Yours Truly

I have been hearing so much buzz about Yours Truly lately, and am so happy to say I finally ate here! Yours Truly is located at Ossington and Dundas and is a fairly smaller restaurant that has a truly fantastic dining experience. They use a set of ingredients that changes weekly and have a unique approach to their menu. The restaurant offers a four course meal; the menu is extremely vague giving you only 1 main ingredient to chose from for each course. The rest is left up to the Chef's and comes out as a little surprise. 

Now, because the menu only states 1 word for each course (and no description) I will try my best to describe accurately the ingredients in each so you understand how everything tasted!

My first cocktail was Elderberry Fizz (Gin, aperol, elderberry, lavender, lemon, bitters and bubbles). I absolutely LOVED this refreshing drink.

Amuse Bouche. A trio of complimentary snacks to start off the meal.

Devilled eggs

Crispy Wonton with a tomato relish

Green Soup (it tasted like asparagus)

First Course - Beef. This came as a beef tartar, with concentrated egg yolks and other dollops of sauce on top. It was lovely and light.

Corn.  This was on the sweeter side, and had lovely cheeses that accompanied the corn salad.

 Second Course - Egg. 

This is how it looked when I really got into it. It was a poached egg, with a creamy foam. There was something similar to a salsa verde in there which added a depth of flavour. It was very rich but very flavourful. 

Seam Bream. This was beautifully presented and had excellent flavour. The fish came with beets cooked different ways. The beets brought out the flavour; it was a perfect pair.

Third Course - Terroir. This was a medley of vegetables. It was light and refreshing.

Chicken. This was a knockout dish. The chicken was extremely moist and everything on the plate worked nicely together.

Fourth Course (Dessert) - Cheese. This cheese was similar to a brie. It came with pickled onions and blueberries. It was a savoury dessert.

Cantaloupe. This was incredible. Cantaloupe is really in season right now. The fruit with the whipped cream and the crunch on top was undeniably excellent.

From start to finish I absolutely loved everything about Yours Truly. The ingredients they use are in season, the presentation was gorgeous and the flavours were fantastic. I am definitely going to come back and experience this wonderful food again. I highly recommend trying this place out! You won't be disappointed. 

http://yours-truly.ca/

Happy Eating!

The Caledonian

A friend of mine has been telling me to check out The Caledonian for a while now, so I decided to give it a try. The Caledonian is one of the only traditional Scottish restaurants in Toronto and they serve up some verrrrryyyyy tasty grub. 

This is the Taste of Scotland sharing platter. It comes with scotch eggs, haggis fritter and haggis sausage roll. This was fantastic! I loved the flavour of the haggis (which I was a twee bit scared about, as it is sheep intestine and all), but this was a truly delicious platter. 

The haggis was so good that we just HAD to order another side of it on its own. 

Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. This is a traditional dish of Scotland that has lamb, oats and spices. It is served on a bed of turnip and mashed potato. This dish is incredible. The flavours were spot on and the different textures made it complete. 

I was a little TOO excited when I noticed The Caledonian offers deep fried mars bar on their menu. I have been wanting to try one for a long time...so as you can probably imagine, I immediately ordered one. It was very rich and very sweet. The chocolate and caramel were just oozing out. Although it tasted nice, it was a little rich for me, and I probably wouldn't order it again. But I'm happy I finally tried one! 

Overall, it was nice to give traditional Scottish food a try. The Caledonian was a great dining experience. Not only do they serve great food, they also have an extensive list of scotch's and beer. The food was awesome, the drink was great, and the service was attentive and welcoming. What more could ya ask for!?

Happy Eating!

Gilead Cafe

Gilead Cafe is a lovely restaurant run by Award-winning Chef Jamie Kennedy. I have heard good things about this place, so I was excited to finally check it out. The restaurant is on the smaller side, and has beautiful jarred fruits and vegetables all over which adds a brightness to the restaurant. 

I had the Summer Vegetable Salad. This salad was beautifully presented. The vegetables were cooked perfectly and the sauce (which was on the bottom of the plate) paired well with the variety of veggies. It was light, delicate and very delicious. I loved this salad.

