Chinese Dumpling House

Metro Square has a lot of restaurants to choose from making it tough to decide where to eat whenever we're in the area.

One of the most popular restaurants in the area is the Chinese Dumpling House:

The Dumpling Menu

Zhajiangmian $4.99

Zhajiangmian is a Chinese dish with thick wheat noodles (la mian or hand pulled noodles) with ground pork and soybean sauce and cucumbers.

You can tell that they make authentic hand pulled noodles at the Chinese Dumpling House because of the uneven thickness of the noodles. The noodles were great, but I thought that the dish didn't have enough sauce.

Steamed Leek and Pork Dumplings ($4.99 for 15)

The dumplings were fantastic! They were savoury and packed with flavour (no soy sauce required!)

And I could not believe the price for this: Fresh made-to-order (steam-to-order) dumplings for $4.99? Get out of here! That's unbelievable and amazing value, no wonder this place is packed!

The Inside of the Dumpling

Overall: You get great food, fast service and excellent value at the Chinese Dumpling House (a meal for two could go for around $10 - $15 depending on what you order). 

La Fiesta Catering (Tasty Thursdays)

Tasty Thursdays is a food event featuring all types of International cuisine run by the City of Toronto at Nathan Philips Square. 

One of the Food Vendors was a catering company called La Fiesta Catering which served up

Latin cuisine of pulled pork, chicken shish-kabob and short rib meals served with rice, potato omelette (tortilla de papa) and salad.

After checking out my options, I decided to get the pulled pork with all the sides for $6. 

For $6, this was pretty awesome. The pulled pork appeared flaky, but it was actually tender and tasty. The orange salsa added a refreshing zesty and spicy kick to the meat. The potato pancake quite heavy, but it tasted buttery and was lightly seasoned with spices. The salad was fresh with some lime spritzed over coriander, onions and tomato salsa. The Mexican rice was fragrant, sweet and colourful since it was mixed with peas, corn and carrots. 

Overall: A great lunch for $6! Filling and delicious!

Frank Restaurant @ AGO

The Art Gallery of Ontario has a collection with over 80,000 works. With so many works, it really keeps things interesting making it a fantastic place to visit. Adult admission usually costs $19.50, but on Wednesday Nights from 6 - 8pm, admission is free (except into special exhibitions like the Picasso Masterpieces).

After a quick tour of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO),

<Great Leap Forward by Zhang Huan, ash on linen>

I headed over to Frank for my Summerlicious reservation.

The menu - lots of Spanish influence! $35 dinner

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

The kitchen

The bread with butter and sea salt in a shell

I loved the sea salt and butter combination! 

Fresh corn and shrimp cake with roasted tomato, chili salsa & sautéed shrimp*

This appetizer was tiny, but jam packed with flavour. It had the sweetness from the shrimp and roasted tomato, a little zing from the chili salsa and then there was the dense meaty shrimp cake. Yum!

Gazpacho del dia, locally & seasonally inspired, served with crisp fennel grissini

The gazpacho (cold soup) of the day was a yellow tomato and yellow pepper soup. I liked the touch of the coriander on top of the soup - it added a fresh, crisp taste to the soup which by itself tasted like a simple tomato and pepper puree. The fennel grissini tasted like a breadstick...not a fan.

Grilled king oyster mushrooms on marinated asparagus & cucumber salad 

with chive & chervil vinaigrette

The salad sounded exotic, but it was rather simple and slightly forgettable. 

Steak diablo: grilled spiced flat iron steak, with patatas bravas, piquillo pepper relish & picante demi-glace 

We ordered a medium flat iron steak and got a medium-rare steak (which is okay), but the steak was still a little tough. It definitely sounded more Spanish-influenced than it was. The sauce was great with the potatoes.

Saffron honey roasted chicken with golden raisins & capers served with orange & almond couscous*

This entree was fantastic! The chicken was moist, juicy and bursting with flavour from the saffron and honey. Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world and very popular in Indian cuisine and Spanish cuisine - a little can go a long way and I could tell that the chefs spared no expense with the saffron in this dish because the chicken was perfectly seasoned. The couscous was great too, who knew orange, almonds, raisins and capers would work so well?

