Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu (Toronto)

Posted on Tuesday, August 20, 2013 by
Location: Toronto, Canada
Type of Meal: Dinner
Address: 5445 Yonge Street
Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu is a popular destination location in the Yonge and Finch area.  On the weekend, it gets pretty busy, so expect to wait. But, this no frills restaurant is packed with tables and due to the limited menu, patrons turn over quickly so the wait is never too long.

 Soondubu jjigae (aka soon tofu soup or soft tofu soup) is Korea’s version of chicken noodle soup (without the chicken or the noodles).  It’s hearty and comforting, with the broth having such a depth of flavor, which is hard to describe – it’s spicy (depending on what type you choose) and savoury with an umami essence.  After doing some research online, the soup base appears to be made from anchovies, kelp and mushrooms giving you an idea of how the earthy savouriness of the soup comes about.  Then the soup’s spiciness is created by using kochujang (Korean chili paste) and/or red pepper powder. Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu specializes in this dish and dominates their menu.

If you’re not a fan of tofu you still need to give this a try.  The tofu used in the soup is silken egg tofu which has a very light taste and smooth custardy texture. Since the soup is very flavourful the tofu is never bland.  This may be the dish that makes you rethink your perspective of tofu.  

 Before the main arrives you get four banchan (sweet soybeans, bean sprout, kimchi and kimchi turnip) and an egg (which is raw and meant to be broken into the hot soup and stirred).  Use of the egg is a matter of preference – it makes the soup thicker and more stew like.  Generally, I leave out the egg as I prefer the soup to retain its wateriness.  

All the tofu soups are $7.53 and provide you with the ability to choose the type of ingredients accompanying the tofu and level of spiciness. In terms of types, I’ve tried the combination, seafood, dumpling and kimchi (kimchi is the one pictured below).  Really there is not a huge difference between the offerings since the soup base is the same.  I don’t particularly like the combination or seafood options as I find overdone rubbery seafood unappetizing.  My go to choice is the dumpling which consists of thinly sliced beef and a couple of average tasting dumplings.  On this visit I ordered the kimchi version (also has slices of beef and pork) as I’ve heard it’s their most popular one.  After trying it, I’ll continue to order the dumping version as the kimchi one is too salty.
You also get a choice of having the soup white (no spice), mild, medium, regular or spicy.  I can handle some spice and generally go with the regular one which has a good heat but doesn’t leave you chugging water.  However, if it’s your first visit you may want to try the medium and go from there. 

To retain the comforting heat of the soup, it’s served in a stone bowl.  Sadly, on this visit mine didn’t arrive bubbling away; something about the crazy bubbling makes the experience seem better.  Nonetheless, the soup was still hot and remained so throughout the meal.  
Don’t let the word “soup” fool you; this is still a hearty meal.  Each order also comes with a bowl of Korean black rice, which actually is a beautiful lavender colour once cooked.  Studded with a few green peas, the rice is served in its own stone bowl and is scooped out by the waiter in front of you.  Generally, the waiter will pour water into the stone bowl and let it soak with the remaining rice.  I tried it during my first visit and found the concoction disgusting.  Rather, I ask them not to add water and just leave the rice in the bowl so I can scrape off any of the crispy bits and eat them with the soup.

As a warning, just because there’s tofu in the title doesn’t make this a “healthy” meal.  According to the Toronto Star, the vegetable version of Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu’s soup contains 4,200 mg of sodium (which is 1,900 over the recommended daily intake). If that’s the vegetable version, I can only imagine how salty the kimchi variety would be. To be fair, the Toronto Star did test the meal with the side of kimchi and bean sprouts accompanying the meal; normally, these side dishes would be shared amongst the table so you wouldn’t eat the entire serving.  Additionally, I’ve never finished all the soup as I will stop drinking it after the other ingredients are finished which also cuts down on the ultimate consumption of sodium.

If Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu’s soup is full of salt, than their bulgogi ($8.85) should be tested for its sugar content.  The dish was ordered once to share amongst the table and found to be extremely sweet.  It’s certainly a dish I’d never order again.  My suggestion, stick with what they are known for – soon tofu soup a delicious dish that leaves you oh so satisfied.

