Date Visited: Dinner on Saturday Feb 8, 2014
Company: Reservation for 4
I wasn't very active in looking for restaurants for Winterlicious this year, I got lazy and hoped other people would choose places to go. Big Daddy's was on a list of suggested places to go with my high school friends but we didn't end up choosing it. I checked out the menu though and thought that it would be a good place to check out with +Will as I was hoping we could go to at least one Winterlicious meal together. We booked it for a Saturday dinner before a Birthday/House warming and +Stuart and +Laura joined us last minute also.
Big Daddy's is a New Orleans inspired restaurant and oyster bar. When I saw where it was on King Street, I realized that I had passed by it many times and wanted to try their much advertised oysters! The restaurant is really large and had tons of seating and decor, everything was accented with bright, bold colours, trying to bring out the lively, Southern atmosphere. Our waiter also let us know that Big Daddy's always has a prix fixe menu at $26 or $31 (depending on the main course) in case we wanted something different from the $25 Winterlicious menu.
We took a while to decide all our orders as they were many options to choose from, especially from their prix fixe menu. But we started with drinks and I ordered a Caesar which was pretty cool because they let you dress it yourself. It came with two types of tabasco sauce in a rack and the Caesar itself had a toothpick with a shrimp and olive on it. I really don't know how much hot sauce bar tenders usually put in Caesars so I did go a little bit overboard and had a rough time with finishing the drink.
Eventually we had all decided and the waiter took our orders, he was very accommodating for mixing some of the Prix Fixe and Winterlicious menu. I decided to go with the $26 Prix Fixe as they had everything on the Winterlicious menu and more to choose from. We were then asked us if we wanted some bread to start, we stupidly said yes even though we had a huge meal ahead of us.
For my appetizer, I had a tough time choosing from the many Creole options but I decided on the Seafood Gumbo. I didn't really know what to expect for most of these dishes, I had heard of them before but never tried them myself. The Gumbo was a dark, thick stew with a lot of rice and meat. I didn't find very much seafood in this, mostly small shrimps but it didn't have much of a seafood flavour either. The flavour was very rich and the temperature was perfect. It was a very hearty and filling appetizer though, I probably wouldn't recommend it to start a 3 course meal.
For my main course, I had to go for the Jambalaya which wasn't on the Winterlicious menu (only lunch). The Gumbo and Jambalaya actually have very similar ingredients and flavours in the dishes, so if you wanted some variety, I would definitely not recommend getting both of these. At this point, I was thinking I should have started with a salad as I was already kind of full. You have the option of having the Jambalaya with Rice or Fettuccine and I opted for the Creole-style rice. The ingredients were amazing for this one, the chicken, Chorizo sausage, and shrimps were huge. It was very aromatic and had a rich flavours, more so than the gumbo. It was very delicious but unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it as my stomach was about to explode and we had to go and drink afterwards! I was very sad to leave this dish behind.
For dessert, I went for the Apple Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream from the Winterlicious menu. They gave us good portion sizes but I found the apples very sour and the crumble part wasn't very good either. Pretty disappointing since it's one of my favourite desserts.
Food: 2/5 - Gumbo was amazing and the portions for everything were huge! Everything else was mediocre.
Decor: 3.5/5 - Bright and vibrant atmosphere, fun place for large groups.
Service: 3/5 - Our waiter was pretty good and wait time was decent.
Willingness to go back: 3.5/5 - Just because I know the location well and that they always have a prix fixe menu, might be good place to take friends to try their many Louisianan dishes (and osyters!).
Overall: 3/5
Website: http://www.bigdaddys.ca/
Event: High Tea presented by Winterlicious Culinary Events & Liberty Group
Location: Casa Loma
Time & Date: 11AM-4PM on Saturday Feb 8, 2014
Price: $30 (+$7 Ticketmaster fees) for admission to Casa loma, assorted pastries, finger sandwiches, gourmet teas, & gift bag.
When I saw that Winterlicious had an event for High Tea at Casa Loma, I immediately messaged my girlfriends from high school to make sure they were all down for going. We had previously talked about visiting Casa Loma as most of us had never been to this historic Toronto castle before and I couldn't think of a more fun experience to have there than high tea! The event looked like it would have great food (Winterlicious event) and it wasn't too pricey either considering admission to the castle was included.
We all took the subway together to Dupont station as the castle was only a short walk from there. It was a cold but clear day and we could see the castle up on a hill in the distance during our walk over. We had a large set of stairs to climb to get to the grounds but it had an amazing distant view of the Toronto skyline from there. We entered to a short line scanning tickets but it became a bit chaotic in the foyer after that. I think most people aimed to be there early like us so there was quite a line to do a coat check so we just decided to hold on to them instead. They had many workers trying to move traffic and one told us to try to get a table in the Billiard room as it was less busy.
