Symposium Café

Date Visited: Brunch on Saturday Dec 6, 2014 

Company: Walk-in for 6, post-sleepover at +Stanley's

The morning after a sleepover in Markham, we were looking for places in the area to have a nice brunch. After intensive researching on Yelp and Google, we found a Symposium in the area. I've been the the Symposium in Uptown Waterloo before as it's pretty popular for a fancier dessert place in the city but didn't know it was a huge chain. It had been a time long ago (before I was really into food) that I went there for dessert so I was excited to try out their savoury plates. The location was easy to find and in a newer plaza with very little surrounding the area.

For drinks, they had $4 a Bloody Caesar special so I definitely had to order one of those. It was pretty nice with little garnishes, I was very impressed for only $4 from 11AM to 3PM (everyday!).

I wasn't really feeling any of the breakfast specials and decided to order a Chicken Parmesan Sandwich, one of their "Symposium Signature Dishes". Our waiter was quite friendly and helpful, he seemed a little busy with the other tables also but was still attentive to us when we needed something. The wait was a bit long for our food but it wasn't too ridiculous... I think it was worth the wait when all the servers came and brought our dishes from the kitchen, it all smelled amazing.

The piece of breaded chicken was very large with odds and ends sticking out from the little Ciabatta bun. I was hoping for something very saucy and tender and even though I didn't get exactly that, I was not disappointed at all. The flavour from this sandwich was spectacular, the marinara sauce was brilliant, packed with flavour and the mozzarella cheese added texture to the breaded crust of the chicken. The fries came with an aoili that paired well if you still wanted ketchup. The fries were rather standard though. I could only finish half of the sandwich and packed the other half to go so I could enjoy it later. +Will ended up having it as I went to see him after and he hadn't had lunch yet. He also agreed that it tasted 'really good' which is saying something as he usually don't have much of an opinion on food.

Definitely one of the best Parm Sanwiches I've had to date, this is one dish where I would order again and again and worth not trying something new over.

Food: 4/5 - Great food and prices!
Decor: 3/5 - Got a nice window seat and interesting decor.
Service: 3/5 - Nice waiter, just a bit slow.
Willingness to go back: 4.5/5 - Definitely have to try their desserts also.
Overall: 3.5/5 

Website: http://www.symposiumcafe.com/

Momma's Family Restaurant

Date Visited: Dinner on Oct 7, 2014
Company: +Joslynn and +Caroline

The Oshawa girls and I decided to get together for dinner and a cheap Tuesday movie after deciding we all wanted to see Gone Girl. The movie was around 7PM so we had to find somewhere for an early dinner close to the theatre. I wasn't feeling the chain restaurants on Tauton so I decided to do some searching for other things in the area. There aren't many known restaurants in Oshawa I haven't been to at this point but I did find Momma's Family Restaurant in the Five Points Mall. I haven't heard of the place before but it had positive reviews on the internet despite not having much internet presence.

Five Points Mall isn't a very busy mall (if you can even call it a mall) so I'm sure I've passed by it on my odd occasional visit. I wasn't even sure where in the mall it was located, I found a sign outside and just parked outside the entrance. The girls said they did the same but it happened to be where I was closer, to the Target. The restaurant was right where we entered and was bigger than I had expected (not sure what I was expecting), it looked almost like a smaller East Side Mario's. Their sign said to seat ourselves so we grabbed a booth mid-way back.

They had an interesting selection of menu items, quite extensive but not sticking any one theme... had some Greek and Italian features. We all decided to share a Large Caesar Salad which was actually massive! There was 3 of us and we couldn't finish it. There was tons of parmesan and dressing which I enjoyed. There was also lots of bacon bits but I didn't like that they were the artificial kind and very crunchy. The lemon on the side was a great addition to add more flavour to the salad. I thought it was very delicious.

I couldn't decide between a few things on the menu for my main but +Joslynn was getting Lasagna already so the waitress said I could have a bit of hers when I asked for a recommendation. I decided on the Chicken Breast Parmesan with Baked Potato (I think that's what it was). I wasn't sure what to expect from the description, I thought I'd get something saucier rather than chicken with a layer of sauce and cheese. The chicken itself wasn't bad, don't think it was fresh but tasted fine. My criticism would have to be on the sauce, it had an odd flavour which tasted like the Chef Boyardee canned pasta sauce. I tried the Lasagna also and it had the same sauce which I found too creamy and thick. The cheese was nicely melted on top but was very unconnected to the chicken with the sauce inbeween. The baked potato was also fine, nothing special about that, came with butter and lots of sour cream. The side of coleslaw was tasty but not as sour as I would have liked. It was an interesting dish paired altogether, I was surprised how full trying to finish it because it didn't seem like that much food.

Food: 2.5/5 - Not the best food I've had but fairly cheap and reasonable.
Decor: 3/5 - Very cute and spacious with pictures of different mothers all around.
Service: 3/5 - Pretty quick and waitress checked up on us appropriately
Willingness to go back: 1/5 - Don't think I'll be returning soon on my own accord.
Overall: 2.5/5

Website: none