Bruce Cost

Bruce Cost Ginger Ale Unfiltered Original

Saw this at Loblaws for $2-something. It's delicious! The ginger flavour is strong, yet it is still pretty sweet. That fresh ginger taste is what makes this drink awesome. You can see the ginger bits in the settled drink - be sure to invert before opening. 

The ingredients are simple: carbonated water, pure cane sugar, 100% fresh ginger, and citric acid. And really, that's all it needs. 

Would I buy this again? I already have, heh. It's the best tasting ginger ale I've ever had.

North Brewing Company

Farmhouse Ale (Halifax Nova Scotia)
7.5% ABV

 Picked this up at the Halifax airport, and it is pretty delicious. Darker in colour than I thought it'd be, it tastes a whole lot less bitter than I imagined as well. The bitter comes a bit after, but not in abundance. I like the deep colour. Hold it up to the light, and you'll see the reddish glow that looks pretty nice. The head is quite pouffy.

There's an unexpected fruitiness to it as well. Goes down easy, and high alcohol content (not noticeable in taste) for a beer. It is a bit creamy-tasting. Ingredients are simple, and look at that: "fair traide organic raw sugar"! If that doesn't immediately make you feel better about drinking it, then you're not a hipster. 

Would I purchase again? Yes. It's quite nice overall with simple ingredients that are listed. High alcohol content is a plus for me. Good job, Halifax.

Total damage: Around $6-something for 650 mL? 

MeNami

MeNami (5469 Yonge Street, North York)

416-229-6191

Sunday: 11:30 a.m. - 12 a.m.

Monday - Saturday: 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.

Fun cocktail list.

Corn Kaki-age

B seemed to love this a lot. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it's pretty cool. Crispy, corny, and more delicious than I expected it to be.

Sailor Moon Gone Wild ($10)

I don't see the connection to Sailor Moon... Mostly orange-flavoured, it was pretty tasty. I just wished it had less ice. I felt like I took 3-4 sips and the drink was done. It didn't seem like there was much liquid in the cup. Perhaps it was trapped by the ice.

Black sesame udon ($15)

Portion was good, beef was reasonable amount. Noodles were excellent. The udon had a nice bouncy chewiness to them. The black sesame made it feel a bit heavy, but overall it was a tasty dish. Also, it can be a bit splashy to eat. B tried it and thought it was spicy. I did not notice this.

B seemed to enjoy her creamy salmon udon. The salmon looked pretty soft, and she said it tasted poached. I tried a bit, and the sauce was reminiscent of the creamy rice cakes from Han Ba Tang.

Would I return? Yeah, I would. It's from the same owner as Han Ba Tang, which I also enjoyed. The actual udon noodles were pretty tasty and they have some unique sauces to serve them with. The corn thing was pretty good, too. I might be a little wary of the cocktails, as tasty as they sound, but there's also a decent selection of sake and beer to order. My one gripe with this visit was that as a server was pouring tea into my cup, half the liquid was going into the cup, and half was spilling onto the table. She didn't notice for a few seconds, and I'm not sure if she heard me or not when I gently pointed it out. It sounded like she acknowledged me since she stopped pouring? But she also walked away, and never returned to clean it up. It was a little weird. The other server was smiley and friendly enough. She also helped us identify the menu item from a picture on B's phone.

Total damage (post-tax, pre-tip): $48.59 for 2 udons, 1 cocktail, and 1 corn thingy. 

BOOZE

My first bourbon: Knob Creek straight bourbon whiskey.

Not as sweet as I thought it'd be. Also, I found it quite a bit harsher on the throat than the usual Canadian rye whisky that I'm used to. I drank it, but I might not get it again.

Jo's import from France: pear-flavoured Giffard eau de vie.

Water of life, indeed. How do they get the pear inside the bottle? Mysteries of life! Slightly sweet, subtly pear, it's a nice, clean spirit. I enjoy!

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!

Alberta Premium Dark Horse

The colour is absolutely lovely, first off. Dark, liquid gold, I say.

It's sweet, and has a bit of a burnt wood taste to me. Initially purchased for its colour and 45% alcohol content (versus the usual 40% - hey, I'm all about value), I've been consistently turning to this for my whisky needs. Well, this and Wiser's hopped whisky, which I still believe is magic. Sometimes, I drink it on the rocks, sometimes I drink it neat; mostly, I drink it with sweetened green tea.

Han Ba Tang

Han Ba Tang (4862 Yonge Street, Willowdale)
Phone number(416) 546-8218

The inside signs are much clearer than the outside ones.

Drink list! Includes a variety of infused soju cocktails. I enjoy their beer selection, too, which included Innis & Gunn and Samuel Adams. On tap, there was also Rickard's Red. A few of my favs.

 Two clean cuts. Not both for me.

It's a bit sweeter than I expected it to be, but still pretty tasty.

Kalbi tacos

Not bad. We liked that there was 'stuff' in the taco shells.

 Creamy rice cakes. 

Tasted like alfredo sauce on rice cakes. Sounds like something I'd concoct if I were out of pasta. Julie mentioned this being a different taste for her, thus making it her favourite dish of the night. 

Lobster tacos.

