Eating With Gordon

Had a lengthy lunch discussion about which pho restaurants are really good in Toronto. Having tried a dozen or more across Toronto and downtown, here is a list of my suggested places:
 

• Pho 88 Vietnamese Restaurant - 325 Bamburgh Cir, Scarborough, ON M1W 3Y1
• One of the best places for pho, always busy at all hours - satay pho is mind blowing

• Pho Dau Bo Restaurant - 2437 Finch Ave W #4, North York, ON M9M
• Found in an interesting area, this restaurant is truly authentic to the core dishes. Everything is amazing here - including the popular avocado milkshakes.  

•  Phở Hưng - 350 Spadina Ave, Toronto, ON M5T 2G4
• Found in chinatown, this restaurant was very popular with students (especially during my university years). Always loved their pho and vermicelli noodles dishes.   

• Pho Metro - 2057 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1R 2Z4 
• pho broth is clear and amazing with flavor - the pricing isn't bad as well 

Satay Pho from Pho 88

Please feel free to object or provide new recommendations to me.

Today was my outdoor lunch date with work colleagues. After brainstorming a bit on where to eat near work ... , we decided on "Chinese Dumpling House" located at Metro Square. I had heard of many good things about this original restaurant. There was a second location located near Commerce Valley Plaza but wanted to visit the source! I knew the restaurant wasn't that big and needed to act quickly since we left our offices after 12pm ...


Reviewer: Eating With Gordon
Visit Date: 8/25/2016
Food Rating: 3.5/5
Service Rating: 2.5/5

Atmosphere:
There restaurant was located north side of the south Metro Square plaza (same building with the food court). The restaurant was already 50% busy and we managed to grab the last 4 seats table for ourselves. I wouldn't expect too much for the decor. The walls looked slightly dirty and had many faded pictures of their existing menu items everywhere (with pricing). The table had the white old porcelain plates, bowls and spoon packaged waiting to be used. Don't expect the restaurant to fit large groups without reservations!

Service:
The servers were extremely busy. They acknowledged our requests for water and bill. It was unfortunate that one of our steam dumpling dishes didn't arrive at all. When we got the bill, we told them that we didn't get it and wouldn't like to be charged for this dish. The server went into the kitchen and brought it out for us ( #THANKS, #EPICFAIL ).  Sorry, I just started instagram and learning about the world of hashtaging.

Food Comments:
For this lunch meal, we focus mainly on dim sum, dumpling, carb dishes:

• Pan Fried Pork Dumplings (6) - $5.50
• very crispy skin - one of my most favourite skins
• the meat was soft but wasn't too juicy compared to the other dim sum restaurants
• Steam Pork and Leek Dumplings (15) - $6.50
• loved the dumplings with leek - could continue eating more
• Steam Pork and Zucchini Dumplings (15) - $6.50
• didn't sample since this was provided after our bill ... #EPICFAIL
• Red Bean Paste Dessert - $3.59
• sweet with the red bean and greasy - the perfect food truck grub
• Pan Fried Green Onion Cake - $2.60
• it was good - very different from my Taiwanese style pancakes with green onion
• Braised Beef Noodle Soup -$6.99
• the soup was very watery and weak. The noodles were perfect to my texture liking
• Pan Fried Sliced Beef Shank in Pancake - $6.99
• this was the signature dish of the meal - so great with the crispy pancake with the beef and onion and sauce

Would I come back again? Yes - the original location was definitely worth the trip away from work.

Food Photos:

pan fried pork dumpling dish

Pan Fried Sliced Beef Shank in Pancake

beef braised noodle soup

green onion pancake

pork and leek dumplings

red bean pancake

Non Food Photos:

only got 1 side of the menu - the prices are much higher than before!!

Name:	Chinese Dumpling House
Price Range:	$$
Cuisine:	Chinese, Dim Sum
Address:	Metro Square Mall, 3636 Steeles Ave E, Markham, ON L3R 1K9
Phone:	(905) 947-9880
Menu URL:
Website:
Hours:	Sunday 11–11PM Monday 11–11PM Tuesday 11–11PM Wednesday 11–11PM Thursday 11–11PM Friday 11–11PM Saturday 11–11PM
Map:

It's live now on The Scope at Ryerson!! - will post a link for the radio conversatio.

