of all the beer that is being consumed. Obviously, I went to check out the concession stands to grab some food at half time, but the main difference between BMO field and somewhere like ACC is that there are really short lineups for food at BMO field. All the lineups are for the super expensive beer ($7.60 + tax for domestic tall cans, $8.05 + tax for imported tall cans).
It was raining the whole game and all we had were our ponchos, so at halftime we wanted to grab some warm food. After a short lineup, we grabbed some Curry Fries ($4.25) and Hot Dogs ($3.98 + tax). The hot dogs were just your typical over priced stadium hot dogs with the usual condiments you can throw on yourself. The curry fries intrigued us because we hadn't seen this before. Basically, it was just fries with curry sauce on top. Maybe it was because it was raining, but the curry fries were pretty tasteless and not worth the money. I think they would sell way more, if they just had gravy to put on the fries or even better, if they would add poutine to their menu.
Overall, we had a great time at the Toronto FC game. Even though it was raining, the place was still packed with crazy fans. Everyone in the stadium was standing from the kickoff until the end of the game. Toronto won and when they scored, it felt like we were in a Quidditch match from the Harry Potter movies, with all the fans going nuts! The prices for their foods are pretty reasonable for a sports venue, except for their $8 beers, but they need to work on some better specialty types of food instead of throwing tasteless curry onto some french fries.
store bought gelato... While chilling at my friends place, we dug into her fridge and found a box of Del Monte Mango Gelato. It seemed like a perfect dessert to go with after eating a big meal and we helped ourselves.lol. This gelato was just as good as any expensive store bought gelato and had plenty of mango flavour to it. Not only was it refreshing and delicious but it is also a super healthy dessert (for those of you who are health freaks), which is why we ate it all within seconds. It is advertised as fat free and is only 100 calories per 1/2 cup (150 ml). Even if you're not a health freak, the Del Monte Mango Gelato tastes awesome and my friend said that it costs around $5 for a 875 ml tub (not totally sure about the price though).
free burger... Once again, Harvey's is having their annual free hamburger day. On this coming Sunday, May 24, 2009, Harvey's across Canada will be giving away free original hamburgers between 10:30 am- 3 pm. The lineup for this is always long, but these lines usually move pretty fast. Harvey's also has drive thru, so I'm guessin you could pick up the free burger through drive through as well. More info from the Harvey's Site.
summer drink deal... I went to McDonald's to grab a quick bite and at all the cash registers, they are advertising their current soft drink promotion. For the entire summer (until Aug. 23, 2009), you can get any size soft drinks for $1. This is a great deal for those thirsty days in the summer, since McDonald's is everywhere and many are even 24 hours. McDonald's is also one of the only fast food places that gives out free refills, so this makes it even better. You could probably go to a supermarket and get drinks for cheaper, but the convenience of McDonald's makes this a good deal.
international street food vendors...I saw this article on the city news site. The city of Toronto has begun an initiative called Toronto a la Cart. Basically, there will be street vendors around Toronto serving a variety of international foods instead of just the usual hot dogs. The foods look pretty cool,as there is stuff like pad thai, jerk chicken, souvlaki etc. For more info, here is the official Toronto a la Cart site.
sushi... Since I go to UofT downtown, I decided to go eat at Sushi Queen because my friend lives right next to it and said its pretty decent. Sushi Queen is your typical downtown a la carte sushi place that serves things like sushi combos and bento boxes (as opposed to all you can eat). When you go into Sushi Queen, the decor is quite modern, yet it still has a pretty casual feel to it. The most important thing... the food... I was pretty hungry but I didn't want to spend too much so I went with a bento box. I decided to go with the cheapest bento box, which was called the St. Patrick Bento Box- ($9.95 + tax/tip). My friend got the Sashimi King Street combo ($13.95 + tax/tip).
- St. Patrick Bento Box: Tempura (shrimp and veggies), choice of grilled salmon, beef, pork or chicken teriyaki (I went with salmon), 3 pieces of salmon roll, 3 pieces of cucumber roll +miso soup, salad, rice and 2 orange slices.