Vegetarian paella with grilled summer vegetables & saffron aioli*

Another fantastic main, the paella was so fresh and hearty that it almost made me forget that there wasn't meat in the dish. The grilled summer vegetables consisted of crisp green beans, long strips of cucumber and juicy red and yellow peppers. The rice was fluffy, a little sticky and there was a bit of a socarrat (the toasted crunchy rice) in the paella.

Churros con chocolate: cinnamon-sugared fritters with dark chocolate & caramel dipping sauces*

The churros were doughy and sweet on their own; with the slightly bitter dark chocolate dipping sauce, they were perfectly balanced. Even the caramel dipping sauce wasn't too sweet which was nice.

Chocolate sour cherry bouchon with kirsch-laced whipped cream

The cake was dark chocolate cake with cherries baked in. I found it a little too crumbly, but it worked well with the sauce. 

Summer berry pudding featuring ontario raspberries, strawberries, red currants & vanilla whipped cream

This dessert was a bit of a surprise because we were expecting a pudding rather than a bread pudding. It was great (even if it was completely drenched in the summer berries)

Overall: After exploring the AGO, I think Frank Restaurant is a great place to grab lunch or dinner after. They have some really amazing food on the menu and it's a little pricey considering the portion size, but it's delicious. The only downside of the experience was the service: our waiter was ridiculously slow and slightly oblivious, so the bus boys were being completely overworked to compensate for the slow wait staff. 

The Chef's House

It's that time of year again...

Summerlicious Time!

I always look forward to Summerlicious since it means I get to try out 3 course meals at exciting restaurants in Toronto for a fraction of the price (similar to Winterlicious). Sadly, sometimes it's also a fraction of the meal, but at least you get to sample the restaurant and explore their offerings.

On to the food!

Last Winter, I tried to make reservations for The Chef's House after my coworker tried the Winterlicious menu and told me that the food was great there. Unfortunately, the restaurant was fully booked for the rest of Winterlicious, so I made it a priority to use the American Express Card to go to the Front of the Line and book my table at The Chef's House early.

The Chef's House is a restaurant associated with the George Brown's Hospitality and Culinary Arts School. Students learn about cooking and service in a real life situation. 

The $25 Prix Fixe Dinner menu

(* items that I would recommend and/or re-order)

Bread and Butter 

The butter was deliciously creamy and soft.

House Smoked Duck Breast, Mixed Bean Salad, Citrus Dressing 

The individual components were nicely done. I enjoyed the duck and mixed bean salad separately, but I didn't think they worked well together. I wasn't sure if it was a play on textures or a play of flavours, but I think I missed it.

Cheese & Tomato Galette, Tossed Baby Arugula *

This galette was my favourite appetizer: the pancake was not too doughy and the cheese and tomato were spread evenly throughout the middle. The tapenade enhanced the simple flavours of the galette by adding a contrasting salty and tangy taste.

Compressed Watermelon, Melon Juice, Grilled Squid

This was interesting; the grilled squid was nicely cooked and there was a spiciness to the overall dish that I thought might have come from the melon juice (is that possible?)

Presentation wise though - it was a little strange. 

Beef Short Rib, Mild Spicy Bean Sauce, Summer Vegetable Couscous

The short rib was okay, probably not as tender as I would have liked. 

The sauce and couscous were okay, even though I'm not a fan of couscous.

Pan-Seared Arctic Char, Grilled Fennel & Bacon, Hollandaise Sauce *

The arctic char was delicious - they make a really mean fish. 

I loved the combination of the grilled fennel and the bacon with the fish as well. 

The hollandaise sauce worked really well with this dish - it was totally spot on.

Roasted Beretta Chicken Breast, Corn & Pea Succotash, Shallot Jus

First thought: Wow, that is a huge piece of chicken. 

