St. Louis

St. Louis Wings and Ribs (Fairview Mall, 1800 Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto)

416-637-WING

The wings come with fries. The jalapeño poppers come with fries. The basket o' fries comes with fries.

That's a lot of fries. Good thing I like them, especially with the dill sauce. The fries are always crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

Total damage: I do not remember.

Akasaka

Akasaka Japanese Restaurant (280 West Beaver Creek Road, Richmond Hill, Ontario)
905-764-9291

So pleased with my previous visit to this restaurant, I wanted to go again and try out more stuff.

This time, we went on a weekday night about an hour away from closing time. Chris was hankering for some uni, but unfortunately they didn't have any uni left that day.

Lobster sashimi boat

For an extra $5, you can have the rest of the lobster (claws and stuff) grilled for you (as opposed to not at all).

I generally prefer plain steamed lobster, but the sauce that you get tastes pretty good with the meat.

The lobster boat was pretty huge. We were moved to a larger table after we ordered it to accommodate its sheer massiveness. The boat was more like a life-sized single person raft. As nice as the display was with the rose and dry ice, it wasn't quite stable. In the middle of our meal, the lobster head almost fell on me without anybody having moved it.

The lobster sashimi was interesting. It had a bit of a crunchy texture, and it tasted really light. There were some kazunoko (herring) pieces, some toro pieces, conch (I think), octopus, salmon, tuna, etc. The tuna pieces weren't as velvety soft as last time, but the sashimi was still okay.

Would I return? Yes. I was again satisfied with the quality of the sashimi and that menu full of interesting maki still awaits me.

Total damage: $136.52 for two.

Richmond Court

Richmond Court (Times Square Mall)

Lobster e-fu noodles.

The lobster was quite good. The meat was nice and plump, and most of the pieces were cut in a way so that the shells were easy to separate. The noodles were pretty good too. The only thing I didn't really like was how thick the clear sauce was. Too much starch.

Would I return? I always do.

Total damage: approximately $25 for the lobster noodles and a plate of fried plain rice noodle rolls.

P-Mall

Pacific Mall (4300 Steeles Avenue East, Toronto)

Curry fish balls from a random bubbletea shop.

Cheap and satisfying. They poured extra curry sauce in the cup, which was rather nice.

Total damage: $1.50 for 5 fish balls.

Astoria

Astoria Shish kebob House (390 Danforth Avenue, Toronto)

416-463-2838

Greek salad

The salad had a generous sprinkling of feta cheese. It was pretty monstrously sized, and I was a bit full after finishing it.

Pork souvlaki with potatoes and rice.

The potatoes tasted like they were boiled before being roasted. They weren't seasoned enough for my liking. The meat was the highlight of this plate, as it should've been. The pork was tender and very flavourful. I also appreciated the mound of tzatziki sauce. 

Saganaki.

Who doesn't love flaming cheese?

Would I return? Yes. The pork was enough to make me go back for more.

Total damage: approximately $15, give or take a buck or two.

The Keg

The Keg (26 The Esplanade, Toronto)

416-367-0685

Hours:

Mon - Wed 4 p.m. - 1 a.m.

Thurs - Sat 4 p.m. - 2 a.m.

Sun 4 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Baseball top sirloin steak with a baked potato.

I always find that the first few bites of Keg steaks are good, but after the middle, it becomes a chewy mess. I usually get my steaks medium rare. 

Total damage: $36.21. I may have also had one or two beers.

Pretz

Noodle-flavoured Pretz.

Oh yes, they went there. I guess it sort of tastes like instant noodles? Regardless, they're a great salty snack to munch on.

Imported from Japan by Jess. Thanks to her for sharing!

Korbel Sweet Rosé

Korbel

Brought back from California, this bottle came from a convenient four-pack. 

It is sweet and bubbly. I'd say it's an ideal choice for trying to persuade someone who doesn't normally like the taste of alcohol to drink wine. Josie said that it tastes like the sparkling juice from the grocery store. 

