Vagabondo

Date Visited: Dinner on Friday Feb 14, 2014
Company: Valentine's Day Dinner with +Will

Last year, I was looking for restaurants to go to for Valentine's Day and Vagabondo's $55, 4-course, fixed-price dinner really caught my eye. This year, I linked +Will two different restaurants' menus to choose from and he picked Vagabondo's, forgetting that we went there last year. I was happy to go again though because I had a great experience the first time around and now, I had an opportunity to blog about it! I made a reservation on OpenTable, a great site to make reservations and earn points for dining for many restaurants in Toronto and other cities!

Vagabondo is in a bit of a odd location, not really on the street but in a square. It's pretty noticeable though if you know where you're going as there's a large sign outside. The interior was decorated well for the occasion with tons of red and white balloons. We were immediately greeted and taken to our table. The restaurant is large with many different rooms, and we were placed in a small one with about 5 other tables. The placements of these tables were pretty close to each other so I felt a bit squished especially because we were also right against the wall. A waitress gave me a balloon upon entering and I tied it on my chair but I was worried it would keep hitting the guy behind me (that's how close we were to each other) so I stuffed it under the table instead. Anyways, we ordered Spearheads to drink which is one of their beers offered on tap which was described to us as a Toronto local brown ale. 

Once we placed our food orders, we were immediately brought some warm bread with olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, and butter to start. I loved that they gave the oil and vinaigrette in their bottles (which fit perfectly together, so cute) for us to pour on our plates ourselves for dipping. The bread was great, so soft on the inside, it felt like it was just baked. Shortly after, our first course arrived, the Bruschetta Feta! I remembered when I had this last year, that it was literally the best Bruschetta I'd ever had before. I'm happy to say that it still is. The perfectly toasted baguette was loaded with tomatoes and feta. They were very generous with the toppings and literally pack it on! The tomatoes are so flavourful and lightly brushed with olive oil. The bread doesn't crumble and the toppings don't fall everywhere when you bite into it which is a nice change from previous bruschetta experiences I've had.

For my second course, I choose the Gamberi Coco, tiger shrimp dipped in coconut batter served with honey garlic sauce. The plate came with two large deep fried tiger shrimp on a bed of arugula and the sauce on the side. The shrimp was very hot and pretty large. I loved the coconut flavour with this dish, not something I've had before. The honey garlic sauce was also delicious, an interesting but tasty combination! I would never think to pair those together but it made for a nice appetizer.

There were many good choices for the main dish but I had to go with the Fettuccine Pescatore, pasta with fresh mussels, clams, king crab, tiger shrimp, jumbo scallops and calamari cooked in a tomato basil sauce. The dish was huge when I saw it with large clams topping it off and an empty accompanying bowl for the shells. The pasta was excellent, it was hand-made and the texture was a bit on the hard side which I enjoyed. There were so many mussels, calamari, shrimp, and clams in the pasta, the thick tomato sauce was complemented well with the seafood. There was only one jumbo scallop in my dish and it was awful, it was so hard I couldn't even eat it after one bite. The king crab was also disappointing since there were only about 3 small sections cut of it, so very little meat. No complaints about the rest of the seafood though, they were great. I left just under half of it to take home because there was no way I could finish it and still have room for dessert. I also had a bite of Will's medium-rare filet and it was very tender, I enjoyed it a lot.

Finally, our meal was finally ending with the Chocolate Lava Cake. It was a cute sized little cake packed with chocolatey goodness. There was the sauce coming out from the top and nothing really came out when you broke into it. Will said that you really had to get to the middle for it to come out. It was great though, the perfect end to the meal. I only had less than a quarter of it and asked for it to be packed up but unfortunately the waitress had dropped my lava cake! She was very sweet and said they can make another one but I really didn't need to take it home so I said no. 

Overall, I had a wonderful romantic meal at Vagabondo. I must say that the waitress was extremely attentive the whole night and always made sure we had enough water and asked us how we were doing. It was a bit much at times but definitely no complaints about service or wait times for food. The $55 fixed price dinner was definitely worth it, great value for delicious food as I know their menu is normally quite pricey.


Food: 4/5 - Overall great food here, they know how to do the simple things right!
Decor: 3/5 - Nice place but a little too packed, expected for Valentine's day though.
Service: 4/5 - Would be perfect service, minus the dropping of cake and asked us how we were a bit excessively.
Willingness to go back: 3/5 - Love their Valentine's menu options, wouldn't say no to coming again but wouldn't initiate it either.
Overall: 3.5/5
Website: http://www.vagabondo.ca/

Remezzo Italian Bistro

Date Visited: Dinner on Wednesday Nov 13, 2013
Company: Walk-in for four

Being in the Scarborough area for work, some friends and I randomly decided to meet up for dinner afterwards as they also happened to be in town that day. After meeting up at STC for some browsing, we drove to Remezzo, an Italian restaurant nearby. It's in a small plaza with a few stores, but right beside a huge Asian grocery. +Will had drove there earlier as he had come straight from work and had a table waiting, not that it was very busy. The place is very spacious with many sections, and most tables seemed to be family gatherings.

