We got takeout from Omai a few times over the last couple of pandemic years and thought the quality and creativity were very good.
That being said, it’s been about 6 months since we last tried it.
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Earlier this week, we took out from One Night Only Pizza again. What started as an operation out of someone’s home now has a proper commercial space. The crusts are good and the topping combinations are usually lots of fun. This time around we had the ONO Urban Cowboy: horseradish cream sauce, grass fed mozzarella, house roast beef, ONO mushrooms, pickled red onion, finished with Padano, basil & freshly grated horseradish. Very tasty and sort of like a roast beef sandwich in pizza form.
And today we took our from So Hungary, the Hungarian deli that was formerly Honey Bear. The cabbage rolls remain smokey, fall-apart tender, and slathered with stewed sauerkraut. We noted stronger black pepper flavour, but otherwise much the same. We also had a chicken schnitzel and a pork schnitzel which revived nicely in the toaster oven and were enhanced with a squeeze of lemon. The palascinta (filled with dry cottage cheese), were supple and just sweet enough. The poppy seed pastry was also very good. Also picked up some fragrant sweet paprika for the paprikas I am making tomorrow night.
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I was planning to dine on a heated patio, but most looked too airtight or crowded to me.
The restaurants along Ossington , Dundas W and in Bloordale were packed tonight. I almost placed a takeout order at Alma, which was going to come to close to $80, then considered takeout at Bar Neon.
I ultimately decided to get takeout from Vit Beo.
The food tasted good, but it has slipped a little since my visit last summer. The Banh Mi roll wasn’t as fresh as one would expect on a Sat. The Banh Mi at Rustle and Still is more generous and a better Banh Mi.
I ordered the fried cauliflower salad topped with a fried egg, the fried chicken appetizer, the vegan dumplings, and the pork belly banh mi. The cauliflower salad didn’t travel well.
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Re: Vit Beo
This morning, I can say I found Vit Beo’s food too salty for me. It must have been cumulative. I must have had 6 glasses of water over the course of the night, waking up every 2 hours to drink more water. I probably won’t go back.
This has only happened to me around 3 times in Toronto, from Vit Beo, from Byblos and from a shawarma place. Another time, a meal at Lalibela Ethiopian restaurant on the Danforth made my feet swell up, which led me to return some new boots the next day, before I realized it had been the salt. I’m still wearing those Blundstones that are a size too big, 8 years later 
Lalibela vegetarian platter heavy on salt
I’ve been lucky that it’s been 4 years since this happened the last time!
I haven’t run into issues with too much salt at Rustle and Still.
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I’ve been liking take-out from Scotty Bons Annex location.
I’ve been there 3 times since it opened. It’s at the fast food end of the spectrum. It seems fresher tasting to me, and maybe a little less salty, that some other relatively cheap Caribbean takeout spots in the Annex and Bloordale.
The patties have a slightly sweeter, different pastry than most, with less of a yellow colour. Nice version of a patty, but different than the typical version.
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Took out from Porchetta & Co. on Saturday. The menu offerings have changed a little since we last went, but the sandwiches remain great overall:
- Bitter green salad - baby kale, radicchio, sweet peppercorn bacon, lemon, creamy Caesar dressing - very nice, particularly the bacon which was almost candied
- Special fried chicken sandwich: potato roll, yellow mustard, pickles, bacon, American cheese - sort of a riff on a cheeseburger, so tasty in a fast food kind of way
- Porchettta “House Special” sandwich: porchetta, crackling, truffle sauce, parmesan, grainy mustard, Frank’s, toasted sourdough - excellent as always, though truffle was undetectable
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I tried the Chicken Low Priest at Burgers Priest today, their most basic fried chicken sandwich. Looked better than it tasted. The chicken was juicy but the breading was under seasoned. Less tarty than Popeye’s, Mary Browns or McChicken.
Took out from two Chinese places along Gerrard in the past week, both places we have eaten at and from many times:
GB Hand Pulled Noodles
- Salad with mixed shreds (new to us) - mainly seaweed with some bean thread; really good, flavoured with sesame
- Lanzhou Spicy Beef Shank - lovely as always, not very spicy
- Stewed Pork Burger - flavour still pretty good but they over-microwaved it.
