Date Visited: Breakfast on Sunday Apr 6, 2014
Company: Girls brunch date for 3
For hung-over Sunday morning, +Gisele and I decided to find somewhere to grab a nice breakfast, ideally located in between her new place at King West and Will's. We couldn't exactly find somewhere right in the middle but she did locate Over Easy at Yonge and Wellington (with another location in the Annex). Laura and I moseyed over and luckily +Gisele had already gotten a spot in the line because it was extremely busy when we arrived. The restaurant is situated inside Hotel Victoria so the decor was very old-fashioned but quaint. We got a spot on the booth and I was very surprised to see how many tables the place had because you don't expect it to be very large.
We asked our friendly waitress what she would recommend and she said anything on their Specialties section is unique and also they have great hollandaise sauce for their Benedicts. There were so many interesting and appealing options from their Specialties section, the Eggs Bruschetta, Breakfast Poutine, not to mention their many Eggs Benedict. I decided to order the Vegetarian Skillet with the Poached Eggs, Hollandaise & Toast add-on (to get some Benedict in there too). Most of their options were priced around $11-$13.
My dish came and it looked so colourful with the yellow Hollandaise sauce, green veggies underneath, and bright red tomatoes on the side! The poached eggs were cooked to perfection and the Hollandaise sauce did live up to the reputation that the waitress had just given me a few minutes prior. The skillet itself was filled with tons of veggies, with a bit of potatoes at the bottom and cheese topping it off. I love their tiny home fries which were cut up in small cubes. The baked cheese on top was also a great addition to the dish. So filling, I only had one of the eggs and about 2/3rds of the skillet. Also, their brown bread was delicious! It was sour dough which was a nice surprise and I usually don't care for the bread but I wish I had more of this!
+Gisele ordered the Eggstro which she was already confused about what it was with the 'baked eggs' but it wasn't very appealing once it came. Everything was baked in a plate together and very greasy. Laura ordered the Waffles with Strawberry which looked amazing. It was topped with fresh strawberries and also came with a side of strawberry sauce.
Food: 4.5/5 - Tons of options for those who want a twist from their classic breakfast. Perfect for a 'morning after' brunch/breakfast, they have greasy options as well was healthier ones.
Decor: 4/5 - Loved the small town feel of this place but still hip and modern.
Service: 3/5 - Waitress was chatty and food came at a decent time.
Willingness to go back: 5/5 - Definitely returning, so many more things to try!
Overall: 4/5
Website: http://www.overeasyrestaurants.com/
Date Visited: Dinner on Monday Feb 10, 2014
Company: Winterlicious Reservation for 3
One of the things that my friends and I try to do during the '-licious' time is to pick at least one restaurant that we usually wouldn't go to to try new foods. This was once instance where we decided to try an Iranian dinner at Banu located at Queen West. It was a cold, snowy night in Toronto but we drove from Oshawa to the shopping district to eat here and found parking on the street close by. The restaurant is very tiny, very much like the other shops in the area.
Upon entering, there were only a few tables lined up on the side of the narrow restaurant and a group of 4 tables in the back. This isn't the place to go with a large group. The decor wasn't very lively but had an eccentric feel with pillows on the seats, white walls, bright blue tables, and minimal decor. There were only two servers for the whole restaurant, both who were very relaxed and probably not Iranian.
We looked at the menu and had a not-so-fun time deciding what to try. The server also had additional appetizers on the menu which were available. I almost got the Kashk o Bademjan, roasted eggplant, turmeric, caramelized onion, fried mint, and whey paste but I got a different version with Creamed Eggplant instead (from what I remember). The portion was pretty small with a chunk of sauce in the middle with 4 pieces of sesame bread to pair. The dip was very creamy with lots of flavour which I can't even know the words to describe. it was a bit smokey with lots of spices in the mushy eggplant, an interesting dish for sure. They asked if I wanted more bread, but I turned it down. It wasn't the most vibrant of flavours to be having a lot of.
For the mains, two of us got the Koobideh, two skewers of ground angus sirloin with roasted tomato, basil, mint, and tarragon, and lawash bread, and +Joslynn got the Morgh, which was the chicken breast with saffron citrus glaze version. We got everything on one huge plate. We were kind of confused at first when we all got smaller plates before the meal came out, we thought that they had other plates to place on top of ours or something. But all the kabobs came on a huge plate with naan on the side and beneath, and the sides. Our waiter told us to basically take a bit of the meat, mint, tomato, the yogurt-y sauce, and spices and wrap it in a bit of the flat bread. The combination of those flavours were actually very delicious together and every aspect played a huge part of the bite you take. The hard part though was trying to ration everything evenly for each time you took a bite. The beef was very flavourful but there was so much of it, not sure how we could possibly finish it all, we were eating the bottom bread at the end of it. I also got to try to the chicken which was surprisingly juicy. The sauces we got were also very delicious but we ran out of them, along with the tomatoes which were very well seasoned. They were a bit stingy with everything but I know that some of the spices are extremely expensive (ie. saffron). We were joking that we had no idea if we were doing this right or not and the employees here must have a blast making fun of all the newbies that try the food.
Finally, for dessert, I got the Saffron, Rose Pistachio Ice Cream which came in a bowl with one scoop. It was a nice, sweet ending to our filling meal and wasn't too sugary. It had subtle flavour with bit of pistachio in it and very light.
Overall, I think everyone should try out Banu at least once! It was a fun experience for everyone and the food was extremely satisfying. I wouldn't want to eat there everyday but the kabobs were really good. When we got in the car though, we realized the beef kabobs we took to go home smelled like farts. :/
Food: 3.5/5 - Enjoyed the main and dessert, great quality of food.
Decor: 2/5 - Minimalist, extremely chill atmosphere (almost too chill).
Service: 4/5 - Pretty good service but not surprised because its so tiny. Fair waiting times for food
Willingness to go back: 1/5 - One of those 'been there, done that' restaurants.
Overall: 2.5/5
