Clay Pot King

Update: Restaurant has closed

The decor in the restaurant was really nice. I like the seats, but it does seem more like a high tea or desserts kind of setting than a clay pot restaurant. 

Cold cucumbers with spices

A nice fresh way to start the meal

Salt & Pepper Chicken Cartilage

Pretty good crunchy chicken

Crab pot 

Lots of seafood and there were noodles under the crab

Congee and red dates and rice ball dessert

Selection of cakes, eclairs and cream puffs

It was a lot of food!

J.W. Patisserie

Matcha Strawberry Cream Cake and Lime Yogurt Cheesecake

The matcha strawberry cream cake was really nice, light and fluffy. The strawberry skins were peeled, so you didn't get as many strawberry seeds. The lime yogurt cheesecake was really nice as well. Both cakes were really pretty!

Website: https://www.jw-patisserie.com/

Negril

Small Oxtail $10.50 and Small Jerk Chicken Dinner $5.95

The small sizes were in these long hotdog containers. It seemed like the portions were kind of small compared to other places like Sansimian and Chris Jerk. Taste-wise, I thought it was okay, but I prefer the oxtail at Sansimian and Ritz's jerk chicken.

Jerk Pork Sandwich

The jerk pork was pretty good at Negril.

Website: https://www.negril-markham.com/

Maman

July 18, 2019

Blueberry Lemon cake

It had a good blueberry lemon flavour and the icing was pretty good, but the cake still felt a little dry. 

April 11, 2016

The last time I went to Maman's I saw the pistachio cake and knew I had to come back and try it (see pistachio obsession).

 Pistachio Cake
I liked the white chocolate icing with pistachios, but the cake was a little strange for me.  It was a pistachio pound cake with a kind of moist inside and slightly charred outside edge (under the icing).
I didn't really like it even though it had the pistachio flavour.


Lavendar Blueberry Cake
I liked this cake a lot better than the pistachio cake.  The cake was really nice and exactly what I expected from a pound cake and there was this lovely blueberry and vanilla flavour.  The lavendar blueberry icing was really good too.

November 25, 2015

I was meeting up with some friends for lunch in the area and my friend raved about Maman's chocolate chip cookies (which are really popular in the financial district). 

Cookie to go!

The store is really beautifully designed and they have some delicious lunch and dessert options. I might come back to try that pistachio cake!

Cookie - $3

It was gooey with melted bittersweet chocolate and huge macadamia nuts, but it was a little salty (which was rather weird).  They might have had an off-day baking the cookies - but it was definitely not worth $3 to me.  I've had better cookies at Monsieur Felix and Mr. Norton and they weren't as expensive either!

Website: http://mamantoronto.com/

Gabin Korean Restaurant

Side dishes: fish cake, seaweed, chapchae, beansprouts, kimchi - pretty good.

Gamjatang (Pork Bone soup)

It was also quite spicy.

Beef Bulgogi with rice

It was like a huge portion of bulgogi soup.

Spicy Tteokbokki (Korean rice cakes)

The tteokbokki were quite spicy, we needed a lot of water to finish it.

Website: http://www.gabinkorean.com/

Levetto

Beef Ragu $17

The ragu sauce was good and the pasta was really nice. 

Funghi pizza

The mushroom had a few varieties of mushrooms and it was pretty tasty.

Verdolini - pesto spaghetti

The pesto was okay, the ricotta crema was interesting. 

Website: https://www.levetto.com/

Monsieur Felix & Mr. Norton

July 12, 2019

S'mores cookie with marshmallow, chocolate and graham crackers

Super sweet with a lot of gooey marshmallow.

Honey pistachio

A new cookie! It's a honey cookie with white chocolate and pistachio nuts. I found it really sweet - my favourites are still the ebony and ivory and lemon delight.

December 18, 2016

New Bright Packaging!

Still the same great cookies inside!
I picked up a box on the way to my friend's Christmas party and they were a hit! People loved the yummy and soft cookies.

May 17, 2014

I finally took better pictures of Felix & Norton cookies!

  

 Still the same cute box!

  

 A pound of cookies! Milk chocolate cookies and double chocolate cookies are visible here

I love their milk chocolate cookie: it's rich, buttery and they have this delicious melty and oozy chocolate when they're fresh. So delicious!

 

 Lemon Delight cookie with small edible pieces of lemon rind and white chocolate

I love this cookie because it's so different! It's a perfect balance of tart and sweet all in a rich decadent cookie. One of my favourites and a must try at Felix and Norton!

I thought this picture would show how soft the cookies are. They don't "crack" or break and they have soft melted chocolate inside..mmmmm

  

 Chocolate Oatmeal and Very Berry

We were a little sad that the Oatmeal Raisin cookie was no longer made because that was another favourite here. Unfortunately, the Chocolate Oatmeal just didn't compare to the Oatmeal Raisin.