They had their specials of the day written at the front but when I asked the waitress what they were, she had a hard time recalling them, not the best waitress. We decided to split Bruschetta to start and I also ordered the French Onion Soup. The wait wasn't too long for our appetizers. The Bruschetta came in 6 pieces which was perfect because only 3 of us ended up sharing it. The bread was nicely tasted and there was ample amount of tomatoes, very simple and delicious. The French Onion Soup also came shortly after and it looked extremely delicious in its little bowl. There was tons of cheese on the top layer and wasn't overcooked, it stayed hot throughout. It was very stringy though and I had a hard time getting down to the crouton part right underneath. Near the end, I also found all of the onion bits together at the bottom of the broth. It was +Stephanie's first time having it but she thought it was too salty. Overall, I think it was a bit messy but a great French Onion Soup.  But I would definitely get it again, it wasn't too expensive and loaded with cheese and onions.

For my main, I wanted to get the Eggplant Parmesan which was a special that day but the waitress forgot to mention that it was all out and had to return to re-take my order. Instead, I ordered the Linguini Di Mare. Our main dishes were brought out right as we were finishing our appetizers. The Linguini had scallops, shrimp, and scallops mixed in with a tomato-basil sauce. There were tons of seafood in the pasta which I enjoyed, you could really taste the flavour as the tomato sauce was pretty light. The shrimps and scallops were very big while the clams were small but there were tons of them in the dish. I took some of it home as I was pretty full from the apps but the portions were a good size as everyone finished their dishes.

Food: 3.5/5 - Mediocre but tasty food at reasonable prices!
Decor: 3/5 - Cozy, family-friendly restaurant with tons of space.
Service: 1/5 - Our waitress was so bad, but the food came quickly.
Willingness to go back: 4/5 - Definitely would go back for some delicious Italian without breaking the bank!
Overall: 3/5
Website: http://www.remezzo.ca/

Toni Bulloni

Date Visited: Summerlicious Dinner on Monday Jul 8, 2013
Company: Get together of 5 girlfriends from highschool

On the treacherous evening of the Toronto flood, my friends and I happened to organize a Summerlicious dinner in Yorkville. We unsuspectingly ventured to the downtown area from the east end, very unaware of the chaos happening in certain areas of Toronto. Half of the group was stuck coming from Union Station and had to walk half-way up to Bloor Street. Fortunately, the rest of us took the unharmed Bloor subway line from Kennedy to Bay station where Toni Bulloni's was located. We arrived first at the restaurant and were able to settle in for quite a while, waiting for the rest of the group.

While walking from Bay station to Toni's I was able to check out the ritzy area of Yorkville, in which I've never visited before. It was seemingly nice, even in the pouring rain. The shops on Cumberland are all very narrow and close to each other. I was not expecting Toni's to look how it did on the outside as it had very unique and bold signage. Upon entering, the bar area in the front was very tight but the restaurant went back quite far. There were surprisingly only about 8-10 tables in the dining area. They knew us by reservation so we were seated immediately.

As we waited for the rest of the party, we ordered a bottle of the Summerlicous House White, the G.Maruis Chardonnay from Niagara. None of us are really wine connoisseurs so we didn't have much input into this decision. But the choice was actually very nice and light with a sweetness too (that's the extent to how I'm able to describe wine), we didn't want anything too strong. 
After some more waiting, we spoke to the server about ordering and he suggested that we start with the complementary Bruschetta instead. We seemingly obliged and the waiter brought us 3 pieces. The bruschetta was a flat bread topped with tomatoes, herbs and oil. It was a nice fresh, light start to our meals. I really enjoyed the flat bread as it had a nice crispiness and was easy to eat.

Finally, the rest of our party had arrived just as we were finishing our bruschetta. They were soaked, but we were all there and could start ordering our meals :) For my appetizer, I got the Mixto Platter with prosciutto, artichoke, olives, tomatoes and bocconcini. It was a very beautiful combination of Italian delights. There was a decent amount of prosciutto that was delicious. The tomatoes and bocconcini was done in a Caprese way which I hadn't had before. It was quite light with subtle hints of flavour. This plate was a great appetizer especially if you wanted to share and try different things.

