Hair of the Dog

Hey all,

Got some great food at an old place with a new menu and beer list. You have to check it out.

Hair of the Dog is on Church street just north of Carlton and has a rooftop patio in the summer as well as around the side.

It has been newly painted inside and has some great features upstairs and down.
Now to the drinks.

Their whole beer list has been overhauled and has some of the best choices for a bar with few taps in the city. I would suggest trying them all.

On to the food. I had a couple of things that were all well made and presented.

Nachos: These were awesome mostly because instead of chips they used baked flour tortillas as the base. Might be the best idea I have seen in nacho land.

Southern Fried Chicken: MMMMMMMMM. You never get it good in this city and with the veggies and the gravy it was perfectly spiced to perfection.

Cheese Plate: 4 cheeses. I don't like blue cheese but the other 3 were delicious. Smoked Cheddar, Gouda, and Brie rounded it out.

Meat Plate: Goes with cheese well and and had a pate like meat that was pulled pork mustard a little bit of fat and oil. This was amazing along with a seeded mustard that gave just the right kick.

I would and will hit this place up again and if you want to take me there I am fine with it too.

All You Can Eat Sushi on the Danforth

Hello,

2 days in a row.

Mariko Sushi on the Danforth at Chester. I could walk to it and it has all you can eat sushi.

It is $14.99 which is fairly decent and the selection is large. Below is the selection that I had and just keep in mind that I do not like the raw fish part of sushi so I do not choose that but I was told it was quite good.

Sesame Chicken: Not amazing. I prob would not have this one again
Teriyaki Chicken: I actually really liked this and was a good amount of sauce
Yam Tempura: Always great and fresh
Edmame: nice little bits to start the meal
Beer Teriyaki Roll: Kind of different with the hot inside of the sushi roll. interested but not favorite
Dynamite Roll: Yes, amazing and would get 2 of these in the future

Pretty decent sushi at a decent price. I will be attending again and refining my choices for the all you can eat

Kalendar on College

Hey all,

Been lazy updating this in the past few weeks but I will throw a few out there this week.

If you are looking for a good birthday place that has great food, isn't too expensive and has some of the best dishes in the city, hit up Kalendar on College just west of Bathurst.

I have been here twice so I will report on both dishes that I have had there.

However, I will put it out there first that they have a great selection of beers both on tap and in the bottle. Good enough that it impressed a beer snob :)

On to the food.

They have a large selection of a unique dish that they call scrolls. Now a scroll is a crepe style roti with some delicious insides. The options are a sigle scroll, a single with salad, and a dinner (double). The dinner is a massive amount of food and will fill you for days to come.

I chose scroll 5 which was oven roasted chicken, avocado, plum tomatoes, feta & herbed mayonnaise. WOW. It was amazing. Each bite had all of the flavours that I needed and it was held together by the crepe roti that contained all of the goodness. Perfect idea.

The second time I was there I chose the New Zealand Spring Lamb Chops which were six delicious spring lamb chops with a mango chutney served with sweet mashed potatoes & sauteed vegetables. They were spectacular as well. The lamb was amazingly moist and I almost couldn't finish them it was so much food. The only thing I would change about this is the amount of chutney on the lamb. It was almost too much and I scraped some off but I ended up using it with the rest of my sides as it was delicious.

Go here and you will love it. I promise

BBQ in the North

Bamm. Hit some BBQ this week. The BarQue Smokehouse is located on Roncesvalles Ave in the west of the city.

This places screams good food right when you walk in and all you can smell is awesome smoked meat (they even have a smoker cam on their website http://barque.ca/?gclid=CNeAhvfomKwCFYXrKgodoUS5Ow ).

Right when you sit down you have a bucket of popcorn on your table along with 2 types of Bar-B-Que sauce. One is a mustardy sauce, that was my favorite, and the other is fairly regular sauce.

I could not decide what to get on the menu so I went for the taster platter.

You can choose 3 of 4 mains as well as 2 sides to your meal.

choice 1: Beef Brisket sliced into strips and slow cooked in the smoker. It was amazing and tender with a crispy outside that was perfect with the mustard sauce. mmmmmmmmm

Choice 2: Chicken thigh also from the slow cooker. It fell off the bone when I touched it. Thought it might be a little bit bigger but was delicious and juicy.

