Fresh Burger Toronto Grand Opening

Fresh Burger recently opened its first location in downtown Toronto and I had the chance to attend the Grand Opening event. Fresh isn’t just their name, as they already have many happy customers for their Richmond Hill location. Ran into fellow food bloggers Alex (@hypebelly) and Diana (@TorontoCafeFood) at the event, who were busy snapping pics of the event (+ burgers!). I tried the 4oz Fresh Burger and a Poutine. It’s a simple burger, with simple quality ingredients that speak for themselves. Although I would prefer the meat to be a bit more seasoned. Props to Fresh Burger for giving out FREE Burgers that night to anyone willing to line up!

Fresh Burger
542 Church Street 
Toronto, ON M4Y 2C6
http://www.fresh-burger.com

Chatime- New Annex Location

Chatime recently opened another location in the Annex and I went with my friend Janice aka @bluntfoodreview to celebrate the launch of their new store! In Toronto, there's basically a bubble tea shop everywhere you look. What really sets Chatime apart from all the other bubble tea shops is its strong tea taste, creamy milk teas and the ability to customize the sugar and ice levels (like Starbucks, but for bubble tea!). If you have ever experienced the line ups at other Chatime locations, it is clear that bubble tea is alive and well in Toronto after all these years.
Chatime is a global franchise chain of tea shops with locations around the world.  The first Toronto location at Bay and Dundas was opened ~3 years ago by Kenton Chan. Kenton grew up in Toronto, when the bubble tea trend first hit over a decade ago.  He first experienced Chatime in Sydney, Australia a few years ago and saw an opportunity to get in to the bubble tea game in Toronto. Fast forward to today, where he and his business partner, Thomas Wong, now lead the entire Chatime Ontario team, with 8 locations in Ontario and more on the way.
We sampled about 13 different drinks from their menu, ranging from the most popular drinks to hidden gems that people tend not to order. Like everyone else waiting in those Chatime lines, I usually order grass jelly roasted milk tea 99.5% of the time! The owners made it a point to highlight some of the other delicious drinks Chatime carries. The highlight for me were the red bean milk tea and the tea espressos, which actually have no espresso in it but are brewed to order in a speciality espresso machine. I also really enjoyed the Wintermelon Milk Tea with Mousse.  The Wintermelon tea is refreshing and goes surprisingly well with the savoury Mousse that covers the top 1/3 of the drink. Don't mistake the mousse for regular foam, as it is a delicious sweet and savoury treat on its own.
What's better than a regular Chatime bubble tea?  A GIANT Chatime bubble tea cake. The best part of the afternoon was having a bite of that giant Chatime cake!! It was a deliciously moist chocolate cake with green tea buttercream. 
The Chatime Annex location is now open for business.  It is located near St. George station, so it can be expected that hordes of students from U of T will be getting their bubble tea fix in between classes!

Chatime Annex
337 Bloor Street West
Toronto, M5S 1W7
416-901-5660
www.chatime.com

Longo's Corned Beef Sandwich

I’ve been lucky to have attended many Raptors games this year and deciding on what to eat before the game is always a struggle! Many are in a rush to make it for a 7 pm night game after work, but don’t want to get ripped off with Air Canada Centre food and beer pricing.  My friends, Hugh + Roger recommended the Signature Corned Beef sandwich from the Longo’s Supermarket at Maple Leaf Square.  For $5.99+tax, you get a huge sandwich, loaded with a very generous amount of hot freshly cut corned beef and your choice of mustard.  With tax, it comes out to less than $7, and it also comes with a big dill pickle + coleslaw!  You can also choose pastrami or turkey for the sandwich, but corned beef is always featured as a signature item and the meat was really juicy.  The Deli stops serving the sandwiches around 6:30-7 pm, so make sure you go early. This is a delicious pregame food option, close to ACC, that doesn't break your wallet.  It’s a nice surprise, especially when it costs more than $15 for 1 large beer at Leafs + Raptors games.   Definitely going to grab one of these sandwiches tonight before the Raptors take on James Harden, Dwight Howard, Jeremy Lin and the Houston Rockets tonight!

