Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 2301 Brimley Road
Type of Meal: Dinner

Dragon Dynasty is like many uptown Chinese restaurants – located in an unassuming strip mall in a suburbia neighbourhood.  It’s one of the nicer restaurants located in Scarborough that I often visit and thought I’d take this opportunity to share with everyone a Chinese banquet meal.

Ten course dinners are typically eaten on special occasions including birthdays and holidays.  Restaurants will offer a multitude of menu options with varying in price ranges. The one in this blog is just one of many offered by Dragon Dynasty. 

The first course is almost always some sort of roasted meat.  In this menu it was an entire roasted suckling piglet but sometimes can be an assorted meat platter.  The one served this night was one of the best I’ve ever had – the pig was cooked perfectly so that the meat was tender and juicy but the skin extremely crispy and delicate.  There was just a paper thin layer of fat between the skin and the meat that added great flavour.  You can eat it plain, with hoisin sauce (my preference) or with sugar.



The second course is generally a seafood based appetizer. Normally, the most popular version is the deep fried crab claws, but with this menu we were served baked stuffed conch (?).  I appreciated the change and found the curry an interesting flavour with the vegetable, conch and other seafood pieces.  For those that are squeamish about ingesting snail like creatures, the mixture is not slimy and the spices mask most of the texture and tastes.  Almost like an oyster Rockefeller, but without the cheese, the dish was wonderfully hot and delicious.



Oddly, in Chinese set menus the soup is normally served fourth.  We had shark fin soup with crab meat at this dinner.  I know about the horrors of how sharks are de-finned and thus have vowed to never order the dish myself.  But, to respect the elderly during times of celebration I will eat it if served.  I was surprised to see it given I had thought it was banned in Toronto, but, it appears the ban has been over turned. 

To be honest, I could make do without shark fin and was just as happy when restaurants were serving crab and fish maw soup as a substitute.  What makes shark fin soup good is the soup base, not the shark fin.  The base is generally made by boiling chicken bones, Jinhua ham and other ingredients for a long time.  The shark fin is tasteless given it’s really cartilage and has a crunchy, smooth, yet gelatinous texture.  Shark fin soup tastes good because of the melding of ingredients creating an “umami” taste – akin to having a bowl of ramen; the noodles themselves have no taste but become perfection with the right soup base.



These final five dishes are served at the end of every Chinese banquet – chicken, fish, lobster (sometimes substituted with crab), noodles and rice. As soon as you see one of them, you know you’re at the half-way point!


The deep fried chicken was moist with crispy skin and well-flavoured. The chicken was flavoured with a peanut mixture which didn’t add much to it, I would have just preferred it plain or with green onions.  The person who cut the fowl needs to work on their technique as it ended up looking hacked up and haphazardly served.  Generally it should arrive cleanly laid out so that the entire chicken is distinguishable. 



For dessert we had sweet red bean soup with black sesame filled glutinous rice balls. It may seem strange to have beans with dessert and is an acquired taste.  The beans are boiled for many hours with dried orange rind, then once it becomes soft and bursts from its skin, rock sugar is added to sweeten the mixture. The soup itself is then thickened, sometimes with chestnut powder.  I love the glutinous rice balls and was disappointed there was only one per bowl; they are lovely balls of dough filled with a thick sweet black sesame paste.  These balls are usually eaten during Chinese New Year and symbolize togetherness.


As we were celebrating a birthday, we also had birthday buns.  These clementine sized steamed buns are filled with a sweet red bean paste and decorated with edible coloured dough. Dragon Dynasty makes great birthday buns with a generous filling to dough ratio.

The restaurant’s décor is slightly tacky with gold phoenix and dragons’ adorning the walls and strange patterned carpeting, but this is characteristic in many of the older Chinese restaurants.  What sets Dragon Dynasty apart is that their staff is relatively nice and attentive – sadly a quality that can hard to come by.  Additionally, I like that they maintain a good pace at serving each dish – not too fast that you feel like you’re rushing through them.   Ultimately, if you’re looking for a place that serves “real” Chinese food that’s clean and good, this is the place to go.   

Overall mark - 8 out of 10


Like the blog? You can now follow me on twitter for notifications - 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!