Nicoise Style Salad with Smoked Salmon. 

 Chicken Cobb Salad

Cheeseburger with three sauces. I tried a bite of this burger, and it was descent. Not the best cheeseburger I've had.

For dessert we all shared a pastry filled with rhubarb cream with candied pistachios. This was fabulous. The cream was rich and sweet. The pastry was buttery but very light. Everyone enjoyed this treat.

Overall, everyone very much enjoyed the food at the Gilead cafe. The atmosphere was low key and service was friendly and attentive. The food was beautifully presented and all flavours were perfectly balanced in each dish. I would definitely come back to this place. 

Happy Eating!

Mio Restaurant

My friend and I stumbled upon Mio Restaurant in China Town. It's an 'all you can eat' japanese and thai place. We both enjoyed the food here. It was descent sushi and well priced. We ordered a bunch of sushi rolls and some sushi pizzas. Everything brought to the table had nice flavour.

Spicy crispy crab roll

Spicy Salmon roll

Spicy White Tuna roll

Salmon Pizza

Crab Pizza

Overall, Mio has descent sushi. Check it out!

Happy Eating!

Luna Cafe

I recently came across a quaint little breakfast/brunch restaurant at Queen and Dovercourt. Luna Cafe is tucked away right at the corner of the street and is a cozy place to come for a tasty breakfast.

 We started with some iced teas. Ruby Tuesday (cold berry tea, with grapefruit juice) and Red Zinger.

Breakfast Wrap (with scrambled eggs, brie Cheese, avocado and a tomato tapenade).

 Close up view. This wrap was seriously delicious. The avocado and brie cheese added so much creaminess to the wrap. I loved every bite.

Over-easy eggs, Pemeal bacon, and rye toast. The eggs were cooked perfectly. The pemeal bacon was juicy and filled with flavour. 

I am very happy to have discovered Luna Cafe. They use free-range eggs, and many organic products in their menu. The atmosphere is welcoming and the food was perfect! 

I strongly recommend checking it out! 

Happy Eating! 

Cardinal Rule

What a disappointment this restaurant was. Cardinal Rule was featured on the Food Network's 'You Gotta Eat Here', so I decided to try it for myself. Some things that we ordered were O.K but for the most part, everything brought to the table was quite disappointing.

This is Gin and lemonade (It was the special drink for the day). This was fine, it was refreshing and I enjoyed the real blackberries floating around.

The macaroni and cheese maki. After seeing this dish featured on T.V, I was expecting it to be great. This was one of the things we ordered that I did like. It was good. I found that it needed more sauce on the side.

Mushroom Pappardelle. This was a HUGE disappointment. The noodles were hard (not to be mistaken for al dente, or perfectly cooked) and extremely chewy. When ordering this dish, the waitress expressed how creamy and delicious the sauce is for this. There was barely any creamy sauce to be found rather it was quite dry. Needless to say,  I didn't finish the pasta (it is rare that I don't finish a pasta dish).

Our waitress told us The Beef Brisket Sandwich was the best thing on the entire menu. Again, this was just O.K. Nothing special.

Pork Quesadilla. This dish was swimming in grease. Hugely un-appetizing. When brought to the attention of our server, she kindly took it off our bill, as she could see it was inedible. 

Overall, Cardinal Rule number 1: Don't eat here. 

Happy Eating! (hopefully elsewhere)

Pho Tien Thanh

Pho Tien Thanh is my favourite place to have Pho in Toronto. This restaurant is located on Ossington Street, and is normally busy with hungry customers. The interior is nothing special or fancy, but the quality of the food is great. 

Mango Milkshake. If mango is your thing, you will love this.

Rare beef pho.... mmmmmm

Chicken noodle soup

Vegetarian pho soup (with tofu and veggies)

It doesn't get much better than this! I have mentioned Pho Tien Thanh on my previous post 'My Favourite Pho Soups in the City' and it hits number 1. I highly recommend checking this place out.

Happy Eating!