Longo's Supermarket at Maple Leaf Square

15 York Street

Toronto, ON, M5J 0A3 

(416) 366-1717

Panera Bread Workshop with Tom Gumpel.

bread!...About a month ago, I had the chance to take part in a Bread workshop at George Brown College.  This was an event run by Panera Bread to celebrate the opening of their new down town Toronto Bakery/ Cafe @ Yonge and Edward that opened on January 24, 2012.  I received an invitation to come to this workshop to try their food and also to learn about bread/ baking from Culinary chef Tom Gumpel.  I had honestly never heard of him before, but he has a loaded culinary resume- Captain of the World Cup of Baking winning 1999 U.S. Baking Team and named America's Top Ten Bread Bakers by Dessert Professional Magazine.  This was the first time I had heard of these accomplishments, but the most impressive title to me was that he referred to himself as Panera's Chief of Bread (his official title is Panera's Vice President of Bakery Development)!

I was super excited to check out the workshop, especially with promises of great lunch and a chance to sample some of Tom's bread recipes, while learning about bread from a true pro. I headed to George Brown on the day of, and there were about 10 other bloggers/ food writers attending the events. We all helped ourselves to a prepared lunch of sandwiches, breads, cake, salad- all of which were menu items at Panera Bread stores.  I had a chance to try their BRAVO sandwich, which consisted of smoked turkey breast, bacon, smoked gouda cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, some sauce on tomato basil bread.  I was told this was one of their most popular items and it was definitely tasty! The bread was really fresh as expected and once I heard smoked gouda cheese, I had to grab this sandwich.  I also tried their Fuji Apple Chicken salad, which had little apple chips in it!

After stuffing my face with the the lunch provided, Panera Chief of Bread, Tom Gumpel began his workshop, where he talked about the history and many uses of bread in today's society.  To start the workshop off, we each ripped off a giant piece of french bread, just to touch, smell and feel. I learned some pretty cool stuff about bread.. did you know that french bread is shaped after a walking stick and ciabatta after a slipper?!! There were 2 recipes he also showed us, and more importantly let us taste! haha.  The first was an Asiago Strata, a savoury bread pudding, that although not a Panera menu item, pretty much anybody could make at home. People often use stale/ left over bread for bread puddings, but Tom advised that fresh is the best! He had thinly sliced pieces of Asiago bread and basically layered it along with Asiago Cheese in a pan.  This was followed by pouring a creamy mixture of eggs, cream and pepper and finally baking the whole thing.  This was delicious, with no real overpowering flavours and hints of cheese throughout.
The recipe is below if you want to try making it yourself at home (taken from Toronto Star Food Editor Jennifer Bain, who also attended the event):

Panera Bread/ Tom Gumpel's Asiago Strata

Ingredients:

• Softened butter, at room temperature
• 2-1/2 cups (675 mL) half and half cream
• 2 large eggs
• Pinch cracked black pepper
• About 1-lb (450-g) loaf asiago bread, cut in 1/4-inch (1/2 cm) slices
• 1 cup (250 mL) shredded asiago or other hard cheese

Generously rub sides and bottom of 8-inch (20-cm) square baking dish with butter.

In large mixing bowl, whisk cream, eggs and pepper.

To assemble, place layer of bread in prepared pan, cutting pieces as needed. Sprinkle with cheese. After 3 layers, pour about 1/3 of cream mixture. Repeat, leaving 1/4-inch (1 mL) space at top of dish and finishing with remaining cream mixture. (Reserve any remaining bread for another use.) Let stand 15 minutes.

Place dish on baking sheet. Bake in centre of preheated 425F (220C) oven 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F (180C) and bake until richly dark and slightly puffed, about 30 minutes. (It will settle back after being removed from the oven.) Run knife around edges. Let stand 15 minutes.

Place large plate over top of pan, in one slow motion, flip plate and pan together. Place on counter. Let strata fall from pan onto plate. Cut into 2-inch (5-cm) squares, or as desired.

Serve hot or warm.

Makes 16 small servings.

