Red Bench

The Red Bench (611 Yonge Street, Toronto)

(647) 748-4868

info@findtheredbench.ca

Hours: 1 PM - 10 PM daily. 

 A full ice cream sandwich: $6 plus tax. Brookie and Cookies n Cream cookies with Peanut butter ice cream.

For the full sandwich, you can choose two types of organic cookies, the ice cream flavour (on rotation), and a topping. There is a decent selection of toppings, but I opted for roasted almonds. The Brookie cookie (described as "brownie in a cookie costume") seemed softer and worked better in the ice cream sandwich. The other cookie was a bit harder, which made eating a bit messier. My advice would be to pick the Brookie or an equally softer-looking cookie. Overall, pretty good. I split this with Julie, and the half is a pretty decent size for a dessert/snack.

Photo by Phoebe.

Would I return? I might. I'm not crazy about ice cream in general, but ice cream sandwiches are a bit nostalgic for me. The cookies are organic, and they have some fun flavours. The made-to-order cookies reminds me of Sweet Flour, but this place is more conveniently located. Come to think of it, I never did try the ice cream sandwiches there... they'd probably be awesome since their cookies were fluffy and soft.

Patria

Patria (480 King Street West, Toronto)
416-367-0505
Sunday 10:30 a.m.  - 2:30 p.m., 5:30 - close.
Monday - Saturday 5:30 - close.

Those are some pretty vague closing hours.

The following are pictures of the $60 prix fixe meal:

Ibérico de bellota

Fancy, salty, Spanish ham. It is yum!

House-baked bread with fresh tomato and olive oil

While the ingredients may seem basic, it's still pretty tasty. 

Quince jam and cheese

Honestly, I wasn't sure how to eat this. The proportions of the jam, the cheese, and the bread were so skewed, I wasn't sure if they were supposed to go together. Wasn't a huge fan the jam, but I'm not a jam fan in general. Also not sure what cheese that is. *shrug* I suspect it is manchego.

Croquetas de setas

The truffle comes through in the aioli, and really classes up this breaded, mushroom cheese stick. Porcini mushroom and manchego cheese, that is.

 Empanadas

They gave us six empanadas for the seven of us, and we were all trying to be polite by waiting for the last one to come. Alas, I consumed the empanada at a lukewarm temperature. It was still tasty, but perhaps it might've been better warmer.

Ensalada remolachia

Many at the table thought that the toasted almonds were the star of this salad. It had a lot of flavour for such a sliver of an item. I liked the vermouth vinaigrette and the goat cheese as well. I'm pretty much a sucker for most cheeses. 

Garbanzos con espinacas

Chickpeas with spinach and migas. Upon the first bite, there were very hard bits that were surprising. I think they were breadcrumbs, and they were kind of too hard and crunchy to belong with this food in my mind. That first bite was a little unsettling, like finding a bone in your Filet-O-Fish. This was probably my least favourite dish of the night.

Gambas al ajillo

There was a lot of parsley. Much of it may have masked the flavour of the shrimp. Otherwise, still good.

Bisteca

Here's the beef, cooked to about medium rare. This was probably my favourite plate of the meal. The meat was deliciously tender, and the crunchy chip bits were big enough for me to see so that they did not surprise me in my mouth. Lots of flavour here. Delicious, meaty flavour with peppers.

Churros con dulce de leche and chocolate pudding

The desserts looked pretty cool, but also looked like a piece of shit... Anyway, the long stick coming out of the poop-shaped chocolate pudding is candied olive oil. What's cool is that at the bottom of the stick is a rounded puck shape and olive oil gushed out of it when it was chomped at. The chocolate was rich and of the dark variety. I quite liked it. The churros were sweet, crunchy doughnut sticks that I have nothing to complain about. 

They brought out about three of each of the pictured plates for our table of seven. Coming into this, I expected to leave hungry, but I was pleasantly full. I enjoyed trying multiple dishes, made with legit Spanish ingredients like the ibérico ham and manchego cheese. Some dishes impressed me more than others, but I didn't not enjoy any of them. And I'm still wondering how they candied the olive oil. 

The place is pretty fancy, and also extremely loud. The loud music and all patrons trying to talk over said music detracted a bit from my dinner.

Would I return? I wouldn't go here regularly due to loud volumes and the fanciness of it all, but maybe on another special occasion since the food was pretty good. I feel like I'd need to try their paella because Spanish.