Update 8/29/2016: Link for the recording

As team leader, I organized the last dutch lunch with my team for departing co-op students. One place that I have always been curious about was India's Taste. It has been many years since I visited this place and probably due for a revisiting. With one of the co-op students having a meeting crunch at 1pm today, we decided to leave for lunch at 11am (so early).

Reviewer: Eating With Gordon
Visit Date: 8/24/2016
Food Rating: 3.5/5
Service Rating: 3/5

Atmosphere:
The restaurant was located at the corner of the building. Once inside, the entrance featured a long cold display selection of sweets for sale. There were elevated platforms for seating (which I thought was weird). In the north corner of the restaurant was the serving stations of different Indian foods. The tables were clean and tidy. I was amused to find out that the drink menus were inserted under the glass table top (so you really can't grab them).

Service:
For this meal, the servers constantly asked us offered us fresh baked naan and refills. I thought this was completely different from what The Host did (self service at the buffet area). They also constantly refilled our drinks (engineers love drinking water).

Food Comments:
When comparing the food selections available at this lunch buffet to The Host, India's Taste definitely has a lot more variety of foods. It was pretty hard to "document" everything they had available. 

Available foods available at Lunch Buffet (from memory):

• Butter Chicken Curry
• Tandoori Chicken
• Papadum (near kitchen)
• Veg Tawa (near kitchen)
• Chicken Tawa (near kitchen)
• Samosa
• Plain long grain rice 
• Caesar Salad
• Gajar Halwa (carrot pudding)
• Egg Curry
• Goat Curry
• Chicken Malasa Tikka 
• Veg Skewers
• Pani Puri
• Fish Pakora
• Gulab Jamun (you may have seen it as Timmy bit soaked in SWEET syrup)
• Ice cream (4 flavours including chocolate chips and chocolate mint) & mini sweet cakes

Overall, the foods were a little spicy for me. Everything was pretty tasty and good. The puri quality was horrible - very hard and old tasting. I enjoyed the fresh naan being served directly at our tables. 

Would I come back? Yes - definitely a lot better than "The Host" in comparison for food and selection


Food Photos:













Non Food Photos:

Sweet section for take out

Sweet section for take out

Name:	India's Taste
Price Range:	$$
Cuisine:	Indian
Address:	680 Denison St, Markham, ON L3R 1C1
Phone:	(905) 948-0909
Menu URL:	www.indiastaste.ca/menus/
Website:	www.indiastaste.ca/markham/
Hours:	Sunday 10:30AM–9:30PM Monday 10:30AM–9:30PM Tuesday 10:30AM–9:30PM Wednesday 10:30AM–9:30PM Thursday 10:30AM–9:30PM Friday 10:30AM–10:30PM Saturday 10:30AM–10:30PM
Map:

For this dinner, a small group of my old friends and I were meeting up to try Indian food (we rarely do that) with a suggestion from Foodie Richie Bear to try out the the popular Indian Street Food Co that open recently in 2015 in Toronto. They were getting a lot of attention with their 'NO TIPPING' methodology (Admin fee = 13%). I had heard of good things and today was the day to find out.

Reviewer: Eating With Gordon
Visit Date: 8/21/2016
Food Rating: 4/5
Service Rating: 3.5/5

Atmosphere:
We arrived at 6pm and it was barely busy with business. The decor looked dark and cozy environment with one side of the restaurant with wall seating booths. The walls had some great messages about food philosophy. As the night went on, customers started filling most of the tables in the restaurant.

Service:
This restaurant does not recommend tipping as the bills already come with an admin fee (13%). I loved this practice instead of tipping. All restaurants really should do this if their service levels are good. As for the actual service - they were good and acknowledged us for drinks and water.


Food Comments:
For this dinner meal, everyone ordered their own plates and a few of my friends got plates to share around.

