Shanghai Shikumen Fine Cuisine

I didn't really notice that there was a Shanghainese restaurant in the outside plaza of First Markham Place (since there's way too many options here) until I saw their BOGO offer on Ubereats.

BOGO Xiaolongbao ($6 for 2 servings of 6 each)

The xiaolongbao (steamed soup filled dumplings) were really good and perfectly made with a thin skin at the bottom and a thick stem at the top. The insides had lots of meat and soup and when you picked it up, it didn't break. Really good xiaolongbao here! 

Website: https://shanghaishikumen.online/

Phoenix Restaurant

Jan 31, 2021

Ubereats BOGO deals!

Cuttlefish Ball in Fish Soup ($10.90 for 2) and Baked Chicken Steak with red curry cream sauce on rice ($15.25 for 2) and HK Milk tea ($3.45 for 2) 

The cuttlefish balls were hand made with pieces of cuttlefish in a fish ball (you could tell the harder gummy chewy pieces of the balls were cuttlefish) and the soup also had yummy tofu pockets. The broth itself was pretty good too and the whole dish felt like it missed noodles, but it was still really good. 

For the baked chicken steak with red curry cream sauce, we added in the comments for it to be spaghetti instead of rice - and they delivered! (I'm a huge noodle fan rather than rice, so this was perfect!) The spaghetti with chicken had a nice spicy curry flavour which was tempered by the cream sauce and one of the best parts too was that the chicken breast was all meat and no bone. 

The milk tea was great! A good HK style milk tea with strong tea flavour and perfect ratio of milk/evaporated milk/condensed milk (whatever makes it taste like HK milk tea). 

Sept 15, 2018

Chicken steak with tomato sauce

It's a decent portion size, but I'm not really a fan of their tomato sauce. 

Clubhouse sandwich with steak

I find it really cute that they cut off the crusts and I like that they toasted the bread.

Yunnan Vermicelli in fish broth

This dish is probably one of the best things to get at Phoenix restaurant. The fish broth is really good and the fish balls and deep fried tofu fish cakes are delicious. 

Seafood spaghetti with cream sauce

The cream sauce by itself either isn't that great - the best combination here is to combine the tomato and cream sauces (if you like that kind of thing). 

July 8, 2017

Yunnan Rice Noodle and Pork chop with gravy sauce spaghetti

The rice noodle was delicious as always - it has nice subtle flavours and this really yummy spongy fish ball. The pork chop was a lot of meat, but probably not as much sauce as I would have liked since there was also the spaghetti to absorb some of the sauce. 

Half tomato sauce and half cream sauce baked spaghetti with pork

I really like these HK style spaghetti meals - you can always decide to eat the tomato side first, or the cream side first or mix them together for an extra yummy sauce with spaghetti. The pork was really good too. 

June 18, 2016

I was craving some HK style spaghetti, so we came to Phoenix for big plates of spaghetti. 

Beef with spaghetti and Garlic and honey breaded pork with spaghetti

Both dishes had gravy sauce and interestingly enough, you could still taste the garlic and honey of the breaded pork despite the gravy sauce. The food was okay for the most part and filling. 

Jan 10, 2016

Hainan Chicken and Yunnan fish and tofu with rice noodles

Both were as delicious as I remember them - you can always count on Phoenix for consistently great meals with great value-for-money! 

November 8, 2014

We came for a quick lunch before hitting Markville Mall for some Christmas shopping. 

The service is fast and the food is reasonably priced and they serve a mean cup of Hong Kong Milk Tea.

Malaysian Beef Curry with Rice and Hong Kong Milk Tea

The beef curry was delicious! A little on the spicier side, but the steamed rice and cucumber helped to cut the spiciness down. Really hearty and delicious curry with huge chunks of beef. 

Baked Pork Chop with Cream and Tomato sauce on Fried Rice with HK Milk Tea

I didn't even realize I got the same thing that I ordered almost exactly two years ago - I guess I'm more of a creature of habit than I thought. The pork chops were still huge! I also figured out that the sauces individually aren't the best, but together the mix of the sauces works pretty well with the tomato adding a slightly stronger flavour to the lighter cream sauce and the combined sauces makes the fried rice taste better. So in the future - order this with fried rice not spaghetti. 

November 11, 2012

I love Chinese Afternoon Tea. It's great on weekends - especially if you grab dim sum early in the morning and skip lunch, then you're usually starving by 2:30pm which is when afternoon tea specials kick in! It's that perfect time between lunch and dinner when you can grab food. Some Chinese restaurants serve a special afternoon tea menu, while others serve the same dishes at dinner but at a discounted price as an afternoon tea special.

