Sushi on 7

I had a serious craving for All You Can Eat Sushi, so we went to Sushi on 7:

The main difference between the dinner menu and the regular menu is mainly sashimi (and maybe a few more rolls)

 

Spider rolls (Soft shell crab) (8 pc.) and Spicy Salmon roll (6 pc)

The restaurant lets you order in increments of 4 and 8 for certain rolls and other rolls come in 6. 

I love soft shell crab rolls; they serve the rolls with crunchy and meaty crab, avocado, cucumbers and imitation crab. I really like the way they do the rolls here too - there's not too much rice and there's a ton of ingredients to pack the rolls. 

The spicy salmon was good too! Not super spicy but enough to add a nice kick to the sushi. 

Dinner only: Green Dragon Roll

Tempura shrimp, imitation crab, cucumber and avocado with avocado and fish roe on top. I found that I liked the Crispy Dragon roll (below) better than the Green Dragon roll only offered at dinner:

Crispy Dragon roll
They had BBQ eel and avocado on top of the roll and the same ingredients as the Green Dragon roll.
The sushi here was all tightly wrapped and perfectly bite sized (they fit nicely into your mouth Sushi Bong)

Dinner only: Rainbow Roll
Imitation crab, cucumber, avocado rolls topped with assorted ingredients (raw salmon, avocado, raw shrimp and BBQ eel)

  

Deep fried Squid Balls
Tiny, chewy and gummy balls with sauce for dipping.

 

Deep fried Salmon head and Chicken gizzard skewers

I don't think I've seen on an AYCE menu (must be Chinese style AYCE sushi)

   

Dinner only: Salmon sashimi and white tuna sashimi

Fresh buttery soft and delicious salmon. The pieces were pretty big too! We ordered more salmon cause it was so good. The white tuna was leaner and a little tougher (I love salmon sashimi more).

 

Top: BBQ eel sushi pizza and Bottom: Enoki and beef rolls

I really liked the BBQ eel sushi pizza: the pizza was made of this crispy and chewy rice patty and topped with BBQ eel and like tempura yam or something soft. I learned that sushi pizza is a popular novelty in Toronto (thanks Wikipedia), I always thought it was just part of all AYCE menus.  

 

Chicken Cutlet Udon
Cute little portion of chicken cutlet udon

 

Dinner only: Wasabi mussels
They weren't very spicy at first and then I started feeling the heat. If I liked wasabi, I probably would have enjoyed these more...but I was too busy tearing up.

Shrimp tempura
Crispy fried tempura

 

Dinner only: Crème brûlée

I love crème brûlée; it's probably one of my favourite desserts. This one by Sushi on 7 tasted like an Asian version using egg custard rather than a vanilla custard. I kept thinking that this was like a Hong Kong Egg Tart with a little caramelized brown sugar on top - I can't say I was a fan.

  

All things mango! Mango pudding and mango ice cream
The mango pudding tasted like it was out of a box and the mango ice cream was okay.
Sushi on 7 has more dessert options than a lot of AYCE places (I would have ordered the deep fried banana if I was able to keep eating).

Overall: I really liked Sushi on 7! The sashimi was good, rolls were tightly wrapped and ingredients were fresh, service was really fast and prices were reasonable.

Beef Noodle Restaurant

The Beef Noodle Restaurant has been around for over 20 years in the same location. Apparently the management has changed over the years, but it's been a while since I've been here (we were more frequent customers across the street at Chicken & Noodles Chinese Restaurant on Glen Watson Drive, but unfortunately it closed earlier this year).

 

The placemat menu with some specials.

 

Tofu skin $3.50
It is a cold dish from the front counter and was immediately delivered to our table after we ordered it.
It was really yummy. 

Pig's ears $3.50
A huge plateful of pig's ears. Instead of being jelly as they appear in the picture, the pig's ears are actually really chewy and crunchy from the cartilage. The ears are also marinated in a sauce which is really tasty. 

 

Beef noodle soup $6.95
The soup is a flavourful and a little spicy. The beef was really delicious since it was so tender. We would have liked more noodles in the soup.

 

Zhajiangmian
One of my favourite Chinese noodle dishes (the Chinese version is much better than the Korean jajangmyeon) with warm noodles, cucumbers and the ground pork & salty fermented soybean paste.
The Beef Noodle Restaurant does a fantastic finger-licking sauce and the cucumbers are plentiful and fresh.
If anything, there was too much sauce in the dish and not enough noodles again. (The opposite situation of Chinese Dumpling House)

  

Pan fried dumplings (potstickers)
Very meaty dumplings, but I found the skin wasn't as crispy as I liked. 

 

Braised grouper with deep fried tofu $6.95
The tofu was perfect! Crispy outside and soft & hot inside and the sauce was good. The grouper wasn't that great though, it was breaded but was soggy and gummy. 

 

Xiaolongbao (Steamed soup buns)
The xiaolongbao didn't have a lot of soup in the bun (contrary to its original name) and the portions were tiny relative to other xiaolongbaos I've had. The skin was okay, but the meat was a little bland. 

Onion pancake roll with beef $3.95
This was amazing! The beef was juicy and tender and the onion pancake was perfectly crispy on the outside and really flavourful. One of the better pancake rolls with onion and beef I've had.

Overall: Reasonable prices and decent service - some of the food was hit and miss, but I know I'd come back for the cold dishes (tofu skin & pig's ear), onion pancake roll and zhajiangmian. 

Big Fat Burrito

It's been a while since I've craved a burrito (the last time being at Burrito Bandidos). I decided to give another burrito place a try and made my way to Big Fat Burrito after seeing the positive reviews on Blogto.

