Toronto restaurant recommendation - Page 59

def go to stockyards for fried chicken.

have been to sansotei, raijin and santouka as of late. Have been going to santouka in west LA since 2007 so i knew what to expect. the others were crap. Santouka is the only decent bowl of ramen in the city besides the shoyu at Kinton.

Had the $1 oysters at delux on tuesday, good deal will def return!

Four ramen places opening in November - am I the only bloke who walks past a ramen place and sees people backed up to the door and moves on because it's just noodles?

Oh I did make it back to that Ninki Izakaya - I had a Hennessy tasting in Little Italy and had to grab food without freezing my companion for an hour. Since we were the only ones in there, it was amazing it took nearly a half hour to have some skewers and fried karrage (including skin!) out. The yam frites are horrible. I don't know how you can actually make yam that bad. Her spicy calamari was regular fried calamari with orange tinged mayonnaise. I still like the circular ice cubes though.

Since we had to answer skill testing questions for a shot of XO and I wasn't in any mental shape to, I also tried to get in the Four Seasons lobby bar on a Wednesday night - absolutely full. At the very least they could have directed us upstairs to the Boulud place. We made it over to the Hyatt rooftop bar and even though they had no space as well, they warmed up the brandy glasses and we stood under the heat strip outside while puffing away until the bartender came to get us; the antithetical image of what Hennessy was trying to promote.

I want to try to fit in Richmond Station or something before I go next week to some village in Ohio.

I think I need to try Santouka again. Broth was meh and pork was tough & dry the first time. 

limbo, when did you go and which did you try? thats really surprising to hear because santouka is probably the most consistent ramen-ya i've ever eaten at (20+ bowls under the belt at various locations). 4th time at the toronto santouka yesterday and i had the shio which i haven't had there in years, it was amazing. Ramen is japanese soul food, not just noodles. The complexity of the broth isn't easily understood or processed by most gaijin so i understand how people can simply overlook it. I recommend spicy miso, tsukemen, miso, and shio, in that order. The chashu (pork) was absolutely amazing yesterday, held so much flavour and was very tender.

I tried it the week after their soft launch. I had the spicy miso broth with the ikura don combo. Broth, noodles, etc. were all very good. It was the pork that left me wanting more.

 

Maybe I'll try it again since everyone else seems to have nothing but positive comments. 

Japanese soul food? So it's not just noodles?!

 

Jacobs is consistently the best steak I've had anywhere, period.

I am meeting a friend for dinner next month and I want to try one of Shoto, Canoe or Acadia. I haven't had either of them, any thoughts? I think I might lean towards Acadia, because it seems to have a good, cozy vibe for winter.

Acadia is loud. I don't know how loud Shoto is but Acadia is pretty loud for dinner conversation. The food is great though (I wrote about it under Blondin and then under Kriss). Canoe is probably the most pedestrian and if your schedule isn't flexible, it's easiest to get in since they open for lunches and I think at least one lunch on the weekend. Start at the bar and check out the southern view before going to the dining room. Also you have to reserve to get one of the tables near the window.

I was just at George last night with my cousin. We did the seven course tasting with a bottle of wine and some cocktails. About $480 + tip. Service was okay. Some of the runners had no idea what they were serving and on the second course some lady came over with a chocolate cake for my cousin. She would have probably eaten it but suffice to say it was inconsistent. Leaving the place, the reception lady got my cousin's coat and thought I should have went out and freeze. But another server came over to sort out everything. Food was nice. It got very heavy towards the last couple of courses. The cheese plate was a bit smaller than I thought though.

Also wanted to bring up JaBistro here. Have gone twice during their "soft opening" and have had excellent and sushi. Definitely the best place downtown in my opinion. Don't waste your money at Ki or any of the other overpriced Bay St. places.

 

And further to George, I agree that it wasn't overly special. Specifically told them I had a nut allergy and they still brought a dish with nuts in it, luckily for them it wasn't a severe allergy. All we got was a slight apology for ruining our meal.

Jacob's has BYOW, too. Avoid the pricey wine list.

I tried Hapa Izakaya last night. It was dead at 5:30 but it ended up being full by the time I left (8:30). We tried the halibut taco (nothing special, although people wrote about it), karrage, beef tataki, some fried shrimp with mayonnaise, and tuna tartare. Can't say any of the food stood out as really amazing. They spent a lot of money on the waitresses though. Some of them look amazingly good. If the ones at Don Don Izakaya can't speak English, the ones here all sound like they are Asian girls born here, although they do scream in Japanese.

I still haven't tried Guu so I can't compare.

On Friday I went to Hawthorn Fine Foods just east of Richmond and Victoria. No seats so we had to sit in front of the kitchen. Lunchmate and I had some sandwiches - a very wet and runny brisket and a lobster one. Frites on the side. We actually got someone else's side frites so service still needs working out after being open a few weeks. Portions are big if you order a large carte. The tasting menu portions (four courses) was what I expected. We saw someone order a plate of ribs that looked like Daisho's little brother. I'll have to come back to try some of the vegetable items. Not much in the choice of hard liquor but they do have few cocktails, wine and local beers. If you sit at the bar, sit closest to the door so the kitchen scent doesn't overwhelm you. I made the mistake of trying to get away from the cold.

 

 

Sorry to hear about your experiences at George. I've been three times (most recently ~8 months ago) and was always impressed with the overall experience and flawless service. It might be because we've opted for the 7-10 course tasting menu and have only sat at the "alcove" table (a cozy table for 2-4 tucked away near the front that can be curtained off), so it's always felt special. That said, the food is somewhere between Nota Bene (boring and well-executed) and Splendido (mildly more interesting and perfectly executed).

 

Meanwhile, on the subject of Acadia - I was there with Patrick as chef and thought the food was some of the more interesting and well-executed in the city (as opposed to Yours Truly, which is very interesting and overall poorly executed). But the portions were pathetically small and the dining room seems to be a miserable place to eat.

To be fair to George, it was one person who gave dessert in course number two and forgot what she was serving so I think it boils down to the fact that she was new. As for the coat check, I did engage in some repartee to check my coat (she was joking people losing the chits) so I reckon she remembered me. And I'm 99.9% sure I was the only person dressed in black tie in the restaurant so the fact that she forgot about my coat was a little disturbing. I wasn't that unmemorable - I hope.