Hazel's Diner (Toronto)

Posted on Sunday, November 12, 2017 by

After seeing the queue forming outside Hazel’s Diner, I’ve been intrigued by the all-day breakfast establishment… what flap jacks are they serving that makes people line up from 9am to noon (sometimes even during weekdays)? Having finally made it through the door, my conclusion is Hazel’s is so popular due to its location (being part of a busy neighbourhood where there’s no other diner) and their reasonable prices.

Their all-day breakfast includes the staple two eggs, bacon, toast, and home fries. While it’s normally $9.95, on Monday and Friday before 11am the price decreases to $6.99. Everything is done solidly: the scrambled eggs fluffy and actually tastes like eggs, the bacon crispy, and the home fries incorporate well caramelized onions giving it interest.  


In retrospect, had I known how large their pancakes were, we wouldn’t have added on a half stack ($8) to share. Each pancake is about the size of a plate and even the half stack is more than enough to satisfy a person. I could only muster through a small half of one pancake given it was so doughy and dense; they are also rather tasteless so relies heavily on maple syrup for flavour.


Their freshly squeezed orange juice is a great alternative to caffeine and available in small ($3) and large ($5) sizes, a rather reasonable price for a freshly squeezed variety.


Would I ever wait in line to return to Hazel’s? Likely not. But, their food is respectable and well-priced, so if there’s ever not a wait again, I’ll return for another savoury breakfast fix.

Overall mark - 7 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 3401 Yonge Street


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____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:
 Hazel's Diner Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


CLOSED: Hot Star Large Fried Chicken turns 2 and they're celebrating!

Posted on Saturday, November 11, 2017 by

Hot Star, Toronto’s famed XXL fried chicken purveyor, is celebrating its 2nd anniversary this November. It seemed like just yesterday the face-sized pieces of crispy fowl came onto the scene and elicited long line-ups downtown; walk around Yonge Dundas Square and every other person seemed to be holding a monstrous piece of chicken.

As if they weren’t busy enough, their chefs decided to stuff the fried chicken with cheese and things really got hectic. After Blog TO did a spot on the new product and the queues got even longer. A tip for those who want to try this crazy concoction without the wait, Hot Star has a much calmer location in North York (there are also Pacific Mall and Waterloo outposts).

Having tried the stuffed fried chicken, heed my advice and use a knife and fork – the molten cheese centre is gooey and hot! At first, I was taken aback by the slightly sweet coating on the chicken (the spicy may be better) but it grew on me and thankfully the crust is nice and thin.


Meanwhile, the chicken is thicker and shorter than the XXL fried version, allowing it to retain more moisture. Despite being stuffed with an ample amount of cheese, it surprisingly isn’t heavy.


Celebrate with Hot Star, as they mark their 2nd anniversary with these specials:
  • November 11 & 12: the first 50 people at the downtown and Waterloo locations will receive a free original fried chicken
  • November 11 to 17: 20% off all orders at all Hot Star four Ontario stores – perfect for those who want to try the cheese filled option.

Disclaimer: The above meal was complimentary. Rest assured, as noted in my mission statement, I will always provide an honest opinion.
How To Find Them
 Location: 374A Yonge Street, Toronto
                255 King Street North, Waterloo


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Stack (Toronto)

Posted on Sunday, November 05, 2017 by

When firing up the Big Green Egg is too much of a hassle, my husband and I go to Stack for our barbequed meat fix. With a huge smoker displayed in a glassed-in room, Stack is the real deal; they’re not preparing “barbeque” in a regular oven or salamander. Thanks to the equally powerful exhaust system, even with the centrally located smoker, the dining room only has a hint of smoldering wood and smoked meats aroma.

As expected, their pulled pork ($12) arrives with plenty of barque mixed into the mountain of meat. With three versions to choose from, the North Carolina version was my husband’s first choice – the vinegar based sauce has a pucker inducing quality that also helps mellow out the fattiness of pork. Indeed, the meat was full-flavoured and delicious, but the dense bun made the sandwich heavy and it felt like the carbs were at odds with the protein. Perhaps switching to a lighter brioche would make the pulled pork even better.


All sandwiches arrive without sides; the tacked on fries ($5) were an amazing combination of fresh cut potatoes, hot temperature, and crispy edges. They were much better than the house salad ($5.50), where the citrus vinaigrette was sickeningly sweet. Resourcefully, I salvaged fallen pieces of pulled pork from my husband’s plate to flavour the salad in lieu of dressing.


Stack’s brisket dinner ($20.49) is a popular choice. Despite being very lean, the meat is tender enough, although I’d prefer it cut thinner so it’d be less chewy. Topping the meat is a sweet barbeque sauce that’s thick enough to wipe off if it becomes too much; personally, I really liked it and wished there was more sauce. Although the plate doesn’t come with the pickles and onions noted on the menu, there was a sizeable piece of warm corn bread. With the large basket of fries (you receive a choice of side), it’s a filling meal so prepare to leave with a doggy bag.


