Ritz Caribbean Food

May 29, 2020 - Yonge and College

Ritz is still open for take-out and offering their lunch specials

Jerk Chicken lunch special $5.99

The box seems a little bit smaller than before and the portion of coleslaw and rice has decreased a bit. However, the flavour and the tastiness of the jerk chicken is still as good as I remember and it's great value for $5.99. Ritz is still my favourite value-for-money jerk chicken place!

Dec 31, 2018 - Yonge & College (450 Yonge Street location)

$5.99 Jerk Chicken lunch special

Excellent flavourful jerk chicken with the perfect amount of spices - it's clearly been cooked for a long time because the chicken was fall off the bone tender. The rice and peas and coleslaw aren't that great, but the chicken makes up for it. It's nice that you can pick your gravy there too. I picked the oxtail gravy and it was really spicy, but like a slow burn of heat.

August 14, 2012

I've walked by Ritz Caribbean Food at 211 Yonge Street a few times and I've noticed a few things: 

1) There's a line up even before the restaurant opens at 11am. 

2) There's always people sitting at the window no matter what time of day it is

3) The $4.99 lunch special sounds really appealing

So, on the heels of my Jerk Chicken experience at Per Se Mobile, I decided to try out their Jerk Chicken:

The place is actually a lot roomier than it appears from the street. It looks like a tiny shop, but the restaurant goes pretty far in (and even in here, there's a line up).

The daily special is any one of the 3 meats: Fried chicken, BBQ Chicken or Jerk Chicken with two sides (rice and coleslaw or salad) in a small container:

I got the Jerk Chicken, Brown Rice and coleslaw.

Wow, was I ever glad that I got coleslaw instead of salad! The slaw was deliciously creamy and it totally helped put out the fire in my mouth from the spiciness of the jerk chicken. Usually when you eat spicy foods, you should have yogurt or rice nearby to absorb the spiciness. In this case, I had coleslaw and rice (and the rice was slightly spicy in itself) - so I had a tough time of it. For new readers, I should probably mention that I have a really pathetic spiciness tolerance level, but I am working on improving it. 

The rub was aromatic and had a lot of flavour, but it was kind of overwhelmingly spicy to me. The lady at the counter gave me a chicken leg which was juicy near the bone, but the meat closer to the skin was pretty dry. 

Contrary to its appearance, the portion was actually enough for lunch (then again it might have helped that I gulped down buckets of cold water)

Fried Plantains $1.25 for 5

Great treat! Plantains are a type of banana usually used in cooking since they are not as sweet as normal bananas and are more starchy. These were a little crispy on the outside from the deep fryer, and warm, soft and sweet inside. 

Overall: I don't think I can handle real Caribbean Jerk Chicken, but if I could - I'd probably come back here and eat it again because everything was good. Alas, I just couldn't take the heat.

Website: http://www.ritzcaribbeanfoods.ca/

Serano Bakery

May 25, 2020

A small assortment of my favourite baklava at Serano! 

$11.48 total for all the baklava

Apr 21, 2020

I group my Serano baklava trips with Souv Like since they're both on Pape. So I get delicious gyros and dessert in one go!

Pistachio mini baklava, crushed walnut, 2 almond cream, bueno baklava, walnut squares, almond squares and spiral baklava $14.84 (by weight)

I love their pistachio baklava (because the pistachio buttercream is amazing!) and the bueno baklava with hazelnut and chocolate is really good too. My other favourites are the square walnut baklava and spirals - it's the perfect balance of sweetness from the honey/syrup, crunchy nuts and crispy pastry. 

Apr 2, 2020

I called ahead to see if Serano Bakery was still open during the COVID-19 Pandemic and they were! Excellent! I have cake and baklava options now! Hurray!

Clockwise from left: Melomakarono cheesecake, Nougatina large cake, Strawberry shortcake large cake, Tiramisu large cake, mango mousse small cake and black forest small cake

Large cake slices $2.60 each and small cake slices $1.50

Of the small and large cake slices, my favourite was the strawberry shortcake. The other cakes had too much cream in them for my liking and I felt like the flavours were a little off in the mango mousse and the tiramisu. 

Melomakarono Cheesecake $5.50

According to BlogTo, this is one of the best cheesecake slices in the city - so I had to try it out of course! Melomakarono is a Greek Christmas cookie made with honey. I've tried it at other places before and I wasn't a huge fan, but for some reason it works really well with this cheesecake! The cheesecake initially has a strong nutmeg flavour, but then as you keep eating it's not as strong with the cheesecake and the crust of the cheesecake really standing out. It's a really good cake and I would definitely recommend it. 

