Cali Eats: El Toro Taqueria

Date Visited: Late Lunch on Sunday Apr 14, 2014 
Company: Walk-in for 5

After a long walk to Twin Peaks, we ventured back to the Mission District where we started to find a spot for an early afternoon lunch. There were tons of Mexican places we passed by when we were walking around the area so it wasn't difficult to find a place to eat. El Toro seemed like it was a fairly busy cafeteria style place right on the corner of Valencia and 17th, it was very welcoming with colourful signage and windows to look in. It looked like it wouldn't take us long to get food and had a table to sit, so it was exactly what we were looking for... and also some fish tacos for us to try!

Their menu was pretty simple but with lots of options, the foods are all there in front of you to awe at while the servers make your delicious plate of food. I decided to order a Super Prawn Taco Dinner, which ended up being around $8. The taco was only $3.50 itself but I wanted to add all the fixings! They also give you free nachos (which probably never get eaten after having that huge plate) and there's a salsa bar off to the side for you to try their different homemade salsas.

The plate looked delicious and packed with colourful foods, they let you choose the type of beans you want, either black or re-fried, I choose re-fried but I don't really like beans anyway. They topped it off with some shredded cheese and layer it a bit with your rice. There was nothing too special about the rice and beans, very average and just filled you up. There was a salad on the side with an excessive amount ranch dressing which was pretty okay, added some veggies to your meal. Now the taco on the other hand, was definitely the highlight of the meal... there were so many prawns, you could really taste a nice grilled, spiced flavour. They double tortilla'd it so it wouldn't fall apart which really helped but the tortilla was already pretty thick to begin with. It was a gloriously messy taco but was delicious with very fresh ingredients. Their guacamole was packed with zesty flavour and was nice to have with the nachos too. They also give you tortilla with the dinner meal but I didn't want mine.

Food: 3/5 - Prawn Taco was amazing, everything else was mediocre.
Decor: 3/5 - Quite clean and nice place to sit inside for a bit on a hot day and still enjoy the sun.
Service: 2.5/5 - Fast to clean tables, free ice water, few misunderstandings with my order, and busy line-up though.
Willingness to go back: 3/5 - Tons of taco joints to check out in the area, wouldn't necessarily go back to this one but I wouldn't complain either, cheap and easy.
Overall: 3/5

Website: http://eltorotaqueria.org/

Top Notch Fish & Chips

Date Visited: Lunch on Sunday Nov 3, 2013
Company: +Will and +Lilian after attending the Nike Warehouse Sale

After some mad shopping at the Nike warehouse sale in the International Centre Mississauga, +Will, +Lilian, and I started driving around to find somewhere to have lunch. As none of us were familiar with the area, we just decided to stop at the first place we saw. After passing a lot of empty buildings and closed restaurants on Eglington, we finally found something in a large plaza we were wandering. Top Notch Fish & Chips was tucked away in the far corner of this plaza but seemed to be creating some traffic with people coming in and out, not too bad for a Sunday.

The place is a lot bigger on the inside than it seems. When you enter, you immediately come upon the counter to order with the menu right above. To the right is the long counter where the food prep is done and also where the sitting area is with tables along the window. The washrooms are in a hallway to the left and they're extremely roomy! They have a lovely patio in the front also, but it was a little cold for sitting outside. The decor was nice otherwise, they had a modern nautical look going.

The staff were extremely friendly, they brought our food to the table and made sure we had everything we needed. Will & I ordered the 4 Piece Haddock Combo which came with fish, large fries, coleslaw, gravy, & 4 bottles of Coke. The 4 big pieces of Haddock we got looked amazing, they were that perfect golden brown colour when something is deep fried for the right amount of time. It tasted amazing also. The fish melted in your mouth while the outside was crispy. The fresh lemon and home made tartar sauce gave the fish a great flavour, a perfect combination. The large-cut fries were also fresh, you can tell they use clean oil for the deep-frying. Will thought the gravy tasted weird, but I thought it was pretty normal for the type of gravy you get at a small restaurant like this. We also got 2 side plates of coleslaw for Will and I. I love this type of home made coleslaw, the large pieces of cabbage hold and maintain the bold sour flavour throughout, I could eat endless amounts of it. 