The fish tacos ($12) were surprisingly good for a barbeque restaurant. While the grilled catfish did get a little lost amongst the toppings and could benefit from the spicy sauce being placed directly on the fish (since it’s under seasoned), the thin corn tortilla was a great choice for a wrapper and each taco incorporated ample amounts of guacamole, pico de gallo, and roasted corn kernels (a great addition that really made the taco).


Although I still prefer my husband’s barbeque creations, it’s difficult to dedicate the hours of preparation and cooking required to make really flavourful meat. Thankfully, Stack’s smoker is always preparing something that actually incorporates the smoky aromatic essence. During weekdays and the winter, Stack is where to go.

 Overall mark - 7 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 3265 Yonge Street

 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:

Stack Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

King Taps (Toronto)

Posted on Saturday, November 04, 2017 by

Walking into King Taps I got a sense of déjà vu. Especially on the second floor, where the bar area seems to be a replica of another popular downtown Toronto hang out, both restaurants top choices for after work drinks. By 5:30 it’s packed. Despite it being early for dinner, I still had to wait about five minutes for the reserved table to be set-up - others are told it’ll be an hour wait.

I can see why King Taps is so popular - the atmosphere is casual, drawing in people of all ages, and their food is tasty but moderately priced.

There is of course a host of shareable plates for those who want to nibble. The poke ($16.50) is really tuna tartare, a stack of chunked Albacore tuna, mango, and avocado dressed with delicious miso sesame-ginger vinaigrette. Tempura bits are placed on top but most of the crunch comes from the deep fried wonton chips, which is light enough to not detract from the fish.


The steak frites ($27) is a good complete meal since it comes with a side of lemony Caesar salad. King Tap sources their steaks from PEI, the 7oz sirloin cooked to a perfect medium rare, tender and juicy. If you’ve never had beef from PEI, it's said that if the cow grazes outside, you can taste the minerals and salt in their meat due to the island’s proximity to the ocean. At King Taps, the steak was properly seasoned and the saltiness well balanced.


While I would have preferred the frites to be the thin variety, the chunky fries were nonetheless hot and crispy. The only oddity was the abundant side of horseradish that arrives with the meal; a condiment rarely seen outside of prime rib and there’s a reason – it’s too strong for such a lean meat. A side of au jus or aioli would work better.

If you like seafood, the salmon and prawn risotto ($26) is a great choice – there’s a large piece of salmon that’s moist and flakey and at least four fair-sized prawns mixed into the rice. The risotto’s consistency is spot on, creamy with enough broth so that it’s not overly watery or dry. The dish was also flavourful, perhaps a touch salty if that bothers you, but the chunky mushroom pieces helped tone the seasoning down.


Aside from the atmosphere and food, King Tap’s service is also commendable: staff members are friendly but are also great at managing the experience – our waitress advised that if she put our entire order into the system, the food would arrive together. Hence, she proceeded to enter our appetizer first and then when she saw it was received inputted the mains. For such a busy restaurant it’s a shame this is something staff need to look after, especially when it can be prone to errors; surely someone should look at the ordering system and have it set-up for a two stage firing from the kitchen.  

Thankfully, the dessert order isn’t something they need to remember as well. King Tap’s sweet offerings consist of a number of sundaes. The strawberry shortcake ($8) was a nice light sharable ending with a fair amount of soft serve-vanilla ice cream, layered strawberry compote, a few pieces of fruit, and crispy graham cracker crumb sprinkled over top. Not overly fancy, but executed well and priced decently, much like the rest of their menu. 

Oh and for beer aficionados they also have 50 selections on tap, some are even special collaborations with local breweries. Being a wine drinker, I didn’t crack into the tap, but nonetheless left with a happy buzz.   

Overall mark - 8 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 100 King Street West (in First Canadian Place)

 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:
King Taps Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

CONTEST: Win a pair of passes to the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo!

Posted on Friday, November 03, 2017 by

The Gourmet Food and Wine Expo ("GFWE") has got to be the largest food and drink event of the season. Occupying the Metro Convention Centre and entering its 23rd year vouches for GFWE's prominence and popularity.

Their extensive list of exhibitors ensures that no one will be hungry or thirsty. Despite the name, in terms of liberations, they offer more than just wine - beer, cider, spirits, and non-alcoholic options are available as well! But, they've also included travel operators and other service providers in case you need a brief non-indulging break.

Thanks to the folks at GFWE, Gastro World is giving away two pairs a tickets (valued at between $40-$80 for the pair) that can be used any day of the show! 

Entries will be accepted until November 11, 2017 at 12:00 AM. Sometime the following day, I will contact winners through email with further details. Accordingly, please make sure you enter a valid email address in Rafflecopter contest site. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
How To Find Them
 Address: Metro Convention Centre, North
                 222 Bremner Blvd

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CLOSED: The Borough (Toronto)

Posted on Sunday, October 29, 2017 by

For being a British colony, Toronto, surprisingly, has a lack of good English restaurants. We’re graced with more than our fair share of pub chains, but the menus are cookie cutter and none are exciting. While searching for a quick brunch place in East York, I was happy to stumble upon The Borough - the bright white and red restaurant isn’t your typical dark dank pub, but the food would even impress Mr. Bean.