Read More

Location: Thornhill, Canada
Address: 8159 Yonge Street
Type of Meal: Dinner

Dahn, a known restaurant amongst the Korean population in Toronto, is one of the few that offers a set menu.  Akin to a tasting menu, except served family style, it's popular in Korea but hardly ever offered in Toronto. Having tried the typical casual Korean dining establishments, my friends and I agreed we had to expand our palettes. So, Dahn's set menu seemed like a great way to start.

The dinner menu costs $39.95 per person and has to be ordered by the entire table to be served. Given there are so many courses, in order to keep this review to a reasonable length, I'm going to only briefly comment on each.

To start came a bowl of red bean porridge. Is it normal to serve something so heavy to kick off a multi-course meal?  It was very thick and its gelatinous consistency makes it very filling so I only had a couple of bites to save room. It was bland and really no depth in flavour – this is no grits from Acadia.  I would have liked it to be hotter and perhaps have a sprinkling of fresh herbs on top to wake up the dish.



We were intrigued with what the "waterly kimchi" would be.  As soon as you see it, you realize the description pretty much explains everything. The presentation lacks colour and appeal since what arrives looks like pieces of turnip in dish water. Served cold, the "broth" is essentially the preserving liquid used to marinate the radishes. The soup tastes slightly sour and salty and could be refreshing in the summer. But, not a hit at our table as it gave the impression of drinking diluted pickle juice.




The daily salad looked appealing and colourful.  But, wasn’t anything spectacular given it consisted of ice burg lettuce, grape tomatoes, mandarin segments, a homemade  blueberry dressing and oddly a single maraschino cherry.  Not being a fan of fruit based salads I wasn’t a fan of the dish but one friend found the dressing good. Personally, I felt this dish didn't add much to the experience and Dahn should consider getting rid of it and making the following course larger.



The chilled bulgolgi salad was much better and one of my favourite dishes. The thinly sliced beef was well flavoured and had just the perfect amount of sweet and salty.  I loved that the marinade had micro pieces of garlic and shallots throughout.  Additionally, the crisp green beans at the bottom of the salad were unexpected and went really well with everything. I could have easily just made a meal out of this dish.



Next came a dish of cold seared tuna. The fish was cooked well with a great evenly seared ring.  But, I found it very bland as there was no notable crust and too little ponzu sauce topping the tuna.  Perhaps there was a flaw in the order of serving the dishes;  I would suggest serving this mild flavour tuna before the flavourful bulgogi dish.



The following japchae or Korean glass noodles was one of the best I’ve ever had.  I liked that they were less cooked so that the texture held up and didn’t cause the noodles to stick in a mound.  Additionally, the sauce had a great spicy undertone that added a little punch to the noodles.



Another popular dish followed - Korean pancakes. There were two flavours chives and mungbean.

• The chive pancake was a beautiful colour but lacked texture as there no actual pieces of chives in the batter. 
• Meanwhile, the mung bean version was much tastier with pieces of green onion throughout and a crispier crust.

The dish needed more of the soy dipping sauce as the pancakes themselves aren’t well flavoured.  Unfortunately, we ran out of the sauce so my second pancake ended up being relatively flavourless.



The deep fried marinated pollock was tasty but didn’t seem very Korean as was covered in a sweet chili thai sauce.  I liked its presentation in an edible bowl and deep frying the fish bone to add a decorative element.  Dahn gave a generous portion of fish so it was more than enough for the three of us.



More fried seafood followed with shrimp and pumpkin tempura.  The batter was very crispy but was too thick for my taste.  I certainly wasn’t expecting tempura at a Korean restaurant but then remembered their cuisine is influenced by the Japanese given Korea was occupied by Japan for a while.  I would have liked if they cooked the prawns another way since we had just been served deep fried pollock.



Korean barbeque followed with a platter of beef!  The assorted barbeque is a meat eater’s dream with cuts of flank steak, sirloin, short-ribs and marinated flank. The sirloin and marinated flank were definitely the highlights.  I would have like to have trade in the regular flank and short-ribs for a few pieces of kalbi instead.  I enjoyed the tradition of wrapping the beef in pieces of lettuce and topping the wrap with thinly sliced shaved onions. 



After all this food you finally get to the “main”.  Here, you get to choose from three options - chilled noodle soup, hot noodle soup or nurling (some rice dish).  We thought it was a shared plate like all the other courses so opted for the chilled noodle soup as we heard it was most popular.  But, it turns out each person gets their own dish; so, we would have rather have one of each so we could see the differences. 