Overall mark - 8 out of 10


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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!






Ja Bistro Revisited (Toronto)

Posted on Saturday, August 17, 2013 by
Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 222 Richmond Street West
Website: www.jabistro.com
Type of Meal: Dinner   

 This post is my second visit to the restaurant where I've had enough new dishes that I felt an update was warranted.  To read about my first experience and general thoughts of the restaurant please head over to my first review.
At last, we return to JaBistro to visit their new rooftop patio.  Although not very big, the layout isn’t crowded with tables so the patio feels rather spacious.  Additionally, we went for a late dinner so the after work drink crowd had already left leaving the middle bar stool seating area empty.  Given the surroundings were dark; I didn’t want to take pictures and annoy tables around us with large flashes of light.  So, for this post I’ve sourced the pictures from the internet and thus may not look exactly like the dishes we ordered.

Given my love for the JaBistroll ($22) on this visit we had to get the full order of it.  Luckily, they didn’t stock out of the snow crab again and by the time it arrived we were salivating!  Although still delicious, it wasn’t as good as the last visit.  Likely, it’s due to our proximity to the sushi chef on the first visit where we sat right at the sushi bar. When you sit on the patio, it takes time for the food to be brought up, so the JaBistroll lost the heat and smokiness from the blowtorch.  So, if you’re going for the taste - ask for sushi bar seating.  However, if you rather enjoy eating outdoors, be prepared to sacrifice the essence of the dish.

JaBistroll (1)

During this visit, the focus was more on the bistro side of the menu.  After noting they updated the kani ($15) to use coconut curry sauce we decided to try it again.  The soft shell crab was just as fresh and delicious as our last visit, but I did notice they have shrunk the dish and it now only includes 3 pieces (1.5 crabs) rather than the 5 pieces (2.5 crabs) we had the first time.  To be fair, the pieces were larger so perhaps the amount of soft shell crab is the same, it just makes sharing in large groups harder.

Kani (1)

The coconut curry sauce was an improvement to the chili and complimented the seafood well.  Unlike the curry crab dishes you may have at Malaysian restaurants, JaBistro’s sauce is a bit thicker and creamier.  Instead of pita chips our dish included fried shrimp chips.  Sadly, they were the regular run of the mill Chinese restaurant variety.  Rather, the chef should consider using the Thai/Malaysian version instead which is thicker (to help pick up the sauce) and is more flavourful.

My husband’s a huge fan of beef tartare so we decided to try their yukke ($11), which is essentially beef tartare with a quail egg on top. I was interested to see how they would add the Japanese twist to this normal steakhouse appetizer.  JaBistro’s adapation was served with pieces of toasted nori, in place of bread, and flavoured with ponzu and gochujang (a Korean red chili powder) to give it tons of flavour and heat. Topped with sprouts and green onion this was the best beef tartares I’ve had (although to be honest I’ve only had three so that doesn’t mean much).
Yukke (1)


Lastly, the gindara ($22) had to be tried given black cod is normally one of my favourite Japanese dishes.  I’ll admit I was turned off by the description on the menu, which noted the dish had bacon in it.  Unlike most individuals, these pieces of crispy smoked pork are sometimes good on its own with eggs but not something I like added to dishes it can be overpowering.  Fortunately, it was used in moderation and only speckled into the coating that crusted the cod and offered an interesting smoky saltiness to the fish. 


The fish itself was a nice thick piece and cooked well so that it flaked apart.  Thin pieces of crispy salty shrimp toast accompanied the cod; they were okay but didn’t really complement the fish.  In the end, there were just too much heavy ingredients and flavours used with the fish and just not my cup of tea. However, it’s a matter of preference, because my husband loved the gindara. But then again he loves bacon and I don’t so this dish is meant to be enjoyed by bacon lovers.  Alas, JaBistro, when will you make a version to suit people like me?!

