Day 1 of Iceland Road Trip - Reykjavik, Iceland

For more pictures and details about my Iceland Road Trip, check out my blog.

 

We spent the morning at Blue Lagoon and then went to Reykjavik Harbour for lobster soup. 

Lunch

 

Sægreifinn or The Seabaron is known for their lobster soup (Not lobster bisque, but lobster soup). The soup is flavourful and really warms you up. The bread is pretty good too. Unfortunately, we came on a day when they didn't have any seafood skewers, so we got the soup.

Website: http://www.saegreifinn.is/en/

Snack

 

After lunch, we did some wandering around the harbour and the downtown area and saw our first hot dog stand. We couldn't resist grabbing a hot dog since we've heard so much about these Icelandic hot dogs. These were really good - it's all about that sauce and the fried onions - Yum!

Dessert

 

Autumn Delight

Apples, Pecan Ice Cream, Cinnamon and maple syrup! It was okay and would have been better if we sat there and ate in the store. However, we decided to take it to go (which was a terrible decision in hindsight). Lesson learned: don't ever take a crepe to go (it's not worth the headache of transporting it and it's not as good). 

Dinner

 

Icelandic Plate I: mashed fish, sheep head jelly and smoked trout

A really interesting combination. I had a hard time eating the sheep head jelly. I was just a little too grossed out by the idea of it - even though it was half meat and kinda gelatinous. 

Not a fan of the mashed fish either (yellow blob). 

Icelandic Plate II

All the well-known Icelandic specialties in one: fermented shark (in cubes in the tiny container) and dried fish with butter, trout, lamb and mashed fish. 

This was the ultimate platter and eating fermented shark meat...is an experience. Be prepared to eat only a tiny part of one of the cubed pieces - the aroma won't hit you until you've bitten into it. Warning: it can be vomit-inducing. 

 

Icelandic Plate III: mashed fish, herring and Rye Bread Ice cream

Probably the safest plate if you don't like strong flavours like lamb or sheep or fermented shark meat. 

The Rye Bread ice cream is fantastic. We would order it alone if we could.

Icelandic Plate IV 2.550 ISK

This platter was really interesting with the trout tarte and it's layers of rye bread. The salad dressing was a bit of a miss for me - it just tasted sour. However, the rye bread ice cream was AMAZING. 

I really liked my Cafe Loki experience and I would recommend it for reasonably priced Icelandic cuisine.

Website: http://loki.is/

Scaramouche

I've heard so many great things about Scaramouche and it's known for being a classy restaurant for big occasions or celebrations. I think there was so much hype about this restaurant that it became over-hyped for me. 

One of the best parts of the experience was our phenomenal bus boy who was so quick to refill our water and clear our plates. Everything else just didn't quite meet our heighten expectations. 

 The food was okay, but not really worth the price. The actual food service was so slow: it took us an hour to get our entree from the time we ordered it to the time we were actually served. Our server also went MIA for a while.

Amuse bouche

A nice refreshing appetizer

Octopus

The octopus was really tender and nice, but the navy bean puree tasted a little strange and maybe a tad too salty. (I wasn't really a fan of the olive flavour though). 

Filet Mignon

We thought this totally missed the mark and it was $49. It also wasn't like it was the best steak we've ever tried either. The portion size was a little disappointing.

Sea Bass

The fish was yummy and it was beautifully presented, but again very overpriced. 

Pork chop special

The mustard with the pork was good as was the sweet blueberry sauce. I enjoyed the barley grains and I thought this dish touched on the sweet, sour, savoury combo of flavours the best out of the entrees. The crispy pork skin was only okay. 

Coconut cream pie

The pie was okay - I think it's overrated on Yelp. It was a coconut + cream + flaky pie crust. 

Overall: I don't think I'll be back to celebrate any occasion here, it's just way too expensive and there are much better options around the city. 

Website: http://www.scaramoucherestaurant.com/

Hurst Bakery - Aurora, ON

We were up in Aurora hanging out with friends and decided to grab some dessert

Nanaimo Bar
This was actually really good and it was a pretty large portion for $3 (usually you get a small sliver of the bar for $5 downtown). Tasted great!

Website: http://www.hurstbakery.com/

East Side Mario's @ Eglinton Town Centre

October 1, 2016

East Side Mario's has a promotion 11 dishes for $11 each and unlimited soup/salad and garlic bread. I haven't been back in years (as a poor student, I'd load up on the free salad and soup and take home my entree to get the most bang for my buck). 

Caesar Salad

Huge bowl and unlimited refills! The salad was just a typical salad with Renee's salad dressing, but there were a lot of bacon chunks, croutons and cheese - so that made me happy.

Chicken pasta with tomato sauce
Create your own pasta! Pretty straight forward - they gave me a lots of chicken breast strips with my fettuccine and tomato sauce.

Chicken Alfredo
The alfredo was okay - if a tad salty.

Sauteed Basa filet with stir-fry vegetables
Actually pretty good - the fish was flaky and nicely cooked and the veggie stirfry was pretty tasty.

September 24, 2016

Riso Italiano
Chicken breast with rice, spinach and tomato


Bowtie pasta with rose sauce and chicken
A Create Your Own pasta - the rose sauce was okay, but the bow ties were a little undercooked.

The $11 meal promotion was a pretty good deal with the unlimited salad and garlic bread, but I felt like the quality of the food took a bit of a nose dive - there's nothing really amazing about this restaurant chain though. 

Otto's Berlin Döner

I was so excited when Otto's Berlin Döner opened up and I finally had a place to go for German Döner Kebabs! 

Small Chicken Döner Teller

I was thinking of getting a kebab, but then decided I wanted a more hearty meal in a box. 

The ingredients were all fresh, but I felt like it was still missing something compared to what I had in Berlin. It might have been the spices or the fact that it wasn't like the street food in Berlin (definitely classier & prettier). It was a good döner experience, but somehow it didn't quite meet my expectations (which may have been a little too high). 

Website: http://ottosdoner.com/

Mill Creek Chocolate - Kincardine

The Smoothies!
I bought one of each flavour including raspberry, mint, caramel and more.
The chocolates lived up to their smoothie name since the flavour was so smooth and silky and it just melted on my tongue with a rich milk chocolate taste.  I would highly recommend any of the flavours and my favourite was the raspberry smoothie since it had this great aromatic raspberry flavour that I could immediately taste when I bit into it.

Website: http://www.millcreekchocolates.ca/kincardine-store/