Baskin Robbins 31 Cent Ice Cream

Baskin Robbins
Thirty-one cent scoop night to support the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Association.
I got mine after about an hour of waiting. Chocolate chip ice cream.

Total damage: $0.33. Yes, they tax you on $0.31.

Sweet Flour

Sweet Flour Bake Shop (2352 Bloor Street West)
http://www.sweetflour.ca/

These are cookies made to order. You start by choosing the type of dough you want. The options are original, peanut butter, and oatmeal. Then you choose two of many mix-ins. The friendly staff puts your dough ball in the oven, and in a surprisingly short time, warm cookie goodness is ready for you!

Peanut butter cookie with pistachios and dark chocolate chunks:
The cookie is super soft and has a fluffy texture on the inside. The size of it is slightly larger than my palm and about the same thickness. The major appeal really lies in its warmth.

Andrew's cookie: original dough with M&Ms and chocolate chunks.
He said that he should not have chosen two sweet mix-ins.

This specialty cookie shop also sells muffin tops (both also made to order) and cookie sandwiches. I'll have to go back for those.

Damage: $2.50 per cookie + tax.

Return of McDevil

McDonald's (Fairview Mall)

Southwest Crispy Chicken combo:
Crispy chicken. Salty fries. It's what I expect from McDevil.

Total damage: $8.13, 1110 calories, and 46 grams of fat.

Kam Fai

Kam Fai (5005 Steeles Avenue East, Toronto)

Beef brisket soup noodles:
Good for the most part, but there was a piece of meat that just wouldn't break down no mattered how many times I chewed it. Good portion size.

Milk tea:
Josie's deep fried pork:
Crispy and delicious.

Total damage: $5.50.

French Toast Man Peace

Brown bread French toast? Not so tasty... but at least he looks cool!

Kim's Ichiban

Kim's Ichiban (550 Highway 7 East, Richmond Hill)

Miso soup:
I don't know why, but this miso soup tasted better than most.

Sushi and sashimi platter split among five people:
I liked the variety in the platter. Mel liked the fact that the sushi had minimal rice.

Simon serving up the complimentary hand rolls:

The stuff inside the hand rolls were flavoured with something reminiscent of Korean kimchi. They weren't too spicy though; they were quite tasty.

Small restaurant. Great hospitality.

Total damage: $16 per person.

KFC and Ikea

Ikea (15 Provost Drive, North York)
Who doesn't love eating at Ikea? Or Ikea in general?
Garlic toast: $0.50.
Pasta with sauce: $1.99.
Apple juice: $1.00.

The pasta was filling, as pasta should be. In some special forkfuls, I got free vegetables!
Total damage: $3.66.

KFC Wrapstar

It looks a lot better in the commercials, but the chicken was nice and crispy. There were a few bites where all I got was empty wrap.

I think it was a bit more than $5. I think I'd rather eat at Ikea.

Subway

Foot long cold cuts sub:

Added Arby's flavour:

With the right fixings, a sub can be quite tasty. ;)

Total damage: $5.65.

Noodle Star

Noodle Star (9255 Woodbine Avenue, Markham)

Salty fish and chicken fried rice:
Good amount of salty fish. I don't think I got many chicken pieces though.

Shanghai fried noodles with beef:
Pretty standard in flavour. The chunks of green onion were quite massive though.

Plain congee:
This can be ordered in place of the drinks that come with the main dishes from 2 to 5 p.m. or something like that. Jennie found a thin piece of plastic in it. That was weird.

Shrimp dumpling ("har gow"):

The skin was a bit thick.

At first, they forgot our order of har gow. The piece of plastic was discovered as we were reminding one of the servers about our missed dish. This server thought we wanted to exchange the congee for har gow. She kept telling us that we couldn't do that, and we tried to tell her that we just wanted what we had orginally ordered. She gave us a lot of attitude, which included slamming down a teapot on our table. The other server came by and offered to replace our contaminated congee with the har gow.

I didn't appreciate the rudeness of the one server, but I have to commend the problem solving of the other. I wish their tips weren't shared.

Waters Edge Restaurant

Waters Edge Restaurant at the Great Blue Heron Charity Casino (21777 Island Road, Port Perry)

http://www.greatblueheroncasino.com/watersedge.php

The buffet had a row of hot food, a pasta station, a row of salads, and a table of desserts.

The boneless chicken was juicy, but the other type of chicken was quite dry. The short ribs were decent. The crab legs were a bit dry for me. 
The slice of prime rib that I had was nice and moist but according to my friends, not all the pieces were as succulent. The potato wedges were comforting. 
Desserts:

There were also raw oysters. I think Casey's comment says a lot: "I've had worse."

The soup and the mashed potatoes were pretty good.

Total damage: $25.

My Kitchen (Again)

My Kithen (9021 Leslie Street, Richmond Hill)

"Small" minced pork and preserved egg congee:
That was served within two minutes of placing our order. Just like last time, it was filled with solids.

