Fran's Restaurant

Date Visited: Brunch on Sunday Apr 21, 2013

Company: Getting breakfast after a night out and before the Jay's game with a group of 6 friends.

I've had this review pending for a while in my 'to-write' list because I wasn't sure if I was going to post it or not. The main reason was because my taste buds may not have been on their game this particular morning. After a night of drinking, my opinion on food may not be in sync with how I'd normally feel. Regardless, I've decided to go forward with this post because blogging is fun :)

So Fran's is located at the bottom of the Pantages Hotel across from St. Michael's Hospital on the corner of the street. It doesn't seem like it's attached to the hotel but according to the website it is. +Gisele lives just beside the hotel so I've walked by this place a few too many times. Upon first glance, it definitely looks like an old school diner/all-day breakfast place. I was pretty excited to finally try this establishment that fine morning. 

We were lucky to grab a table quickly upon arrival as the place was pretty full and more people started to fill in. We had a nice window seat with the sun shining in which is why my photos have so much shadow. The menu offered a huge variety, almost Pickle Barrel-like. They had unique combinations of classic dishes (for example, they have 6 types of Eggs Benedict). I was enticed by the Vegetarian Rainbow Benedict and ordered that along with a Vanilla Milkshake. From what I remember  we had to wait a while to get our food. Our drinks came in the meantime and I was very impressed with the Milkshake. I didn't like how it came in the mixing cup as it wasn't very pretty and a bit messy, but the shake itself was very delicious, thick and creamy how it should be.

When our food did arrive, the presentations of the plates were not very appealing. Laura ordered a waffles with strawberries and you can tell that they were previously frozen and not fresh, not very appetizing. My vegetables and fruits looked like they were just thrown on the plate. I was expecting a nice arrangement of the vegetables included but all I saw was a bed of spinach and some chopped peppers. The fruit wasn't very fresh either, the strawberry was literally shrivelled, why would you serve that as a garnish?

The actual eggs and Hollandaise sauce in terms of taste wasn't bad though. Half the plate was home fries which were good but I think everyone had a lot of that left over. +Alex and +Brian ordered the Steak Benedict which looked like it would've been a better choice but the consistency of the poached eggs were really off. One was completely cooked all the way through while the other on the plate would be runny which I found extremely odd. Everyone else seemed satisfied with their meals though, I definitely want to try their other options as breakfast was a bit disappointing. I'm curious as to how the other foods measure up when breakfast, their main attraction, didn't do it for me.

Food: 1.5/5 - Wasn't very impressed.
Decor: 2.5/5 - Surprisingly large but average.
Service: 2/5 - Busy time of day but we had to wait quite a while.
Willingness to come back: 3.5/5 - As mentioned above, wouldn't mind trying lunch or dinner here.
Overall: 2.5/5
Website: http://www.fransrestaurant.com/ 

Buster's Sea Cove

Visited: Late lunch on Saturday June 15, 2013

Company: Take-out with +Will Ives 

On the beautiful Saturday that just passed, +Will and I decided to go biking around the city with Bixi's. In trying to find the station where you pick up these bikes, we stumbled into St. Lawrence Market to take a look around. I spotted people eating lobster rolls outside and remembered that Buster's Sea Cove was here and that I wanted to try it out! So we noted to return after our ride for a mid-afternoon lunch. 

Upon entering St. Lawrence, Buster's line was pretty noticeable among the traffic of people. We were pretty surprised that there even was a line at 3PM, but it was a Saturday in Toronto where people are always about, especially in the nice weather. Luckily, there's server taking orders in line (with a huge east coast accent, mind you) which does speed up the process noticeably as you just go up to pay and wait on the side for your food. The debit machine has a charge of 25 cents though which they don't have signage anywhere about.

Buster's was the first seafood food truck in Toronto and is famous for their lobster rolls and seafood tacos. At this location in St. Lawrence, they have an extensive menu with various fishes and sandwiches but no tacos. Their 'Special of the Day' was the lobster roll so I assume that that's usually the case, since it's their signature food truck order. You have the option of fries and coleslaw or salad for the side. I, of course had to go with Lobster Roll with Fries and Coleslaw for my order which was $15. We got our orders and headed to Will's to enjoy the food outside on the balcony. With food like this, there's just a sense of 'you need to eat this outside' kind of feeling attached to it.

I had seen shows on the Food Network about lobster rolls before and I was always skeptical because they use this small hot dog bug and then they stuff a ridiculous portion of lobster in it... was it for real? I wouldn't say that that they overstuff the roll, but theres a good proportion of lobster to bun, and the meal definitely fills you. The lobster roll it's self was extremely delicious, the bun is toasted on both sides with butter and the filling is just a lovely chilled creation of lobster, celery, and who knows what else. I'm a huge lobster fan and I've never had it in a salad-like form before, it's nice to see lobster in a less-classy way. I'm usually not a fan of coleslaw but theirs was really good, nice and flavourful. The fries are small-cut and had no salt, but there's a station with salt, vinegar, etc for them. The pickle they included though, was the worst pickle I've ever eaten! It was so sour and had no crunch. I was surprised how even though they squished everything together on the plate, the different items didn't combine, the coleslaw didn't make the roll soggy and the fries didn't heat up the lobster to a gross temperature! Nicely executed.

