Kenny's Noodle

December 2, 2017

Since I had a good experience before, I decided to come back here and try some other dishes. 

Hainan Chicken

The texture of the Hainan chicken was different this time around - it tasted rougher and it didn't have the same strong chicken flavour that we remembered from 7 months ago. 

Baked Portuguese Chicken rice

The sauce was watery (despite being baked) and the fried rice wasn't very good. 

We were disappointed this time around. 

May 13, 2017

I've been on the search for really good "ketchup spaghetti" (aka Hong Kong style tomato sauce usually made with a little ketchup to make it sweeter) ever since my favourite place closed down.

Hainan Chicken Rice
The rice was really good and it had a lot of the chicken essence flavour. The Hainan chicken was boneless and really tasty.


Noodles with wonton, fish balls, beef balls, tendon and beef
Although the bowl was a little small, the broth was tasty and the wontons and other items were good.


Baked Pork Spaghetti with cheese
The "ketchup" or tomato sauce was pretty good which made the dish good. I was kind of happy with this, but it wasn't the same level as Macau Portuguese Food.

Overall: Kenny's Noodle is a pretty good Hong Kong Style Cafe with a lot of good Cantonese dishes for reasonable prices. 

Blackbird Baking Co.

I heard Blackbird Baking Co. had some really good pies, but when I went to the Kensington market area to check them out - they didn't have any pies I wanted. I didn't want to leave empty handed, so I bought a scone:

Cheddar and jalapeno scone
The scone was okay - it was definitely a savoury scone that should be eaten with butter, but I just had it by itself. I liked the cheddar and jalapeno flavour combination.

Website: https://blackbirdbakingco.com/

Inspire Restaurant

 My friend highly recommended this Asian Fusion restaurant in Markham.

Duck Confit Frites

Duck confit with fries, mayo and Thai Chilis

The fries were delicious, the duck confit was really tasty and the mayo and slight hint of spice from the Thai chilis tied it together perfectly. I loved how all the components of the dish came together! It was also beautifully presented. 

Korean Steak Bennies $18 and pulled pork fries (+$2)

Strip steak, eggs, garlic toast, tumeric fries and aioli

I was so glad I decided to upgrade my fries to the pulled pork fries after also getting the duck confit fries. The pulled pork fries were really good too, but the duck confit fries were slightly better. The Korean steak bennies were really good - the steak had the flavour of Korean BBQ marinade and the eggs were poached nicely. I also really liked the garlic toast on the bottom - that was a nice touch. 

INSP Loco-Moco

Beef, Coconut rice, shittake, crispy onions and two sunny side eggs

The loco moco was pretty good! It was my first time trying a loco-moco. I wasn't too sure if the pile of crispy onions is usually part of it though - it added great texture to the dish. 

Chicken & Waffle

Crispy chicken, waffles, maple butter and berries

This was probably the least Asian fusion dish of the brunch dishes we got. It was tasty, but I didn't think it was anything really special. 

Overall: Great place for brunch! It's totally changed my mind about Asian fusion - I'm really impressed by Inspire Restaurant!

Website: https://www.insprestaurant.com/

Loaded Pierogi

On my way to the Christmas Market at the Distillery District, we stopped by the Loaded Pierogi for dinner. 

Wild Mushroom and Truffle $13.50 and The Catch $14
The mushroom pierogi's truffle oil was pretty strong and it gave the dish a really good earthy taste. It was nice that this one was classic, so that we could compare it with the fried Catch which had lobster and crab and was pretty tasty.

Overall: The Loaded Pierogi has an interesting concept serving onion and potato dumplings with lots of yummy toppings on top.

Website: http://loadedpierogi.com/

Galleria Supermarket @ Thornhill

I'm a huge fan of the Galleria Supermarket chain. When I saw the flyer advertising a pork bone soup, fried pork and jajangmyun special at the Thornhill location, I went to go check it out. 

The Galleria is set up differently from the York Mills location - they have a proper food court with food stalls: 

We had no idea where the specials were until we looked at all the menus for all the stalls (because the flyer didn't mention which stall). 

Jajangmyun and the fried pork special

I was really confused by the large container of sauce (is this for dipping? this seems like it's too much to pour over the pork?) and it wasn't very good. The pork was really stringy too and it was mostly batter rather than pork. The jajangmyun was mediocre - not as good as the other store. 

  

Pork Bone Soup

They have more side dishes and they have purple rice! Other than that, I found that this pork bone soup was super watery and they over-seasoned it with the powder spices rather than building it into the soup. There was a lot of pork bone and meat, but it just didn't taste as yummy. The pickled radishes were also not very good. 

Overall: I'm disappointed by the Korean food at the Thornhill location - I'll stick to the York Mills location. 

Olive Garden - Buffalo

All of the Olive Gardens in Ontario have closed, but I used to hear about their cheap pasta lunch specials and all you can eat breadsticks and salad. I finally got to try it in Buffalo!

The breadsticks weren't very good and the salad was okay. (The salad was an extra $1.50)

I don't really like olives, so by the end of the shared bowl, we had a lot of olives remaining. 

Chicken gnocchi soup

It was really thick and chunky with gloops of soup. I think my first bowl was the last dregs of their soup, the next soup bowl was a little better, but it was still super thick and kind of flavourless. 

Grilled Chicken plate (Quesadilla) and Meatball Sandwich $6.99

The grilled chicken plate was really disappointing - I thought we'd get more food than just four tiny quesadilla. At least it was tasty? I couldn't believe they used the breadstick to make the meatball sandwich. 

Overall: I was super disappointed with the Olive Garden, the food was not really satisfying or particularly tasty. However, there were so many people eating here? I'm confused - did I get the wrong menu or something? How is it so popular? I think East Side Mario's is so much better (which makes sense that Olive Garden moved out of Canada).

Website: https://www.olivegarden.ca/home