All in all, the second visit was still a good experience and solidifies the 9 being given to JaBistro.  It’s good to see their quality hasn’t gone down and there continues to be a changing menu to provide some new excitement.

Overall mark - 9 out of 10


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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!
For further general discussions about this blog please refer to http://gastroworldblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/welcome-to-gastro-world.html
Photo Sources:
  1. JaBistroll, kani and yukke - JaBistro's Facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/jabistro222)


Dumpling Restaurant 餃子莊 (Toronto)

Posted on Thursday, August 15, 2013 by
Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 4385 Sheppard Avenue East
Type of Meal: Dinner

If my grandmother didn’t invite me to dinner at Dumpling Restaurant, I would have never known about the place.  Tucked away on the side of a small plaza I almost missed it if I didn’t know the address and was given detailed instructions of what to look for.   Their dining room is surprisingly large and filled with about 20-25 tables.  Unfortunately, because it’s a family run restaurant, they only have two front-of-the-house staff which means service is slow.  However, once your table is being served, the food comes out one after the other so despite the sluggish service a meal doesn’t take too long.


Let’s start with the dishes the restaurant is named after – the dumplings.  There are 17 different types of dumplings on the menu, most based with pork and some sort of vegetable (chives, mushroom, bok choy, celery, etc.).  If you’re unable to decide what to have they also have an assorted pork dumpling offering, which we didn’t order, but helps limit the decision making process.  Especially if you’re going with a small group and want to try different types.


Since we went with a fairly large table, we ordered four types to share.  I won’t post pictures of all the steamed ones since they essentially look the same from the outside:


·        Chives, egg, pork & shrimp dumplings ($5.99) and pork with mushroom dumplings ($5.99) – We had these steamed and they arrived hot in its bamboo container (yes that is steam in the photo).  The wrappers were nice and thin with the juice still trapped in the dumpling and my favourite of the three preparations.


 



·        Dumpling with tang hao ($5.99) – tang hao is a type of Chinese vegetable which has a weird acquired taste (not really my preference).  For this dumpling we asked the chef to boil them, my grandmother’s partiality.  The dumpling wrapper ends up expanding more and staying moist.  However, I feel the dumpling loses some of its juices and concentrated flavours.

 


·         Fried pork dumplings ($4.99) – nice and crispy and similar to pot stickers except smaller. 
 The Dumpling Restaurant serves much more than just dumplings, they also offer a number of other Shanghainese specialities.  Two of the “pancake” varieties we tried included the pancake with chive & egg ($3.99) which is almost like a Chinese empanada with a fair amount of egg, chives and vermicelli noodles sandwiched in between dough and then pan fried until it’s crispy on the outside.  If you like crusty things then this is the dish for you; I found the ingredients inside quite bland; this really needed some sort of sauce to wake it up. 
A more traditional pancake dish we ordered was the braised beef & pancake wrapped in foil ($4.99).  I apologize for not taking a better picture of the roll itself, but the inside the pancake are slices of beef and vegetables, which is then rolled, wrapped in a foil and toasted.  There was a generous portion of flavourful beef inside the wrap itself.  My aunt who loves this dish says it’s one of the better ones she’s had.

As if the meal didn’t encompass enough carbs, we also had the spicy & sour noodle soup ($5.99).  The noodles are house-made but unfortunately cooked too long so they become somewhat mushy.  The soup itself is certainly sour but lacks spice so was a bit of a disappointment.  They offer other types of noodles like fried noodle, wonton and sauce noodle that may be better options.

My grandmother loves fried sticky rice cake ($6.99) so we had to get an order.  A bit oily for my taste and needs a bit more sauce to give it flavour.  But, there was a good amount of vegetables, shrimp and pork that accompanies the Korean rice cakes and could be a meal in itself.


Some non-doughy dishes we ordered included the shredded meat & cucumber with vermicelli ($6.99), which is a misleading named as there is none of the ingredients listed in the dish itself!  No meat, cucumber or vermicelli, but rather carrots, eggs, cloud ear (?) and glass noodles.  Nonetheless, once the sesame sauce is mixed with everything the cold noodles are a suitable lighter option especially during the hot summer months.