In addition to the bread pudding, Tom also made an Autumn Harvest Panzanella recipe.  This was a cooked bread salad made with fresh vegetables that he picked out at nearby St. Lawrence Market that morning.  It was quite interesting as I've never had a cooked salad before, let alone with bread! The new down town Panera Bread is the 4th location in the GTA.  If you're like me and had heard of Panera, but never tasted their breads, it's probably because they have over 1000 locations across the US. I had a great time learning the ins and outs of the bread industry in north america and would like to thank Tom Gumpel, Panera Bread and Diana Conconi, for organizing and running this tasty event!  They even gave me a some free swag to take home!

Panera Bread (Downtown Toronto)

322 Yonge Street

Toronto, Ontario

M5B 1R8

(416) 205-9371

Fickle Viet Chinese Cuisine.

pho in the downtown core!... Fickle is a Viet/Chinese restaurant downtown Toronto that has been open for about a year.  I was quite ecstatic when I heard about a pho place opening up around Yonge and College, where fast food joints are a dime a dozen. If you walk or drive by, their crazy interior lighting/ decor will really draw your attention.  The restaurant looks kind of like a club with colour changing walls and ceiling.  The entire place slowly changes colours while you are eating, which is kinda trippy (reminded me a bit of the mood lighting they use in planes during a long flight to HK).

When I first tried this restaurant, they definitely had their share of problems, especially slow/ inadequate service (waited 45 mins for food, clearly understaffed, no water refills, missing orders), but I recently went again and things have definitely improved.  Fickle has an extensive menu of chinese, viet and asian fusion type items, but I was here strictly to eat some Beef Noodle Soup aka Pho close to where I live.  The Pho comes in 2 sizes, Regular ($7.99 + tax/tip) and Large ($8.99 + tax/tip).  It is served with slices of lean beef and 2 out of the following items: Brisket, Soft Tendon, Beef Balls, Tripe. There isn't much variety in the pho- especially with the absence of chicken, seafood and curry pho choices! Aside from the inflated prices (the Regular and Large sizes are more like Small and Medium bowls at other places), the Pho is decent and comes with the usual tray of beansprouts/ lime.  For $9.99 + tax/tip, you can have the Fickle Special pho, which comes with a mix of all the meats listed above (kinda like #101 at Pho 88).  I also tried their viet Spring Rolls, which they call Fickle Spring Rolls ($4.99 + tax/tip).  These were good deep fried viet spring rolls that came with 2 rolls cut up. 

In terms of pho, there are definitely better places across the city (and cheaper), but the convenient location just north of College TTC station will keep my coming back when I don't want to travel far to get my fix of Pho.  They have lots of items I haven't tried and any feedback would be great if you have been to this place. The service at Fickle recently was pretty good and it seems that things are running much smoother than half a year ago.  Alcohol is served here, so you can get wasted and jam out to the colour changing walls! haha.

Fickle Viet Chinese Cuisine

507 Yonge St

Toronto, ON 

M4Y 1Y3

(647) 351-3529

Ali Baba's Middle Eastern Cuisine.

shawarma!... I wrote a post last week about a very disappointing shawarma place, and its good to know you can still grab some tasty middle eastern food without getting blatantly ripped off.  After a study session for our PT exams, we headed out to grab a quick bite at a Ali Baba's Middle Eastern Cuisine at Dundas and University.  Most people have probably seen one one of these Ali Baba's around Toronto as they have a ton of locations around Toronto, so this review is specifically for the one on Dundas near University.  I've walked by this place many times in the recent months and it has always seemed packed at lunch, where they have a different special every day of the week. We went on a saturday and grabbed the Friday/Saturday special, which was 2 Shawarma Plate Dinners for $13.99 + tax. We chose 2 Chicken dinner plates (you can get beef instead), and for $7 each, it was a lot of food.  The plate was loaded with a yellow buttery rice, pickled turnips and some different salads.  They freshly shaved and grilled the chicken for us which was nice to see as some places just give you cold/ old pieces of meat. You can also ask them for a pita on the side, which they toast for you although they didn't seem to give this out unless you actually asked.  It wasn't the best shawarma but tasted better than I expected for the price.

