The Old Spaghetti Factory

Location: #54 The Esplanade, Toronto, ON M5E 1A6
Phone: (416) 864-9761
Website: http://oldspaghettifactory.ca

Salad: crisp green salad with 1000 Island dressing. (S) Spew of dressing.

Minestrone soup: a hearty vegetarian tomato soup with garden vegetables, beans and elbow macaroni. (J) Soup that eats like a meal. (S) I liked the soup a lot! So yummy!

Manicotti: tender tubes of pasta stuffed with a delicately spiced mixture of cheeses and spinach topped with tomato sauce and melted cheese. (J) Sooo much cheese! I couldn't finish my share. (S) Tasted so good, but sooo much cheese.

Chicken Parmigiana: a breaded baked breast of chicken topped with tomato sauce and cheeses, oven baked, and served with spaghetti and tomato sauce. (J) Was very comforting. (S) It's lighter than the manicotti, but the tomato sauce was a nice contrast to all the cheese that was going on.

Dessert: spumoni ice cream and hot tea. (J) My spumoni just had chocolate and pistachio, which was fine by me. (S) Mmm...spumoni...

Kensington Market

Location: Kensington Market, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.pskensington.ca

Pedestrian Sunday
Doubles: from Patty King. (S) These doubles were ok, can't beat the first one we tried!

Chicken empanada: from Segovia La Casa Del Chorizo. (J) Piping hot! Didn't really taste the filling. (S) Yumm...crunchy outside.

Soup: from Urban Herbivore. Black bean soup du jour. (J) Nice and hearty, spicy and sweet. (S) Too spicy for me, but the heat was nice on a rainy day.

Momos: from Tibet Cafe. Beef and vegetable, served with salad. (J) Tasted like dumplings. (S) Yep, just like dumplings.

Beef empanada: from El Gordo Fine Foods. (J) The perfect temperature to wolf down. It had two olives. (S) So good! I liked the crusty outside and the beefy inside.

Chocolate chip cookie: from My Market Bakery. (J) Dry and crumbly. (S) Not bad. Tasted healthy?

Sweet empanada: from Segovia La Casa Del Chorizo. Filled with ricotta cheese and dulce de leche. (J) Sounded weird but tasted good. I would get one of these after two regular empanadas for an empanada meal! (S) It was interesting, now I wanna try the banana chocolate one, or the apple and cinnamon.

Mini cupcakes: from Miss Cora's Kitchen. Carrot cake (left) and red velvet (right). (J) So tiny. I liked the red velvet's icing. (S) I liked the red velvet too! They were so greasy, good thing they're tiny.

Myoung Dong Soon To Fu

Location: 620 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON M6G 1K7
Phone: (416) 588-2700‎

‎Side dishes: kimchi, bean sprouts, seaweed and vegetables.

Seafood soft tofu: served with purple rice. (J) Easier to eat when it cooled down. The high temperature made it feel spicier than it really was. The leftover rice soaked in tea was also good. (S) Too spicy for me, the temperature heat + the spice heat made my tongue really sensitive.

Vegetable udon: (J) Broth tasted good. (S) The udon had good bite, and the broth was yummy.

Applebee's

Location: 155 Kingston Road, East Ajax ON L1S 7J4
Phone: (905) 426-6440
Website: http://www.applebeescanada.com

Steak and Riblets: 6 oz sirloin served with our world famous riblets, garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. (J) Steak was alright, riblets could have used more sauce. (S) Can't beat Baton Rouge. The tendon was still on some part of the steak, so it was hard to chew.

Crispy Orange Chicken Bowl: delicately spiced breaded chicken covered in a spicy-sweet orange glaze and served over almond rice pilaf and a tasty mix of mushrooms, broccoli, red peppers, sugar snap peas and shredded carrots. Topped with toasted almonds and crispy noodles. (J) I really liked the crunchy coating on the chicken. (S) I like the mix of stuff, but I thought it was a pasta dish, I was not expecting rice.

Triple Chocolate Meltdown™: this rich and magnificently moist chocolate cake is topped with both dark and white chocolate. Its fudge-filled center will erupt upon first bite, richly rolling into vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. (J) Really good. (S) So warm and gooey, yumm.