Their sauced beef ($5.99) was the best I’ve had and was wonderfully tender and flavourful. It’s also served cold and meant to be an appetizer to nibble on before the mains arrive.  Unlike their other dishes that were a bit bland, the sauced beef was actually full of flavour.

Similarly, the crystal pork leg ($5.99) was also good.  I’m not normally a huge fan of this dish so only had a small piece to try and found it to be better than most.




 Dumpling Restaurant is a great find and I can sense I will return in the future.  It also offers numerous Korean dishes with the pork bone soup ($5.99).  In fact, before the food arrived we were presented with complementary banchans of kimchi and bean sprouts. 

On a return visit, I tried their pork bone soup ($5.99) which seemed to be a popular choice.  What it had going for it was the portion size - it comes with four bones, a bowl of rice, a wedge of potato and two large leaves of napa cabbage, I shared this along with an order of dumpling with someone and we were stuffed afterwards.  The meat itself is tender and falls off the bone from being boiled for a long time. 

However, the soup base is not as good as Owl of Minerva's version.  Still served in a stone bowl, it doesn't arrive bubbling so although hot it doesn't retain the temperature for as long.  I enjoy the spiciness of the broth but like other things at Dumpling Restaurant it's a bit bland so that the pork bones itself is pretty plain. So, if you want the quantity, this is where you go for, but if you want a taste Owl's still the place to go to in my opinion.

As a warning again, you will not be coming here for the service or the ambiance.  Additionally, the food is a bit bland so be prepared to use the chilli oil, soy sauce or Chinese vinegar included at the table.  Nevertheless, the dishes are fundamentally delicious and such great value.  After all, there are not many places that you can easily feed a group of 10 for less than $100.  The only drawback is their portion sizes; if you go with less than four people it’s hard to order many things as there are so many pieces of everything.  But, I guess there are worse problems to have.


Overall mark - 8 out of 10


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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!





Phoenix Restaurant 金鳳餐廳 (Toronto)

Posted on Monday, August 12, 2013 by
Location: Markham, Ontario
Address: 7155 Woodbine Avenue
Website: http://phoenixrestaurant.cc/templateEN/
Type of Meal: Dinner
Phoenix Restaurant is a “cha chaan teng” (tea restaurant) chain with two locations in Markham and one in Thornhill.  Cha chaan teng’s are popular in Hong Kong where they opened as an option for the common masses to eat Western style food, which historically was only afforded to those who were rich. The menus are generally large and vary with Asian options (noodles in soup, chicken and rice) and Hong Kong-style western dishes (steak, baked rice & spaghetti).  There are many tea restaurants across the GTA, each offering a la carte and set meals at affordable prices.
At Phoenix I had one of their set dinners, the XO sauce stir fried udon with seafood ($11.99) which came with soup, a mini croissant and drink.  To change the Hong Kong-style milk tea to cold, I added an additional $1.15 which as a percentage of the meal price is actually quite expensive.  But, I find this aromatic, smooth and strong tea is best enjoyed cold.  Made from black tea seeped for a long time and finished with simple syrup and condensed milk the tea is much richer and stronger than the regular orange pekoe. Phoenix did improve on it by serving the tea in a frosted glass and without ice so it stayed concentrated.

For the soup, I chose the non-creamy borscht option.  Unlike the original Ukrainian version which uses beetroot for the broth, the Hong Kong version is tomato and beef based.  Phoenix’s soup is spicier than others and very flavourful.  Rather than have a lot of small chopped up ingredients the chef left them in larger pieces so the soup ends up looking a bit plain and watery. It’s a bit disappointing that the regular cabbage, carrots and potatoes were missing as these vegetables add heartiness to the soup.