The Very Berry is relatively newer with cranberries, blueberries and raspberries. A fragrant cookie, but it just doesn't have the same draw that the Lemon Delight has or the Ebony and Ivory.

 

 Ebony & Ivory!

Dark chocolate cookie with soft white chocolate chunks inside. This one was a little more dark than white haha - still same delicious recipe that we can't recreate. Must be because it's made with love and baked until perfection!

October 19, 2012

Yay! It's been a while for me since I've had Monsieur Felix & Mr. Norton cookies - mostly because I haven't been in the Highway 7 and Warden area. 

This time I actually managed to grab a quick picture of some of the cookies before I devoured the entire box of cookies. 

Clockwise from the top: Double Chocolate, Lemon Delight, Ebony and Ivory and the specialty flavour of the month: Orange Milk Chocolate. 

The company doesn't sell their cookies based on the number you purchase, instead they sell them by weight. We got a pound of cookies (approx 17 cookies) of which 6 were Ebony and Ivory and OMG were they amazing! There's such a difference between the "bake it yourself" cookies and the cookies they bake in the store. They're just melt in your mouth delicious - buttery, rich, soft and chewy. MMMM

February 12, 2012

I knew they started distributing Monsieur Felix and Mr. Norton cookies in pre-packaged bake-able form in November, but at the time, they were only available in Quebec. 

Now I'm happy to say - they're available in Toronto!!! I bought my first box that makes 20 Ebony and Ivory Cookies at Sobey's at College Park for $6.99. Other flavours available included Milk Chocolate and the Ménage a Trois.

However, when they were actually baked, I found that they weren't the same soft, delectable and gooey cookies that the "real" fresh Monsieur Felix and Mr. Norton cookies are. I think they must either add a pound of butter to the cookie dough or have some other secret method to keep them moist (and avoid them from drying out). 

November 13, 2011

The most delicious cookies ever!

I absolutely LOVE cookies from Monsieur Felix & Mr. Norton (http://www.felixandnorton.com/). Whenever we're in the Markham area, we make a special trip out to the Highway 7 and Warden location for their cookies because they are to DIE FOR. They bake them fresh daily and have the most amazing flavours - my favourites are Ebony & Ivory (Dark Chocolate cookie and white chocolate pieces), Lemon Delight (Lemon pieces and white chocolate in the cookie) and Ménage a Trois (Dark, milk and white chocolate cookie). The other flavours are amazing too - you can never go wrong with their cookies --> this place is an absolute MUST TRY if you love good quality cookies.

Website: https://www.fncookies.com/-cookies.html

Porchetta & Co.

July 11, 2019 @ 130 King Street W

Porchetta Plate with Arancini $12.95

It's been a while, but I remembered liking their porchetta at their Dundas street location. When they opened a new location at Exchange Tower, I was pretty excited to try it out. I thought the plate would be good value since you get a serving of porchetta and you can choose a side between arancini, fries, coleslaw, rapini or beans. Unfortunately, it felt like the portion of porchetta was kind of small and it was mostly fatty meat without crackling. The arancini was okay, but I think another side would be better.

Nashville Hot Chicken

Dec 20, 2012 @ 825 Dundas Street

I heard about Porchetta & Co early last year and I couldn't wait to try it and compare the porchetta to the delicious porchetta sandwich I had in Rome.
After a few months of trying to make plans and failing, I was finally able to arrange it so that my Europe buddy and I could go and recreate our memories from Rome.

We must have had crazy perfect timing because we found out on Monday from Toronto Life that Porchetta & Co were celebrating their 2nd year anniversary by selling $1 porchetta sandwiches on Dec 20, 2012.

We got there just in time to grab two sandwiches because an hour later they ran out:



4 oz Porchetta sandwich with crackling, truffle sauce, tomato sauce and mushrooms
Delicious!! The porchetta was meaty, super tender & succulent. There wasn't as much crackling as the porchetta sandwich I had in Rome, but I didn't mind. I thought it was a decent balance considering how many other things there were in the sandwich.
The mushrooms and tomato sauce were good, but I found that the truffle sauce was definitely one of the
 highlights of the sandwich. The truffle sauce was fragrant and it added a richness to the sandwich.


The tender meaty porchetta!


House Special
4 oz Porchetta sandwich with crackling, truffle sauce, hot sauce and parmesan
I would have never put hot sauce in my sandwich, but I actually liked it when I tried my friend`s sandwich. I was surprised by the way the hot sauce added depth to this sandwich. The meat absorbs most of the spiciness of the sauce and the little bit of heat really brings out the flavour of the truffle sauce. Fantastic!

Overall: Definitely a must try sandwich place in Toronto! The meat was tender, succulent and delicious and I can`t rave enough about the truffle sauce. These sandwiches were better than the ones we had in Rome!

Website: http://porchettaco.com/