Ouch - is it just me or did burritos get expensive?

Steak Burrito

First up, I wasn't impressed by the size...I might have had higher expectations from the Blogto post. However, I found that this burrito wasn't particularly big or fat (the wrapper is kind of deceiving). I thought Burrito Bandidos or even Chipotle did a better job stuffing their burritos than Big Fat Burrito. They do give you all the toppings for free: refried beans, Mexican rice, Lettuce, Tomato, Cheese, Salsa, Guacamole, Green pepper and burrito sauce (jalapenos and hot sauce if you like spicy). If you're paying almost $9 and expecting a full meal - this might not be the place. There wasn't a lot of steak in the burrito either; it seemed like there was a lot of rice and beans which made the burrito super bland (not enough sauce either).

I thought it was nice that they had a pulled pork option.

I barely saw the pork and I didn't really get the flavour from it. This one had more tortilla in it than anything else.

Yam burrito

Definitely got the smushy yam in this burrito (finally a recognizable stuffing!) but still bland tasting.

Overall: I wasn't impressed - these definitely did not live up to the "Big Fat Burrito" name, rather they were small sized, expensive and bland burritos. I'd much rather go to Burrito Bandidos.

Website: http://www.bigfatburrito.ca/

Banh Mi Boys

There has been a lot of hype around Banh Mi Boys since it opened last year.

They've taken the traditional Bánh mì sandwich and upscaled it with ingredients such as onion chutney, kimchi, hoisin sauce and lime vinaigrette to name a few.

Five Spice Pork Belly with braised pork belly and pickled radish

The pork belly was tender and tasty and it was fantastic combined with the crisp carrots & cucumber, aromatic cilantro and pickled daikon. Despite the crusty banh mi bun, I thought the sauce helped to soften the inside of the bun and it brought all the ingredients together nicely.

 

Grilled Chicken with Garlic Soy and Asian BBQ sauce
The grilled chicken was juicy and absorbed the garlic soy and Asian BBQ sauce well. This banh mi had medium spicy sauce which definitely up-ed the heat factor.

Overall: The Banh Mi sandwiches at Banh Mi Boys are fantastic! They really stayed true to the roots of Vietnamese banh mi's (crunchy buns, sliced cucumbers, pickled daikon, coriander) but they added their own Asian fusion spin to the sandwiches. Also, who can forget the prices? $5.99 for a sandwich downtown is a steal!

Website: http://www.banhmiboys.com/index.htm

Caldense Bakery

 A Portuguese bakery in the Dundas West area:

It had an interesting selection of desserts and food. They didn't have tags for the desserts, so we had to ask the people behind the counter. Luckily, the ladies were patient in describing the desserts to us and helping us choose our desserts.

Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Tart) $1.20 and Jesuíta (The triangular dessert at the bottom) $1.95
Alongside a thick hot chocolate and pear nectar juice
The pastel de nata had a flimsy flaky crust and the custard was like a slightly sweetened but bland pudding. We weren't very impressed. The Jesuíta was a lot of flaky pastry with a crunchy top layer, we found it hard to eat since it kept crumbling and we could barely taste the filling of almond, egg cream and custard. 

Overall: This was our first time in a Portuguese bakery, but we didn't really like the desserts we were served.

Website: http://www.caldensebakery.ca/index.html

Da Fu Seafood Cuisine

We were looking to try another Chinese restaurant other than Maple Yip and my aunt suggested Da Fu Seafood Cuisine.

The first thing that stuck me was that there were so many big tables for larger parties. I only saw 5-6 tables for smaller parties (4 people and under) and the rest of the restaurant was large tables. It made me wonder if the restaurant primarily catered to larger groups.

Fish Sauce Chicken
It was done very well - the portion was a little small in serving 8-10 people.

Wine sauce spareribs with taro
The sauce was sticky and sweet. Definitely different from any Chinese restaurant dish I've ever had.

Crispy chicken
I loved this! You get the moist tender chicken with the crunchy skin and crispy fried peanuts on top. It was a nice harmony of textures. Delicious!

Top: Beef and choy sum; Bottom: Sweet and sour pork
The choy stalks were crisp, but the leaves were soggy. The beef was nicely done.
I usually really like sweet and sour pork since it's such a great combination of flavours from the tart sweetness of the pineapples and peppers and the sourness of the sauce. I didn't like the pork though - it felt like there was more fat and air in the battered pork than there was actual meat.

Salt and Pepper Pork chops
The chilis are what make this dish so spicy, but if you take those off - it's not that bad. It's definitely more heat than I can handle, but the crunchy pork chop is so tempting.


Fried grouper and tofu
The sauce was a little bland, but the soft grouper and tofu pockets made up for it.

Three kinds of Seafood with sweet peas and celery
Despite the crunchy toasted peanuts, it was a little bland and kind of oily (as evident from the sheen of things).

Peking Duck
I LOVE Peking duck and I was actually kind of relieved to go back to the North American version of the dish that I grew up with using hoisin sauce and meaty chunks of duck with the skin (instead of the long strips of duck ersion in Beijing).
 
I was still a disaster at wrapping the duck (picutre on left), but my brother did a pro version using the lessons we learned at Quanjude Restaurant in Beijing (picture on right).

The rest of the Peking Duck
The duck was so succulent and tasty. I was really impressed by the rest of the duck - it held the flavour so well.

Overall: Great for large party dinners! The whole meal was reasonably priced for 8-10 people and there was a lot of food. The food may not have been as delicious as Maple Yip's, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.