The miniature croissants are much like the ones that can be found in grocery stores, but they are toasted with extra butter spread onto it.  Luckily, they aren’t very big as the one small piece of bread must pack a big caloric punch!  Normally, most tea houses offer a sweet Chinese egg bun, which I would have preferred to the oily croissant.  
As soon as the XO sauce stir fried udon was put in front of me I wanted to dig in.  XO sauce is made from dried seafood, garlic and chili oil which gives the dish it’s added to a strong aromatic smell.  A fairly large portion of the udon was mixed with shrimp, scallop and squid that were actually a decent size.  Overall, it was a delicious stir fried noodle dish.
We also got an order of the fried chicken wings ($5.25) to share amongst the table.  There were five to the order and very crispy and hot.  They are your regular run of the mill non-coated and no sauce deep fried Chinese chicken wings.
Cha chaan teng’s like Phoenix have been around for over a century now and are a great option for inexpensive meals with tons of options that can satisfy a wide variety of tastes.  A popular choice with families and large groups, everyone can easily order the set courses and share.  Moreover, food is served at lightening speeds so it’s also good if you’re looking for something quick.

 Overall mark - 7 out of 10


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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!

Janet Lynn's Bistro (Kitchener)

Posted on Saturday, August 10, 2013 by
Location: Kitchener, Canada
Address: 677 Belmont Avenue West
Website: http://www.janetlynnsbistro.com/
Type of Meal: Dinner
Janet Lynn has a long standing reputation in the KW area.  I’ve never eaten at their Waterloo location, but their new site in downtown Kitchener is great.   The restaurant is one large open concept room where you can look into the kitchen situated beside the bar area.  Exposed brick and white walls gives it a modern feel, but the white linen adorned tables adds some polish and comfort to the environment.


Chef and owner Kevin Wong offers a varying menu of Asian fusion and classic dishes.  I wanted to try a bit of each so opted for the dumplings to start and the summer salad as a main.  The pork and shrimp dumplings ($10.95) may not look very traditional, with its plain triangular shape, but still tasted great.  Large pieces of shrimp and ground pork were mixed together with ginger, chives, tamarind and flecks of chili then sandwiched in a thin wrapper and pan fried.  Instead of soy sauce, the dumplings were served with a balsamic aioli which added a nice sweet, sour and savoury taste.  The filling was very good; I actually prefer the roughly chopped filling that doesn’t entirely bind together. 

My husband’s sweet corn chowder ($12.50) was thick, sweet and decadently creamy.  The soup was made with quite a significant amount of corn so it was wonderfully flavourful.  Pieces of fried shrimp topped the soup to add a bit of savouriness and texture to the otherwise smooth chowder.
After such a heavy appetizer, I thought the summer salad ($23.95) would be a good contrast as a main.  Kale was the dominant green, but there were also grilled zucchini & eggplant, fresh corn and tomatoes to add some additional flavours and colour.  A cherry tomato dressing was used on the salad, which was simply too light and didn’t add much to the tasteless kale.  Thankfully, there was sufficient sweet corn, grilled vegetables and salmon to make up for the lack of dressing.  The salmon was a generous piece and cooked well, but I would have preferred if it was just a little less done as was starting to get a bit dry on the edges.

On the other hand, my husband’s JLB Burger ($13.95) was extremely juicy and is certainly not a dish to order if you don’t want your hands messy.  The patty was very tender given it was made from short ribs. With tons of vegetables and a soft egg bun Janet Lynn’s burger is about as melt in your mouth as you can get.  My husband added gorgonzola cheese ($3) to the burger which gave it even more creaminess.  The JLB Burger was delicious and one of the better ones I’ve had.  The fresh fries were enjoyable and went well with the roasted sweet pepper aioli.


Despite being stuffed, my husband ordered the flourless chocolate cake ($8.95).  I couldn’t help but sneak a couple of bites and it was very chocolaty and smooth.  Janet Lynn gave quite a large portion of this dense cake so this is a perfect sharing dessert.  A scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream accompanied the cake and it was good (not too sweet and full of vanilla flavor).  However, it had an interesting texture, hard to describe but sort of crumbled in your mouth despite being smooth.  It wasn’t unpleasant, just unexpected for ice cream.