Credit to Julie for the pictures and cheers to Jenny the birthday girl for opting to eat here!

Sushitto

Sushitto (food truck found on University Avenue, near Toronto General Hospital)

Julie was raving about wanting to try this food truck that sells sushi burritos. I imagined a bastardized, oversized sushi roll wrapped in a tortilla, and told her to have fun with that. 

We passed by the truck at 11 a.m. on a weekday, but the sign said they open at 11:30. When we returned at about 11:35 a.m., there was a line of about 20-30 people waiting to order. Julie joined that line in anticipation of awesomely weird truck food. 

Prices seem a bit high, but I guess that's normal for downtown. 

The Cermaq box says "sustainable aquaculture", so that seems decent.

The wait in line was long, but the wait for the food was longer. Julie noted that the cash person was very focused on collecting cash and orders, and waited for a row of orders to be ready before beginning to hand out food. 

About thirty to forty minutes after lining up, the half shrimp tempura burrito was served - accompanied with what was described as sweetened sriracha sauce.

It looked like a hungry student made it. There was, however fake crab meat and alfalfa sprouts in it, which was considered a perk. It seemed like the wait and the price were too much for the product. Julie's review: "Sushitto was so shitto". 

Would I try it? I don't know... eating this would mean foregoing my lunch break nap. And I could actually get a full meal with beverage at McDonald's for those prices.

Patties Express

Patties Express (4 Elm Street, Toronto)

647-350-0111

info@pattiesexpress.com

The extra spicy beef patty was more like mild to me, but I guess I eat really spicy foods. The patty was served hot, and the meat was gushing out with each bite. The coco bread was incredibly soft and pillowy. There might have been a very subtle coconut flavour, but that also might've been in my head. I didn't think a patty needed to go inside bread, but it actually works. And it was pretty filling.

Coco bread and beef patty

Would I return? Yes. Relatively cheap snacks are hard to come by in downtown Toronto. And I like oozy meat.

Total damage: $3.39 plus tax.

Le Papillon

Le Papillon (69 Front Street East, Toronto)

416-367-0303

lepapillononfront@gmail.com

Hours:

Sunday: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Monday: Closed

Tuesday - Thursday: 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Friday: 11:30 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Saturday: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Another Winterlicious entry.

 The soup

The salade rouge

Pork terrine

Braised lamb shank

Meat was nice and tender. Good size. Can't remember if there was a weird flavour to it.

Mixed seafood bouillabaisse

I think the comment was that this "seafood" was mostly fish. Actually, it was just fish.

I cannot remember what this was...

This neither.

Papillon s'more

We joked that the plainest-sounding dessert was usually the best. It certainly looked the fanciest.

Bread pudding

Pouding chomeur

They didn't believe me when I translated this to unemployment pudding, or poor man's pudding. Joke's on them.

Our server mentioned $7 martinis for any martini. So I ordered a gin martini, and was given some options of gin to choose from. When the bill came to us, my martini was about twice the price of the advertised special. Apparently, top shelf gins were NOT $7. It would've been nice had this been mentioned to me when I ordered my drink. I wouldn't have minded if it wasn't explicitly told to us that it would be $7 for ANY martini.

Food was good. I think there was disappointment with the "seafood" bouillabaisse, but my lamb shank was fine.

Cheers to Phoebe for the fancy photos!

Chachago

Chachago (3 Elm Street, Toronto)

Have fun trying to Google this place... It all leads to stuff in Chicago. Even though, this is another Taiwan import to Toronto.

Taro milk tea.

Chunks! You can see the taro at the bottom of the cup. I was jealous because I didn't drink this.

Instead, I got the regular milk tea with bubbles.

It was okay. But I'm so used to roasted milk tea from Chatime that I missed the roasted flavour. That might've been why I thought there was too much milk. Can't really complain as it's the free one in 'buy one get one free'. 

Would I return? Maybe to try the taro drink. But to be honest, it's quite a bit more expensive than the other bubble tea places downtown. I think the prices were about $6-8. I could get downtown alcohol for those prices.

Kaiju

Kaiju (384 Yonge Street, Toronto)

647-748-6338

kaijutoronto@gmail.com

Hours: 

Mon - Fri: 11 AM - 8 PM

Sat: 12 PM - 7 PM (only day they sell tofu cheesecake by the slice)

Sun: closed

Trouble finding this place? It's in this maze of a basement under Aura, part of what looks like a semi-abandoned food court. 