Hainan Chicken with rice

This is probably the most popular dish on the menu at Phoenix Restaurant. They're well known for their Hai nan Chicken with rice. The chicken is super tender and juicy - the best part is that there are no bones! My second favourite part of the plate is the rice (which is amazing). It's really fragrant and you can tell that it was steamed with chicken oil. 

Yunnan fish and tofu with rice noodles (mi xian)

I really like Yunnan rice noodles. The noodles are soft, thin and tasty and with the clear and simple broth - it's yummy. The fish, tofu and winter melon were great complements to the noodle soup. Even though the fish looked like it was fried, it actually wasn't - instead it was lightly battered and a little soggy which I thought was a great way to cook the fish.

Yunnan preserved vegetables and shredded pork with rice noodles 

Whereas the fish and tofu had a simple and clean taste, I thought the preserved vegetables and shredded pork overwhelmed the noodle soup since they were so strongly flavoured. The vegetables added more of a saltiness to the broth which took away from the tastiness of the noodle soup.

Baked pork chop with tomato and cream sauce on spaghetti

I found the ketchup sauce was too sweet for my liking and the cream sauce was a like a watered down version of cream of mushroom. I didn't like either of the sauces. However, they did serve us two gigantic pork chops (which was a lot of meat) and it was quite good. 

Overall: Phoenix Restaurant serves one of the best Hainan Chicken rice dishes I've ever tried and the accompanying steamed rice is also delicious. However, I found that the quality of the dishes has decreased over the years - it used to be much better. The service was insanely fast though - we were in and out in 40 minutes. 

Haidilao

I've heard so many good things about Haidilao's hot pot, but due to COVID-19, they were closed for dining. Instead, they had takeout and were doing BOGO on Ubereats

Kobe Beef (2 portions for $49.95), Assorted seafood mix (shrimp, scallop, mussels, fish and noodles x 2 for $29.95)

The Kobe beef was delicious! Thin strips of marbled, tender, tasty, flavourful beef - easily prepared with a quick wash in the boiling soup or a quick pan fry in its own juices and it's ready to eat. The fatty parts of the meat make it oh so tasty. 

The assorted seafood mix was okay overall. The shrimps and scallops were okay and sweet, even if they weren't super fresh. The thin slices of fish were really good and when you use their soup bases in your hot pot broth, it really soaks in the flavour well. The mussels were good too. 

Shrimp paste ($11.95 for two boxes)

The shrimp paste, while good, wasn't anything excpetional and it was a rather small portion for $11.95 (definitely would not pay regular price for this)

Sadly, none of the food we ordered came with soup base (but it came with dessert and some crackers) and while the kobe beef was delicious, it didn't really seem worth it overall since you weren't really getting the full hot pot experience. 

Website: https://haidilaohot.business.site/

Scaddabush Italian Kitchen & Bar

Jan 4, 2021 @ 155 York Blvd

The new annual Spaghetti and Meatball Day is a takeout special (due to the COVID-19 restrictions). 

Spaghetti & Meatballs for $10 (50% off regular price)

Excellent large and soft meatball with lots of basil leaves on a bed of plentiful spaghetti and it also came with extra sauce and cheese (which was fantastic!)

Jan 4, 2020 @ 155 York Blvd, Richmond Hill

I got an email about Scaddabush's one day promotional 50% off Spaghetti and meatballs day!

Massive meatball on top of spaghetti $10

The meatball was really good and quite filling and the tomato sauce for the spaghetti was quite nice. I liked that they added a bit of pesto to the dish which gave it a nice additional flavour. 

July 9, 2015 @ 382 Yonge Street (Update: Closed Feb 9, 2021)

I've heard great reviews about the pastas here at Scaddabush since it opened (and a favourite was the butternut squash ravioli).  My old coworkers suggested a reunion dinner here which was also just in time for Summerlicious, but they also had another prix fixe menu:

Mixed Greens Salad
Nice salad, great balance of crisp greens, sweet and tangy pickled onions and crunchy walnuts.


Steak
I wasn't a huge fan of the puree underneath the meat, but the meat was tender and perfectly cooked to medium rare.

Chocolate jar cake: Chocolate ganache with vanilla whipped cream

A delicious way to end the meal! 

Overall: The only hiccup was the strange table we were sitting at - there was wide gap in between the two sides of the table - enough for a gigantic walkway in the middle which made conversation across the table difficult. Otherwise, service was good and food was yummy.  

November 5, 2014

People have been talking about Scaddabush on the first floor of the new Aura Condos at Yonge and Gerrard for a while now. When my friend suggested we grab dinner here after work, I was pretty excited to see what all the hype was about.

Charity Bread
Crusty Italian bread with rosemary, garlic and butter. I thought it would be warm and fresh from the oven, but it wasn't and the toppings just seemed like they were sprinkled on top. Oh well - at least the net proceeds go to charity....

