Gal's Sushi

August 27, 2017

My friends like the cheap and plentiful portions at Gal's Sushi, so they tend to come here when they want sushi or Korean in Markham for dinner. 

 Chapchae, miso soup, potatoes and salad

All pretty decent. 

Chicken Katsu Donburi

I wasn't really feeling sushi or Korean food, so I chose something in between - chicken cutlet rice! The donburi was okay; the cutlet was crispy on the outside and pretty sizable for $15. 

December 23, 2012

Gal's Sushi is a Korean and Japanese restaurant located at Warden and Highway 7.

Salad and miso soup to start off our lunch specials

Sashimi, sushi and rolls Box
The sashimi was nice - I forgot that sushi rolls are usually made with wasabi between the raw fish/shrimp and the rice underneath (not exactly a pleasant surprise). They had a fried yam roll, spicy salmon roll (which was quite spicy) and California roll. After eating all the rice from the rolls and the sushi, I was a little puzzled about the rice in the corner of my bento box. On the other hand, I really liked the chapchae noodles even if they were cold.

Tempura Chicken Box
The sauce of the terriyaki chicken was really sweet - I wasn't a big fan of that. The tempura was crispy and the potatoes marinated in sweet sauce were quite yummy.

Salmon Bulgogi Box
They served quite a bit of grilled salmon and it was drenched in terriyaki sauce.
I really liked their bulgogi, despite not having a lot of sauce, it was still very flavourful and it tasted good with the rice.

Salmon roll

Sul Nong Tang
Sliced beef in beef bone broth
The broth was interesting - it was rather heavy on the garlic and had a grainy texture (possibly from the bone marrow). The beef was well-done in the soup.

Overall: I think they do Korean food better than they do Japanese. I found the prices were reasonable and the service was fast.

Website: http://www.galsushi.com/index.php

iHalo Krunch

Today is an Ice Cream Crawl day! After hitting up Bang Bang, we headed east towards iHalo Krunch for the Instagram-able Charcoal and Ube Ice cream. 

Also a lineup...

There was a perfectly painted black and white wall next to iHalo Krunch - clearly a place for tons of people to Instagram. It is pretty picture perfect though: 

Charcoal and Ube soft service ice cream

I'm not too sure what I kind of flavour I was going to get from the charcoal ice cream, but it wasn't really strong or charcoal-like. It was a kind of subtle coconut flavour. Actually I thought I got more flavour from the ube than the charcoal. The ube was rather light as well - it looked really nice, but I'm not too sure I'd pay that much for the soft-serve again. I'd rather get the ube ice cream at Bang Bang.

Website: https://ihalo-krunch.business.site 

Bang Bang Ice Cream

This is one of the go-to ice cream and bakery stores in Toronto. It's super popular (as evidenced by the long lineups outside on Ossington). 

The menu and counter

Everything Cookie

Chocolate, pretzel, oatmeal and peanut butter - yum! 

Their super popular Totaro ice cream (ube flavour) and lychee raspberry in a Hong Kong Egg Waffle cone. 

The Totaro ice cream was delicious! It had great ube flavour and it was this gorgeous purple colour! The lychee raspberry was really nice too, but I liked the stronger ube flavour more. The egg waffle was good, but it was a tad overdone and on the crispier side (I like my egg waffles fluffy and light with a little bit of a crispy crunch rather than all crunch). 

Website: http://bangbangicecream.ca

Scaccia

A newly opened Italian place at Manulife Centre! 

Chicken pasta with rose sauce $12.50

The pastas seemed pretty reasonably priced and they let me put as much Parmesan cheese as I wanted on top of the pasta! The pasta was pretty good; the rose sauce was tasty and the pasta was al dente, but there weren't a lot of pieces of chicken. 

Website: http://scaccia.ca

Le Chien Noir Bistro - Kingston (ON)

Croque Madame $14

I haven't had a croque madame in a very long time! The white bechamel sauce and fried egg were on top of an open faced ham and cheese sandwich. The sandwich was a little heavy, but the acidic balsamic greens were a nice compliment. 