Vegetarian rice noodle rolls:
According to Jon, mixing the hot sauce, hoisin sauce, and peanut sauce together tastes good with these rolls.

Vegetables and beef:
The vegetables had just the right turgidity. This kind of choi should be a bit crunchy, and never soggy or soft.

Shrimp rice noodle rolls:
All the ingredients were there, but I'm used to shrimp rice noodle rolls being presented in three long rolls placed horizontally on an oval plate like this. They also would have been better if the shrimp were more tightly wrapped in the rolls.

Total damage: $8 per person (for the three of us).

William's Coffee Pub

William's Coffee Pub
http://www.williamscoffeepub.com/

Chocolate banana cake:


The cake was enjoyed by all, but the icing was a little thick on top.

Unless my memory fails me, I think it was a bit pricey.

JJ Japanese Thai

JJ (6485 Mississauga Road, Mississauga)
http://www.jjjapanesethai.com/

For a weeknight, this spacious restaurant was pretty packed. I'd suggest making reservations.

No complaints here. I was really impressed with the beef sashimi appetizer. The rib-eye steak teriyaki was also very tasty. Blue rare is available here and highly recommended. 

I ordered the smoked ginger duck for myself. The pieces of duck were flavourful and not dry. There was no skimping on the meat, and the dish filled me up nicely.

Smoked Ginger Duck:

The dessert menu offers fancy items such as deep-fried cheesecake, crème brûlée, mango sticky rice, deep-fried ice cream, etc. I don't normally eat anything berry related, but I have to admit that the deep-fried cheesecake (berry) had a good crunch to it. It was served with a green (probably pistachio) sauce on one side of the plate, and orange (probably mango) sauce on the other.

I'd definitely go back when I head to that side of town again.

Craft Burger

Craft Burger (573 King Street West)
http://www.craftburger.com/

King Street West is full of swanky, hipster restaurants, but for two underdressed people, we were looking for something more informal. And greasy.

Craft Burger is a little hole in the King West wall. The place seats about ten to fifteen people, and once we passed through the doors, we found ourselves standing in line. There wasn't an empty chair, so we opted for takeout. 

The line moves quickly and a girl with a touchscreen device comes by to take our names and our orders. I ask for a classic burger without ketchup or mustard and a poutine. 

She must not have heard me because my burger had all the usual condiments on it. She also took my name down as Amy, so maybe it was just really loud in there.
I didn't mind the ketchup because the burger was so thick that I could barely taste it. I'll have to agree with Andrew when he said that it tasted homemade.  
Looks like they use the same boxes for their poutines as Smoke's Poutinerie: 
It might've been because I let it steam in the box for so long, but that has got to be the meltiest cheese on poutine that I've ever eaten. Thumbs up!

Total damage: $11.98.

Nod to Jon for letting me know about this place.

Orange-Faced

Saw a fruit carving competition on TV. Thought I might try it. Only had an orange.


Didn't know what to do with the other side, so I made some flower-like thing.

Grapevine as stem:


Maybe next time I'll put the stem on the other side where it belongs.

That was one tasty orange. :D

Moxie's Classic Grill

Moxie's Classic Grill (159 York Blvd., Richmond Hill)

Long Island Iceburg, Moxie-sized (added ounce of alcohol):
The glass was very large, and the drink appeared very grand when it was brought to our table. The floating white chunk of slush was a cool effect. I thought this drink was going to taste very alcoholic considering all the boozy ingredients in it. It ended up tasting more like water. I forked out all the ice cubes into Josie's finished glass. Turns out half of the glass was ice cubes. And the cocktail still tasted like water after all my fishing.

I got so mad that I flung an ice cube onto the floor.
Just kidding.

Applewood chicken pizza:
The crust had a pita-like texture which was nice. I had no problems with any individual element of the pizza, but Jo and I both agreed that it could've used some sauce. Some barbecue sauce would have definitely perked it up. Neither of us were sure if they just forgot to put the sauce on or if it was supposed to be bland like that.

"You think it's frozen?"
"No because if it was from frozen, it'd have sauce!"

Crab cakes appetizer:
We didn't taste much crab in them.

Total damage: $26.50 for the drink and half of the food.

Goodwill Snacks

Had a chicken snacker wrap from Tim Horton's. It was a lot bigger than I expected. I thought it would be McD's junior chicken sized. It was also full of lettuce. I forgot to take a picture, but I won a free coffee from my cup and took a picture of that. Unfortunately, I lost that shred of winning cup.
Speaking of McD's, here's an apple pie courtesy of Jo:
It was warm and just the right amount of brown on the edges.

Apple strudel courtesy of the kitchen counter:
The flaky pastry was nice, but it would've tasted better warm.

Swiss dark chocolate courtesy of Casey:

Chocolate is the reason why I want to move to Switzerland. This particular brand didn't fail me.