+Lilian ordered Steak on a Kaiser and Onion Rings. The kaiser was delicious, the steak was extremely tender and soft. She only topped it with ketchup and tomatoes but it really brought out the meaty flavour. The onion rings were also a nice addition to our already huge meal. The onion was thick with minimal batter but I did find it quite greasy just on the plate with no paper to catch the oil. 

We had 1 piece of haddock, some fries, onion rings, oh and 1 old-fashioned bottle of Coke to bring home that we couldn't finish, so we didn't do too bad. Everything totaled was probably around $40.

It was by-far one of the best fish and chips I've had, they did everything just right. Someone there ordered a Souvlaki dinner that I saw and that looked incredible also, so I don't think you can go wrong with anything there. Awesome joint run by a friendly staff, but most importantly, the food was great.

Food: 4.5/5 - Hefty portions & well-made food. 

Decor: 3.5/5 - Nicely lit and simply decorated.
Service: 4/5 - Friendly and attentive guys.
Willingness to come back: 4.5/5 - If I'm ever in Mississauga again lol.
Overall: 4/5
Website: http://www.topnotchfishandchips.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! 

Richmond Station

Visited: Dinner on Saturday, Nov 10 2012

Company: Made a reservation for group of 10

It was a somewhat hard decision to choose what my first review would be, as there's just a bit of pressure on what impression it'll set for the blog. However, I knew exactly what restaurant would be perfect for my first post. Richmond Station was chosen because it was one of my first fine dining experiences and it was after this meal, where my eyes were open to a new world of foods. 

Richmond Station was opened by the Top Chef Canada 2 winner, Carl Heinrich only a month before our visit. Even though I've never watched the show, I was definitely intrigued to try it out. A group of 10 of us ladies had planned for a night at the ballet and I thought that Richmond Station would be the perfect place for dinner beforehand. 

Walking by, I never would have known it was the spot unless I knew it was here. The name is on the window but on a dark, wet night, it's easy to walk past it. Over the door, it has a little sign as if were a subway stop with 'Restaurant' written under, very classy but not too over-the-top outer decor.

Arriving at 5:30, the place wasn't too busy yet. I liked the front area set-up, where tables were lined up on the left side and there was a bar on the right. Our table for 10 was in a separate room in the back, but still visible to the restaurant with the amount of windows. The place was bigger than I had expected looking from the outside. The decor was very pantry-like, wooden textures and authentic feeling. 

Now on to the food... we had all ordered main dishes only as we're all recent grads and mains were at least $20. You can tell how legit the place was with the lack of menu items but also the variety of seafood... and wild boar(?!), you don't just pick those ingredients up anywhere. The waitress was nice and filled our water and sparkling water promptly. The kitchen was amazing to us, they brought out complementary Polenta Fries while we waited for our food which was perfect since we were all starving. This was the first time I had ever tried, nonetheless heard, of polenta but it tasted very similar to potato fries. However, polenta was different in texture as it was more grainy in comparison. Great appetizer, especially for sharing.

For my main dish, I had ordered the Grilled Sea Bream. I had such a hard time deciding between that or the Stn. Burger, which I have heard amazing things about, but i wanted to try something different. Really glad I made that choice because the bream was delicious! All the flavours of potato rosti, fennel and swiss chard with the fish blended magically in every bite. The chard had a very distinct flavour which I enjoyed and the bream was grilled perfectly. While eating and trying to tweet the location via Foursquare through the picture I took with Instagram...I had already finished the meal. The portions were decent sized leaving you comfortably full. To top it all off, we received complementary Salted Fudge from the kitchen which everyone enjoyed. We asked them if they sell the fudge but they only make it every so often as a specialty, so we were quite disappointed in that because it was so tasty! A great ending to the meal.

By the time we were leaving the place was full and filled with classy couples/groups of friends out for a late dinner and casual conversation. Definitely not an incredibly fancy place but great for locals out for a nicer dinner with a casual atmosphere. You'll even get a glimpse of Heinrich walking around if you have someone with you like +Laura Bathurst who recognizes him haha. They've extended their hours now so even more chances to try it out!

Food: 4.5/5 - No wrong done, but wanted more!
Decor: 3/5 - Simple, nothing too fancy
Service: 4.5/5 - Average but added points for free food :D
Likeliness to come back: 5/5 - Going back to try that burger!
Overall: 4.5/5
Website: http://richmondstation.ca/