Tokyo Kitchen

beef curry with breaded chicken/ beef curry with omelette

Hidden on a side street close to the Bloor/Yonge intersection, Tokyo Kitchen opened up again after going through renovation a while ago. This place is most popular with its curry rice along with other authentic Japanese dishes. One important note is that this place does not exactly have an exact operating hours, but what I know for sure is that they close quite early, probably around 7:30pm – 8:00pm (is it a Japanese custom to close early? Seems like they all close before 8 or 9, which is too early for my liking). It was fortunate that I had an early dinner that day or else I would have missed this place AGAIN.

I ordered the special of the day, which was beef curry with breaded chicken($8.95 + tax), and my girlfriend ordered the beef curry with omelette ($7.95 + tax). Both dishes also come with a side salad. Portion-wise, it falls in the average category, as every authentic Japanese restaurant seems to serve in smaller portions than one would expect. However, quality over quantity and Tokyo Kitchen is no stranger to this. The breaded chicken was to my liking, not very crispy and greasy with a decent thickness. The curry was quite thick and flavourful, with pieces of beef brisket within to give you added beef flavour on top. The rice is just right in my opinion, not too dry, moist and sticky. As for my girlfriend, she describes her beef curry with omelette as scrumptious, but it was just a layer of egg on top of the rice and the only difference between our dishes.

Tokyo Kitchen offers very good curry among the various authentic Japanese restaurants downtown. In fact, I believe that it is one of the best Japanese curry downtown aside from Tokyo Grill (need to revisit). My suggestion for you guys? Give both places a try. Some like Tokyo Grill, others like Tokyo Kitchen. Quite similar to Coke and Pepsi, don’t you think?

Tokyo Kitchen
20 Charles St. E
Toronto, ON
RATING:

Le Petit Dejeuner

Eggs Florentine with Sautéed Spinach / Toast/ Eggs AAA Sterling

A little brunch joint located west of Jarvis on King Street, Le Petit Dejeuner offers by far the best eggs benedict in Toronto. I actually found this place online as I was looking for eggs benedict so it is not only me who agrees with this. The restaurant itself is quite small in size (as it is an independently owned store), so seating is limited. As a matter of fact, when I went on a weekend, I had to wait for about 20-30 minutes just to get a seat. Also, they stop serving the breakfast menu after 3:00 pm so be prepared to go earlier or else you might miss out on the bennys. If you are unfortunate enough to miss the brunch, they also offer a dinner menu which includes pasta, sandwiches and steak along with a few fancy entrees such as duck confit.

I ordered the eggs florentine with sauteed spinach ($12.95 + tax) while my girlfriend ordered the eggs AAA sterling ($16 + tax). Having overheard that their french toast ($1.50 + tax) was supposedly very good, we tried that as well. Not being particular biased, the eggs florentine remained my second favourite below the AAA sterling, and it remained consistently good. The english muffins on the bottom were soft and warm while the poached egg was cooked just right, with the yolk still runny. Then, they are topped off with a very thick Hollandaise sauce. The eggs benedicts come with an apple coleslaw on the side too, which I think just adds a bit more variety of flavours to the dish. The eggs AAA sterling has a 6 oz rib eye steak between the english muffins and I definitely recommend everyone to give it a try. The steak was very tender and marinated well. Combined with the Hollandaise sauce and poached eggs equals to my favourite eggs benedict so far. My only negative comments about the eggs benedicts is probably the fact that they don’t come with a lot of Hollandaise sauce and their hash brown always seems to be cold and hard. Unfortunately, the toast was a disappointment. It tasted average and similar to any other restaurants (shouldn’t have eavesdropped on other people’s opinions).

So, for everyone who decides to have brunch downtown, a trip to Le Petit Dejeuner is a must. Don’t believe me? Check out their website, they have been reviewed by numerous other food critics and the results are the same. Le Petit Dejeuner is a place for all Eggs Benedict enthusiasts or just a nice decent place for brunch. Bon Appetit!