We decided to look around the Great Hall for a bit and admire the world record setting cake stand with all its delicious pastries on it. We saw some people grabbing the tea so we decided to get in line behind them. The tea they were offering was by David's Tea and they had two kinds, Earl's Garden (a flavoured black tea) & Jessie's Tea( a rooibos). I started with the Earl's Garden. As soon as we got our tea though, they closed the section off and I don't believe people were allowed to grab tea to walk around with anymore.
We got in line for a table in the Billiard's room which had a much smaller line than the crowd on the other side of the hall. It seemed very unorganized as many people were asking us where we got tea and how they could get some. The one lady seating people let us know that we could also give our phone number to the reservation booth and they'd text us when they had a table ready. We decided to wait since we weren't allowed to walk around with our teas past the area we were in and there was only two groups in front of us anyways. They luckily had a table for 4 about 20 minutes later and we got to pass the groups of 2 in front. We ended being sat in the Oak Room which only had about 4 tables on the border of the room.
A server said she'd come to us soon and after a while, our teas were re-filled. We waited almost half an hour for food and no one had said anything to us! There were servers (with fancy costumes) coming around with trays of desserts but we were wondering if that was the only food they had. We finally asked the lady serving who got us tea if we got food and she was surprised that we hadn't yet. A few moments later, she came by with our trays of finger foods. I was shocked as the food was just right in the room next to us but they didn't know we weren't served yet.
The finger foods were all bite sized and very warm. My friends and I had 2 variations on 1 or 2 of the foods but the rest were the same. It came with Cucumber Sandwich, Egg Salad Croissant, Quiche, Smoked Salmon on Corn Bread, Mango-y Tart, and a Scone. The foods were actually all quite good, I gave away my salmon one though because I don't like smoked salmon. The rest were great and a good amount of food! A waitress also finally came around with desserts for us. I choose a Raspberry Tarte and a Raspberry Macaroon the first time around. I also got to try a Chocolate Eclair like thing and a Chocolate Cheesecake Pop which was so delicious! Once we were satisfied with our meals, we decided to explore the castle!
After walking around, we weren't quite ready to leave yet so I grabbed some more tea. I tried Jessie's Tea this time and it was very lovely, I think I preferred that one to Earl's Garden. While standing near the dessert tree, they always were coming around with new plates of treats for the onlookers to try! We finally decided to try to get another meal in the Observatory. We asked for a table and I couldn't believe that we were immediately seated, maybe because it was like 2PM that they were less busy now. So we had another high tea! The food was a bit colder this time but the surroundings were much more beautiful and fitting for the occasion. The castle is quite beautiful and we learned so much about the Pellatt family throughout the day!
Finally we headed home, but not without our gift bags! Each bag had a postcard, Lindor Chocolates, a tea bag sample of David's Tea, a free cup of David's tea, and a coupon for the Liberty Group restaurants.
I think Winterlicious put on a unique event for everyone who attended the High Tea. I wish they worked out some of the kinks prior as they added earlier dates for this sold out occasion. It didn't ruin our time though because my friends and I had a fantastic time exploring Casa Loma and enjoying delicious treats throughout the day!
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/
Date Visited: Winterlicious Dinner on Wednesday Feb 5, 2014
Company: High School friends get-together of 5
There seems to be some force of nature that decides to make the weather go crazy every time my friends from high school and I decide to get-together for a dinner downtown Toronto. On this occasion, our reservation for 7 dwindled to group of 5 that made it out on the night of a huge Toronto snowfall. We took the GO Train, TTC subway, and street car to make our reservation at 7PM at Harlem Underground at Queen West, go us :)
We entered from the snow and wind to the warm and cozy Harlem Underground. There were sheets insulating the doors and heaters blasting this small, hip restaurant. We were seated in a corner where I believe the heat was right under our seats, which made it scorching the whole time we were there. There was another section beside us in the back which made the restaurant a bit bigger than it looks. The decor is very urban, although hard to appreciate at night with the dim lighting. Definitely something like you would find in the Queen West area, their menus are even plastered on vinyl.
Their drink special of the day was Sangria Pitchers which were $2 off from regular. We ordered the White Wine Fruit Punch with Sprite to share with the table. Each of our glasses came with some berries and we got a medium sized jug filled with our deliciously-looking Sangria. It was a great drink with the perfect amount of alcohol mixed in. I love that they let you customize your Sangria because this way you get exactly what you like!
To start, I choose the Catfish Lafayette which were deep-fried breaded morsels of catfish with a sweet chili sauce and chipotle-type mayo on the side. The pieces were very light and bite-sized for dipping and sharing (although no one else wanted to try them). The catfish was very tender and steaming once you bit in. I really enjoyed this dish, the flavour was nice with the different sauces and wasn't too heavy to start off the meal (despite how it looks).