At first I was weary of the chilled noodles as they arrived looking like they were in the waterly kimchi broth again.  But, it was less sour, and after a few bites really started to grow on me.  The best part was the texture of the noodles – they were very different from anything I’ve ever had and had a great al dente bite.  Next time I would like to try to hot version instead as found the cold soup a bit strange.  However, the dish was a great contrast after having all the heavy fried foods and barbeque beef.



The meal ends with a plate of fresh fruits (cantaloupe, strawberries and orange segments) and a choice of tea or coffee.  I opted for the traditional Korean cold tea which is prepared by brewing tea leaves with fruits, roots and other grains.  The result is a strongly flavoured beverage that doesn’t really resemble tea anymore.  Ours tasted like it was infused with mandarin orange peels and too sweet for my liking.  But, it could be that by then I was absolutely stuffed and just couldn’t handle a bite or sip of anything else!





 
I liked the restaurant itself – larger and cleaner feeling that most of the uptown Korean establishments.  Plus, they have private rooms that you can close the door at if you want some alone time with your companions.  The staff is friendly and there are so many food choices available. Their menu consists of many “favourites” (done better than most) and some more traditional offerings that I haven’t seen elsewhere.  Ultimately, I would definitely return to Dahn, albeit next time I’d just order off their a la carte menu. 



Overall mark - 7 out of 10



Like the blog? You can now follow me on twitter for notifications - 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!

Read More

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 222 Richmond Street West
Website: www.jabistro.com
Type of Meal: Dinner

Even standing outside you start to get a feel of what JaBistro is about. The whimsical cute fish character, just outside the door, brings a smile to your face as you walk into the establishment.

The interior décor is a combination of light wood (similar to traditional Japanese restaurants) and exposed brick. Unlike others, they are open concept, well-lit and has a clean and modern feeling.  As you enter and leave, there are cheerful greetings from the entire staff, much like Guu.  In fact, this combination sums up my description of JaBistro’s food – good traditional dishes with a highlight of modern twists, all served in a simple and unpretentious manner.

I requested to sit at the bar in order to better understand how their sushi was made.  Both young chefs playfully worked together and made you feel like they actually loved what they were doing.  Yet, they worked lightning fast and we received dish after dish without much of a wait.

The sencha (green) tea ($3) thankfully arrives in large mug complete with handle – too often I burn my fingers on the traditional cups.  A tea bag loaded with a generous amount of tea leaves is clipped to the side of the cup and served with a dish so that you can control the tea’s intensity.  Although I’m not a tea connoisseur, it was clearly high quality; strong in its green tea taste but has a very mellow and smooth finish.   


A great starter is the sashimi sampler ($30), where they split the dish into equal portions ensuring we both received a taste of everything available. All the fish was fresh and cut to a reasonable thickness so it didn't become fleshy.


I especially like the tuna and blue-fin tuna which were tender, delicate and as melt-in-your-mouth as fish can get. JaBistro also worked into the dish various fish parts that you normally wouldn’t think of eating, such as:

• A pile of crispy salty white flecks that were great to munch on between each piece of fish; these turned out to be fish scales;
• A piece of fish liver that had the creamy texture of foie gras, yet had a calmer taste and hopefully was cultivated without the cruelty of foie gras; and
• A soy-sauce gelatin cube infused with small pieces of fish skin.  At first, this may not sound appetizing but was actually an interesting concoction. 

The sashimi platter is something you should definitely try. It’s a great mix of ingenuity and level of detail that sets it apart from competing establishments. Even the soy sauce that accompanies the sashimi is house-made and presented as salty and sweet options and the wasabi is freshly ground from wasabi root. 

The kani ($15) followed and consisted of pieces of deep fried soft-shell crab served on a mixed bean ragout.  I was surprised by the amount of crab you receive – two and a half crabs in total.  It was fresh and juicy and wasn’t overly battered so that you could enjoy its subtle flavour.  Pieces of baked tortilla separated each piece and you could use these to scoop up the bean mixture that my husband loved.  I only wished the crab was spicier as the menu described it as “chili crab” and I couldn’t get a hint of the spiciness at all.


Next we received the aburi ($27) seven pieces of delicious blow-torched sushi.  There are four pieces in the classic nigiri (rice on top of fish) and three pieces oshi (pressed) sushi. 

Sitting at the bar we were able to see the chef make the pressed sushi.  Essentially, there is a white plastic mould that the chef lays pieces of fish/shrimp into and then packs with rice. After hitting it against the bar a few times, the mould is then inverted, a piece drops off and voila a bar of sushi remains and can now be cut into rectangular pieces.  