Stuffed Meatball with mozzarella and spaghetti
The tomato sauce was really good and the meatball was quite large. I just wish there was more pasta so that we could have filled up on carbs.

Baked Carbonara
A rather small pan...the pasta was very good, but I just wish there was more of it. I liked the poached egg on top - it made the presentation more rustic and fun (especially with the skillet). I didn't really tasted the "baked" carbonara part, probably because I was expecting a crunchy cheesy layer on top of the pasta.

Overall: Nice and simple Italian food at Scaddabush. I loved the presentation of the food - very fun and playful

Website: http://www.scaddabush.com/

Nino D'Aversa Bakery

I had Italian cookies at a wedding (and they were delicious!), so I thought I'd try out some pistachio varieties at Nino D'Aversa bakery. 

Clockwise from top left: Almond swirl cookie, pistachio almond, lemon swirl, almond cookie, chocolate and lemon drop

These cookies are sold by weight ($37.99/kg and worked out to about $5.93 for 6 here.

Almond swirl cookie was soft inside and hard outside and had a decent almond flavour but wasn't super strong. It reminded me of a macaroon without coconut and it was similar for the lemon swirl cookie too. It had a nice light lemon flavour and was soft inside (maybe made with limoncello?). 

The other lemon drop cookie had a ton of powdered sugar on top and had the same distinct soft inside and hard outside and was quite tasty with an almost buttery flavour. 

The pistachio almond cookie was more almond than pistachio (except for the colour). 

The chocolate cookie was not very chocolatey, but tasted more almond meringue-like. 

The almond cookie was probably the best of the bunch of flat cookies (with lots of almond flavour)

Website: http://ninodaversa.com/locations/

Cafe Login

 As a huge buttercream lover, I'm surprisingly not a big fan of Korean macarons with the huge buttercream layer in the middle (I like more balanced or even proportions in my sweets - but I could eat a tub of pistachio buttercream and I have done that). I thought I'd give Korean macarons another shot at Cafe Login since I was in the area. 

Pistachio Raspberry Dacquoise, raspberry yogurt macaron, earl grey macaron and roasted bean macaron (total about $13)

The pistachio raspberry dacquoise meringue didn't have a strong pistachio flavour and I wasn't sure where the raspberry part would come in until I tasted the raspberry jam surprise in the middle. It was really sweet, and I probably wouldn't get it again. 

Raspberry yogurt macaron had more of a yogurt flavour than raspberry flavour and was similar to those fruit bottom yogurts and didn't have a lot of raspberry flavour. 

Earl Grey macaron was my favourite out of the three with lots of the earl grey tea flavour. 

The roasted bean macaron was rather different and it was pretty good with a hint of nutty flavour from the almond and a strong mung bean flavour. The macaron wasn't too sweet or too savoury. 

Song Cook's Authentic Korean Restaurant

Dec 29, 2020

Champong, Bulgolgi and Jajangmyun

Champong is a spicy seafood soup and the Song Cook version had a good hearty broth with small shrimps, cuttlefish and some tiny mussels. It had a good flavour and wasn't too spicy which was nice. 

The Bulgolgi was a decent sized portion and pretty tasty, but once you get used to spicier Korean flavours especially gojuchang sauce, it's hard to go back to simplier flavours like sweet soy sauce marinated beef. 

The jajangmyun had an excellent onion sauce and good crispy cucumbers (definitely one of the better jajangmyuns in Toronto) and there was a ton of extra sauce too - so you could make another portion with extra noodles. 

These dishes also came with side dishes, but the kimchi went bad and the pickled radish wasn't good. However, Song Cook is usually a pretty good go-to for consistent, yummy and reasonably priced Korean food. 

Nov 21, 2020

I got another Ubereats code with 50% off pickup, so I went to a tried, tested and favourite Korean restaurant to make the most out of the deal. 

2 Spicy Kamjatangs (Pork Bone Soup) $9.99 each (one portion pictured here)

The kamjatang was really spicy - you could see all the seasonings and spices that went into this soup since they were so grainy. It was really good though with lots of flavour and it was a substantial portion with two containers per soup - the additional smaller styrofoam container is pictured above. We couldn't even finish one portion of the soup (especially with all the other food). 

L.A. Kalbi $25.99

The short ribs were okay. One of the short ribs of the 3 went bad, so we couldn't finish it and threw it out. Rather disappointing and I probably won't be getting the ribs here again. 

Jajang & Khanpoongki $19.99

Jajangmyun (sweet bean noodles) and khanpoongki (fried chicken with spicy sauce) combination. The jajangmyun here is one of the best Korean style sweet bean noodles I've had - even though they don't really use black bean and just use a sweetened sauteed onion sauce. The chicken was also quite yummy with nice breading and a tasty sweet and sour sauce with generous amounts of sauce (not spicy at all). 