Food: 3.5/5 - Lives up to the popularity.
Decor: 2/5 - Pretty nice nook in the market but definitely squishy
Service: 3/5 - Pretty quick, food-truck style for sure.
Likeliness to come back: 3/5 - If you don't mind the prices, there's a nice variety of seafood to try here! I don't think it's something you crave like sushi though.
Overall: 3/5
Website: http://bustersseacove.ca

Top Bajan Meals

For those of you who aren't aware, I took a lovely, week-long trip to Barbados earlier this month. In this post, I'll rank the top Bajan meals I had on the island. I had a chance to dine at many local restaurants and also fast-food places, so there was a lot of variety in the meals I tried.

Just a little foreword, but the famous local delight of Barbados is flying fish. It's their national fish and an icon around the country. Most of the recommendations I got prior to going to Barbados was about trying the flying fish (along with hitting up Oistins on Friday night)!

What is a Bajan meal you ask? Well from a tourist POV (no idea if this is what locals eat), this is we were served: Fish or chicken, rice or macaroni pasta, and salad all adding up to around $12... so here it goes:

1. Uncle George's, Oistins Fish Fry (the one with the longest line)

As mentioned above, practically everyone told us to go to Ositins Friday night fish fry, even locals we spoke to during the trip asked if we had gone yet. I can definitely see why after trying the food. We were told to go to the one with the longest line and though there were many shops we passed by, it was obvious which one they were talking about. We waited about 25 minutes here, with the rain going on and off, but it was so worth it in the end. When you order, you pick what fish you want and whether you want rice or macaroni pie. I ordered Flying Fish with Rice, but as you can see from the photo below, I got both rice and macaroni pie. I also asked for Macaroni Salad on the side (no extra cost either!). It's VERY varied what you get in your plate, I didn't get any potatoes in mine but someone else got like two whole potatoes in their order. Everything was amazing but the white sauce for the fish is just to die for! Not sure how they season the fish but it was so distinguished. The plate was an excellent medley of Bajan food, perfect for our last night on the island.

2. Sea Side Bar, Bathsheba

One day, we decided to rent vehicles and explore other parts of the island and Bathsheba was one of our destinations. The Soup Bowl is known as an advanced surf spot in Bathsheba, and no swimming allowed because of the rip tides (of course we didn't know this going there and brought our beginner surf boards), so we stayed in the natural jacuzzi pools in the water and explored this lesser traveled tourist spot. While walking around the area, we found a spot for lunch, the Sea Side Bar located conveniently steps away from the beach. Available for order were Fish Burgers, or Fish or Chicken with Rice, I of course ordered the later as shown in my photo. This meal really stood out in my mind, not sure if it was because I was starving, or if it was flavourful rice and gravy, or the extremely juicy and tender chicken but I remember it as the best meal, well before Oistins. I also loved the random side of corn and carrots, nice change from plain iceberg lettuce. Great food eaten on the patio with a beautiful view of ocean waves crashing on random shaped rocks and watching surfers? Definitely a standout lunch.

3. Jammin' Catamaran Cruise, Bridgetown

IMO, the second best day of the trip was when we did a Catamaran tour, 5 hours on a boat with all-you-can-drink, snorkelling with turtles and in a shipwreck, and lunch buffet. What else could I want? I wasn't expecting much from the food but I was really surprised on the quality they served us. The meal included Tilapia, Chicken, Rice, Macaroni Pie, Salad, and Bread in a self-serve fashion. The tilapia was absolutely amazing, even someone who isn't a fan of fish would have enjoyed it. The chicken was also great, I really wanted another piece but they were all out when I went back. I was glad the salad had dressing because most of the places don't serve dressing with their salads so it's literally just lettuce. There was also a gravy they said to pour over basically everything, the rice, macaroni, fish. It was such a delightful meal to add to a fantastic day. It was really hard to rank this one and the last one because they were both great.

4. Fisherman's Pub, Speightstown

This dinner followed lunch at the Sea Side Bar, we were on the opposite side of the island from which we started and in the second largest city in Barbados.  In comparison, I wasn't one of the great meals from the trip. I found the food a bit dry and the portion was quite small. When we arrived, they weren't serving much food so our only options were Chicken or Flying Fish with Rice, I think usually they have a broader menu. It took quite a long time for our food to come, but we were quite a large group and there were only two people there. The restaurant was quite big though and they were saying to come back the next night for karaoke, the owners were very friendly. There wasn't anything wrong with the food, just in comparison, I didn't enjoy it as much as the others. For dessert, they were serving Nutmeg Ice Cream, which I didn't particularly like after the first bite but other people liked it. It tasted like 'baking' to me. It was quite dark when we arrived so we didn't get to enjoy the view of the ocean and long dock beside the place but enjoyed the breezes coming in.

So that's all the traditional Bajan meals I had on the trip, I also got to try some other local foods like dolphin, curry, seafood, and Chefettes but I didn't include those on here obviously. I snuck back a bottle of the Bajan hot sauce they have at all the restaurants but realized that it doesn't go quite well with any of the food I usually eat here! :( I guess I will have to go back to enjoy that hot sauce... or find someone here who can cook Bajan food! 

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/