Kaiju poutine $6

Curry and grated cheese on seasoned, thick cut fries. Good-sized fries. Could do with some double frying for extra crispiness. Salty enough for me, and the sweetness of the curry adds some contrasting flavour. Overall, not bad since the curry has gravy-like consistency. I wonder what it'd be like with cheese curds.

After being offered a sample of their Japanese curry, it's pretty evident that it tastes different from other curries (at least the ones that I've had). It's sweeter, and it kind of has a slight fruity taste. 

They heartily advertise their curry, which includes various spices, fruits (makes sense to my tastebuds), and vegetables; however, I think the most unique thing about my experience there is that they came out of the stall to bring our food to us in the food court. They also came by as we were eating, and checked with us how the food was. Food court service. Cool.

Would I return? Yes. I think I'll definitely have to try the katsu next. And I really want to try their tofu cheesecake, but it's only sold on Saturdays. Prices are not so cheap, but it's downtown, and what I tasted was pretty good. Plus, I totally got served in my seat in a food court. Who does that? Kaiju.

Scaddabush

Scaddabush (382 Yonge Street Unit #7, Toronto)

(416) 597-8838

Hours of Operation:

Sun–Wed: 11am – 1am

Thurs-Sat: 11am – 2am

The lighting in this place is dim, romantical lighting, candles included - real candles, with the wax melting on to a tray. 

Avocado and goat cheese bruschetta

Potato parmesan crusted snapper

Tiramisu

This is a delayed post, so I don't remember much... but I had no complaints, so that's good. Service was friendly and attentive enough for me. 

This tiramisu was way more legit looking than the one from that other Summerlicious place that I went to. (That one looked nothing like the picture on their menu.)

According to their website, they'll be opening a location in Richmond Hill, so that's cool.

Please excuse the blurry pictures taken in romantical lighting.

Little India

Little India (255 Queen Street West, Toronto)

416-205-9836

Hours of Operation:

Sun and Mon: 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Tues - Sat: 11:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.

I was taken to this Indian restaurant by Vivian and Bianca. I have limited experience in eating Indian food, but I think I generally liked it.

I ordered the lamb vindaloo (middle). We were warned that this was the spiciest item on the menu. One of us asked of they could tone it down a bit, and they acquiesced. It was still pretty spicy. Vivian insisted on butter chicken (left). She said it was the best in Toronto. I thought it was too sweet for my likings; I'm not sure if I don't like butter chicken, or if I don't like that butter chicken.

Garlic kulcha

Apparently, this is a must, according to Vivian

We ordered some meat platter which was exciting in its variety. I think it also came with two of the three side bowls we had. 

Also eaten was the pakora appetizer. It was crunchy and tasty.

Would I return? Yes. The food is good, and the prices are reasonable. There were leftovers from what we ordered since we were all full to the max. The only thing that some people might be wary of is the smell; the food smell is quite strong and it hits you like a hammer in the face when you walk in. I think I'd be interested in their buffet available daily from 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Total damage: I think it was less than $25 per person. 

Kekou Gelato

Kekou Gelato House (13 Baldwin Street, Toronto)

416-792-8858

info@kekou.ca

Summer hours: 12:30 p.m. - 11 p.m. daily... I don't know what they're going to do in the winter. :/

This place sells gelato with Asian-inspired flavours. 

Pandan (left) and whiskey green tea gelato. 

I had a sample of the whiskey green tea and it definitely lived up to its name. The flavour came out very strong, and I liked it. The pandan flavour was also strong, but it was a bit too herbal-y tasting for me. I had no idea what pandan was, but apparently it's a plant. Its leaves are used to wrap some foods  for cooking in Asian cuisines. 

Total damage: $4 for a medium cup of up to two flavours. 

Would I return? Yes. There are lots of other flavours that I want to try, including black sesame, durian, spicy mango, vanilla lotus, Vietnamese coffee, and milk tea coffee. They're friendly there, and you can get a punch card to keep going back. I've heard good things about the Vietnamese coffee flavour.

Bannock

Bannock (401 Bay Street, Toronto)
416-861-6996

Bannock: It's sort of fancy, it's part of the Oliver & Bonacini restaurants group, and it's connected to The Bay.

Went here for Summerlicious (and also the roast duck poutine pizza).

From the Summerlicious menu: Smoked salmon and salt-baked beets. Split and sweet pea hummus, grapefruit, grenadine.