The oshi sushi is much denser is better for those who aren’t delicate at handling chop sticks as it can withstand more squeezing without falling apart.


Aburi is another example of the traditional/modern twist that JaBistro offers.  It’s traditional as the chef controls how it should be flavoured – the dish is not served with any wasabi or sauces.  But, the modern aspects of the dish are the mix of ingredients (adding a slice of jalapeno on the salmon and dollop of hollandaise on the shrimp) and blow-torching the tops to create a wonderful smoky flavour.  I especially liked the result on fattier fishes like salmon as the heat started to melt its fat so that the sushi’s flavour is enhanced.

I’m sure the ingredients used will change depending on what’s fresh, but that night we received pieces of blue-fin tuna (akami; loin), yellowtail, ocean trout, spotted prawn, salmon, cured mackerel and tiger shrimp.  A deep fried shrimp head accompanies the dish and is edible.  It was crispy and fresh but needed to be seasoned as was a bit bland.

Our final dish was the aburicious ($20) which contained six pieces of oshi sushi and two pieces of the JaBistroll.  We originally wanted an entire order of the JaBistroll, but were advised they didn’t have enough of the ingredients – salmon, snow crab, uni (urchin) and tobiko (fish roe).  So, we ordered the aburicious just so we could have a taste of it.  Our waiter did warn us that the aburi and aburicious were very similar (both consists of the oshi sushi), but we wanted to try both anyways so we could see how the blow-torched nigiri would taste.  My suggestion would be to just go with the aburicious.


The JaBistroll was the highlight of the dish and was just a flavour and texture explosion in your mouth.  There was the sweetness of the sauce, smokiness from the scorching, saltiness of the fish roe that also added some crunch and creaminess from the salmon and urchin.  I only wish we could have had another piece!

Despite being stuffed, we were in the mood for something sweet so ended with the matcha puff ($10).  It’s essentially JaBistro’s take on the cream puff.  The puff’s pastry is flavoured with green tea powder and is stuffed with whipped cream and a lovely sesame paste that added such a great taste.  Served with a scoop of green tea ice cream (nothing special and a bit icy for my taste), drizzles of black honey (tastes like a more intensified honey), pieces of toasted chestnut and speckles of gold leaf the matcha puff was great.


Aside from the great food, the service was impeccable.  Our waiter, Jin, was extremely attentive and checked in with each dish to make sure we enjoyed it and answered my many questions.  I was asked on many occasions if I’d like more hot water for my tea and on the last time when I didn’t need anymore, Jin brought me a glass of water without being asked.  Even the utensils that accompanied our desserts were polished and spotless. Most of all, I love how they actually accept reservations (unlike their other restaurants Guu and Kinton) so you do not have to wait in line!  JaBistro was great and I will definitely be returning to try more of their bistro dishes.

And I did return to try some of their bistro dishes, please go here to read about my second visit.

Overall mark - 9 out of 10

Like the blog? You can now follow me on twitter for notifications - 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:

• Kingyo
• Blowfish

---

Read More

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 91 Dundas Street East
Website: http://www.santouka.co.jp/en/index.html
Type of Meal: Dinner

The Santouka in Toronto is part of a large Japanese franchise with locations throughout Japan, Asia and North America. When my friend told me about the place, I was excited to try this "authentic" ramen restaurant. But, we were unsuccessful in the fall as the line was too long.  Luckily, during our second attempt we were finally got in after waiting for approx. 15 minutes.

If you can’t eat pork, you shouldn’t come here.  The broth is pork based and flavoured with a choice of:

• Shio - salt
• Shoyu - soy sauce
• Miso - fermented soybean paste
• Spicy miso

I opted for their signature dish the Toroniku Ramen ($15.95) in a miso soup base. The star of the dish is not the noodles, but rather the cha siu (roast pork) that accompanies it. Made from the jowl (cheeks) of the pig, the meat is very tender and delicate in flavour.  Some have described it to resemble the texture of seared fatty tuna; I wouldn’t say they are identical, but is the closest description of its consistency.  Unlike pork belly, there's only a thin layer of fat covering the meat so it is also quite lean.