For my entree, I ordered the Scallopine de Pollo. There were many options so it was really hard to decide. We were told that some dishes had even run out. When it had arrived, it was done differently then I had expected. I thought it would be more of a grilled chicken rather than baked in a sauce. They had literally just finished cooking it before they brought it out because the chicken was still hot with every bite. The chicken extremely tender and though it was delicious, I found it rather simple. There was a nice mix of grilled vegetables on the side, with one of each kind. I found there was a lot of flavour on the plate, it was heavily seasoned but not overdone.

To end, I ordered the Tiramisu, which is something I usually don't order but none of the other desserts enticed me. When we got our cakes, I couldn't believe they were such tiny pieces. I was rather disappointed because it was probably the best Tiramisu I've ever had. The lady fingers were soaked with flavour and there was just the perfect ratio of it to cream. If all Tiramisu tasted like this, I'd have it all the time.

Food: 3/5 - Some ups, some downs, but a decent Summerlicious meal.
Service: 4.5/5 - Spectacular staff, except the one who couldn't speak English wasn't very helpful.
Decor: 3/5 - Very small, quaint and rustic. Nice atmosphere for an intimate night.
Willingness to come back: 3/5 - Their regular portions are huge!
Overall: 3.5/5
Website: http://tonibulloni.com

Avanti Trattoria

Visited: Dinner on Friday May 10, 2013

Company: Party of 5 ladies grabbing dinner before seeing The Great Gatsby

In an effort to try out some of the local restaurants in my hometown, some friends and I decided to have dinner at Avanti Trattoria, an Italian place situated in downtown Oshawa. I am always worried about parking downtown but finding a spot wasn't that bad the last few times I had been, definitely not as bad as being in downtown Toronto. Parking is free after 6PM in Oshawa and usually you can get close enough to your destination that the walk isn't dreadful. I got a place right in front but realized that the restaurant has their own parking spots after. I hadn't heard about the locally-owned restaurants in Oshawa until recently and this place was one of them, apparently with great Italian food and stone-oven pizza.

Upon entering, I was really surprised on how big the place is, with two main dining areas, huge bar, and kitchen area. There was also tons of staff available just hanging out, they were fully-stacked for the night. After the party had all arrived, we decided to start with some classic Bruschetta. We were also given bread for the table to start, and most of us had decided on pizza, so we were going to get our fair share of carbs that day. The bruschetta wasn't spectacular but still good. I'm always skeptical on bruschetta now because I had the best one earlier this year and I don't think any other one can top it. The bruschetta bread was a bit too soft all the way through and didn't have that thin crispy outer layer. Each table also had random oils to have with the bread which was nice to try.

We decided to all trade a slice of pizza to try other types and by the time we were done switching, only half the pizza was what I got! I wasn't worried though because the portion was more than enough, so much larger than a personal pizza. For my order of pizza, I got the Salsiccia. I love Italian sausage and it's usually the only meat I'd want on pizza so what's why I was compelled to have it. The overall combination of toppings on this was excellent, the red onions and green peppers complemented the sausage so well. The make of the pizza was excellent too, the dough was the right thickness and had a good amount of cheese. I was so full after three pieces which I was so disappointed because it was so good and I wanted to eat it all.
The other slices I tried were the Vegetarian, Cacciatore, and Polpette. I had debated getting some of these so I was pretty happy that my friends had gotten them instead. The Vegetarian was loaded with various veggies but I'm not a fan of olives which turned me off of getting it (yes, I understand you can ask for 'no olives'). But the broccoli was a very prominent flavour overall which took away from the other flavours. 

I had almost gotten the Cacciatore but I didn't think I had goat cheese before (but then I remembered that I did and I was a huge fan). Good thing, because it was overloaded with it! Probably because there was no mozzarella, but it was an awesome alternative. I love how thick the cheese in comparison but you can still taste the other flavours, especially the sun-dried tomatoes (which I didn't hate like I usually do), which was nice and soft like the other veggies and didn't stand out in texture.

Lastly, I tried the Polpette, which was quite similar looking to the Salsiccia but with mushrooms, Italian ham and meatballs instead of peppers and sausage. I wasn't a huge fan of the meatballs as they added an odd flavour to the pizza. The ham and mushrooms are an excellent addition but I think they were ignored among the other flavours. I don't think it was a great combination of toppings. 

Overall, I was a huge fan of the restaurant, from the food to the atmosphere, it's a nice little gem in downtown Oshawa I'm glad I know about now. 

Food: 3.5/5 - Pizza was excellent!
Decor: 4.5/5 - Brilliant Italian decor and excellent use of space.
Service: 3/5 - Pretty good, but not outstanding.
Likeliness to come back: 4.5/5 - Want to try some pasta :)
Overall: 4/5
Website: http://www.avantifood.com/