Valdez

Update: Restaurant has Closed.
Spanish Tapas! 

Whole fried Branzino

I love the Spanish/Portuguese way of cooking branzino - something about frying the European sea bass just makes it taste better.  The fish was flaky and tasty, but the rice and salad were a rather strange accompaniment. I think I would have liked something with a little sauce on the side since the fish was fried and a little on the dry side.  Also, the banana leaf was nice for presentation, but I'm not too sure if it added flavour anywhere else. 

Meat platter

This was a sample platter of everything: from chicken wings, chorizo, ribs, arepas and other things I've never eaten before. Everything was tasty, but it was so much food for the three of us! 

Assorted chips

I loved this! You could tell it was all home-made chips from the fried plantain slices to the other assorted root vegetables and it paired nicely with the guacamole and salsa. 

Albondigas
Huge chunks of queso and big fat meatballs in this lovely tomato sauce 'soup'. So good! I really loved the sauce.

Dessert
I forgot the Spanish name for this, but it looked like a bread pudding and ended up being really mushy inside and really sweet with some jelly/jam on top.  I wasn't really a fan.

Overall: The restaurant was loud and had a party/bar vibe.  The service was pretty good, but we had to keep asking the waiter for water since the food was a little dry. The food was pretty interesting since it wasn't just food from Spain, but there were things like arepas (Venezuelan/Columbian) and yucca (which I've associated with South America - namely Peru).

Website: http://valdezrestaurant.com/

California Sandwiches (College Street)

My coworkers and I were considering ordering lunch through UberEats, when we stumbled upon California Sandwiches as one of our options and it was at Yonge and College (which is pretty close to our office).  We decided to go out and try it.

A mini chicken and eggplant sandwich

One of my coworkers highly recommended this - so we gave it a try and it was pretty good! The sauce was tasty and the chicken and eggplant were both nicely breaded and so yummy with all the tomato sauce.  It probably would've been even better with cheese! 

Tiramisu

The tiramisu was good, but I think it was missing the butterfingers and a bit more of the coffee liqueur flavour - it was pretty heavy on the mascarpone cheese instead and felt a little too fluffy and light for a tiramisu. 

Overall: Great sandwiches! The mini was actually filling, so it was pretty good value for money. The lineup was pretty long inside the restaurant - a testament to how popular it is! 

Website: http://eatcalifornia.ca/

Amadeus Restaurant - Kingston (ON)

We wanted to try Michael Smith's new burger place: the Canadian Grilling Company on campus at Queen's University, but unfortunately, it was closed.  So instead, we yelped some nearby restaurants and I found Amadeus Restaurant for schnitzel.

Daily Soup

German Salad

Milaner Schnitzel
Chicken schnitzel with tomato sauce and swiss cheese on top and roast potatoes on the side.
The schnitzel was good, but the tomato sauce and cheese kind of felt like a strange combination to have with the schnitzel.


Hungarian Goulasch with spatzle
After learning how simple and easy it is to make spatzle at George Brown, I found it really interesting when we had spatzle here - and it worked really well with the goulash wine sauce which was rich and heavy.


Chicken Schnitzel
This was a little plain and boring by itself (it almost made me want the tomato sauce so that eating the schnitzel wouldn't be as dry).  I know German food is usually paired with a beer, but I didn't want to indulge at lunch.  Overall, it was a decent schnitzel, but I think having a side with a sauce or potato salad would have been better than the roasted potatoes in this case (especially since I wasn't drinking).

Website: http://www.amadeuscafe.ca/

India's Taste

Located in a mostly commercial area in Markham, it's easy to drive right past it unless you know where to look.  It's also surprisingly super busy inside the restaurant (which is a testament to how good the food is).  The buffet is pretty cheap for under $20 per person. 

Round 1: 

Chana Masala, Paneer, Chicken Tikka Masla, samosas, butter chicken and goat curry (clockwise)

So many options! The turnover was pretty high as well since there were so many people, so food just kept coming out.  Some of the items were too spicy for me, but some were the perfect level of heat and flavour. 

Round 2:

Fried Fish, potatos, goat curry, pakora and eggplant

Definitely starting to fill up from the heavy and rich sauces - so yummy! 

Overall: The restaurant was pretty busy so we saw a lot of food come out (making it fresher) and there were so many options! I was tempted by the sweets counter when I was paying for my meal at the front cash - but I really couldn't eat anymore. 

Website: http://www.indiastaste.ca/

Spacco

We bought a $40 Groupon for a three-course meal for 2 people at Spacco.  Walking up from Eglinton Station, Spacco isn't very noticeable on Yonge since it's actually being Alleycatz Jazz Bar.  

Our Menu

Fried Calamari and Arancini 

The calamari was a little soggy for a "fried calamari" dish, but the lemon aioli sauce was good. 

The arancini or rice balls were a little on the small side, but they were pretty good with the marinara sauce. 

Seafood Spaghetti

The appetizer round may have been slightly disappointing, but the pasta dishes were great! The sauce was full of flavour and there was a lot of seafood tossed into the dish.  

Penne Trecolore

Another example of a great pasta sauce - it just tied the dish all together and it was so tasty. 

The pasta was also perfectly al dente and there were huge chunks of chicken throughout the dish. 

Tuxedo Truffle Mousse Cake

I felt like this was like the Costco Tuxedo cake since it tasted remarkably similar but with cocoa on top. It was still good, but nothing really special. 

Brownie with ice cream

Rather dense brownie and richly flavoured. 

Overall: Good pastas at Spacco! It was definitely more of a bar than a restaurant since the bigger space was the bar and pool tables with a smaller portion near the front for restaurant seating.  It was super loud in the restaurant because of the noise from the other side. 

Website: http://www.spacco.ca/

Signs

Signs is the first Canadian restaurant with deaf staff and they promote the use of American Sign Language with helpful sign language cards at each table. I was a little worried at first that speaking out loud at Signs would be impolite, but the wait staff didn't try to quiet our table.  It was a novel experience learning basic ASL and it really makes you realize how much we take our hearing and communication for granted.

Ravioli

Beautifully presented and actually quite filling. I liked the textures of the different types of mushrooms, panko crumble and soft ravioli pasta.

Berry Cake
The berry cake was light and fluffy and it wasn't too sweet.  It looked really pretty too!

Overall: It was an interesting experience and it also made me appreciate eating with all my senses (the food was also a feast for the eyes).

Website: https://signsrestaurant.ca/