WRITTEN and EATEN by Hu-Yan Leung & Marron Law
burritos… Halloween, the time for costumes and free candy. But how about free burritos? Every year on Halloween, if you dress up as anything on Chipotle Mexican Grill’s menu they will complete your costume with a free burrito. This is only from 6 pm – close. For our costume, all we did was wrap ourselves in some tin foil. The people are pretty lenient with it since we saw some guy who just taped a piece of tin foil to his forehead. There was a sign at the cash register advertising this special giveaway, but surprisingly there weren’t that many people who knew about the free burrito. As usual, the store was filled with customers, but almost all of them had paid for their meal. Even though we did not have to pay for our burrito, Chipotle did not cheap out on us.
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For those of you not familiar with Chipotle, it is a popular American fast-food chain that opened one location in Canada. This location happens to be beside the Future Shop across Eaton’s. Although Chipotle is considered fast-food, it is way more healthy and fresh than McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, etc. Chipotle offers burritos, fajitas, tacos and quesadillas. There are 4 types of meat to choose from such as steak, chicken, barbacoa (beef braised in spices then shredded) and carnitas (pork seared, braised in spices then shredded). You can fill your burrito with an assortment of fillings such as cilantro-lime rice, pinto or black beans (or a bit of both), mild to hot salsas (fresh tomato, tomatillo green-chili, tomatillo red-chili, roasted chili-corn), sour cream, shredded cheese, guacamole and lettuce. The burritos are a very generous size and once the woman even ripped and wasted several tortillas just because my burrito was too big to wrap! If you don’t like tortillas, and just like the fillings, you can get a burrito bowl. Chipotle’s burritos always taste fresh, delicious and very satisfying. Every item on their menu is around $8.25 (they raised their prices recently...) and guacamole is an additional $2.22. The guac is pretty expensive, and several times I have not added it. But honestly, it is just not the same without it. To save money and to not compromise on flavour, a good idea is to bring your own guac. On Halloween, we went with a total of 4 people and ended up saving around $45 including guacamole. The price is a bit more expensive than your standard burrito, but in addition to all of the fillings being made fresh in-store, Chipotle also prides themselves in having naturally-raised, unprocessed and hormone free ingredients. This in itself is worth those extra few dollars.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
323 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M5B 1R7
(416) 596-8600
Hu-Yan Leung and Marron Law are both Guest Stars/ Guest Writers for Good Food Toronto. They are both students who live and enjoy all types of food in Toronto. Marron is a student at York Mills CI, while Hu-Yan (who is my bro) goes to York University and shares my love for deals (especially free ones!).
cheap, dirty, tasty... After a crazy weekend of partying, my friend Shiang and I went to Kom Jug Yuen in china town to grab some cheap chinese food. Shiang was craving for some BBQ pork (aka Cha Siu) and considering the cheap prices here, it would definitely help his wallet out after ballin out at the clubs. I've actually been to this place a couple times and I have friends who religiously come here because of how cheap it is. It is not your typical chinese restaurant, but more like a "hole in the wall" type place. Throughout your meal, it is no surprise to see random staff walking through with giant plastic tubs full of barbecued pork or mopping up the floor as you eat.
To fulfill his craving, Shiang ordered a BBQ pork on rice ($4 + tax/tip). In a sign on their store front, they actually claim to have the "Best BBQ Pork in North America!" This is a pretty big claim especially in Toronto, where you can get Chinese barbecued meats in any of the many Chinese restaurants, food courts, plazas or malls. Fortunately, the BBQ pork lives up to their claim as it is really good- each piece has lots of flavour and the perfect texture balance of juiciness and chewiness. The best part is the charred edges that make Chinese BBQ pork so good. As for the dish itself, it was literally just BBQ pork on a giant plate of rice, and they brought us some Bok Choy (chinese vegetable) on the side as well. It also came with a soup; can't really complain about this meal for $4.
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I ordered a rice noodle soup with BBQ Pork and BBQ duck ($6 + tax/tip). Again, this was pretty standard, but what makes it is definitely the BBQ pork which is awesome. They gave me the leg piece of the duck and I'm guessing they use the same type of technique to grill the duck as the skin is nice and crispy as well. This also came with some Bok Choy on the side. We also grabbed 2 Nesteas to complete the meal ($1.25/ can).
Kom Jug Yuen is a great place to grab a quick filling meal, while spending about the same price 3 McDonald's value meal items. This place has been around forever as I remember coming here when I was much younger and it probably looks the same as it does 10 years ago. It is a perfect place for students to eat in or grab takeout (close to UofT as it is just south of College on Spadina), but definitely not a place to bring a date haha. Like I said before, it's more like a hole in the wall type of place, so don't expect the cleanest or nicest place (actually, expect the opposite, but it's still great!).
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Kom Jug Yuen Restaurant
371 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON, M5T 2G3