Assorted baklava: almond baklava triangles, walnut baklava squares, spiral baklava

These are some of my favourite baklavas at Serano - I find they do really AMAZING walnut baklava and I love their squares with crushed walnuts inside. I also really like the mini baklava circles (especially the pistachio cream baklava). The morning/early afternoon selection was okay, but the staff behind the counter said that they would have more baklava selection later in the day. Next time, I'll make a later trip. 

Aug 26, 2019

Black Forest Cake $2.60

It was super cheap to get a slice of cake here and the cake was pretty good too! The Black Forest Cake is pretty popular here. 

Assorted Baklava

I loved the pistachio baklava with the buttercream and they had a Bueno baklava today! I also tried the kataifi and realized I don't really like the stringy texture of the pastry. I like the spiral baklava and the ones with densely packed nuts. 

June 24, 2019

Yummy baklava! 

Assorted baklava

My favourites were the walnut baklava. Serano makes the best walnut baklava I've ever had. The almond and pistachio baklava circles are really good too. 

May 11, 2019

Pistachio cake and Hazelnut cake

The pistachio cake didn't have a lot of pistachio flavour. The hazelnut cake was slightly better. 

Pistachio, walnut, almond and apricot baklava

OMG! Their baklavas are REALLY GOOD! Everything was delicious! Super crisp and flaky pastry made with honey (so it wasn't super sweet) and packed with tons of nuts to get the perfect flavour. 

Website: http://www.seranobakery.com/

Astoria Shish Kebob House

May 25, 2020

Astoria is open for take-out and delivery through UberEats. They're also still running their Monday take-out promotion - so we called in advance for pick-up. They closed off their dining space and left a small space still open near their take-out counter (and unfortunately, not enough space to socially distance properly if there are more than two groups waiting). The restaurant was also staffed by two people, so there was a bit of a wait. 

Monday take-out special $42.99

Pork and Chicken souvlaki, pita, rice, salad and potatoes with a huge portion of tzatziki

Yum!

Aug 26, 2019

Monday Take-Out Special $42.99 

Chicken and pork souvlaki, potatoes, rice, salad, tub of tzatziki, pita bread, 4 soft drinks

It's a lot of food (since it is supposed to feed a family of 4). The best part was the huge tub of tzatziki - it's so good! 

June 24, 2019

Express Lunch Special 

Pork Souvlaki $10.99 and Chicken Souvlaki $11.99 (each additional pork stick was $2.99 and chicken stick was $3.99)

The tzatziki sauce at Astoria is DELICIOUS! It's so popular here that they sell the tzatziki sauce by itself in tubs. Of the two dinners, I actually preferred the pork since it was more tender, seasoned nicely and paired well with the tzatziki sauce. 

Website: https://www.astoriashishkebobhouse.com/toronto/

Yummy BBQ

May 23, 2020

Yummy BBQ menu

Chicken Bar-B-Q $9 and Ribs Bar-B-Q $10 lunch specials

They make the best gojuchang sauce and they can also make it as spicy as you like. I usually get medium spicy. It also comes with two side dishes: marinated tofu and beansprouts or pickled radishes. Yummy!

Chicken Cutlet (sauce on the side)

Huge portion of fried chicken cutlet - perfectly breaded with a crispy outside and delicious chicken breast inside. 

May 9, 2020

Yummy BBQ is open during the COVID pandemic for take-out. They've always delivered on some apps, but now they're available on UberEats, Skip the Dishes and Door Dash. 

Chicken and Ribs BBQ Lunch Special

You can customize your spiciness level of the chicken and ribs - we usually get medium spicy since you can also mix it with rice (the two scoops of rice is actually a lot of rice). Since we're familiar with the nice Korean couple that run Yummy BBQ, we usually ask them to substitute the kimchi side dish with something else and they've been super accommodating! We got radish here which was slightly sour and a perfect contrast to the spicy meat. 

Mar 3, 2020

Kalbi and Beef Lunch Special

Medium spicy beef short ribs and beef with rice, salad and tofu

Kimchi fried rice with egg

Pretty tasty kimchi fried rice and it wasn't too spicy. 

Mar 4, 2019

Chicken Katsu (+ side dishes not pictured)

We tried a different menu item: chicken katsu. They gave us a lot of katsu which was perfectly fried and crispy - the sauce is a little on the saltier side, but it works.

Oct 23, 2018

We liked the food so much, we came back again. 