Here are some of the dishes found in the pics:

• Butter Chicken Plate ($14.80)
• Butter chicken or murgh makhani is an Indian dish of chicken in a mildly spiced curry sauce.
• this was a little spicy for us but was very good with the moist juicy chicken
• Veg thali ($19.90)
• combination platter of all the veg sauces of cauliflower, okra, spinach and cheese and lentil dip with yogurt and sweet gulab jamun ("sweet timbit") with half plain naan, papadum, shrimp chips (i think)
• this was a very filling meal and a great chance to sample the various dips. It was too bad that the non veg thali is only available on a weekday ...
• Banana Leaf Wrap Roasted Fish ($19.80)
• A technique popular with Parsis in India, red snapper doused in buttery smooth tamatar masala curry from Kerala
• had a sample of the fish and it was soaking in a lot of flavours - perfect texture with the fish
• Baigan Fries ($8.80)
•  Eggplant fries, mustard yoghurt dip lasoon
•  eggplants had a very nice texture with the crispy shell and soft insides
• Butter Naan ($2.35)
•  wasn't overcooked - just perfect
• Lasooni Cauliflower ($9.80)
•  this was such an amazing dish! Almost reminded me of eating Chinese BBQ (but not meat!)
• Grilled Okra Kadhi ($12.90)

Overall, the food was pretty good and the experience (especially with great friends) was very positive. Would definitely love to come back to try more dishes.

Food Photos:

Veg Thali

Butter Naan

Eggplant Fries! So Good!

Butter Chicken

Lasooni Cauliflower

Grilled Okra Kadhi and Naan

Banana Leaf Wrap Roasted Fish

Mystery dish - i forgot...

Non Food Photos:

Bill was served on a typewriter (no real significance)

Name:	Indian Street Food Co
Price Range:	$$
Cuisine:	Indian
Address:	1701 Bayview Ave, Toronto, ON M4G 3C1
Phone:	(416) 322-3270
Menu URL:	http://www.indianstreetfoodco.com/menu-2-1/
Website:	www.indianstreetfoodco.com/
Hours:	Sunday 11:30AM–3PM, 5–10PM Monday 5–10PM Tuesday 5–10PM Wednesday 5–10PM Thursday 5–10PM Friday 11:30AM–3PM, 5–10PM Saturday 11:30AM–3PM, 5–10PM
Map:

Been noticing some strange issues with the current pages and other google features not loading correctly.

Will be addressing this very soon with a different template look!

This was an very old visit in the past with my first newborn/toddler at her first Japanese Ramen restaurant. We thought a hot soup bowl would be a great meal for a slightly less cold winter season.

Reviewer: Eating with Gordon
Visit Date: 2014/12/20
Food Rating: 3/5
Service Rating: 3/5


Atmosphere:
The space was very small for a restaurant!! We had to wait a bit for a large table to fit 8-10 people (there is only one) since the rest of the restaurant had date (1-2 people) seating and bar seating. The decor was very nice with this chess wood grid like pattern on the walls with open visual kitchen in the corner. I don't recommend this place for large groups of people! You definitely would definitely have to pay for parking on the street (on Yonge St).

Service:
Servers were good and friendly.

Food Comments:
From the online reviews - people actually recommended to get the chicken ramen soup version. I should have researched and asked ... I ordered the Pork Ramen soup base and it was SO SALTY. The noodles were perfectly springy, and chicken was so juicy. The egg was also expertly cooked (not over done). The The pricing per ramen dish came out to be $15+ (which was pricey). 

Would I come back? Probably not. Having tried a couple Ramen houses across GTA - Kinton isn't so good.

Food Photos:

fried chicken was pretty good

Should have gotten the Chicken Ramen soup base!!!!

This was the winter special fried pork balls with mashed egg - Kinton Ball

Name:	Kinton Ramen 4
Price Range:	$$
Cuisine:	Japanese
Address:	5165 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M2N 5P5
Phone:	(647) 350-7887
Menu URL:	www.kintonramen.com/menu/
Website:	www.kintonramen.com/
Hours:	Sunday 10:30AM–10:30PM Monday 10:30AM–10:30PM Tuesday 10:30AM–10:30PM Wednesday 10:30AM–10:30PM Thursday 10:30AM–10:30PM Friday 10:30AM–12AM Saturday 10:30AM–12AM
Map: