Sunday, 1 November 2020

Marjo Bakery

I was looking for a pistachio cake bakery and found Marjo Bakery through Yelp and Google. It's kinda interesting since I've been to this plaza many times for Family Shawarma, but I never noticed this bakery at the end of the strip mall. 
Beef empanada $2.99
I was quite intrigued by the mix of cakes and empanadas and I really wanted to try them (even though I was rather full from lunch), so I got one. It's quite sizable with a packed with beef filling and a nice soft crust in the middle and a harder crust on the outside - very yummy! 

Ferrero Rocher Cake and Pistachio Chocolate Cake ($3.49 each)
OMG I couldn't believe how cheap these cakes were! Especially considering how beautiful they looked and their sizes and everything - comparable cakes in Toronto usually go for around $5-8 depending on the bakery and neighbourhood - so I thought these were a bargain (especially the beautiful chocolate art on the ferrero rocher cake and I couldn't believe I found a pistachio cake for under $5)
The Ferrero cake was gorgeous and caught my eye right away with the colourful chocolate outside shell and inside it had this nice and fluffy hazelnut and chocolate mousse. I also liked that the cake had small crunchy bits around the outside which I thought was a pie crust at first, but then realized it was a thin chocolate cake layer. Yummy and so pretty! 
Pistachio chocolate cake had a layer of pistachio mousse and chocolate mousse on a light chocolate cake with a glaze on top. The pistachio and chocolate mousses were both pretty good, but the flavours weren't as strong as some of the others I've had (like Dessert Lady) but good flavour regardless and mousse was light and fluffy and the price totally sold me on the cake (especially for $3.49)!
I would definitely come back here and try some of their other cakes! 

Website: https://www.marjobakery.ca/

Thursday, 29 October 2020

South St Burger

October 29, 2020 @ Shops at Don Mills


BOGO 5 Oz Burger $8.42 with tax
Yummy as usual! The whole wheat bun and thick quality beef patty here make a huge difference! The toppings are always fresh here too. Definitely one of the better burger chains in Toronto in my opinion.

March 30, 2018
Birthday freebie! Free 5 oz. burger!

Oct 28, 2017

We got some more promotional coupons and came back for burgers at South Street again: 
Another case of the strange bun, I wonder if this is their normal bun - I usually get the whole wheat one. I also wished they melted the cheese. 

Oct 24, 2017

They didn't ask me what kind of bun I wanted - but I didn't like this one. 
The burger was still okay - the meat was good and the lettuce and other ingredients were good - I was just thrown off by the bun. 


Jan 21, 2016 

The Chicken Burger 
Generally, we found their chicken burgers a little drier than the regular beef burgers - sometimes the servers would compensate by putting on more sauce and mayo (which worked out better), but we preferred the beef burgers. 


Mushroom and Swiss Burger - pretty good sauteed mushrooms and melted gooey Swiss cheese and of course the customized toppings!

Dec 26, 2015 (Jan 13, 2016)
We tried their burgers off the regular menu: Hawaiian and the True North and the Mushroom Swiss 





Burger wise - I liked the glazed and grilled pineapple in the Hawaiian, but the Mushroom Swiss was the best of the three.  There's definitely a scientific reason why the mushroom swiss is such a popular burger - it's all about the savoury sauteed mushrooms and melted swiss cheese. 

Nov 30, 2015
We received some South St. Burger Co. coupons in the mail. 
The coupons were BOGO for most of their burgers and some of their specialty off the menu burgers. 
We went to a few locations for our burgers and they were all pretty consistent in their toppings. 

First up: Mac Burgers with Two Patties and Two cheeses
It was like a Big Mac, but with your pick of cheese (Swiss, Cheddar, Brie and Monterrey Jack) and they had customizable toppings such as guacamole and all these fun sauces like garlic mayo and signature sauce. 


Really delicious! and the burgers were super juicy. 

Thursday, 22 October 2020

Golden Bubbles

Golden Bubbles won an award for Hong Kong Style Milk Tea a while ago, but I was more interested in their bubble waffles - especially in my favourite flavour taro! 

Taro egg waffle $7 
10% off with cash payment = $5.10
Super crispy when they first came out, but there wasn't a lot of taro flavour and instead had more of a batter flavour. Once the egg waffles sat for a bit, I found them rather gummy, but they had a stronger taro flavour. 

Website: https://goldenbubbles.ca/

Saturday, 17 October 2020

Chi Patisserie

I was hoping Chi Patisserie would have their cakes available for sale on walk-in,  but they only had cake in boxes which were selling for $10 each and slightly discounted if you bought more.
Pretty small boxes, but they had some interesting flavours. 

Lychee Rose Petal Cake in a Box
The lychee and rose made a very floral combination and made a pretty tasty cream. The dessert was really sweet and it was mostly cream rather than cake, the sweet lychees on top were pretty good too and there was lychee jelly, as well as orange and red jelly in the middle of the cake box. 

Taro Cake in a Box
The cake layer and taro layer were pretty distinct even as seen outside the box. The taro was more grainy in texture and there were coconut milk jellies in the dessert as well - as part of one of the layers of the cake box. It had more of the true taro taste than the artificial taro flavour. 

Website: https://chipatisserie.ca/

Jatujak

 October 17, 2020

Jatujak has 10% off pick up and some pretty decent lunch specials under $10
Basil Chicken $9.95, Tom Yum Soup $9.95 and Green Curry with Rice $9.95
The basil chicken was super spicy this time around, it usually isn't that spicy but this dish got spicier as we kept eating. The tom yum soup was very tomato heavy and had a bit of sourness (which was tangy) and it was another dish that got spicier the more you ate - the chicken and noodles were pretty good though. The green curry was delicious with great green curry flavour and lots of chicken and peppers. It did seem like the portions got smaller compared to last time though.

Aug 11, 2020

We were exploring Skip the Dishes options around our neighbourhood, when we came across Jatujak with pretty good reviews and some lunch specials for $9.95 (along with free delivery over $30). So we gave it a shot and ordered through Skip which had a $10 promotion code. 
Lunch special Pad Thai (chicken and tofu) and Basil Chicken $9.95 each
The pad thai was sweet and savoury and it kind of reminded me of the pad thai at Thai Express (which is a successful Thai food chain in Canada) and it was a large portion (so great value for money). The basil chicken was also really good - the sauce was really tasty and the chicken and vegetable stir fry was done well. A savoury and yummy lunch dish with white rice. 

Lunch special pad siew and curry chicken (green curry) $9.95 each
The pad siew tasted like spicy chow fun (Cantonese style flat wide noodles) and it was really spicy. The green curry was really good with a great balance between sweet and spicy and it had soothing delicious coconut milk (to make it less spicy). It was a pretty big portion in the container and it came with a side small bowl of rice. 

Overall: Great Thai food at Jatujak! I'd definitely order from here again at lunch. 

Friday, 16 October 2020

Pacific Mall Heritage Town Food Court

It's been quite a long time since I've been to Pacific Mall, but I came to do some cheap phone-related stuff and decided to pick up food from a few different places upstairs at the Heritage Town Food Court. 

Sun's Kitchen 
It was pretty busy especially since they make their noodles from scratch in front of you
Dan Dan Mian
Very peanuty with the sauce, but less heavy on the peanut flavour than the jajangmian at the other place we ordered from (below). It did taste better with the hot chili oil and the fresh noodle difference was really obvious - the noodles had more of a bite and tension to them and weren't as soft/soggy as other noodles. 

sun noodles - dan dan mian - very peanuty as well - less than the jajangmian - better with the hot chili oil =much more tasty and the noodles were really good - freshly made in front of us - slight bite, less chewy than potato noodle and not as soft - good tension

Potato Noodle Soup of Bai
Making noodles sounds like an interesting use of potato
A2 Potato noodle with short rib $8.99
Clear chewy potato noodles were a lot gummier and chewier than the noodles from Sun's kitchen due to the potato texture. The broth had a strong seaweed flavour and wasn't really that great. The short ribs were braised well and very tasty, but it didn't quite work all together with the broth, noodles and short ribs. 

QQ Noodle King

QQ Cold Noodle (top box) $5.99 and Jajiangmian
The QQ cold noodle had a good contrast of spicy and sour and the cucumbers helped make the dish rather refreshing. The flat noodles were pretty good, but the dish had too much vinegar at the end which made it rather overwhelmingly sour. The jajangmian was a large portion with okay noodles, but the flavour was really peanut heavy (which I wasn't as big a fan of).

Prairie Lamb Kabob
Yummy! Lamb skewers - I haven't had those in a long time. 
7 for $15 including 3 lamb, 2 chicken and 2 beef
All of the skewers had the same lamb seasoning spices (cumin being the most prominent taste) - so the chicken and beef skewers were a little mismatched. The lamb was delicious with the seasoning though and the lamb meat was done well. 

Yummie Egg Waffle
There was a long line waiting for the egg waffles at Yummie, which is a candy/bulk food store with a small section for egg waffles. 
$3.50 for one egg waffle 
Excellent egg waffles! I totally understand why the lineup was so long here (and why it was constant). The egg waffles were a perfect balance of egg flavour and vanilla and they were light and fluffy as opposed to dense inside. 

Tung Tung Dan Quan King
No line up at Tung Tung, it used to be a super big and popular chain that had locations in most of the major Chinese malls around the GTA.
$3.50 for egg waffles
Harder egg waffles than Yummie and not as tasty overall. The flavour was a little off in the egg waffle since it tasted like the batter was old? It was also super dense so that the egg waffles were almost cake like. 

The inside of the egg waffles tells the difference between the two places.