Cafe Pleiade

My third Winterlicious this year and it's back at one of my favourites: Cafe Pleiade for a $25 dinner.

It's this cute and cozy little restaurant on Mount Pleasant that serves deliciously filling portions of French and Mediterranean food. I can always count on them to serve good home style food at really reasonable prices. 

(*Items I would recommend and/or order again)

Bread with olive oil and balsamic

Fresh Ravioli with tomato sauce and Parmesan flakes

This is such a nice change from those overpriced high end restaurants that serve one ravioli as an appetizer. 

I got a few ravioli with a lot of their fresh marinara sauce with chunks of tomato and cheese on top. The pasta was good, but I was hoping that they would have something other than just cheese in the ravioli. 

Fresh Mussels Mariniere

Every time we've been here for Winterlicious or dinner, we always get the mussels. They're just that good! 

The sauce was so tasty and the mussels soaked up all the flavour. The fresh tomatoes and onions added a nice freshness to the dish. The mussels are their best appetizer (or main course at lunch) - so you should definitely order this!

Grill Pork Tenderloin on Spinach with fingerling potatoes, yoghurt and mint sauce

Amazing! The grilled pork tenderloin was juicy and so delicious! The best part was that I got three pieces of tenderloin with nice grill marks on that I could dip in the refreshing yoghurt sauce. It was so good and great value for money. 

Cassoulet with pork, chicken, sausage and lima beans on pasta

Hefty portion as well with huge chunks of sausage, pork and chicken. The sauce was a little on the watery side and it used the same marinara base that was in the ravioli. The pasta missed out on the flavours of the cassoulet because of the watery sauce and the dish missed an overall cohesive flavour too. 

Carrot Cake and Apple Pie

We had to pack our desserts to go because we were so full from the meal. 

The carrot cake was really lovely and moist from the cream cheese icing and the raisins and I would highly recommend it. I'm not a big apple pie fan, but the crust was good (even though I ate it much much later). 

Overall: Cafe Pleiade is a great cozy and family run restaurant serving up Mediterranean and French food. It has all the requirements for one of my favourite restaurants: the food is delicious, the prices are super reasonable and the portions are big. And despite being a small restaurant, they get their service done really well and it's really quick. Fantastic place!

Website: http://www.cafepleiade.com/

Rock Lobster

February 2, 2015

I was pretty happy with my lobster poutine and Caesar last week, so I came back for the $25 Winterlicious dinner.
(*Items I would recommend and/or order again)

Lobster Taco and Lobster Cake
Even though the lobster cake on the menu is $13 and the lobster taco is $6 - I would much rather eat the taco over the cake if I could choose again. The taco was fresh and zesty (and tasted better with the selection of hot sauces). Meanwhile, the cake was good if super crumbly and rather one-dimensional in taste compared to the taco.


Lobster Roll
I saw the lobster roll last week and I remembered thinking "I don't think that's worth $15, but if I can eat it as part of a 3 course meal for Winterlicious - that might actually be a good deal". So here I am - eating it for Winterlicious instead of paying $15 for it regularly. The bun was buttered and lightly toasted with lobster piled on. The size was kinda small, but the quality was there. The Yukon chips were good too - they're a little charred, but that's what makes them different.


S'mores Brownie with marshmallows and Dutch Butter Cake with dulce de leche and toasted almonds
I thought the s'mores brownie was an interesting concept, but I didn't really like the presentation of it because it made it harder to eat. The butter cake was good, but it was hard and I wish there was more dulce de leche drizzled all over it.

Overall: The Rock Lobster Caesar is a MUST-TRY here! I was really happy with my drink. The lobster dishes are all good, but they're a little on the pricey side. I think the Winterlicious was a good deal since I got to try the lobster taco, lobster roll and dessert for a lot less than regular price.

Website: http://www.rocklobsterfood.com/

January 30, 2015

I'm not a big fan of alcoholic drinks when I'm eating out (I'm a lightweight and sleepy drunk and generally I like to remember what my food tastes like), so I didn't really want to get a Caesar...until everyone else ordered one and I saw how awesome it looked on the menu. Who puts a lobster tail into a Caesar??? That's Awesome (with a capital A)!

Rock Lobster Caesar
Delicious! This was like a meal in itself: ketel one vodka, steak spice, tabasco, worcestershire, clamato and lobster tail
You have to get this when you're here!

Lobster poutine
It's Poutine + Lobster --> enough said. It was served in this really cute pan with chunks and bits of lobster on top of cheese curds and fries all topped with a lobster gravy sauce - Yum!