Any healthiness in the meat is negated by the broth where a sheen of oil covers the surface.  The lard has an added benefit of retaining heat in the broth – the soup was wonderfully hot when it arrived and pretty much stayed that way for most of the meal.  But, it really didn’t add much in terms of taste and the oiliness was a bit off-putting.  The menu claims you can customize the amount of lard used in the soup, next time I’m going to get them to skip it.  Santouka’s soup was richer than most.  But, at the end was still just very salty broth.  Perhaps it’s because I ordered the miso version, which is such an over powering ingredient.  Next time, I will opt for the shio form and hope the essence of the boiled pork bone and seaweed will stand out more.

The noodles were good – perfect thickness (not too thin or thick), cooked so that it was al dente and still had the “springy” texture I expect.

Overall, each individual component of the dish was good.  But, I only wished there was a contrast of something crispy and bright to offset the heaviness of all the ingredients.  Escorting the dish of cha siu were sticks of bamboo shoots and what could be black fungus.  But, both of these items were well cooked and had the similar soggy texture and salty taste.  The one glimmer of hope was the handful of chopped green onions, which I happily added to my noodles to attempt to balance the greasiness and brighten up the flavours.

If you're feeling hungry, Santouka offers a combination plate, which consists of a regular sized bowl of ramen, small bowl of rice and half a hard-boiled egg. My friend ordered the pork miso and chicken rice combination ($15.50) and I got to sample a few bites of the rice. The texture and taste reminded me of stir-fried glutinous rice that you can get at Chinese dim sum restaurants, except without the bits of chopped mushrooms and sausage.  Maybe it’s because I had the rice after drinking the salty soup, but I found it bland. In the end, it was average, not really something that goes well with ramen.

Like most noodle places, seating consists of a mixture of stools along a counter and small closely laid out tables.  At this visit, we were seated at the counter where we got to peer into the kitchen; but, there really wasn’t that much activity going on.





The service is certainly fast - within five minutes of sitting down our order was taken and as soon as the last person laid down their chopsticks, bowls were whisked away and the bill presented. But, this is what gets turnover happening and the line moving. 

Overall, Santouka’s ramen was good, but not worth the wait.  I will eventually go back and try a different broth combination, but will likely not return until the line disappears.  Luckily, a plethora of ramen shops have sprung up across Toronto over the last year, so the waiting may end soon.

Overall mark - 7 out of 10



____________________________
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!

For further general discussions about this blog please refer to http://gastroworldblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/welcome-to-gastro-world.html

Read More

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 187 Bay Street
Type of Meal: Lunch

After having not visited the restaurant for two years, the surroundings still felt the same when walking in - comfortable banquette style tables and open layout of the dining room. This Winterlicious, I had a chance to eat here with my coworkers. Going on a Monday, they weren't overly busy and were able to keep a good serving pace. However, it still took over an hour and a half to get through the meal.

I was skeptical about getting the roasted cauliflower soup as was afraid it would be bland, but, ordered it anyways as felt like something hot on the cold winter's day.  But, the soup was surprisingly rich with a dollop of cream mixed throughout and drizzles of hazelnut oil. Topping the soup were some salty briny bits that tasted like fried capers, which was an interesting contrast to the smooth soup base. 



For the main I had the steak frites.  When ordering, I was surprised that the waitress didn't ask how I'd prefer the steak to be done in terms of wellness, but trusted that the chef knew best. Mine ended up being medium, a little more cooked than I normally prefer, but it was still tender and pink throughout.  The flat iron steak was a nice thick cut, which was great as sometimes restaurants slice it too thinly.

The steak had a Spanish twist of being rubbed in a chimichurri coating.  I appreciate Far Niente trying to mix up different flavours, but would have loved to have a sauce topping the steak instead to dip the generous portion of fries into. The frites itself weren't the normal shoe string thinness of most frites, but to be fair Far Niente did warn it was "home style".  The frites, although thicker, were still crispy and hot.  The garlic ketchup accompanying the frites was light tasting and not overly garlic tasting.  Finished with some vinegary coleslaw, it was nice to have to help cut the heaviness of the meat and potatoes.




I opted for the banana & Nutella s’more for dessert, thinking it would be a real s'more like their regular dinner menu.  But, this one was made "deconstructed" style. As always, the homemade marshmallow was great; although quite dense, it is still smooth in texture and not overly sweet. This dish included some caramelized bananas, drizzles of Nutella and caramel sauces and a sprinkling of graham crackers. All the ingredients went well together and wasn't too heavy.





Is Winterlicious worth it?