Yummy Special with kalbi, chicken, beef, mandu, eggplant, rice and a ton of side dishes like pickled radish, kimchi, potato salad, tofu and chap chae

Really good value! This meal can feed 3-4 people for $23

Pork bone soup (gamjatang)

Huge pork bones with lots of meat. 

Oct 13, 2018

A really nice Korean couple runs this food court restaurant. I found out that they used to own the Yummy BBQ restaurant at Yonge and Wellesley and they moved their restaurant location to the Don Mills area. The food court is a little dead, but it gets a little busier around lunch and dinner. 

Medium spicy chicken lunch box with kimchi and tofu

The medium spicy is the perfect level of spiciness for me - it's flavourful from their spicy sauce, but it doesn't set my mouth on fire or anything. I must be building up my spice tolerance! 

Medium spicy kalbi (beef short ribs) lunch box with kimchi and tofu

Delicious!

Beef stir-fry (medium spicy)

I think I like the chicken stir fry better than the beef, but the spiciness level of this is much better. 

Oct 6, 2018

Kalbi (beef shortribs) lunch box and chicken stir-fry (mild spicy)

The kalbi was really good, but I think we could handle it with a little bit more sauce or maybe go spicier. The stir-fry was really good too and it's pretty reasonably priced for a lunch special. 

The Rolling Pin

I really wanted key lime pie and did a little research online for best key lime pie in Toronto. I've passed by The Rolling Pin before for pie, but I came on the one day they weren't open during the week (Monday). 

With the Covid pandemic, I emailed them to see if they could make a key lime pie for me a day in advance (and they were able to accommodate my order)! When I walked in, they had hand sanitizer and a display behind glass of all of their desserts, so it was easy to pick up a few other treats including their popular donuts. 

Cute packaging!

 

Cookies and Cream donut and Boston cream donut (pipette donuts are $4.95 and regular donuts are $3.95)

Both donuts were amazingly fluffy and airy. I liked the Boston Cream custard filling, but the chocolate glaze suffered a little with the heat wave and melted quite a bit. The cookies and cream donut was yummy, but I wasn't a big fan of the whipped cream. I would definitely get their donuts again. 

Cookies and Cream and Carrot cupcake ($3.95 each)

The cake part of the cupcakes were pretty dry, but they did pair well with the icing. I liked the carrot cream cheese icing combination, but the cookies and cream combination was too sweet for me (the icing was super sweet). 

Key Lime Pie (9 inches $25)

The pie was nice and tart with lots of citrus flavour. I loved the graham crust, but I could do without their whipped cream. 

Website: https://www.therollingpin.ca/

Goûter

Goûter is open during the COVID pandemic for takeout and delivery through UberEats. 

I emailed my order two days in advance of pick-up and called to confirm my order and hold it with my credit card.

2 Raspberry tarts ($6 each), 2 Pistachio chocolate cakes ($5.75 each), Mango coconut vanilla cake ($5.75), Hazelnut creme brûlée cake ($5.75)

The raspberry tarts with vanilla cream had good flavour, but the cream was a little on the runny side.  I also preferred the tart shells at Rahier as they were firmer and harder (just my preference).


Pistachio cake
The cake had more chocolate flavour than pistachio and I barely tasted the pistachios except for the occasional pistachio nut.  

Mango coconut vanilla cake and Hazelnut cake
The mango coconut vanilla cake was really pretty and it was a nice tropical flavour cake with lots of coconut. The hazelnut cake was my favourite cake out of the four with lots of hazelnut flavour and delicious creamy mousse. I also really enjoyed the cookies on the side.

 

Raspberry croissant ($3.75) and Banana nut Cruffin ($5.50)
The raspberry jam was pretty strong in the croissant and it had a nice flaky crust outside. The cruffin (croissant dough baked in a muffin tin) was pretty interesting with a gooey yummy banana nut filling inside.

Raisin swirl $3.75
Nice pastry with lots of raisins

Kouign Amann $4

I haven't heard of this pastry before until I saw it on the menu at Goûter. It's a pastry originating from Bretagne meaning "butter bread" which explains why it had a nice crispy and slightly salty exterior with a delicious sweet and soft center. I thought it was interesting, but I was a little thrown off by the salty and sweet combination. 

Double baked almond croissant and Almond chocolate croissant ($4 each)

The double baked croissant was really yummy with a nice crispy outside and filled with delicious almond paste inside. The almond chocolate croissant had a different almond paste (maybe marzipan?) and chocolate inside. 

Website: https://www.gouter.ca/