Their Borough benedict ($15) is what lured me into the restaurant… the promise of my favourite breakfast main on top of Yorkshire pudding was irresistible. After experiencing the dish, I wouldn’t want it any other way. The cheddar cheese Yorkshire pudding was airy and fresh, its crevices perfect for cupping the medium runny egg yolk and hollandaise sauce. Unlike English muffin, which can be difficult to cut through, or biscuits that are way too dense, the pudding was doughy enough to hold up against everything else but not taste heavy. The old cheddar notes also made the benedict more flavourful than the typical buttery hollandaise.


The home fries smell and taste like chips I’ve had in the UK. There’s something about them – despite being cut larger and made of solid pieces of potatoes there’s a fluffiness to the filling. With a hefty helping of sticky warm molasses baked beans, you’ll leave stuffed.

If that weren’t indulgent enough, that day they had a special eggs benedict topped with pork belly ($18). I didn’t try it, but my friend loved the crispy crackling crust over each thick piece of meat. They also do a proper full English breakfast, which seemed popular with other tables.


Should I ever have to venture to the neighbourhood again, I’d return to the Borough for their evening meals. At last, there’s a decent English restaurant in the fray and they’ve combined Yorkshire pudding with eggs benedict – genius.

 Overall mark - 8 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 1352 Danforth Avenue


 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:


SOCO Kitchen for brunch (Toronto)

Posted on Saturday, October 28, 2017 by
SOCO Kitchen duck hash toronto

There aren’t many hotel restaurants I regularly dine at except SOCO Kitchen, its convenient downtown location and reasonable pricing has me returning. Past visits typically revolve around corporate lunches or dinner after work, but when we found ourselves hungry after a morning at Fan Expo (SOCO Kitchen is literally across the street from the Metro Convention Centre), that afternoon marked my first brunch visit.

Despite it being a busy weekend with tons of tourists, it wasn’t packed at SOCO and we could walk-in and secure a table. In due time, I was set up with a refreshing Blanche de Chambly strawberry and basil Collins cocktail ($8) where the light Belgian style wheat ale is mixed with gin, maple syrup, and lemon juice. While the cocktail contains a lot less fruit than in the picture, the two strawberries on top did give off a fruity aroma.

SOCO’s buttermilk pancakes ($14) are fluffy while still having a cake-like quality so it’s not like eating air. The batter has a brown butter salty flavour, so when combined with icing sugar, maple syrup, and whipped cream the pancakes don’t taste overly sweet. Overall, they’re really good pancakes, with enough flavour and well a lovely caramelized searing to the crust.


Their duck hash ($17) takes shredded duck confit and mixes it with roasted smashed potatoes to create an almost creamy savoury hash. On top, the fried egg with a touch of hollandaise makes it into an even more decadant breakfast. The dish could have benefited from more onion and bell peppers (to give the hash more texture and aesthetics) and the potatoes being cooked longer (so it develops a bit of a crust to help make the hash's components more distinct).


Don’t make the same mistake as me and order the breakfast potatoes as a side (forgetting that the hash already has potatoes). Get the side salad instead, especially since the meal also comes with bread – with all the carbs in makes for an extremely filling meal – a great option for fuelling up before a big day of exploring downtown Toronto or braving the slew of crowds at Fan Expo.

Overall mark - 7 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 75 Lower Simcoe Street (in the Delta hotel)

 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:


Darvish Restaurant (Toronto)

Posted on Sunday, October 22, 2017 by

For some people, their first impression of a restaurant is how it looks, whether it’s the establishment’s store front or an initial glimpse of the dining room. For me, a more important impression is how the place smells, the sense that intrigues my nose about things to come. Upon entering Darvish, it was the first thing that struck me – all the spices melding together with a faint smoky meat scent. Sure, their colourful tablecloths were nice, but that’s secondary.

Most of the heavenly aromas must come from Darvish’s stews. When our aubergine stew or bheymeh bademjoon ($16.99) was set on the table, it certainly made me inhale deeply, a calm yoga breath. You really can’t go wrong with a hearty dish spooned over the basmati rice, where the tomato sauce has a hint of citrus thanks to dried lime, which keeps it light while the split peas helps to thicken the sauce. The meat wasn’t immensely tender for veal, but good enough. I only wished there was more eggplant (especially since the stew was named after it), as the vegetable absorbed many flavours and I wish there was more than one piece.  


Make sure to choose the saffron barberry rice if you’re getting a kabob as despite looking regular basmati topped with cranberries, it's certainly more flavourful thanks to being cooked in saffron liquid. You’ll need the extra spice as the kabobs aren’t overly strong; tasty enough on their own but slightly plain without a flavoured grain.

We sampled a mixed kabob plate containing a skewer of koobideh and lamb ($18.99), I was pleasantly surprised by how moist the koobideh (a spiced minced meat) was as I find at most places it’s rendered into an overcooked hamburger. The lamb was tender and with a bit of the onion and parsley mixture helped augment its flavours and ensure there was no gaminess.


All in all, Darvish provides satisfying Persian comfort food. As much as they say ‘you eat with your eyes’, for me, I’m certainly eating with my nose as well. 

Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 508 Yonge Street

 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:

Darvish Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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