Website: http://www.lechiennoir.com

DeColores Burrito Joint (Midway Airport) - Chicago

 Breakfast/Brunch on our way home! 

 

Steak & Egg Burrito $9.99

Really good breakfast burrito! There were lots of strips of steak and there was a lot of cheese and egg. The salsa was also really nice. It also came with chips and guacamole!

The chips and guac were the perfect balance of salty and savoury together. 

Website: http://www.decolor.us

Pizzeria Due - Chicago

We decided to try the sister restaurant to Pizzeria Uno which is down the street from Uno. 

I had a lot of pizza over the last few days, so I decided to mix it up and get a pasta dish. 

Salad

This was my friend's salad and unfortunately it didn't really look appetizing. 

 

My cup of salad that came with my pasta 

I don't really know what happened to the croutons, but they were huge. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs with garlic bread

Everything was okay, but it wasn't really outstanding in any way. The tomato sauce was the same as the pizza sauce, which kinda makes sense (but was rather disappointing since I was hoping for more depth of flavour in a pasta dish). I probably wouldn't order pasta here again (and my friends said the pizza wasn't as good as Uno). 

Website: https://www.pizzeriaunodue.com

Lollapalooza

We had some struggles getting our wristbands and getting into Grant Park, but once we figured it out - it was all good! Time to check out the music, food and more!

We started Day 1 rather late, so we didn't eat at the Music Festival. 

Day 2

 

Lobster Corn Dogs

Pretty tasty! 

Day 3

We keep eating big meals before coming into the music festival which made it difficult to sample everything available here. On the plus side, we saved a lot more money considering how small the portions were at Lollapolooza (and any concert or event venue really). 

Deep dish pizza without the long wait! 

It was pretty saucy and definitely not as good as Uno.

Rainbow Cone! 

 

This was perfect on a hot day even though the portion was not like the picture at all. 

The ice cream was pretty good

  Day 4

 

Black and White Chocolate ice cream! 

Really yummy with a nice dark chocolate and white chocolate flavour. 

The food options at Lollapalooza were okay, but there wasn't as much variety as Coachella and there wasn't really anything I really wanted to try or eat that I couldn't eat in Chicago (like Broken English Taco Pub)

Shake Shack - Chicago

So excited there's a Shake Shack in Chicago! I loved it in NYC and knew we had to have it in Chicago (especially since it was in our River North neighbourhood). 

Shack Burger $5.39

I learned my lesson the hard way before - don't have more than one burger unless you're famished. It's so good, but it's really heavy and buttery. The burger was yummy, but I thought it tasted better in NYC.

Website: https://www.shakeshack.com

Al's Beef - Chicago

Another well-known Chicago Italian beef sandwich restaurant! 

There's some fierce competition in this section of River North with Portillo's across the street. Al's has that old school traditional sandwich shop feel. 

Italian Beef with sweet peppers $7.39

I asked for the sandwich to be dipped and it was, but it still felt dry with the doughy bread and slightly dried beef. It was good, but I think I liked Portillo's more. 

Website: http://www.alsbeef.com 

Cupitol Coffee and Eatery - Chicago

After the meal at Yolk, we walked by Cupitol Coffee and Eatery and I couldn't resist picking up a few of their mini tarts. 

 

Small pecan tart and key lime tart $2 each
The lime curd in the key lime tart was nice and the pecan tart was really good. 

Website: https://cupitol.com

Frontera Grill - Chicago

Chicago is such a foodie city! Everything is so yummy that it warrants a repeat visit. 

 Menu 

Chocolate Cappuccino $5.50

Our waiter recommended the chocolate cappuccino since we asked for caffeine recommendations. He said that their Mexican hot chocolate is really good and this was really yummy!

Enfrijolades

Tortillas with chorizo and scrambled eggs topped with a black bean sauce

The enfrijolades were very tasty. 

Pork Carnitas with black beans and guacamole

Everything on the plate was really tasty, but I felt like it was missing a tortilla or some kind of carb. 

Gunthorp Sausage and Eggs

Interesting presentation with food placed on top of the leaf. 

Website: http://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/frontera-grill/