Archive for the 'Restaurant Reviews' Category
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006
Remember the iCook restaurant I talked about the other day?
Well….next to iCook, there's a Congee shop, serving mainly different types of Cantonese style congee along with some Chinese dishes. The restaurant also have a good selection of beverages, including yummy bubble tea and ice cream drinks.
In the summer, we ate at this Congee shop once. At the time, I was very disappointed with the lack of sweet congee choices and did not like this place. Today, we decided to give it another try.
The cantonese speaking population of China, from my observation, prefers to add all sorts of meat to their congee. Unlike the Northern and Mandarin speaking Chinese who prefer plain rice congee or sweetened red bean congee, Cantonese tends to prefer salty congee.
Thankfully, their menu includes pictures, we picked the following three dishes:
Lobster Congee
Fried Squid (spicy)
Steamed Fish
Out of these three dishes, the lobster congee was the best! For $13.99, you get a whole lobster. Unlike adding just pieces of lobster for flavoring, which was what we had originally expected, they put in an entire lobster, together with shell and everything! It was very delicious and definitely a good deal.
The other two dishes, the steamed fish and the squid, were somewhat disappointing. I didn't realize they would deep dry the squid ( I'm used to simple stir fries), also the strong spices were too much for our taste buds. The fish…unfortunately, also didn't quite meet our expectation. It looks very yummy, but the flavoring wasn't too great, the fish itself also tasted weird. Maybe it's just us not used to this type of cooking style, but the squid and fish sure wouldn't be on our selection list next time.
Overall, they have some really good dishes and some disappointing ones. Make sure you know what you're getting before you order.
BaoZi's rating: 3 out of 5
Keung's Restaurant
8380 Kennedy, Markham
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Saturday, October 28th, 2006
What do you think about these two places? American coffee vs. Canadian coffee perhaps?
Personally, I like Starbucks better. I've never been a big fan of coffee. For me, they're just bitter black liquids that can condition your body to be more alert. Nope……black coffee are never pleasant to have.
What I do like from Starbucks are their delicious Frappuccino~ 
They're sooooo good. The best ones I love are the Banana & Cream as well as the Strawberry & Cream. Some of the people I know say the Starbucks latte and Frappuccino are too heavy…which may be true. However, after comparing the nutrition menu for both restaurants, I think if you drink the same amount of beverage (be careful with cup sizes, Starbucks follow the American standards, their small is bigger than a Tim Hortons large!), then the calorie/fat contents are actually relatively similar. In a few cases, the Starbucks' beverages actually appear to be healthier.
The good side about Tim Hortons are their freshly baked goodies. Their donuts and bagels are baked daily in the back of each local store. Starbucks….as far as I know, do not bake their muffins and cookies in their local stores, so the food you get are not as fresh.
Final ratings? Beverage - STARBUCKS! Baked goodies - Tim Hortons.
P.S. You do have to keep in mind though….Tim Hortons is primarily a coffee place, if all you wanted were baked cookies and bread…why not visit a real bakery?!
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Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
We discovered a terrific Chinese Hotpot place today. Located between Steels and Warden (Toronto street names), there's this excellent place that serves dim sums during the day and hotpot buffet for dinner! You get to pick whatever soup base you want out of their wide selection including seafood, chicken, mushroom, lobster, vegetarian, etc. They also have this HUGE selection of food you can pick for hotpot.
Let's see…I was amazed by the variety this restaurant was able to provide, this is a short list of things I can remember right off hand:
-Fish balls (at least four or five types, including Japanese fried ones, the ones with a mixture of shrimp and other fish nuggets)
-Meat (tons of shreded meat, this is your must have ingredient for hotpot)
-Veggies (lots and lots)
-This tiny bird egg…ahh…quail egg?
-Japanese fish paste
-Tofu (both frozen and fresh)
Oh oh, another bonus for going to this restaurant is that it's located right inside this Asian plaza with a huge T&T supermarket. If you don't know what T&T is, check out the "Where to find Asian Supermarket" page.
If you live in Toronto, love Chinese food, love hot pot, then go try it out! HOT FOOD ~ PERFECT FOR THIS FREEZING COLD CANADIAN WEATHER!
Price: on week days, it's $15.99 per person, they also include a 10% service charge in the final bill. I believe it's a dollar or two more expensive on the weekends and holidays.
Time: They open at 10 am for dim sum, dinner runs from 4pm to midnight.
Language: MANDARIN. All servers speak Mandarin (restaurant people usually speak Cantonese here in Toronto). I like them.
My final rating: 5/5~
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Monday, September 18th, 2006
Yesterday, we went to Niagara Falls. As we were walking by the Skylon tower, we saw a sign that said "360 Degree Revolving Dining Room on top of Skylon Tower".
We were intrigued by the "revolving" part and decided to try it out.
Of course, to get up to the tower, you are first asked to pay the ticket that let you ride an elevator (known as the yellow beetle pod).
Once inside the dining room, we waited for about 15 minutes or so. The wait time wasn't bad since we had no reservations. There were two couples in front of us and it looked like everyone else walking in had reservations.
The "revolving" element translated into having a seat in the outer rotating circle of the floor. The restaurant seating floor plan wasn't the greatest. In the very outer circle (next to the window), they have a set of small tables for couples, then next to that, another set of small tables for couples. On the inner circle, they have bigger tables that can accomandate 4 to 6 people. Unfortunately, we were placed in the middle, so to our left, we had a table close to the window, to our right was the aisle then a bigger table. Being stuck in the narrow center wasn't very comfortable.
Imagine a big disc that rotates very slowly (an hour per 360 degrees maybe?). Put this big disc around the top of the tower, there you have the revolving dining room.
They have a few meal sets you can select: All American style. I wouldn't mind if they add in some Asian dishes. 
A copy of the "Specials" Menu can be found at http://www.skylon.com/revolve/early.html
My final take on this "revolving dining experience"? Pretty neat to check out, I wouldn't recommend it if you get dizzy easily because you will be eating while spinning in circles! (very slowly though) And make a reservation and ask for the table next to the window for the best scenary.
Good luck and let me know what you think!
BaoZi's Final Rating: 3 out 5
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