Choice 3: Beef Rib that looked like it was from the beginning of the Flinstones that tips over the car. It is huge and made for a great portion of the meal. Again dark and juicy and slow roasted to perfection.

Side 1: Smoked Cuban Corn that had some sort of spice on it that I didn't know what it was. It was a perfect compliment to the meal.

Side 2: Smoked Tomato Gnocchi that was in a skillet that was amazing. This is my fav side and has some spinach on top as well.

To top it off I had a bottle of Boylan Cherry Cola that went right along with the meal.

Side Note: When I left I still wanted to try their baby back ribs in a dryrub. Luckily they have them in carry out form where they are vacuum packed and ready to go. It is actually in the oven as I write this and I will edit it just as I finish them for dinner tonight.

Followup: They were awesome. Perfect amount of spice to not hide the amazing smokeyness from my mouth. They would be even better if I had them in the restaurant.

Thai One On

Hey all,

Some quick Thai food was had on Friday night down on Queen st East.

Went to the Friendly Thai on Queen East and I am pretty sure that it is a chain (Still not sure check this out http://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2009/12/the_mystery_of_the_friendly_thai/).

The first thing that happened when we walked in was that someone gave up their seat to us even after a lot of insisting on our part. It was a very nice start to the night.

I started with an avocado spring roll which was very unique and different but I wish there was a little less other tastes so it would not overpower the avocado as much as it did.

Moving on, I love Pad Thai. So whenever I am going to a new place I try it. It was great. there was a great amount of peanuts on there as well as a sauce that was neither thick or soupy. It was a perfect consistency. For a $10 Pad Thai meal it could have been for 2 people. This thing was massive. I would hit it up for some good and fairly cheap food but you are not going to get anything different than a regular Thai menu which is good enough for me.

Off the Hook

Many of you might think that I made up this clever title for a post about Fish and Chips becasue I am amazingly witty........ not really. It is actually the name of the restaurant.

Off the Hook is located just south of Danforth on Broadview (conveniently only about 2 blocks from my house). It is small and it is fairly new but boy do they cook some good food.

Looking at the menu I knew they did not fool around. It was simple. Choose a fish, choose a side and choose a sauce. there were some other menu items but they were shifted off to the side and not very prominent.

4 types of fish on the menu: Halibut $12, Red Snapper $10, Sea Bass $12 and Mahi Mahi $10.
6 sides: Fries, cajun fries, onion rings, Sweet potato Fries($1), mixed greens ($1), poutine($2).
7 sauces: Tartar, Go go Pesto, Lost in the sauce (not sure what that is), the sizzler XXX, walking wasabi, chipotle mayo, curry mayo (if you want extra sauce on top of the 1st one it is $1)
Batter: Organic house, organic cajun, Gluten Free, or grilled
Everything comes with homemade coleslaw too.

I went very standard as i wanted the base on my 1st trip. Halibut fries and tartar sauce.

AMAZING!!!!!!

I think they double fry the fish dip it in the fryer and then batter it. it was crisp but not too much batter for the amount of fish in there. It is all made fresh right in front of you and the fries are nice and crisp. The tartar is homemade and perfect with the fries and you can choose creamy or vinegar slaw (I got creamy).

Definitely one of the top fish places in the city. I will be going back a bunch and checking out all of the dishes.

Golden Pizza

Hey all.

It is pizza time. I ordered some pizza last week from a place around the corner. It is not a new place and I actually played on the hockey team they sponsored about 10-15 years ago.

You can order online. Not sure why more places don't have this option because it is awesome and convenient. Might be a cost thing. I went for the family meal. it was about $36.

Got a large 3 topping pizza, 2lbs of wings, large Caesar salad, 4 cans of coke.

Lets start with the salad. the Caesar was pretty big and had a great ratio of dressing to lettuce to croutons. It had some nice garlic mix in there.

The wings had med sauce on them and were pretty standard. Nothing special, not too bad either. decently crispy with some standard sauce.

Pizza was awesome. Good toppings, thick dough, large pizza but the cheese.................... mmmmmmmmmmm. The cheese was fried and baked to perfection on the top of the pizza and was some of the best I have ever had. Almost as good as the cheese curds that are melted at Danforth Pizza. I would say a top 5 cheese on a pizza I have ever had.

Pretty average for price. I will be ordering again though.