The chicken was cooked nicely, I would have liked it more if the chicken absorbed more of the flavour from the shallot jus since it tasted just like normal chicken. 

The succotash was really nicely done and it added great colour and a nice sweetness to the dish.

Peach Upside-Down Cake, Sour Cream Gelato 

After my other experience with specialty gelato, I had high expectations for a warm, sweet cake paired with a sharp and tart gelato. Unfortunately, this one missed the mark. 

I liked this dessert the most out of the three options, but I wasn't wow-ed by it.

Banana Cream Tart, Mocha Chocolate Sauce

It looked amazing, but I didn't like the banana cream in the tart.

Lemon Sherbet, Italian Meringue, Berry Compote

The sherbet was really quite sour and I think the original intention was that the meringue and berry compote were supposed to balance it out. However, I found that the coldness of the sherbet just made the sourness stand out more and the meringue was just too sweet. The combination didn't work for me.

Overall: For Summerlicious, I think The Chef's House is a great restaurant to try out and the food is quite reasonably priced. You never know, maybe one of the chefs preparing your meal could become the next big Chef (like Mark McEwan)

Website: http://www.thechefshouse.com/index.html

Cafe Cogo

Cafe Cogo is a Hong Kong Style cafe newly opened by the same owners as Dragon Boat Fusion Cuisine in Richmond Hill. 

The restaurant is located at the end of the strip mall right next to Costco.

    

Egg white and chicken congee

The chicken was boneless which was nice because I hate picking out bones in congee (Fish bones are bad enough but I'm really afraid of choking on chicken bones).

I found that the congee didn't absorb the chicken flavour: rather, the dish tasted like they took the white congee base and threw in the chicken and egg whites after. 

Beef brisket and tendon lo mein $5.75

This was the highlight of the meal! I love beef brisket and tendon; when these two are done right, the flavour of the sauce is fully absorbed in the tender and gelatinous texture of the tendon and the chewy and fatty beef brisket. Delicious and for such a reasonable price too!

Cream of mushroom and ham soup 

The set dinner consisted of a drink, soup or salad, main course and dessert for $14.99 (excl. tax).

We started with the cream soup (over the vegetable borscht soup or salad). I really like their garlic bread which was nicely toasted on the outside. 

Beef tenderloin and shrimp with spaghetti

After eating way too much rice in China, we were excited to order something different. 

The garlic shrimp were big, juicy, buttery morsels of goodness. 

The tenderloin was nicely done as well (there's actually two pieces of meat there on top of a bed of carrots and radishes) and the gravy sauce tied everything together. 

Mango pudding

The dessert was mango pudding (the other options were all puddings but they weren't as appealing to us). 

The dessert fell flat and being mango (one of my favourite fruits) didn't save it. 

Overall: The food is tasty and there's a lot of variety in the menu. A great Hong Kong style cafe with reasonably priced food and quick service. 

Website: http://cafecogo.ca/

Lunch - Beijing (Great Wall of China)

On the last day, the sky cleared up and the weather was perfect for our climb up the Great Wall of China!

It was about 32 degrees Celsius when we tackled the wall (but with the humidex it felt much hotter).

The scary part wasn't going up the Great Wall at Juyongguan:

It was looking down and going down the steps.

The stairs were steep and uneven. Near the top of the mountain, they didn't even have guard rails for visitors to hold on to when descending down the stairs.

After surviving the climb down from the Great Wall, we were taken to a nearby restaurant:

Clockwise from the top: Sweet and Sour Fish, Celery, Fried Chicken Fingers, Mixed Vegetables and Stir-fry Pork

The only dishes I liked were the Fried Chicken Fingers (even if they did taste a bit garlicky) and the mixed vegetables. The rest of the dishes weren't very good.

Wintermelon soup

Very bland and tasteless, which was surprising since wintermelon is usually very sweet. 

Overall: Not a very good meal to end our China trip with, but it was served very fast to give us enough time to explore the Cloisonne factory downstairs.