Vienna Fine Foods

My search for good schnitzel continues (since my favourite, Schnitzel Queen, closed)

Clockwise from top left: Chicken Cordon Bleu, potatoes and pasta salad and Chicken Schnitzel sandwich with sauerkraut, Grand Marnier Cake slice $3 and small Goulash $4.95

Chicken schnitzel sandwich was decent and the sauerkraut was pretty good. The goulash seemed like a really small portion, but it turned out to be pretty big. The orange liqueur cake was really nice! It was light and fluffy with a really nice punch of flavour from the liqueur and chocolate.

Chicken Cordon Bleu combo 

The chicken with ham and cheese inside was a pretty sizable portion with lots of ham and cheese inside. The pasta salad was okay - it was pretty heavy on the mayonnaise. The pan fried potatoes were nice. 

Website: http://viennafinefoods.com/

Wvrst

Charcuterie board and cheese with pretzel

The pretzel was pretty tasty - salty on the outside and soft inside.

Currywurst sausage with tomato curry sauce on the side and toast. Duck fat fries. 

The fries were pretty good.

Oktoberfest sausage served currywurst style with tomato curry and toast. I also got the potato salad.

My search for good German potato salad begins (since Schnitzel Queen will be closing soon). 

The sausage was really good and the sauce on top matched it well. The potato salad had too much dill. 

Sausage on a bun

Schnitzel Queen

Update: The restaurant has closed.

Dec 24, 2019

Very sad to hear that they'll be closing soon. 

 

Michael Sandwich

So much chicken schnitzel! Sometimes the simpler the sandwich, the better - and Schnitzel Queen's Michael Sandwich is one of the best chicken sandwiches I've ever had. The chicken schnitzel is a thick cut of chicken breast meat breaded and fried and it's paired with their delicious mayo, roasted onions and lettuce with a soft bun. I'll miss this when they close.

 

Chicken and Pork Schnitzel

As much as I love their schnitzel, 90% of the time I get the plates purely for the potato salad. It's my favourite potato salad, and since they stopped selling it separately (they make a certain amount of potato salad a day and allocate it accordingly), I get the plate so I can eat yummy schnitzel with potato salad.  

I love their chicken schnitzel and potato salad and I will really miss it when they close. I'll have to search for a new schnitzel and potato salad place. 

June 2, 2017

Schnitzel Queen moved location from 237 Queen Street East to 211 Queen Street East (right across from Moss Park). It's interesting to note that the area has changed a lot and it's become more gentrified. It's good that the area isn't as sketchy because now Schnitzel Queen's hours are a lot better: they're open a lot later than before! 

Nice decorations and there's a lot more tables and waiting space!

Full Pork and Chicken Schnitzel with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut

It's almost crazy how much food they give you for under $15. Both schnitzels were really good - I still think they have the best schnitzel in Toronto . It's breaded nicely; the meat is tender and juicy; the breading is spot on (not too much or too little - evenly spread out) and it's tasty even without mushroom sauce or anything. It is a lot of meat and they have this AMAZING potato salad to help balance it out. 

Gourmet Chicken Schnitzel

The Gourmet just has sauteed onions and bacon - which are great - but probably not worth the extra $1 since the schnitzel is still good without it. 

Website: http://www.schnitzelqueen.ca/#crowd

August 31, 2012

The inside - it looks like a kitchen! :D

And fully equipped with a kitchen bar, but the real stuff happens in the back. 

We went for a late lunch (because we weren't that hungry) and unfortunately, by the time we got there, the potato salad had almost run out. Teresa told us that she only had enough potato salad for one dinner - which limited our options...

Updated Menu!

"King" Schnitzel sandwich with bacon, roasted onions, sauerkraut and cheese

I can't emphasize how massive this sandwich is and it's such amazing value for $10. 

Soooo good!

Chicken Schnitzel Dinner with potato salad and sauerkraut

The schnitzel is still gigantic, super juicy and tender. I definitely like the chicken more than the veal since it was more meaty and tasty. They make a fantastic potato salad as well (next time I'll have to come earlier for it!)

January 5, 2012

Located a few blocks east of Queen Station is a popular and simple diner-like restaurant with fantastic food. The area is a little sketchy (ok- very sketchy and probably not somewhere you'd want to hang out around at night), but it doesn't really matter since the Schnitzel Queen is only open for lunch on weekdays. All the menu items are under $10 which makes it a great deal! 

The Schnitzel

Wow - what can I say? The food is humongous! I usually have a huge appetite and combine that with the fact that I was starving at lunch time today - I really thought that I would be able to finish the schnitzel, the potato salad and the sauerkraut. I finished about half and felt like I barely made a dent into the lunch. 