Poutini's House of Poutine

Location: 1112 Queen Street West, Toronto ON M6J 1H9
Website: http://www.poutini.com

Poutine: traditional. (J) Crispy fries and firm (squeaky?) cheese curds. Gravy was a little salty though. I like the biodegradable container and forks. (S) I was going to mention the same things. This poutine left me super thirsty, but it tasted good!

Biryani House

Location: 25 Wellesley St. East, Toronto, ON M4Y 2S9
Phone: (416) 929-9444
Website: http://www.biryanihouse.ca

Aloo Papri Chat: mix of garbanzo peas and potato crisps, topped with yogurt and tangy sauce; mango lassi. (S) Spiiiicy. it made everything else spicy, but good thing it went away after a while. The mango lassi came to us warm. (J) I liked the app; the crunchy bits made it interesting. The lassi got good in the end when the ice melted.

Gosht Nizami: lamb shank browned and stewed in a gravy of yogurt, tomato and a secret blend [of] spices; naan. (S) This was soooo good. I <3 naan & lamb. I thought this was spicy too, but I think it was just from the appetizer. The lamb was fall-off-the-bone and it tasted good with the curry after scraping off the cilantro. (J) The bone was huge and had a lot of meat. Half of my naan was burnt.

Zhinga Latpati: tiger shrimps tossed in the chef’s own specially created masala, served on a base of tangy mango chutney; rice. (S) I really really liked the sweetness of the sauce and the shrimp, sooo good. I must admit, I splattered on the dinner table while prying the tails off. Oops. (J) Shrimps were big and juicy. Sauce tasted like Chinese sweet and sour sauce.

Kulfi: ice cream made with saffron and pistachio flavour. Served with phaluda, garnished with cherry and fresh mint. (S) This had a strange texture. It was gooey but also solid like ice cream. It was too sweet and the texture was weird. I did like that top layer of green stuff and the pistachio bits in it though! (J) The taste reminded me of cooked milk. There was no garnish.

Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu

Location: 5445 Yonge St, North York, ON M2N 6K7

Side dishes: Kim Chi, Spicy stuff I didn't touch, Bean Sprouts, Yummy Farty Beans. (S) I ate all the non-spicy stuff. The Yummy Farty Beans had a good bite to them. (J) They all went well with rice.

Stone Pot Bibimbap: (S) Good stuff. I like a good bibimbap with crunchy rice stuck to the stone pot. (J) I liked the sunny side up egg.

Soybean Soon Tofu: Mushroom, Beef, Tofu. (S) Spiciness! We didn't know to eat the rice from the water-filled bowl. (J) I asked for medium spiciness and it was really good, not too spicy. Tofu was nice and soft.

Red bean ice sandwich: dessert from a convenience store down the street. (S) Always so yummy, brain freeze!!! (J) Lots of red bean, and a fish shape makes everything better.

Bairrada

Location: 1000 College Street, Toronto, ON M6H 1A7
Phone: (416) 539-8239
Website: http://www.bairrada.ca

Drinks: diet Coke and strawberry frozen drink. (S) Nice and refreshing.

Grilled codfish: served with boiled potatoes and vegetables. (J) Too fishy for me. Good portion of veggies. (S) Tasted like nothing to me, for real...the veggies had more taste than the fish.

BBQ chicken (specialty): served with rice and potato balls. (J) Tasted like regular grilled chicken. I was expecting some distinct Portuguese flavour, but there was none. Plate reminded me of Medieval Times. (S) Agreed. I liked the rice though.

Luminato: 1000 Tastes of Toronto

Location: Central Waterfont, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.luminato.com/2009/events/76

Tofu Po' boy: blacked tofu from Southern Accent. (S) So this is a Po' boy. It was alright. (J) The bite I had could have used some flavour or spice.

BBQ chicken & fried plantains: from Mis Amigos Festival Catering. (S) Chicken was so moist and bbq sauce was good, plantains were nice. (J) I just came from eating chicken wings, and this chicken was still really good.

Desserts: creme brule, custard, pear and raspberry chocolate cake from Senses. (S) Yumm, I like desserts, I especially liked the creme brulee and that other custard stuff.