For my main, I had to get the Southern Fried Chicken and Waffles, it was the reason why we came! They had a lot of great options to try on their Winterlicious menu, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to finally try the southern combo of chicken and waffles. The plate came with 2 drumsticks, 1 thigh, 4 waffles, a small salad, and 3 sauces on the side (sweet chili, syrup, gravy). It was an overwhelming looking plate filled with lots of colour and appeal. I first smothered my pancakes with the maple syrup then did the same with the gravy and chicken. I don't mind my foods (sweet and savories) mixing at all so that was the only way I found to eat everything! The pancakes were heavy and filling so I had minimal bites of that and focused on the chicken during the meal. The chicken was extremely juicy and cooked perfectly. The skin was crispy but could have had more flavour, I think KFC or Popeye's chicken has more than Harlem's. It didn't seem very southern/Caribbean either. The gravy was a delicious addition to the chicken though and gave it a bit more oomph. In the end, I was actually underwhelmed by the taste of the dish and the maybe the hype? I think the novelty of having chicken and waffles was more big of a deal than actually eating it. I'm not the biggest fan of waffles and syrup to begin with and I thought it was just a filler on the plate. The chicken was good (not great) but it would have been better paired with a different side.
For my dessert, I got the Almond Chocolate Kisses with no idea what to expect with the name. It ended up being a small chocolate cookie decorated with icing sugar. It was crisp and hard on the outside but moist in the center. The almond flavour was very prominent but the chocolate was very rich and I couldn't even finish this small dessert.
Food: 2.5/5 - Overall, food was a bit bland for a restaurant known for flavourful soul food. Extremely filling though!
Decor: 3/5 - Liked how it looked but wayyy too hot in there!
Service: 2/5 - Mediocre, a bit slow.
Willingness to go back: 1/5 - Would maybe go to the other location as it's closer but nothing pulling me back here.
Overall: 2/5
Website: http://www.harlemrestaurant.com/#underground
Date Visited: Dinner on Thursday Oct 10, 2013
Company: Reservation for 2
On days when I work from the office, I take the Steeles/Tauton road all the way from Scarborough to Oshawa to get home. Whenever I get to the Brock intersection, I always notice the sketchy-looking restaurant on the corner and their busy parking lot. It's not a very attractive restaurant and the parking lot is pretty much on a dirt path along the main road. It also seems like there's a house attached to the restaurant at the back, hidden among the trees. It looked shady, but I figured it must have had decent Mexican food if it always seemed to be full with Durham locals. I looked up the spot and found that it had a lot of raving reviews for the best Mexican food found in the Durham Region. I had to go!
+Will was working in town and I decided to make a reservation after work to check this place out. Most websites/reviews recommended reservations for dinner and knowing how busy I've seen this place, I thought it was the safest bet. We arrived around 6:30 and parked on the dirt parking lot a few meters away from the door, most spots were already taken. The entrance is pretty small and the counter is very close to the door. There are seats to both sides of the door in smaller connecting rooms. We were seated and taken to the right side, most seats seemed to be filled in the smaller room on the left.
The waiter that took us was a pretty young guy and it looks like its a family run place. The walls were covered in Spanish paintings and knick-knacks you would see if you were on a resort down south. The whole restaurant isn't very big but they try to fit as many people in as they can with tables close to each other. Thus the atmosphere is very lively and filled with chatter. When we sat down, we were given some chips and a small bowl of salsa. The salsa was mostly tomato sauce as it almost looked like soup/watery ketchup. The chips were also very hard and thin, not the best.
To start, we ordered Guacamole which was served with the chips we already had on the table. I think either the Guacamole, the bowl, or both were kept in a very cold fridge prior to serving because it extremely cold when we tried it. The taste was decent, it could have used a bit more lemon IMO but the ingredients were fresh. It was much better when it warmed up a bit.
For drinks, I ordered a Pina Colada and +Will got a Strawberry Daiquiri. The drinks were rather pricey but they were large glasses. The Pina Colada was very frothy and thick, topped with some nutmeg. The taste was good but a little too thick, almost like milkshake and too much foam. The Strawberry Daiquiri was like a slushie and a bit too sweet for my liking.
For our main dish, we decided to share Chicken & Steak Fajitas for Two. It came with tortillas, sour cream, lettuce, and cheese. We were glad we had the guacamole to add in the fajitas. The pieces of chicken and steak were very large but I was expecting more flavour from the hot plate. The had minimal and bland seasoning, didn't seem very authentic to me. The tortillas came with a bit too less and we had to ask them for more (not sure if we were charged for it) in order to use up all the fillings. The portion was way too much for us with our drinks and app also.
It was a good and filling meal but I was disappointed after hearing about the authenticity. I could have had the fajitas at any restaurant that would have tasted similar. It was also pretty pricey after everything added up, not great value for your money. I would give it a second shot though and try anything with the rice, it looked promising.
Food: 2.5/5 - Huge portions, pricey, decent food.
Decor: 2/5 - Definitely makes you feel like you're in an authentic Mexican restaurant, not the prettiest outer appearance though.
Service: 2/5 - Nice & friendly waiters, nothing special though.
Willingness to go back: 2/5 - If I wanted something different for the night, I'd go again.
Overall: 2/5
Website: http://www.mexico-lindo.ca/