The sauerkraut was great! Not too sour and the thin strips of cabbage really absorbed the flavour well. The potato salad - wow was it ever amazing! There was egg, pickle, potato and little flecks of green (probably some herb that I can't distinguish) - based on the ingredient list, I probably wouldn't have gone near it (I'm not a big fan of eggs and pickles in a potato salad), but something about the way they put it together or maybe it was special mayonnaise - who knows? All I know is that it was so great - I tried to scrape off the remains of the mayonnaise at the very bottom because I couldn't get enough of the flavours of the salad. Hands down - one of the best potato salads I've ever had!

Now the schnitzel: first off --> it's HUGE, clearly a sign when it can't even fit in the box properly and although it was thinly sliced, the meat was juicy and it was nicely breaded. The mushroom and onion sauce was strong and just the whole combination came together so well and so perfectly - it's enough to make you want to brave the journey there tomorrow for seconds.

Michael Sandwich

The Schnitzel sandwich was a steal for $7.99! For lunch in Downtown Toronto, it is definitely way above food quality and quantity standards and it's so cheaply priced too. Pork schnitzel, roasted onions, lettuce and some awesome sauce = LOVE.

There was so much meat in this sandwich you could probably eat it with the meat enveloping the bun instead!

Conclusion: Fantastic place and definitely worth the trip through one of the roughest parts of town for lunch! Great value and great food - what more could you ask for?

Fukugiya (Baumkuchen) - Okinawa

Baumkuchen from Okinawa!

Purple Sweet Potato Baumkuchen

Purple sweet potatoes are a specialty of Okinawa and the baumkuchen definitely reflected that. It had a nice light sweet potato flavour and it was denser and heavier than the Nenrinya baumkuchen. 

Okinawa Milk Baumkuchen

It was almost like a hint of milk flavour, it was really light. The cake was okay, but it didn't really stand out to me.

Brown Sugar Baumkuchen

Another Okinawa specialty baumkuchen - this one was closer to the light airy texture of Nenrinya's baumkuchen (which is basically the best baumkuchen I've ever eaten). The brown sugar was evident in each layer of the rings, but it wasn't overwhelming sweet. One of the best parts was the nice brown sugar crust on the outside of the cake. This was the favourite of the three baumkuchens.

Website: https://fukugiya.com/

Nenrinya (Baumkuchen) - Tokyo

July 22, 2018

Original glazed and orange baumkuchen

I love the Mount Baums - something about the bumps and the glaze just make the baumkuchen taste so much better. The orange baumkuchen was pretty good too with orange crystals on top and soft cake on the bottom. 

July 19, 2018

Orange fondant baumkuchen

I liked the subtle orange flavour in the baumkuchen more than the orange glaze on top, but it was delicious regardless. Not too sweet and light and fluffy. 

March 26, 2015

It's been a while since I've updated this post, but I have been eating some baumkuchen in between. However, the flavours haven't really changed, so I haven't been updating the post.

Green tea and Cherry Blossom

 

I love the seasonal flavours and I couldn't resist doing another Cherry Blossom post. 

The cherry blossom flavour is really light, airy and delicate and I'm happy to say that Nenrinya does an amazing job infusing the flavour beautifully into the baumkuchen. 

I've been eating more of the ring baumkuchens (mostly because they're better value for money) than the Mount Baum baumkuchens, but I still think my preference is for the Mount Baums - that extra coating of glazed sugar just makes it so much better. 

This was a good compromise for me! The ring shape and the Mount Baum with the glazed icing on the outside.  The only downside? The matcha green tea flavour - which was light, but it still tasted like matcha (which I'm not really a fan of).

February 11, 2013

The Original Baumkuchen flavour from Nenrinya

OMG is it ever good! WOW - I've really missed original Baumkuchen: I totally forgot how delicious it was just by itself. The different flavours are nice and all - but at the end of the day, this is my favourite souvenir from Japan. The outside of the round ring doesn't have sugar like the other flavours; instead, it has this moist crust-like layer of the cake that's just SOOO GOOD. 

March 30, 2012

Here we go again, this time we decided to try another Baumkuchen place and then compare Nenrinya's baumkuchen to a different place to see if it really is the best we've ever had.

The Baumkuchen store next to Nenrinya's Tokyo station store was Tokyo Banana, so we tried their signature Banana Baumkuchen:

It's great to have a different company's baumkuchen ring so we can have a basis for comparison.