Although I’m not in the Kitchener-Waterloo area very often, I was glad I had the opportunity to try out Janet Lynn’s Bistro; it’s definitely worth a try.

Overall mark - 8 out of 10


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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!



  





Kensington Market Eats (Toronto)

Posted on Monday, August 05, 2013 by
Kensington Market is a neighbourhood found between College Street, Dundas Street West, Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street filled with small shops, eclectic restaurants and historic homes.  The block has recently experienced a resurgence as new restaurants flood its narrow crowded streets. Even Wal-Mart wants to set up shop proving there's the required critical mass. Having not visited for a few years, my friend and I decided to go for a stroll and see what’s changed.  Along the way, we stopped for a couple of quick bites.


 Location: Seven Lives Tacos Y Mariscos
Address: 69 Kensington Avenue
Website: http://www.sevenlives.ca/

 Luckily, we visited early enough on Sunday that there was no line in this small restaurant.  After placing an order for the camarones a la diabla (spicy shrimp taco) ($5), we settled down onto a tiny table with another couple to wait for our order.  Seating is limited and there’s only enough for approximately a dozen people, so some individuals were taking their orders to go.
After about ten minutes my taco was ready and well worth the wait.  Snuggled between two soft tortillas were six large shrimps that were piping hot and had a smoky heat from the chipotle sauce. Topped with gooey cheese and sautéed onion and peppers, there was such an abundance of toppings that I had to eat a couple of the shrimps before I could actually pick up the thing.  It was definitely one of the better tacos I’ve had in Toronto.
Seven Lives has a small menu made up of nine types of tacos, a ceviche and fries.  Sitting on the counter are three homemade salsas (mild salsa verde, medium salsa negra and a hot habanero) allowing you to customize the level of spiciness you want on your tacos.  I added some of the salsa negra onto my spicy shrimp tacos and it added a nice coolness against the hot shrimp.  My friend topped her baha fish taco with the hot habanero and noted there was quite more spice with that.

Location: The Grilled Cheese
Address: 66 Nassau Street
Located off a quieter street in Kensington, the Grilled Cheese is hard to miss with its huge sign and out of place log cabin exterior.  Their menu consists of 12 different combinations, but they also offer add-ons such bacon, ham, eggs, etc. to allow you to customize sandwiches to your taste.  Even the most significant sandwich, the Beast, will only set you back $10.

Alas, I’m not a grilled cheese fan – I know this may be a shock as most people swoon over this gooey buttery carb.  Nonetheless, I went with my friend who ordered the classic grilled cheese ($5) and snuck a bite to see what the hype was about.

There was a generous portion of cheddar cheese oozing out between two thick pieces of buttery toasted white bread, served with a handful of Ruffles potato chips and a dill pickle.  I’ll admit it was good but still I wouldn’t want one to myself.  Somehow, I think it has something to do with the toppings to bread ratio – there was simply too much bread.  My ideal sandwich is tons of toppings between two thin crispy slices of bread (preferably something with a little flavour like sourdough) and the ratio of toppings to bread is 50/50.  With the variety of ingredients being offered for the sandwiches, I was surprised the Grilled Cheese didn’t offer customer a choice of bread as well.
Additionally, we went at the wrong time where they were cutting and cooking onions.  Unfortunately, the open kitchen had poor ventilation so the entire restaurant quickly filled with the pungent smell and left our eyes stinging.  My friend had to eat quickly, through tears, so that we could get out of there.

Compared to other Kensington Market establishments their seating area was much larger so it could actually fit a fair number of patrons.  So, it’s a good place to head to if you want to sit down and relax after some walking. 

A small suggestion to the Grilled Cheese management - consider stocking all your tables with all the condiments, or at the very least ensure they all have ketchup.  It was entertaining to see people sit down and then try to find a bottle of ketchup which was inevitably taken by a table prior to them. Really, ketchup is so inexpensive that you can afford to have multiple bottles of it.

No marks have been given to the restaurants above as we really didn't try enough items to allow for a proper grading.  But, they were both tasty and well worth a try for the cheap eats.