As a special feature to the Winterlicious blogs, I will attempt to calculate the savings being offered (based on my meal selection).

Winterlicious - $20

Regular menu - $46 - soup ($9), steak frites* ($28) and banana s'more* ($9)

Savings - $26 or 57%

* The steak frites and banana s'more isn't on their regular menu; prices based on the "bacon steak" and chocolate s'more

Overall mark - 8 out of 10




Like the blog? You can now follow me on twitter for notifications - 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!

Read More

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 401 King Street West
Type of Meal: Dinner

Wanting to have a ladies' night out, we decided to try Bloke and 4th's Winterlicious, knowing the food would not be excellent but at least we'd be in a lounge for drinks afterwards.  But, little did we know, numerous service issues would materialize:

1. The day before our dinner, my friend receives an Open Table notification noting Bloke has cancelled our reservation.  She has to call in to remake the reservation.



2. On the night of the dinner we call in to reduce the reservation by one person.  During this time, we ask if we can change our reservation to a later time, which the person on the phone agrees to.  However, they didn't update the system so upon arriving, we're advised we are late. Luckily, there are empty tables so they seat us anyways.



3. It takes a while to get our first round of drinks (about 25 minutes).  Upon arrival, our waiter proceeds to pour it into a glass that has a lip stick stain on it.  To his credit, he does apologize for this, exchanges the glass and opens another bottle to make up for what was already poured into this dirty glass.



4. We wanted to try to PB and J Bombs for dessert, but they are all out for the night.  We're given a vague explanation of the chef having to limit this dessert.  Honestly, the key ingredients are peanut butter, jam and Cornflakes - all inexpensive ingredients that have long shelf lives.  There really is no excuse to be stocking out of the dish, especially if on the Winterlicious menu there is only three choices.  At the very least, Bloke's should have offered another substitution that is off the menu.



5. Our mains arrive before the appetizers.  After informing the server of this error, he has to "go check with the kitchen".  Upon returning he agrees that the mains were premature.  Instead of just apologizing, he tries to explain that the mix-up is not the waiter's fault but is the kitchen's error.  As customers, we don't care, every employee of a restaurant is one team and blaming each other in front of customers is unprofessional.



6. Nonetheless, what the server did do right is immediately notify the manager who came to our table. Indeed it was great the manager apologized for the mix-up and after some prodding offered us another bottle of prosecco on the house.  They try to be generous and also give us a complimentary order of duck fat French fries.  But, the fries were horridly stale and hard.  At that point, we were so hungry, we ate some anyways.

My "appetizer" was the fire roasted tiger shrimp and was my favourite dish.  The shrimp were cooked perfectly and had many great flavours & textures complimenting it.  I like the hot sweet and spicy sauce brushed onto the shrimp and the accompanying cool corn, avocado and pineapple (?) relish.  The chips in the middle were elephant garlic chips which were interesting and tasted less like garlic and more like carrots or yams.




For the "main" my friend and I share the Bangkok slaw and Bloke & 4th mac and cheese.  Both were surprisingly small for a main dish:

• The Bangkok slaw consists of a handful of Asian dressing coleslaw, topped with one slice of seared tuna and about four pieces of calamari.  Each part of the dish tasted good, the coleslaw well dressed, refreshing and paired nicely with the warm seared tuna. The calamari was tender and not over cooked.  I just wished there was more of it!  If I had come during their regular dinner hours and paid $26 for this dish I would be disappointed in its value.

• The mac & cheese came in small Corning ware dish (in picture actually just a portion scooped onto a plate).  The pasta was cheesy and had a hint of spice from the chili sauce mixed into it.  But, compared to the numerous upscale mac and cheese dishes available across Toronto (O&B Cafe and Tundra just to name a couple) it was nothing spectacular.

For dessert I opted for the molten lava cheese cake, a big disappointment when I had my hopes set on the deep fried peanut butter and jelly concoction.  Sadly, Blokes needs to invest in hiring a pastry chef or consider outsourcing their desserts.  The dessert tasted like something I could make at home with store bought molten lava cake mix stuffed with a piece of frozen cheese cake. Even the salted caramel and bourbon sauce didn't help improve its caliber. 




