Applebee's - Thunder Bay

As the largest casual dining chain restaurants in the world, it's a little surprising to me that there's no Applebee's in Toronto (the closest one is in Brampton). 

Chain restaurants survive and thrive because they understand their customers, know what they want and they regularly meet consumer expectations. They offer food that's fast, consistent, usually of decent quality and quantity and most importantly - at reasonable (or cheap) prices (to blow away the competition).

It was little wonder then that the Applebee's in Thunder Bay was practically packed on a Tuesday night. 

The location is pretty central at the corner of Balmoral and Harbour Expressway (and between Port Arthur and Fort William)

Sizzling Skillet Fajitas with grilled chicken 

It was served on a huge plate: the white cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and sour cream were on top of the lettuce and there were 4 tortillas on top of the rice (I got white rice instead of the spicy Mexi-rice). The skillet had sautéed onions, red peppers, green peppers and chicken and was slightly spicy by itself. The skillet was okay, but the tortillas were not very good: they stuck together and were pretty flimsy which ruined the fajitas. It was a lot of food for $15.  

Apple Chimicheesecake with apple and cheesecake wrapped in a tortilla and deep fried

It sounded pretty awesome: deep fried cheesecake...turns out the tortilla was more a part of it than I thought. It was dusted with cinnamon and sugar, but the combination of the tortilla, apples and cheesecake pieces wasn't very appetizing. The ice cream and caramel sauce were really good. 

Overall: It was an okay meal. It was pretty cheap in comparison to a lot of the other places and with hefty portions. 

Website: http://www.applebeescanada.com/

Chantecler

My coworker raved about the lettuce wraps at Chantecler and I couldn't resist making the trek out to Parkdale to try it.

Spicy Popcorn Chicken with popcorn and morita pepper
Considering my inability to eat spicy food, I found this popcorn chicken wasn't spicy at all contrary to its name. It was okay, I found that there was mostly skin and fat rather than actual chicken underneath those popcorn covered balls.

Calamari in caramelized peanut and tamarind sauce

I thought this was nice: it was lightly fried and it had a sweet and interesting take on traditionally grilled or crispy fried calamari. You can definitely see the Asian influences in the cooking here.

Beef Tartare with peanut, wasabi, fish sauce and nori
I found that there was way too much wasabi in the beef tartare mix - it was so strong that it cleared my sinuses. I liked the touch the egg added because it made the mix a little creamier, but overall I wasn't a fan.

The nori (seaweed) part of the beef tartare

Pork Special Wrap with dried oyster, roast seaweed and puffed wild rice
The wrap was really nice! You could really taste the dried oyster and it added a nice fragrant taste to the pork and lettuce wrap.

Fish wrap with wild Pacific cod and Japanese tartar sauce
I think the Japanese tartar sauce was a mayonnaise and I found it a pretty refreshing, light and summery wrap with the fish and thinly sliced radishes

Duck Neck Special

It had a strong tea leaf flavour.

Lettuce meal with braised beef and slow cooked pork shoulder with lettuce, steam rice, house pickles and sauces (Portion of 2 shown above)
The meat was seasoned well and pretty tasty by itself. The meal came with unlimited lettuce and chips and of this lettuce mix there was romaine, cabbage leaves and iceberg lettuce. Quite an interesting variety...it was a change up from the traditional iceberg lettuce leaves that Asian restaurants typically use for lettuce wraps.

Sriracha sauce and mayonnaise, korean bean paste sauce and cauliflower, pickled carrots, jalapenos and house-made kimchi
I wasn't really a fan of the sauces and pickles on the side. I'm used to eating oyster sauce or hoisin sauce and I found I couldn't really appreciate the sauce selection here.