Would I buy this again? Yes. It's light and bubbly. It's also not too expensive. And, it might appeal to a lot of my non wine-drinking friends.

Korbel

Korbel (13250 River Road, Guerneville, Sonoma County, California, USA)
Wine shop: 707-824-7316
Delicatessen: 707-824-7000
Wine tour hours: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. daily
Tasting room hours: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily
Delicatessen hours: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily.

They call it California champagne, but legally, they're really not allowed to label it as such. Only champagne from France can be called champagne. Everything else is just sparkling wine.

Here's something interesting about the Korbel winery: the tour, which includes a tasting of four of their wines, is free.

They make brandy, too.

Tasting #1: Natural.

I like.

Tasting #2: Blanc de noirs.

Not a huge fan.

Tasting #3: Sec.

I don't remember...

Tasting #4: Sweet rosé.

It's feels a bit gimmicky, but it tastes quite nice.

Korbel Delicatessen & Market

Mimosa ($5 USD)

It was okay, but I think the orange juice actually ruins the flavour of the "champagne".

My prosciutto sandwich ($7.50 USD)

It was okay and had a decent amount of meat.

Jess's sandwich and mango salad.

There was mango in there?

Casey's BBQ pulled pork sandwich.

Casey's sandwich was way more exciting than any of our food.

Casey joined the wine club and paid for three shipments for the year. He also gets discounts on any other purchases in the wine shop.

There are lots of other wineries in the vicinity, but we didn't have time for any others.

It should be noted that if you go on the tour, they don't let you have any more tastings (free or otherwise) in the tasting room. We found this strange because that tasting room was packed with people right after our tour, but so empty before it. Also, had we not gone on the tour, we would have been entitled to four free samples of our choice each. This was discovered when the lady behind the counter was about to give us a sample, but our tour guide stopped her. After seeing my disappointed face (because I wasn't there to get drunk, but I just really wanted to try before I buy), the lady let us have one free sample anyway. Good thing too, since it gave me insight on which wines I was going to purchase.

Free tour. Free samples. It's a pretty good visit. If I return, I'll skip the tour and just try the wines that I want to try.

Mamacita

Mamacita (2317 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, USA)
415-346-8494

I really did my research on this one. I wanted to have good Mexican food in San Francisco, and I really tried hard to find one of the better ones. I think all my internet research paid off. The restaurant was not only full when we went, but other people were also already waiting outside for a table. When there was finally room for us, we had to share a table, which actually wasn't so bad. The whole place was packed and loud, but we managed to get the table in the back where it was significantly easier on my old people ears.

Margarita from the pitcher we ordered.

Clearly alcoholic. Maybe it's me, but I feel like restaurants in the states add significantly more alcohol to their drinks than in Canada. That being said, it tasted pretty good to me.

Complimentary tortilla chips and guacamole

We were surprised with how good these were. This was a bonus for us because we were going to actually order this.

We cleared it good.

We each picked a starter and a taco dish and shared everything.

Casey's pick: camaron "sliders".

These weren't bad, but they weren't my favourite of the night.

My pick: ceviche verde.

This was my favourite starter. I really liked the green citrus salsa with the seafood. It's a good mix, seafood and lime.

Jess's pick: nuestro ceviche.

This was also pretty good, but I don't think it was as exciting as my ceviche verde. 

Jess's pick: yellowtail "borracho".

These were interesting. I remember being satisfied with it as I ate one. (FYI: "borracho" means drunk.)

My pick: carne asada.

I'm not trying to toot my own menu-item-picking skills, but I think this was my favourite of the three taco dishes we ordered. The steak tasted really good with the sauce.

Casey's pick: ... I don't remember what this was anymore.

Menu

So full of people! That is usually a sign of a good restaurant.

It's a good thing there was three of us. All the portions came in threes. 

Would I return? Yes. The food looked nice, the place seemed popular, I liked the steak tacos, the margaritas are nice and strong, and those were some good complimentary tortilla chips with guacamole.

Total damage for all our food and a pitcher or two of margarita: $121.81 USD. 

Thanks to Jess for taking the pictures!