Overall, the food actually tastes pretty good. Nonetheless, I will not return for dinner given Bloke appears to have problems with executing dinner service. There needs to be someone responsible for quality control from what comes out of the kitchen and how drinks are served.  Something as simple as checking all the utensils and dinnerware to ensure they are clean before using is easy to implement. I appreciate the manager tried to resolve the issues by giving us two bottles of prosecco for free. However, this isn't a profitable business model to follow - giving away the highest margin items.      


Is Winterlicious worth it?

As a special feature to the Winterlicious blogs, I will attempt to calculate the savings being offered (based on my meal selection).

Winterlicious - $35

Regular menu - $52 - tiger shrimp ($18), Bangkok slaw ($26) and lava cake* ($8) 

Savings - $17 or 33%

* The lava cake isn't on their regular menu; prices based on similar dish


Overall mark - 5.5* out of 10

* What saved the restaurant was having the manager step in quickly and providing enough complimentary items to make up for all the things that went wrong.  Otherwise, it would have likely gotten a 3.



Like the blog? You can now follow me on twitter for notifications - 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!

For further general discussions about this blog please refer to http://gastroworldblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/welcome-to-gastro-world.html

Read More

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 155 Wellington Street West
Website: http://www.theshoreclub.ca/
Type of Meal: Dinner

The Shore Club, situated beside the Ritz Carlton, is surprisingly spacious.  The enormous restaurant is split into smaller areas using wooden walls adorned with artwork and backlit decorations, which makes each section cozy despite its size.  

As we settled into the plush velvet booths, the hostess whisked away the white napkin in front of me and handed me a black one instead.  It's only later my friends and I start noticing some have white napkins while others have black... what is causing this?  Not being able to decipher a pattern we finally ask our waiter.  It's simple, it depends on your clothing - people wearing dark clothes are given the black napkin - so that any lint that may be left on your clothing will not be noticeable.  Genius!  And it's this attention to detail that sets the Shore Club's service above the many other restaurants across Toronto.

The service that night was exemplary.  Despite being a table of nine, five staff members served each course to ensure we could all start eating at the same time.  Moreover, I cannot remember once in the night when my wine or water glass was ever empty.  After the disappointing service at my last two meals, refer to Lucien and Urraca Resto Lounge blogs, it was refreshing to go to a place that does it right!  We were even served warm, freshly baked bread for free (once again refer to Lucien).

I chose the arugula, pear and brie salad to start.  The poached pear was beautifully presented and was a great texture (not too soft) and flavour (not too sweet).  It would have been nice if the pear was warmed up to compliment the cold brie and arugula.  But, overall was a good salad and tossed in the perfect amount of dressing. 


My first bite into the New York striploin presented mixed emotions; I was happy with all the flavours of the grainy mustard rub and wonderful steak jus, but disappointed that my steak was overdone.  After giving away slices to my husband and continuing to eat, I realized that the remaining two thirds of the steak were cooked well.  After trying some of my husband's halibut, which I thought was nicely cooked albeit a tad under seasoned, he commented on how his fish was also overcooked on one side only.  So, it appears, the Shore Club may have some issues with its cooking surface or warming areas that is causing one side to cook faster than the other. 


Nonetheless, the meal was good.  The beluga lentils at the bottom of the halibut were great and soaked up the romesco sauce.  You can imagine them to taste like a cheesy barley risotto, except a bit firmer.  The sides that accompany our mains were served table style so we were able to mix and share: 

• The green beans were great - thin and crispy;
• The steamed broccoli is exactly as it sounds, a bit bland and boring; and
• The steak house fries were disappointing and tasted like the frozen McCain variety.

To complete the meal, we pretty much all had the sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream. I loved it! The warm toffee cake itself was surprisingly light and not too dense. I enjoyed that the caramel sauce was poured around the cake so that it didn't become too sweet.  As always, nothing goes better with a warm dessert as some rich, cold vanilla ice cream.


After this visit, I went back to the restaurant for their normal menu, visit my more recent post for my thoughts on this visit.

Is Winterlicious worth it?

As a special feature to the Winterlicious blogs, I will attempt to calculate the savings being offered (based on my meal selection).   

Winterlicious - $45

Regular menu - $68 - salad* ($10), striploin steak ($40), side of green beans ($8) and toffee pudding* ($10) 

Savings - $23 or 34%

* The salad and toffee pudding aren't on their regular menu; prices based on similar dish


Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10


Like the blog? You can now follow me on twitter for notifications - 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!

For further general discussions about this blog please refer to http://gastroworldblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/welcome-to-gastro-world.html

Read More