Aug 29, 2019

Ddukbokki (Tteobokki) $9.99

The spicy rice cakes were pretty good (and on the spicy side). The portion seemed a little small though for the price we paid.

Pork Bone Soup $9.99

Very hearty with huge pieces of pork bone and the soup was pretty flavourful.

Champong Bap $13.99

The seafood soup with rice had lots of seafood hidden in the bowl. It was a really nice warming dish and not too spicy despite it's bright red colour.

Nov 27, 2011

(Photos courtesy of M.C.)

My foodie friends discovered this little gem north of Steeles and Yonge a while ago and to celebrate a friend's super belated by a month birthday - we decided to grab the BDay dinner here. The restaurant is actually pretty hard to find unless you know where it is since it's not visible on the street. It is located at the back of an easily overlooked plaza and I think the place primarily trades on word of mouth which works really well for them since the food is amazing and the layout is very traditional and authentic.

The best part about the layout? The floors are heated! So even if you have to sit cross-legged or kneeling - you'll be warm and toasty (Perfect for the Winter!)

In case the words are totally foreign to you, there's pictures with the food above the kitchen area which helps give you an idea about what it is you're ordering. 

Pork Bone Soup (KamJa Tang)

Pork Bone soup is a staple of most authentic Korean restaurants - it's everywhere! It usually doesn't come with a lot of meat on the pork bones because the meat is usually used for other cooking and the pork bone remains just add flavour to the soup, but in this case, there was a LOT of meat on the pork bones and the soup was loaded with other stuff (as you can see from the tower of veggies). This pork bone soup wasn't very spicy (i.e. perfect for me) and it was DELICIOUS - lots of flavour and a very hearty meal with the rice. 

Chicken Teriyaki

I love Chicken dishes and this Chicken Teriyaki dish is no exception. I feel like you can never really go wrong with chicken dishes. The chicken was perfectly cooked - moist on the inside and the crazy pile of veggies underneath made me feel like I was eating healthier than I actually was. Yum!

Beef Shortribs (JimKalBi)

Korean Kalbi is one of my favourite ways to eat ribs - the sauce is amazing! The ribs were very good and the waiters at the restaurant had the foresight to leave us a pair of scissors so we could cut up the ribs into smaller manageable pieces to eat. 

Deep Fried Dumplings (Gun Mandu)

These were delicious! I thought they might resemble Chinese Pot-stickers or Japanese Gyoza, but surprisingly they didn't quite taste like either one - the outside layer was crispier and thinner than what I usually eat in pot-stickers or gyoza and they offered us Ketchup to dip it in (with the pot-stickers and gyoza, you usually get vinegar aka "cho" or soy sauce). 

We also got the JaJangMyun and a few other things. The JaJangMyun is a black bean sauce with veggies (usually cucumber slices) and some meat. I've had it a few times at a few Korean places, but they've usually turned out terribly since I'm slightly biased in that I love the Shanghai version of JaJangMyun (because it's the one I've grown up with and most Shanghai places in Toronto do a great job making it well). So my expectations for this Korean version were pretty low, however, I was really pleasantly surprised! They made  a good version of the JaJangMyun! And Song Cook's is probably the only Korean place I've tried so far that can make a good one. So I would definitely recommend getting it here! 

Website: http://songcooks.com/

Palgong Tea

 Dec 22, 2020 @ 330 Steeles Ave W

Strawberry Earl Grey Milk Tea (cold $3.99)

I usually get my drinks warm or hot with no sugar; but since this came cold, I got it with no sugar and no ice and it was still really sweet (perhaps from the strawberry syrup/flavouring) and I didn't realize they gave me tapioca and charged me $0.50 extra until I got the drink. Flavour wise, it tasted a little strange since the Earl Grey and strawberry flavours were both strong distinct flavours that unfortunately did not compliment each other well. The cold version had a strong strawberry and slight chocolate flavour without a lot of tea flavour, and the reheated hot version had more earl grey flavour but was still overpowered by the strawberry (jam?). The tapioca were pretty hard too - would give that a skip. 

 

Korean Style Macarons (with lots of cream) $2.95 each: Thai Milk Tea, Mango and Candy Cane (Clockwise from top left)

The mango macaron had a buttercream that tasted like mango mousse. It had an okay mango flavour, not too sweet and a little tart. The buttercream took a while for it to melt since it was frozen. 

The candy cane had lots of crunchy candy cane pieces and was very festive and sweet but not sickeningly sweet. 

The thai milk tea macaron was pretty good with a nice sweet and creamy strong thai milk tea buttercream. 

Website: https://palgongtea.ca/