I like lobster! 

Pork belly and tofu.

Phoebe said it tasted really Asian. It was okay, but since I split one, I didn't get the tomato to see if that would've tasted weird.

 Scoop pizza.

Jenny said all she tasted was cheese. I actually didn't get that much cheese, so much as potato. It's a sweet potato base, but subtly sweet. I think this might've been my least favourite dish.

Spicy seafood soup.

It didn't taste like the usual Korean soup flavours that I was introduced to in Korea. It wasn't bad, just a lot more black pepper, and a lot less Korean red sauce taste.  

Crispy king prawns.

This was my favourite dish of the night. Shrimp was tasty, crispy sticks of sweet potato was awesomely salty. 

Would I return? I might. Now that I know which food items I prefer, I wouldn't mind trying their other stuff, and that drinks menu looked pretty interesting. Cocktails are $7 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Total damage: Approximately $15.50 per person (6 people), minus drinks, and minus the prawns which were on a different bill. 

Innis & Gunn White Oak Wheat Beer

Because I am brand loyal, I had to try this.

It's a bit sweet, kind of nutty (like cashews?),  a sort of orange peel taste, not very hoppy, and I think it's pretty delicious. I like it better than the toasted oak. 

Innis & Gunn Toasted Oak IPA

I got this because I am brand loyal. And it was on sale. Anyway, hoppy/bitter, but not disgustingly so. Toasted? Can't really taste it. Faint citrus taste. 

Would I get this again? Probably not. It was just to try. I'm trying my fourth bottle now. There's nothing amazing about this. Innis & Gunn Original is still my favourite. 

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.

Boilermaker

Boilermaker. Yeah, I did. It's only Monday. Or maybe, because it's Monday...

Crown Royal and Sleeman's honey brown.

Honestly... I am not a huge fan of Crown Royal. I prefer my other whiskies... so I was trying to 'get rid' of it... by mixing it with beer. Turns out, whisky and beer is a thing - a thing called boilermaker. :)

Sharetea

Sharetea (15 Northtown Way, Toronto)

416-901-9988

Hot fresh taro milk tea ($4.60)

It has chunks! Ever since Chatime's taro milk tea became some grainy, sandy disappointment, I've been wanting some hot milk tea with chunks of taro. Sharetea delivers this. Sugar content is adjustable based on order. 

Would I return? Probably, just not if I am in a rush. It took a while for someone to take our order. And when the order was placed, there was a lot of confusion. I'm not really sure what was going on as Viv and the Sharetea girl had a back and forth discussion in Mandarin for our order of two drinks. Regardless, I was satisfied with the drink itself. Chunks! :D 

Jack Daniel's Lynchburg Lemonade

Love love love the old-timey feel of the bottle. Makes me want to drink it while holding a parasol, sitting in an old school, all-steel car. From the font and the ridges in the glass, it's a fun package that makes me think of summertime in a different era.

It tastes like lemonade. I tasted no alcohol, but the alcohol percentage is pretty standard (5% alc./vol) for this type of drink. Very tasty. 

Would I buy it again? Yes. Good taste, great packaging.

Innis & Gunn Rum Finish

Innis & Gunn

Tried this for the first time. It made the Dos Equis I had afterwards taste like ass. This beer tastes like whiskey in beer format. It is delicious! I would definitely drink it again.

Milagro

Milagro Cantina Mexicana (5 Mercer Street, Toronto)

416-850-2855

Hours: 

Mon - Wed: 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Thurs - Fri: 11:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.

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

Sun: 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.

This place might just be one of Josie's favourites in Toronto. She always gets so excited about going.

The place was crazy dim and really, really loud. We had trouble hearing each other over across the large table, and Jo had issues hearing our waiter.

Cucumber margarita.

Apparently the cucumber sangria we got last time was seasonal, so I settled for this. It tasted okay and boozey enough.

Jess and Jo each got a mojito. Jess's had some sort of pepper taste in it and was very spicy. I thought it was a bit awkward in drink form, but she seemed to like it. They thought the regular mojito was very sugary.

Jess and Jo split the tacos al pastor: pork loin, pastor abodo, pineapple, cilantro, salsa verde. They were spicy. Very, very spicy. Jo didn't notice the pineapple in it, but Jess did. The regular order comes with two tacos, but the entrée-sized version comes with three tacos, rice, and refried beans.

These were my tacos, with one of Renée's fish tacos on the plate. Mine was the one with the z name. They looked a bit small. The pineapple went well with the green salsa (which had a kick). I actually think Renée's fish tacos were more exciting. The fish chunk was pretty big and crunchy, and her tortilla was white. 

Large vulve a la vida ceviche.

I liked it. It was just kind of swimming in citrus juice a bit, though. 

The bill

Not cheap.

Would I return? Sure. The food isn't bad and Josie really likes Mexican food, which is hard to find in Toronto. It's a bit expensive for what it is, though. If I remember correctly, I believe they do lamb pretty well. 

To note: They don't split bills, and there's a disclaimer on the menu that informs the customer of their spicy food that they do not alter. There are vegetarian and vegan options.

(Pictures by Jo, except for the really crappy one - I took that one.)