Le Papillion on Front

Winterlicious Season is back! This year I kicked it off with Le Papillion's $25 Winterlicious menu:

(*Items I would recommend and/or order again)

Escargot with sauteed leek, cream sauce and croustinis

The best way to eat snails is with butter or this way with a heavy and strong cream sauce to accompany the slightly chewy snails. 

Filet of Salmon - baked salmon stuffed with sauteed leek and mushroom and a baby shrimp brandy sauce, rice and vegetables

When I ordered this, I was actually hoping for the salmon to be baked in a pastry with leek and mushroom. I turned out that it was a piece of salmon wrapped around some mushrooms and leeks. The salmon was still tasty, but I think the mushrooms and leeks ruined it for me - it made it awkward to eat it and I didn't like that the salmon skin was still on it. The rest of the dish was fine: the baby shrimp brandy sauce was nice as were the rice and veggies. 

Duck leg confit with a wild berry sauce and vegetables

The duck leg had a nice crispy skin outside with nice juicy dark meat inside. It was very well done.

Traditional Cheesecake with berry coulis on top

I really liked this cheesecake - it had a great crust and the cheesecake wasn't too dense and heavy. 

Overall: A nice three course French meal for $25 with good service and good food. 

Website: http://www.papillononfront.com/

Seoul House

One of my friends was seriously craving Korean food, so we went to Seoul House on a recommendation:

It's a little difficult to see it from the street since it's in a plaza area and the restaurant faces away from the street. However, once inside the plaza area, you can't miss the big blue sign. 

Side dishes! 

The potatoes and the jap chae were really good. The kimchi was good too, with a slow burn that built up gradually - but the spiciest side dish was the kimchi radishes. 

Jajangmyun

The jajangmyun was very tasty - the sauce was sweet and savoury and it had the perfect ratio of sauce to noodles so that there wasn't too much sauce left over or too little sauce to cover the noodles. 

Gamjatang (Pork Bone Soup)

There was a lot of seasoning on the pork bone that we could see. The soup base was tasty and a little spicy, but it was diluted a bit because of all the cabbage and probably too much water. 

Jjamppong (Spicy seafood soup with noodles)

The broth was really spicy, but it was really good with lots of seafood and ingredients to make it filling. 

Cooling dessert tea

Overall: Lots of options here at Seoul House - they're known for their BBQ, but they have a wide variety of Korean dishes to choose from if you're in the mood for Korean. The service was fast and they were really nice (especially after refilling our potato side dish about 3 times). 

Green Grotto Tea Room

We had a few hours to kill so we headed to Green Grotto to have some bubble tea and play some games.

It's a great hangout/study place with free wifi and free popcorn, so there were plenty of students and groups hanging out here. 

Menu

Even though it was so cold and snowy outside, we went for cold drinks:

Hokkaido Specialty Milk Black Tea

This Hokkaido bubble tea was REALLY GOOD! It was rich in flavour with this great sweet cream taste. However, it wasn't super sweet or anything, rather it hit that perfect balance. I would definitely recommend this drink here. 

Okinawa Brown Sugar Specialty Milk Black Tea

It was similar to the Hokkaido bubble tea, but it was made with brown sugar instead of white sugar (according to the waitress). I found this tea actually sweeter than the Hokkaido tea and it had this very slight hint of burnt flavour. It was good, but in comparison to the Hokkaido tea, it fell short. 

Overall: Great place to hang out (which probably explains all the Asian girls), study (lots of students with laptops) or play games (but you have to BYOG - bring your own games). The service was really good too - they kept bringing us popcorn whenever we asked and the drinks were really good. 

Keung's Delight

We were hanging out in the Markham area and decided to grab lunch at Keung's Delight

Steamed Tiger Shrimp and Egg White Fried Rice in Lotus Leaf

The tiger shrimp were SO GOOD - they were tender and juicy and packed with flavour. So, apparently steaming things in Lotus leaves makes things better. The rice dish was so fragrant and it was such a big portion (great value for money here!)

Cantonese Chow Mein

Very colourful and pretty. Personally, I like it when my chow mein comes already mixed so that there's no crunchy noodles sticking out without sauce - but this one wasn't mixed (oh well). 

The beef, chicken, snow peas, broccoli, red peppers, onions and shrimps were all very good and there was definitely enough sauce. However, this dish was totally overshadowed by the fried rice. 

Overall: The tiger shrimp and egg white fried rice steamed in lotus leaf is something you should definitely order here! They do it really well! The service was really quick and the food was good and reasonably priced. (Note: they only take cash or debit)

Website: http://www.keungsdelight.com/