I tried Patois’ jerk chicken chow mein ($27) and Trini mac pie ($13.50) tonight.
Large amount of chow mein noodles, 3 baby bok choi and maybe 4 ounces of chicken. There were enough noodles for 2 or 3 people. The chicken tasted good.
The Trini mac pie was tasty. Kind of small for $13.50 before tax and tip.
This place was packed on a Thursday.
I probably won’t order from here again. It was pretty salty. Very popular with people in their 20s and 30s.
Fonda Balam and Bar Vendetta serve better food at a similar price point.
I ordered the platter for 2 ($62- 2 schnitzel, perogies, 2 cabbage rolls and 5 vegetables) and the chicken polpety (meatballs $24.95) with potato dumplings ($2.99 upgrade from plain potatoes) and vegetables (included )from Cafe Polonez, through the Ritual app. Great value. Very generous , I won’t have to cook tomorrow!
No photos of the polpety.
Happy with my Pho Phuong order placed through Ritual. I liked the shrimp and coconut milk cakes and the rice flour rolls. I didn’t like their crab and egg cake much. I am fussy about crab.
Tried Naija Jollof, the Parliament location of a West African mini-chain in the GTA. We have only tried a handful of West African places, so we don’t have much experience for comparisons. The food was very flavourful, but the meat was tough and often dry. Anything collagen-filled was not slowly braised, leaving it very chewy. The prices are surprisingly high, with dishes being in the $20-30 range.
We tried the chicken with jollof rice and fried plantain, except they were out of plantain.
The chicken was tasty and had good kick, but was tough and dry. The rice had good flavour, although seemed likely converted.
Another selection was the egusi with fufu (pounded yam). This is a stew that includes squash seeds, cow skin, offal, smoked dried fish, mushrooms, and greens. It had a rich and many-layered flavour. But you have to like very chewy offal. The fufu was a neutral starch to mop up the flavours.
The Heaven on Earth at Piri Piri Grill is a nicer version than Golden Wheat Bakery’s version. I suspect the Golden Wheat version contains something like Cool Whip.
Tonight’s take-out was a lentil and turnip dish from Gia,
It was fine. I prefer the vegetable dishes at Bar Vendetta and Beast Pizza, which also offer take-out. I suspect Gia’s pastas and maybe polenta are its star dishes.
I enjoyed take-out pasta with pork bolognese, pumpkin nduja pizza, broccoli side and carrot sides from Beast Pizza on Saturday.Beast Pizza [Toronto]
I picked up a Thai Iced Milk Tea ($5.50) , green curry tofu ($16.50) and mango salad ($8) at Salad King today.
The Salad King on Queen W has a couple dishes that have different recipes than the Salad King on Yonge. The green curries on Queen W have a more nuanced green curry flavour, according to the owner.
The mango salad is more of a tangy version than some other places, light on the fish sauce. There may be mango juice in the dressing.
Checked out Parallel Basta in Kensington Market. I like it!
This is the Sabich Hummus plate ($19) and butter bean salad ($4). I requested vegetables instead of pita.
Have you tried Afrobeat Kitchen? That has been our top Nigerian spot so far but admittedly we’ve only tried a handful of places. Prices are around the $20 range too but the specials are even more. We will have to return to try the specials when we have more people to share.
Actually did Wok Theory and Pearl Yorkville back to back last week and in terms of food, slight edge to Pearl Yorkville. Wok Theory has better value. But at the end of the day, still don’t find them that refined and can’t say I have tried a really good one here in Toronto yet
I’m not expecting refined in Chinatown, I’m expecting Hit the Spot!
I think there are at least 5 levels of dim sum.
2 fancy levels: the level where people drive 45 minutes out of their way level, which would have been Yang’s for me around 2009, and the expensive downtown level with cloth tablecloths which includes Pearl. I haven’t tried Moon Palace yet.
I put Wok Theory in the fantastic (really good for me) for Chinatown level, ahead of the decent for Chinatown level, and the cheap fill your belly level.
There’s no accounting for taste, so your experiences and rankings could be completely different than mine!
I also do not go north of Bloor to eat, and haven’t been to Scarborough for food since 2018, so location is something that sets limits for the dim sum I’m ordering.
cheese chebureck (fried hand pie, hadn’t thought about it before today, that the word chebureck/ cheburek is related to or borrowed from Yugoslavian burek/Turkish borek/ Israeli bourekas etc),
sauerkraut bun,
borscht,
and perogies from the Heavenly Perogy
Everything tasted good. The prices seem steep for the food, considering the restaurant is run from a church basement. I still like it .