Overall: The service was attentive - they had an open kitchen concept and it was a pretty small area of the restaurant, so I totally understood that food might take a little longer to come out. The wraps are pretty interesting, but I kept comparing the wraps to the lettuce wraps that come with Peking Duck and I think I like those more than these ones (and they're less pricey). I'm not sure if the lettuce wraps were put on the menu to compete with Grand Electric's tacos, but in my opinion, I think the tacos would win that battle.

Website: http://restaurantchantecler.ca/

Campagnolo

Campagnolo was named one of the best new restaurants in Canada in 2011 and it's been receiving accolades ever since.

Fresh Burrata Cheese with Roasted Grapes and Toasted Bread

The cheese was really good and it was nicely complemented by the warm roasted grapes and the crispy garlic toast.


Smoked ocean trout rilletes with fennel and dill crostini
I loved the presentation of the rillete in the mason jar. The smoked ocean trout spread was tasty and delicious and it paired perfectly with the crispy fried crostini.

Berkshire pork chop with crispy gnocchi, braised kale, smoked gorgonzola butter and late harvest apple vinegar

The pork chop was a little tougher than I expected. The portion was pretty substantial too. I really liked the fried gnocchi especially in the gorgonzola butter - it was heavenly. I only wish they put more gorgonzola butter all over the gnocchi and made it into a sauce. I felt like most of the sauce in the dish was au jus. The crisp granny smith apples added a nice flavour and texture to the dish.

Salted Caramel Budino $2
Delish! The pudding was rich, smooth and velvety and it had a little crunch on top. The salted caramel was perfect. Yum!

Pear baked Cake
Poached pear was nice, but I found the cake was pretty heavy and a little bland compared to the pear inside.

Deconstructed Tiramisu
I love tiramisu and couldn't resist ordering this dessert. I liked the cookie base, but I found the flavour of the mascarpone cheese a little odd. I wasn't really a fan of the blocks all around the plate and I didn't think it worked well together.

Overall: I liked the ambiance and the design of the restaurant. The service was nice and friendly and I had a good meal at Campagnolo.

Website: http://campagnolotoronto.com/

Hot House Cafe (Wednesday night buffet)

I've been to the Hot House Cafe before during a Summerlicious/Winterlicious promotion period. They had a great deal: $25 for  appetizer, surf and turf and dessert. It was great value for money and delicious. 

So when I heard about the Wednesday night buffet, I decided to try it out.

There were two tables of salad options, three tables of entree options (including a pizza and roast beef station), a pasta station in the corner and 9-10 La Rocca and Baker Street Cakes to choose from (along with two fruit trays and other desserts like apple crumble).

Round 1:

 Clockwise from the Bottom: Salmon, potato salad, crab salad, quinoa salad, bocconcini cheese and olives, Greek pasta salad, steamed vegetables (in this case cauliflower and yellow zucchini), cheese cappelletti and meat lasagna
I cleared my plate - everything was pretty good. I love cheese cappelletti and it's not a popular item on most Italian restaurant menus, so I made sure to savour the cappelletti here. Other stand out items: potato salad was good (not as amazing as Schnitzel Queen, but still pretty good) and the lasagna was tasty. 

The pasta station offered 3 different types of pasta: penne, gnocchi and fettuccine and 4 different sauces: pesto, alfredo, gorgonzola and marinara. Then you get to pick your toppings which ranged from sundried tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, chicken, bacon and more.
Round 2:

Pesto penne with bacon, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and parmesan cheese
My dish was too salty with the pesto sauce, cheese, bacon and extra salt (I really should have known better than to add extra salt). The pesto was nice though.

Fettuccine alfredo with fresh tomatoes, chicken, bacon and mushrooms

The fettuccine alfredo turned out better: the sauce was creamy and rich and the ingredients and noodles worked well together.