- Sashimi Queen Street: 3 pcs tuna, 3 pcs salmon, 4 pcs red snapper, 3 pcs tako (octopus), 4 pcs surf clam, 3 pcs ika (squid) + Miso Soup, Salad and Rice
The bento box was your typical bento box, nothing special, decent, fills you up for a decent price. The sashimi combo, for around $14 was also a pretty good pick, as you get a huge variety of sashimi (20 total pieces of 6 different types), and the bowl of rice that comes with it ensures that your full as well. The cuts of fish were pretty decent and fresh as well. Nothing amazing, but this place is a decent place to grab some quick sushi if you're around the area, especially with all the shopping there. It is located at 204 Queen Street West, right at the corner of St. Patrick and Queen Street. It is right next to the New Era hat store and the Osgoode TTC subway station is walking distance from it.
hk style cafe... We wanted to grab some cheap breakfast from a Hong Kong style cafe (Cha Chan Tang in Cantonese) so we went over to Cafe Arc de Triomphe in North York. Unfortunately, it was around 12 pm and they had already stopped serving breakfast so we had to pay a bit more for their lunce specials and menu items. I ordered the Porkchop with Peach Sauce and Rice (~$10) off their lunch special menu. This also came with a drink (choices of hot milk tea, hot lemon tea, coffee, etc.), bun and soup (either cream or vegetable). The bun was suriprisingly delicious as it was served warm. The porkchop was also pretty good as you could really taste the peach in the sauce served over the grilled porkchop.
I also went with a friend, who really wanted to breakfast food, so he ordered the Club Sandwich (~$6-$7), which also came with fries. This wasn't part of the lunch specials, so it didn't come with the bun, soup and drink. Just by looking at the picture, you can tell that the sandwich looks really good and it tasted good too! The quality of food at this place is quite good, but there are very few cheap items you can order if you want to grab a quick cheap bite.
Cafe Arc de Triomphe is located in North York, in the plaza at Yonge and Cummer (same plaza as Congee Time, but in the corner on the South side of the plaza). It is North of Yonge and Finch. They serve breakfast food until around 11 am. The type of food they serve is similar to places such as Metro Square Cafe, Leslie Cafe and Phoenix, although the food has more of a western touch to it.
For $2.50, this was a quick and easy cheap lunch (the coco bun definitely helps fill you up). The patties are just average, but nothing to complain about with the price. Going into the bakery, it is a small shop with the smells of fresh breads and baked goods being made. They had some pastry's and desserts of Afghanistan background that I had never seen before, which I will definitely have a try of next time. A regular customer also came into the store to buy fresh whole wheat dough, which she said she always bought to make pizza at home. Asia Bakery is located at 929 Danforth Ave, west of Donlands. 
pizza... For the past month, I've been working as a student teacher at Eastern Commerce CI at Danforth and Donlands. There are plenty of random restaurants around the area (especially on the Danforth) and after talking to students, Madina Halal Pizza (or Madina's) is a pretty popular place to go for a cheap pizza lunch. At lunch time, there are many students from the area who crowd this place for their cheap yet very tasty pizza.
I've been here a couple times and their usual selection of slices include Pepperoni, Hawaiian, Deluxe (pepperoni and green peppers) and Vegetarian. The pizza is always fresh, mainly because of the high turnover of customers since this place is so busy at lunch. This place also doesn't have any pork in their pizza. I think the pepperoni in their pizza is beef pepperoni. For their Hawaiian slices, instead of ham, they use ground beef. The ground beef also has some kind of sauce in it that tastes really good. The slices are quite thin and are really good when they come out fresh. They also serve fried chicken, although I haven't tried it yet.
Madina's is located on the north side of Danforth in between Greenwood and Donlands (1078 Danforth Ave). The following are their combos which are the best deals to get for lunch(1 Slice of Pizza by itself is $1.50):