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Real Sports Bar & Grill (Toronto)

Posted on Saturday, August 03, 2013 by
Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 15 York Street
Website: http://www.realsports.ca/BarAndGrill/Toronto/
Type of Meal: Dinner and Lunch

Real Sports is like any sports bar except more over the top. Yes they have a dining area, but it’s over two floors and 2400 square feet situated beside a sports fanatic location – the Air Canada Centre.  Their second floor is reserved for private parties but is great for large events with lots of seating, its own bar and even a golf simulator.  Sure they have food and drinks, but the menu is extensive and arrives in a bounded leather book. Of course there are television screens, but there are almost 200 of them and one is the largest you’ll find within a North American restaurant.  Real Sports is a sports bar first and foremost; but, is also a tourist destination to experience at least once.

 For those of us based in Toronto, we're lucky that it's conveniently located and actually offers decent food. After having many meals here, I thought I'd share a few of the dishes I like most. Real Sports serves the same menu for lunch and dinner so you can easily order these whenever. 
My new go to dish I’ve recently discovered is the lettuce burger ($14.99).  The dish is just like their normal charbroiled beef burger, except instead of a bun, the patty is wrapped in layers of crunchy iceberg lettuce. Topped with tomatoes and a delicious tzatziki sauce, it's a delicious alternative and makes you feel less guilty about having the basket of fries accompanying it. The meat itself is a bit dry, likely due to Real Sports using a leaner cut of meat and cooking it to the normal well done Canadian standards (Americans, you’ll find this burger over done).
When first reading their menu, bragging about their chicken wings being top rated in Toronto, I had my doubts. But, after you try their wings, you know they can hold their claim.  I tried the sweet Thai chili ($14.99 for 1lb), Chef Tony’s speciality, and admit they are the best I’ve had in Toronto.  The wings were a great jumbo size; the worst are scrawny wings consisting of skins and bones and little meat. Although crispy on the outside, the meat is tender and juicy on the inside without tasting overly fatty.  Additionally, they are coated with the perfect amount of sauce for my tastes – just enough to cover the wing without making it soggy and pooling at the bottom of the plate.

 Lastly, if you are feeling hungry then go for their ribs. But, even the only go with the "not so hungry" portion ($18.99) which is already huge. I can't imagine how big their "hungry" ($26.99) size would be! The “not so hungry” portion consists of six ribs and a large portion of fries. The ribs were tender and easily pulled off the bone, yet still tasted like pork thanks to it being slowly braised. However, it lacked the smokiness and barque from a barbecue and smoker that true rib experts would like; nonetheless, they were still tasty.  


Normally, the dish arrives with coleslaw; not being a creamy coleslaw fan I asked if they could substitute it with vegetables. They agreed and came out with a side dish of boiled carrots and broccolini which were crisp and savoury. I just wished the waitress would have warned me about the $5 supplement, which I would have still paid, but believe pricing transparency is important for a restaurant.  
Anyone who knows me probably has heard about my love affair with fries.  Real Sports fries are concocted from real potatoes but are inconsistent given its likely made in large quantities.  When you get them freshly made they are amazing, but when your basket is filled with an old batch they arrive lukewarm and slightly hard.  It’s really hard to know when you’ll get a good batch, but my one bad experience occurred during a visit right at the start of the lunch hour (noon); perhaps they start preparing them earlier in the day?
Some reviews have complained about the service at Real Sports.  Having visited the restaurant numerous times, I have personally never been ignored at the door or have waited a long time for service.  Although no one has been outrageously memorable, the service has always been friendly and efficient.  Of course, during key game times (like playoff season) Real Sports does get busy and once have been turned away at the door due to the long wait times, but this really isn’t the restaurant’s fault.
Real Sports price points are 10-20% higher compared to other pubs, but I find their comfortable environment and food quality worth it.  If you’re planning a visit to downtown Toronto you should try it at least once, just to see the television screen if anything.


Overall mark - 8 out of 10

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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!




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