Nusraat

230 Osborne at Confusion Corner

I was some what reluctant to try my taste buds at this restaurant. I had grown quite annoyed with the ridiculousness of Organza and its $10 crap tasting rice bread. However, I am a trooper and I do try to be open-minded and investigate before jumping to conclusions.

In order to be frugal and protect myself from a complete disaster of a meal Mohammad and I shared a mushroom/bread appetizer and the elk main course. We were very pleased with the meal. It was what I consider to be expensive but I’m used to family run ethnic restaurants with poor decor but amazing vibrant food. Everything at Dandelion is organic and a lot of it is locally grown. The meat was prepared very very well. It was soft and flavourful. I think they have the expertise to make any meat taste good so I’m not sure if I was in awe of the elk or their culinary prowess.

Their non-alcoholic is something to see. Many different fresh fruit and vegetables juices, combos and smoothies. I didn’t end up having one because I was being cheap and was intimidated by liquid forms of spinach.

It was in general a enjoyable experience and something to try if you already haven’t.

1061 Autumnwood

Found this article on the web one day and was dying to try out Sweet Endings. Finally got the chance to see for myself what got ranked so high. Well it was disappointing. The chocolate cake that we had was super tall and impressive but it was dry with age. It can happen. Perhaps it was a bad week or something? Dunno.

They didn’t have any coffee though. I hear that’s weird for a dessert place… dunno.

Anyways, someone should try out the other dessert places and report back.

330 Ellice Avenue

Mohammad and I checked out this restaurant a few weeks ago. They serve Ethopian food. I had chicken with the traditional really good huge crepe like bread. Rice boy had rice and lamb. It’s a small family run restaurant. There’s a traditional seating area with small round low tables (perhaps made out of jute) with small stuffed cube chairs around it (think ottoman). There’s also normal seating in the dining area with wooden table and chairs (normal height). In a separate section, off to the side they have a bar and pool tables with a large screen tv. I’m not sure if they serve food in there or not.

I’ve had Ethopian food before and liked it and this place didn’t dissapoint either. They had this amazing crushed jalapeno sauce for the appetizer samosas. By far however the highlight and the true ethnic feature of this establishment is their coffee ceremony. They first show you the green coffee beans (did you know that they’re green and not black? I so thought that they were black. I thought you pick them from the plant/tree/bush/root/whatever black). Then they roast it in a small metal container and they bring it out to show you. Then they grind it (I didn’t hear any electronic grinding noises and we were pretty close to the kitchen so they may even do it by hand). Then they bring out the coffee in a small clay coffee pot. It’s not your normal medium double-double. You drink it in a small cup. Ethopians traditionally drink it with a little salt or butter but they’ll likely give you cream and sugar. Unfortunately I cannot drink coffee, my body rejects it with terrible force. I couldn’t resist a few sips for taste though and suffered the next day. They serve the coffee in a small wooden serving tray with handles. Along with the coffee they give a hot peice of stone that you’re supposed to spoon scented sand to ward of evil spirits. I admittedly was adding too much sand and could have inadvertently created too much smoke to perhaps almost create enough smoke to endanger the low hanging lighting above our table completely unintentionally.

The people at the restaurant were very enthusiastic to have us. Apparently the restaurant was featured on some local tv channel so the they insisted that we stay and watch the small clip before we left. The food portions are very generous and the prices are pretty low. They also feature vegan dishes.

630 Rue des Meurons

I had wanted to go to this restaurant for some time. It’s across the street from a school I presented at a few times for WISE (Women in Science and Engineering). The restaurant has two dining sections, normal and train. Ofcourse I was wanting to eat in the train car section. My exposure to french food has been quite limited. Everyone always talks about how great french food is so I did have high expectations. I was dissapointed. I think french food is quite bland. It is true, I have been accused of covering up my food with sauce on more than one occasion. I guess I like my spices. I don’t think it takes away from food, I think it compliments it.

Regardless, here’s the story. We walk in and the first waiter sits us. He asks us if we would like some drinks. I say we don’t drink so perhaps we’ll stick with water. He suggests a non-alcholic drink menu anyways and I accept. I look through it and find nothing worth while. In the meantime though Tipu and I have already figured out what food we’d like to order. So when the first waiter comes back I tell him we don’t want drinks but we’ve chosen our food. He didn’t looked so pleased. He told me that he doesn’t do that, the second waiter does that. Laa-dee-da.

The appetizers we had were absolutely amazing. I have never tasted something so intriguing. It was smoked salmon rolled in flatbread with capers and other stuff. That wasn’t the amazing part. The amazing part was the zesty salad made out of celery root, carrots, capers, red onions, vinegar, etc that the rolls were placed on. That was good. That’s what going out to eat should be about. In retrospect, it may have been fun to try the escargot and frog legs but I wasn’t feeling that adventurous.

The main courses were good but not great. Tipu had a rack of lamb. It was cooked to perfection, it was moist, juicy, soft, etc. However it was just lamb. Very little else. I had stuffed pickeral fillet. I ordered it because I was wondering how you would stuff a pickeral fillet. It turns out you just roll the fillet. My fish was beyond bland. It was steamed in it’s own juices or something. It had a mushroom filling that couldn’t quite help with the blandness. Both of our main dishes came with steamed vegetables and a mashed potato lump that was deep fried in breadcrumbs. The mashed potato lump was not bad. Do not ever, ever, ever feed me steamed vegetables at a restaurant. If you want to show innovation, prestige, culture and culinary art you better damn well find something better than steamed vegetables to make me happy. I can steam my own vegetables. I don’t need a restaurant for that. I certainly don’t need a french restaurant for that.

The desserts did look ok. Not Just Desserts good though so I skipped.

The decor in the train is inconsistent. I think it’s meant to be classy with deep reds, and gold leafed panels but they have unfortunately put up contemporary art of popular drinks. It kind of takes away from the atmosphere.

The moral of the story is, when you go out to eat french and have a similar taste palette as mine, order appetizer and dessert. Skip the main because it’ll be boring.

2077 Pembina Hwy

I’ve been wanting to try out this restaurant for a while. Everytime I drive by I notice that the place is packed. Today I got an opportunity to see why. It’s a cozy little restaurant. Service is friendly but ditzy. They got our order wrong but was patient in explaining the different items. The food is amazing. You can see them make the food. Tipu wasn’t really that great company because he kept staring at the cooks like it was a soccer game or something. I was most impressed with their hot and sour soup. It wasn’t wispy, it was bold and generous with pieces of shrimp, chicken, vegetables and seaweed. The purple stuff is seaweed right? Well it’s good when they make it. I also had this warm almond drink that I found to be fantastic. Tipu hated it. He liked his Ovaltine and Graham liked his Horlix. I kid you not. This is the place to go with a crowd of friends. I love restaurants where you share.