This place seems to have 10+ locations around Toronto, so I would expect some differences in food/ service/ deals. For this location specifically, the best deals appear to be on $8.29/ 2 Chicken Shawarma Sandwiches (Mondays) and $8.29/ 2 Beef Shawarma Sandwiches (Wednesdays).  The service is what you'd expect at a fast food type place, but this place is a pretty decent spot for a quick bite- expect it to be busy during weekday lunches. It's also open pretty late, not exactly sure but I've seen it open around 2 am before.

Ali Baba's Middle Eastern Cuisine

197 Dundas St W

Toronto, ON

M5G 1C8

(416) 538-7001

Bannock Grab and Go Cafe.

lunch!... I was around the Eaton centre for lunch, and really didn't feel like anything from their new Urban Eatery food court, where line ups and crowds are still the norm.  I didn't have much time and I had previously read about the newly opened "Bannock" at Queen and Bay  (right across from Nathan Phillips Square/ Eaton Centre south entrance).  Bannock is part of the Oliver & Bonacini line of restaurants in Toronto, specializing in "Canadian Comfort Food" and offers a dine-in area and a separate Take-Out Cafe (they call it a grab and go counter) + Coffee Shop, perfect for a quick lunch.  I tried  one of their artisan sandwiches: Smoke Salmon and Egg Salad on a Croissant ($8 taxes included).  They took my order and the guy made the sandwich for me fast! under a minute!  The sandwich was small, expensive, but all the ingredients including the croissant and salmon were very fresh tasting.  They even had some kind of dill flavoured mayo or sauce that made the sandwich flavourful yet light.  The Grab and Go counter is open monday to friday (7.30 am- 10 pm), saturday (8 am - 10 pm), and sunday (8 am- 6 pm).  In terms of take out, they also offers soups, salads, breakfast wraps, stews and even some dine-in menu items (Bannock Grab and Go Menu -Menu items may vary).
Side Note: I definitely plan to try out their dine-in menu! Just taking a peek at their menu and reading yelp reviews, I noticed they have a Smoked Duck Poutine Pizza! and also Bannocks (some type of traditional scottish/native/Canadian flat bread). Definitely need to try and report back.

Bannock

401 Bay St

Toronto, ON M5H 2Y4

(416) 861-6996

Golden Thai.

thai... For the past 5 weeks, I've been doing a placement for Physiotherapy at St. Mike's Hospital and in the last week, Jaimie, the Physiotherapist I'm working under, generously treated me and some students to lunch! We decided to check out a place called Golden Thai on Church street, which is conveniently located walking distance from St. Mike's Hospital (and Eaton Centre). It is a pretty busy place for lunch. The inside looks pretty nice with traditional looking decorations throughout the restaurant. The seating arrangement is quite spacious and the atmosphere seems more relaxed compared to other busy lunch places around the area.

Upon being seated, we received lunch menus, which is what we all ordered from. There was a list of about 10 items (ranging from $7.95 + tax/tip- $9.95 + tax/tip) including things like Pad Thai, Salmon Curry, Pattaya Chicken/Shrimp/Beef. There were also Combo Options where you get to choose different items to go along with fried rice, noodles (yes, both noodles and rice!) and a salad (1 item- $5.95+ tax tip, 1 item + Vegetable Spring Roll- $6.95 + tax/tip, 2 items + Vegetable Spring Roll- $7.95 + tax/tip, 3 items + vegetable spring roll-$9.95 + tax/tip). There was a list of items you could choose from which included: Ginger Chicken, Lime Leaf Beef, Sweet and Sour Pork, Butterfly Shrimp, Spicy Calamari, Grilled Eggplant, Peanut Tofu.
I ordered the Pad Thai Plate ($7.95 + tax/tip, pictured top right), which came with shrimp, chicken, pad thai noodle, some veggies and a vegetable spring roll + a spicy/sweet dipping sauce. It also came with typical crushed peanuts that come with Pad Thai. I found that the Pad Thai noodles were a little too dry and was lacking some flavour, as I ended up dumping all the spring roll dipping sauce into the noodles. The portion was not too big either. There were about 2-3 pieces of shrimp wrapped around a deep fried dough, making it crispy as you bit into the shrimp.

Everybody else ordered the Combo Option (mentioned above) with 2 Items + fried, noodles fried rice, some veggies and a Vegetable Spring Roll ($7.95 + tax/tip, pictured middle left and bottom). The first impression of these combos were that the portions were huge. They piled on plenty of everything. Everyone different things including ginger beef, eggplants, peanut tofu, etc (as mentioned above). Most people at our table who ordered these combos had some trouble finishing it all or ended up only eating some!
Golden Thai is a decent place to have a nice quick lunch if you are in the downtown area as it is walking distance from Eaton Centre. The food isn't the greatest for a Thai place, but the prices are quite cheap as all the lunch menu items are below $10 (before tax/tip) and the place itself is nice and spacious (good place to go with a larger group of people and make reservations).

• Parking: park on the street (on Richmond), it is downtown though, so don't expect free parking around here
  

Golden Thai
105 Church Street
Toronto, Ontario
416-868-6668

Bangkok Garden.

thai... last weekend was my friend Pris' birthday and she invited a bunch of people out and we all went to a Thai restaurant downtown called Bangkok Garden. From outside, it looks pretty small, but once you walk into the dining area its very spacious and nicely decorated with lots of wood everywhere (really cool lights that look like wooden birdcages too!). Looking through the menu there were lots of different dishes including curries, noodles and grilled items as well (there were dips with many of their items as well, lol). We decided to order a bunch of appetizers to share first including a Satay ($7.95 + tax/tip), which were assorted thin marinated pieces of meat (pork, chicken and beef) on a stick with a vinegary type of dip and a peanut dipping sauce on the side. The satay was alright and I definitely prefer the dipping sauce. For appetizers, we also got the Thai Calamari ($7.95 + tax/tip) and Steamed Mussels ($7.95 + tax/tip). The calamari was pretty simple, as they were literally just normal deep fried calamari rings with some chili dip on the side (normal calamari rings taste awesome though!). The steamed mussels didn't really stand out to me, although it came with 10 of them and some spicy sauce on the side. For $7.95, it's an ok deal as you can compare it to mussels at Richtree where it costs $6.89 + tax/tip for 1/2 a pound (about 10-12 mussels).
I decided to be safe and go for a curry (which I knew would like for sure), I got the Emerald Curry of Chicken (green curry with chicken, $19.95 + tax/tip). A bunch of us also got the Tamarind Beef Curry (a tangier curry with beef and potatoes, $19.95 + tax/tip) and Vegetable Curry (vegetables and tofu in red curry, $16.95 + tax/tip). They also brought our whole table two huge bowls of rice to share and there were unlimited refills for the rice. The curries were all pretty normal, nothing special about them, especially for the nearly $20 price tag. My green curry chicken was rated at 4/5 peppers on the menu, although it was only moderately spicy, so if you like real spicy make sure you ask them to make your curry extra spicy. Pris had previously been here and suggested the Grilled Cornish Hen and Lemon Grass ($19.95 + tax/tip), which my friend Chris got. This dish was sick, it was a deboned and marinated cornish hen grilled really nicely. They were perfectly grilled and very tender pieces of the cornish hen. It also came with an orange dipping sauce, but the cornish hen itself was good enough. Also ordered were the Pattaya Grill (grilled marinated chicken breast with chili sauce on the side, $18.95) and the Ginger Duck (stir fried pieces of duck with ginger, garlic, onion, peppers, $21.95). The ginger duck came with a surprisingly generous amount of duck and went really well with rice as well.
Bangkok Garden is a decent Thai restaurant located downtown at Elm and Yonge. The food is alright and the place itself is very nice inside. It is a good place to go if you are looking to go out for to a nice Thai restaurant with a nice setting downtown. The place seemed pretty busy on a saturday night, so making a reservation wouldn't be a bad idea. Bangkok Garden is easily accessible from the Dundas TTC subway station. Although, I would suggest trying out Xaphire on Eglinton, which is pretty much half the price and equally as good or better food (check out the Xaphire Review).

Bangkok Garden
18 Elm Street, Toronto
M5G 1G7
416-977-6748