Tokyo Banana: The baumkuchen was soft and moist, but in comparison to Nenrinya - it was a little more crumbly and it just wasn't as delicate in taste and texture. There was a heavy glaze on the surface of the banana baumkuchen and I felt it detracted from the layers of cake of baumkuchen. The banana flavour was great and very distinctive. It was really good but after eating it, I thought for sure that Nenrinya is definitely the better baumkuchen maker. 

The Cherry Blossom Baumkuchen! Eating the full baumkuchen allows you to fully taste the cherry blossom flavour baked into it. Absolutely delicious - soft moist cake, great texture with the sugar crystals and the taste is light, sweet and fragrant with a tiny hint of coconut. It's really yummy!

 In addition, the packaging and appearance of the Nenrinya baumkuchen totally trumps Tokyo Banana - so clearly they're the winners here!

February 10, 2012

Satsuma (Tangerine) Baumkuchen Ring on the left and a Straight Green Tea Baumkuchen

Green Tea and a slice of the Cherry Blossom Baumkuchen

I'm usually not a fan of green tea flavoured stuff - but this was good! There was definitely a matcha taste, but it wasn't overwhelming. If I had to choose between the Green Tea and the Cherry Blossom - I would definitely choose the Cherry Blossom, there wasn't really a cherry blossom taste since the flavour is so light. On the other hand, you could really taste the normal baumkuchen cake which is AMAZING. It's soft and yummy and if anything, I thought the Cherry Blossom theme was more obvious in the pink colouring than the taste. 

Side note: So after our second attempt at requesting baumkuchen from my mom's coworker who visits Japan more frequently than we do, we realized that the Nenrinya Baumkuchen makes SEASONAL baumkuchen! (Shocker right?). Since it's Spring and getting closer to Cherry Blossom season, they made a Cherry Blossom Baumkuchen (logic!). Now the Sweet Potato Baumkuchen in November (which is Harvest season) makes sense!

Inside the Baumkuchen ring (and the Satsuma sugar)

Delicious! I can't praise the Baumkuchen from Nenrinya enough - this is probably my favourite food request from Japan (If you could bring back fresh sushi from Tsukiji fish market that'd probably be a favourite too). 

November 29, 2011

My mom's co-worker went on a Japan trip a few weeks ago and before she left, my mom asked her to bring back some baumkuchen from Japan. Especially after the trying the Baumkuchen in Berlin (which turned out to be a disaster), I really wanted some AMAZING fresh Baumkuchen from Tokyo. 

What is Baumkuchen? Baumkuchen is a traditional dessert in Europe and popular in Japan; in German, it translates to "Tree Cake" or "log cake" because of the rings in the dessert. According to the Juchheim website, in the history of Baumkuchen, a confectioner cannot earn the title of Meister (pastry chef) before mastering the baumkuchen process since the baumkuchen is the "Der Konig der Kuchen" or King of cakes. 

We loved the Nenrinya brand because (1) it was close to our hotel in Ginza when we were there and (2) because we could see it freshly made in the store windows. We tried a few other brands when we were in Tokyo, but nothing measured up (maybe next time we'll try the Juchheim brand since it was the original baumkuchen place in Japan). 

So my mom's co-worker found a Nenrinya store in Tokyo station and she tried it and LOVED it (so much so that she bought a ton to take back home to Canada) and we got our baumkuchen!!! You can't quite see the layers here, but this is what it looks like when you're about to bite into it. I think the Tokyo Station Baumkuchen was different than the Ginza Store Baumkuchen, according to my mom's co-worker, it's because they were made in different Prefectures. Chiba vs. Ginza? All I know is that this one was slightly more coffee flavoured than the one in Ginza...curious.

Update: My mom's coworker read the ingredients list...and apparently they make the cake with SWEET POTATO! (Yay! another use of one of my favourite vegetables!)

This is the actual ring box - or the "Straight Baumkuchen". It had an orange flavour to it and crystals of sugar on the outside. It was soft and yummy and absolutely delicious - my family ate it all in one sitting.

 The inside of the box! Japanese companies put so much effort into the packaging...

The actual orange-flavoured baumkuchen ring! So soft and moist and delicious...

Lovely pictures from the Brochure from Nenrinya (of course I can't read the Japanese)

Apparently they have a green tea one (I'm not a fan of Japanese Green tea - so I stayed away).

Overall: Super YUMMY even though it was 2 day old Baumkuchen (why can't someone invent faster airplanes so that the Baumkuchen doesn't have to lose a day in freshness when it's making the trip from Tokyo to Toronto???)

Website: http://www.nenrinya.jp/