- 3 skewers of thin (dry) tofu wrapped around enoki mushrooms with five spice - undersalted, was better when we added some mushroom soy sauce
- Beef with Pickled Cabbage and wide noodles - spicy, with radish and green onions and coriander, wonderful beef flank, and small chopped bits of pickled cabbage, all enhancing chewy fresh noodles
- Hot GB Dandan Noodles served with a side soup - very good, firm spaghetti sized noodles, with pork, edamame, and pickled cabbage
- two chili oils - nice and smoky but not very hot
Dumpling House
- Spicy Glass Noodle salad (cold) - amazing! Chili-sesame dressing on wide flat glass noodles with coriander, cucumber, carrot, black fungus strips, eggs strips, pork strips; smoky but not actually spicy
- Szechuan peppercorn spicy chicken - deep fried chicken pieces with chili, and mainly onion and little red and green pepper. Very good, perfumed with the slightly numbing peppercorns
- 3 types of dumplings (12 each): lamb, beef, and pork-and-dill dumplings - all wonderful as always
- Chicken wontons - also delicious
- Scrambled egg and tomato - our version of Chinese comfort food
- Moo shu pork with egg - very pleasant but not as tasty as the last time
- Chinese broccoli - lots o’ garlic
- Free sesame pancake as always
Bonus points for them using our own containers so we didn’t have to create more plastic waste/recycling.
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Good for you and good for them!! I’ve been using my own glass/porcelain containers for take-outs for quite a while now. Safer for hot food too since no risk of toxic release from plastic containers!
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Have you tried Mary Brown’s latest ’ Nashville Chicken Burger '?! Nice spicy glaze with just the right amount of heat. Very crispy and moist interior. Pickles and Range dressing complimented the chicken and bun very well!
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Thanks for sharing Charles I heard about this chain but have never gotten around to trying it. Have you tried Tokyo Hot friend chicken? Its really good nice dark meat, decent heat and a good ratio of condiment and right type of bun to get it right. Arguably the best I have tried.
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I haven’t had any Mary Brown’s sandwiches yet! Will try it next time I visit! It’s possible to buy all dark meat at Mary Brown’s, if you ask, btw!
Yes!
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Ref: Tokyo Hot Friend Chicken
Likewise elvisahmed! Thanks for the rec! Will google and see nearest location!
If only we have something as GOOD and cheap as the US Southern states supermarket chain - ’ PUBLIX ’ buttermilk southern fried chicken using free-range bird. So well seasoned and flavourful, uber crispy and super moist interior! Bird chopped into 10 pieces…only US$ 10!!
Charles they have only one location forTokyo Hot fried chicken in Toronto but it is worth a trek IMO or have it delivered to your daughter and brought over 
For chain offering I still recall the Zinger burger (not even remotely close to what they have here) in the sub continent is very memorable though I haven’t been there in decades but still have fond memories of it. Also the fried chicken at McDonald in Thailand was very good! I will look for the PUBLIX market on my next trip to US. I don’t recall seeing it in Austin TX so maybe its only in certain states.
Finally tried Tea-N-Bannock, on their 10th anniversary (that gives you an idea of how behind we are on our to-try list). This is an Indigenous-focused cafe at Gerrard and Greenwood and features bison, elk, wild rice, and of course bannock. The dine-in menu has a few more options (would like to try the smoked char), but since we are not doing that yet, we sampled what we could from the take-out menu.
A couple of notes overall: Almost everything comes with either bannock or fry bread. The answer is “yes”. The bannock, while dense as you would expect an unleavened baked bread, was still soft and had a nice subtle flavour. The fry bread was puffy, light, and hardly oily. The second point is that just about everything is undersalted, so the comments below related to the salted versions.
Three Sisters Soup features the usual combo of corn, squash, and beans - a bit bland, even with the salt. Better was the Corn Soup, featuring white corn that they grow themselves. Smoky pork, beans, potatoes, and onions add flavour and texture.
The Navajo taco had the excellent fry bread slathered with beef chili, cheddar, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream. Although it begged for some hot sauce, it was otherwise at least as good as some of the versions we had in Arizona.
The pickerel dinner was very good. The pickerel itself was lightly breaded and perfectly cooked. It came a wild rice side (with peppers and mushrooms), plus cole slaw, and mashed potatoes.
Not pictured was the elk stew, which was also very good. The elk was long-cooked and very tender, with a smoky overtone. The stew also included mushrooms, potatoes, peppers, and onions.
They were out of the bannock pudding (basically a bread pudding) so we will have to give that a try some other time.
Ai Sushi, 10650 Leslie Street, Richmond Hill:
Deluxe Kaisendon - Confirming at $18.99, quality and value-for-money is still pretty decent. Though, may be due to Covid, variety of toppings normally found in previous offering like Tamago and Tobiko were noticeably missing.
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I tried a rice dog today. This place is pretty slow.
No significant line today, just 2 people ahead of me, but I waited at least 15 minutes,while starving.
Tasty! I can see why the 20somethings line up for them.
This is the original version ($4.99 beef hot dog), with spicy mayo, sweet mayo and honey butter .
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I run by that place almost every day, and have always wondered about it… maybe I will try it!
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