Come to think of it, I don't remember grapefruit in there. Otherwise, pretty tasty. 

From the Summerlicious menu: Dredgeman's fish pie. Pacific cod, scallops, shrimp, crème fraîche, tarragon.

This was a bit heavy for my likings. Too much creaminess inside. The salad on the side was more arugula leaves over creamy sauce, both of which I could've done without.

Roast duck poutine pizza

This is the real reason that I wanted to go to Bannock. It sounds so monstrous, and the size is quite monstrous. The crust is super thin and I didn't try to see if it held up under the weight of fries and curds. The duck was a bit on the dry side, but overall, this is my kind of monstrosity. 

From the Summerlicious menu: Cortland apple fritter. Maple and cider dulce de leche

It was a bit dry inside, and was sort of like a fancy, crispier Timbit. What turned me off it was the berry sauce that was not mentioned in the menu.

Overall, I think the most exciting dish for me was the roast duck poutine pizza. The smoked salmon beet salad was okay too, if not a little skimpy on the salmon. Those flavours came together well though. Not sure if the Summerlicious "deal" was worth it, but at $25 for three courses, it wasn't terrible.

Would I return? I might when I have insane starch cravings for poutine pizza. I might give their other menu items a shot too. 

Total damage: ($25 Summerlicious dinner + $16 poutine pizza + tax + tip)/2 + $4 for fresh passion fruit juice.

Cheers to Bianca for all the pics and for joining me on this food adventure!

Salad King

Salad King (340 Yonge Street, Toronto)

416-593-0333

Hours:

Mon - Thurs: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Fri: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Sat: 12 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Sun: 12 p.m. -9 p.m.

info@saladking.com

Margarita and Islamic noodles

Apparently, there is a 'secret' item that is not on the menu called islamic noodles. I got that since B mentioned seeing it on review sites. On paper, it sounds like the Siam noodles without the peanut part. It's been described as Pad Thai with creamy coconut sauce, which I think seems pretty accurate. It came out way more sauced up than the Siam noodle (far plate in the picture), and quite delicious. I got mine with chicken, but shrimp (and I think it was beef) was also an option. I'd definitely give it a recommendation. 

As for the margarita, it was very thick. I consumed most of mine with a spoon. I tasted minimal alcohol, and felt as much; however, two of my fellow diners turned red from their drinks, so I guess there was some alcohol in it. It had a nice, thick texture, but it was a bit flavourless (and not enough alcohol) for me. (Like snow?) I would've preferred a stronger citrus base, preferably that of orange liqueur. 

Would I return? Yeah. It's a pretty easy go-to restaurant that almost everyone can enjoy. The location is convenient, the atmosphere is casual enough, and the price is decent. I might just stick to beer as my beverage next time, though.

Eat Fresh Be Healthy

Eat Fresh Be Healthy (185 Dundas Street West, Toronto)
647-258-8808

Bianca found this place online, and it seemed to have good Yelp reviews. Based on the name of the restaurant, I thought it would be some sort of lettuce wrap place. Boy, was I wrong.

First off, the only option is prix fixe. You can't get individual items. Given that you get a three-course dinner for $25, I thought it was pretty reasonable in terms of pricing.

Silky shrimp bisque

I was pleasantly surprised that it came with a hunk of crab, too. The bisque itself was very flavourful and quite delicious. It was great because I was hankering for some seafood after visiting the new aquarium.

Bianca had the pan-seared quail appetizer. 

I tried a bit. It was pretty awesome. It was decorated with pomegranate, grapes, and starfruit. I think there was arugula or some sort of leafy vegetable underneath. There were two pieces, and Bianca seemed full after her first course.

Ontario braised lamb ribs

Bianca noted that the meat was quite tender and falling off the bone. I liked the presentation.

 Cracked spice rub chicken supreme

I liked the spices and the variety of vegetables that were served. I soaked each bite of the chicken in that meat juice on the plate. I'm not sure if it was because of my dunking or not, but no forkful of meat was dry.

Bianca's roasted butternut squash and coconut panna cotta

She seemed to like it.

Mango ice cream

I liked the wafers sticking out. 

Would I return? Yes! The food tasted excellent, the service was very friendly, and the prices were more than reasonable for what you're getting. The kitchen area is out in the open, and you can see the chef working hard at creating the meals. The establishment is a bit small, but we didn't have any trouble getting a seat on that Wednesday evening. It's a bit on the dark side inside the restaurant, but other than that, there are no complaints.