There were some interesting dishes including salmon penne (with olives), Thai noodles, pizza and quite a few pasta choices. However, I couldn't resist going back for more cheese cappelletti cause it was so good.
Round 3: 

Roast beef (very rare and bloody), cheese cappelletti, steak and mushroom pie, steamed cauliflower and mussels.
We saw people with plates of mussels and we couldn't really figure it out until we tried them for ourselves. The mussels were really good! The mussels were sweet and tasty with the sauce.
The steak and mushroom pie was delicious as well - the steak was tender and juicy and the mushroom sauce  perfectly balanced it out. The pie crust was a little flimsy and soggy, but it was still great.
The only thing I wasn't super impressed with was the roast beef which was supposed to be a medium rare cut but turned out very rare and bloody. 

Dessert Round
Round 4:

Clockwise from top left: Bailey's cheesecake, chocolate banana cake, white chocolate raspberry cake, hazelnut cake, brownie and red velvet cake
We were very ambitious...I have a huge sweet tooth and I really wanted to try all the cakes they had, so we ordered a tiny slice of 5 cakes (even though there were 9 - we knew we couldn't handle that many).
My favourite was probably the Bailey's cheesecake. The rest alternated between being too sweet (white chocolate raspberry), a little flavourless (red velvet - maybe because I had the white chocolate before eating it) and boring (hazelnut).

Final Round 5

Fresh fruit...not much else to say

Overall: It's been a while since I've had a full buffet dinner and after this experience, I remembered why I don't do buffets: quantity vs. quality. In the case of Hot House Cafe, they served some really good food; it was just overwhelming for me. I loved the options and everything tasted really good - A good deal for $18.95 (excluding tax and tip)

Website: http://www.hothousecafe.com/

Full House Chinese Cuisine

In the 1980-1990s, a lot of immigrants from Hong Kong came and settled into the Agincourt area of Scarborough. It quickly developed into a Chinatown with a lot of Chinese restaurants and stores. During the real estate boom, the Chinese population started spreading out with a lot of the population moving up to Markham and a larger majority moving back to Hong Kong. Even still, there's still a few Chinese restaurants in the area.

Drunken Half Chicken
The chicken was lean and nicely flavoured with wine.The presentation was a little odd in the bamboo container - I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Bamboo clam (Atlantic Jacknife clam) with black bean sauce and peppers

The black bean sauce was light and tasted sweeter with the red and green peppers. I liked the bamboo clams: they were meaty and sweet.

Crab Steamed Rice
We ordered the rice in advance so that it would be served at the same time as the dishes. However, the crab wasn't fresh and it didn't have claws! The rice was fragrant and mixed with fish roe and egg whites, but it was still disappointing.

Sautéed snow pea shoots

It had a nice light sauce and was pretty tasty.

Dessert of almond cookies in the middle and steamed white sugar sponge cake

I wasn't a big fan of the white sugar sponge cake, but the almond cookies were good.

Overall: The service was mediocre and the food was okay. I've had better at Maple Yip or even Honest Kitchen.

Bamiyan Kabob

I've heard lots of good things about this place including how it's the best Afghani food in the City and I've been meaning to go and try it out for the last 4 months. I finally got my chance, but it was so crowded in the restaurant that we decided to grab the food to go. 

The Naan is pretty interesting. The portion is quite large and it's baked in an oven and sprinkled with black nigella seeds.

Top: Barg Kabob Dinner
Bottom: Half Chicken Kabob Dinner
All kabob dinners come with basmati rice, salad and naan.
I'm used to eating jasmine rice and trying basmati rice was an interesting experience. It's a lot longer and not as puffy as jasmine and the basmati has a hint of a scent or flavour to it. The salads were nice: one was made of lettuce and a light mayonnaise sauce and the other was a tomato, onion and coriander salad.
The Barg was chunks of filet mignon rubbed in spices on top of a bed of long grained rice. It was really tender and very tasty.
The half chicken was dry rubbed on the outside and tender and succulent underneath the skin. It was an interesting contrast and the spice mix was lightly spicy.

Overall: I liked it! The meals were reasonably priced, tasty and filling.

Website: http://www.bamiyankabob.com/