Cucumber soup & appetizers: from Loic Gourmet. (S) Wasn't a big fan of the green stuff, too much dill maybe? I agree with Adrienne & Josie, the tomato appetizer was best. (J) I only had the soup/granita and I didn't like the taste.

Pho 88

Location: 270 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON M5T 2E5‎
Phone: (416) 746-8646
Website: http://www.pho88.ca

Spring rolls and smoothie: Vegetarian spring rolls; strawberry and banana fresh fruit shake. (J) You could taste the taro in the spring rolls. Smoothie was refreshing. (S) The smoothie was nice. The rolls were crunchy. Yumm.

Vermicelli: Vietnamese style with grilled chicken. (J) Chicken was crispy and juicy but not oily. (S) There was a lot of chicken...A LOT.

Pho: (beef noodle soup) small special combination. (J) Broth flavour was subtle after eating the chicken. Lots of meat. (S) Yes, lots of beef. Load me up!

Family Fun Day

Location: The Interchange Centre, Vaughan ON
Website: http://www.drjayfoundation.com/

The Dr. Jay Charitable Foundation Tickets ($15) included: Loot bags with Harry Potter (S) and Speed Racer (J) DVDs, 1 round at Putting Edge Fun Centre Mini Golf, coupons, and all the food below.

Snack: chocolate chip cookies from Open Window Bakery. (J) I really liked the dough part of the cookie, which reminded me of the flakey shortbread of Dad's chocolate chip cookies. (S) Sooo many chocolate chips, yumm.

Drinks: taro and mango bubble tea from Our Thai. (J) Regular stuff. (S) Taro was too dilute, and mango was too sweet, but they were free (kinda) so can't expect much.

Lunch: pepperoni and cheese pizza slices (Domino's), hot dog and sausage (Chicago 58), water and pop. (J) I was disappointed that there was no veggie hot dog. I got two slices of cheese pizza because they were small. (S) Sausages 2 days in a row, I am so healthy!

Dessert: frozen yogurt from Ikea. (J) Classic. (S) So good on a semi-nice day.

Bâton Rouge

Location: 520 Progress Avenue, Scarborough ON M1P 2K2
Phone: (416) 296-2222
Website: http://www.batonrougerestaurants.com

$25 Prix Fixe
Starters

Lentil soup: (J) tasted like a regular vegetable soup. A bit too salty.

House salad: fresh mixed greens topped with croutons, chopped eggs, bacon and honey mustard dressing. (J) Great cheesy bread. I liked the egg flavour of the salad. (S) Agreed. Cheesy bread was so good.

Main Dishes

BBQ Ribs and Chicken: 10 oz. of our signature pork back ribs and a 6 oz. marinated grilled chicken breast basted with our own BBQ sauce. With coleslaw and fries. (J) Such mountainous fries and slaw! The server was right and the ribs were really good. The chicken was moist, but I was too full to eat it. (S) The ribs were good. I ate the chicken and it was good too! I didn't like the coleslaw as much though but whatever, it's just a side.

New York striplon: 10 oz. AAA Sterling Silver. Mouth watering steak, grilled to perfection. With steamed vegetables and garlic on the side. (J) Steak was easy to cut and chew. Vegetables had a nice sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Didn't use the garlic much. (S) Agreed. I'd get the Peppercorn sauce instead of the garlic next time. I kept dipping into Andrea's Peppercorn sauce.

Dessert

Chocolate mousse: (J) so light and sweet, which only became a bit too sweet near the end. I would like the flavour in brownie form. (S) It was nice at the beginning, but got too sweet for me, it was kinda hard to finish.

Kokyo

Location: 501A Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4Y 1Y4‎
Phone: (416) 962-6968‎
Website: http://www.kokyo.ca

Miso soup, salad and green tea.

Sushi, Sashimi & Maki Special.

Bento Box Special: vegetable tempura substituted for the shrimp, which was massively coated last time.

(J) We ordered the same thing as last time. Rolls were good with minimal rice. Sashimi pieces were big. This time I was smart and didn't stuff myself, and saved half of my bento for lunch the next day. (S) I stuffed myself :s