Le Petit Dejeuner
191 King St. E
Toronto, ON
RATING:

Over Easy

the big breakfast

Brunch has always been a favourite of mine (assuming that I actually wake up for it), and Over Easy is a popular location located on Bloor between St.George and Avenue. Being close to the UofT campus and Yorkville, I noticed a lot of students and business people upon walking in. Also, realizing that it IS located on Bloor and close to Yorkville, I did expect the prices to be higher (which I was correct). The menu includes your typical breakfast/brunch dishes along with a few different ones, which you will read in a moment.

I ordered the big breakfast ($10.99 + tax), which consists of 3 eggs (any style), 3 sausages, homes fries, baked beans, pancake and 2 slices of bread. This may sound a lot but I must say, I wasn’t stuffed when I finished my meal. Taste-wise, it was only average in my opinion, having the same quality as any other brunch places around town. One thing I thought was different, though, was the baked beans, an odd addition to a brunch meal. My girlfriend ordered the skillet ($9.99 + tax) and this was something different that you don’t really see in other places. This dish contains green peppers, onions, sausages, mushrooms, potatoes and cheese mixed together into a plate topped off with 2 sunny side up eggs. Somewhat out of the ordinary, this dish tasted… funny… is what I would describe it. To me, it tasted like an oriental dish with its green peppers and onions and mushrooms, but yet, there are sunny side up eggs and cheese. However, overall, my girlfriend thought that it tasted weird but for those who are willing to try, this might be good.

Over Easy is a decent brunch place if you are ever in the area. Actually, there isn’t a lot of restaurants along that strip of Bloor to begin with, making Over Easy the ONLY brunch place in the area, unless you include the uber-expensive Yorkville restaurants. With your choices being limited, Over Easy does become a nice place to have brunch with your friends and family.

the skillet

Over Easy
208 Bloor St. W.
Toronto, ON
RATING:

Update: I realized that I'm quite unfamiliar with the brunch scene as numerous other places also serve baked beans and the skillet. Oh well, mistake learned.

Ali Baba's

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Buy 1 get 1 free falafels on tuesdays

Ali Baba's has a few locations around Toronto but I usually go to the one at Church/Dundas close to the south side of Ryerson. They have a different special for every day of the week that you can see here with Tuesdays being the best in my opinion. Buy 1 get 1 free falafel wraps/sandwiches for $3.99 + tax...hard to beat that value and they taste decent too. Nothing too special though and this is more of a value pick more than anything. Individually they're kind of small and wouldn't be worth it if you were only getting one but with 2 of them you'll be full for under $5.

Overall Ali Baba's isn't bad but really only worth it if you get the daily special....so if you don't like the special that day then I say go somewhere else.

Ali Baba's
229 Church St.
Toronto, ON
RATING:

Ho-Shim

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chicken teriyaki

In the PATH by First Canadian Place is Ho-Shim right beside/connected to Acko Lounge. Offering a small menu of takeout japanese and korean food, everything there pretty much follows the formula of meat + rice + sides in a box.

I ordered the chicken teriyaki and tempura combo ($5.99 + tax) which was a heavy box of food but after opening it up and moving all the tempura to one side I found they only gave me 2 pieces of chicken! The quality of the chicken was actually pretty good thought and so was the shrimp tempura but the vegetable tempura were cut too thick and wasn't quite cooked all the way through. For the sides I got the standard noodles and coleslaw which were alright but could have used a bit more flavour...and of course the rice tasted like rice. Justin/facebook group manager/important businessman opted for the regular chicken teriyaki ($4.99 + tax) with some broccoli as his side but at least he got a proper amount of chicken.

(and no theories on why you might have gotten more...jerk lol)

2 PIECES OF CHICKEN???

Ho-Shim (in the PATH)
100 King St. W
Toronto, ON
RATING:

Stix n Stones Bar and Grill

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buffalo chicken fingers

Been a little while but anyway....an important business meeting to conduct some big business led me to Stix n Stones Bar and Grill by King & Spadina. It's pretty much like an upscale looking sports bar...so I guess it's like what you'd expect a sports bar to look like in King West. The food isn't any different though and it's more or less the same old stuff. Service was also kind of slow and a little unorganized...just a hunch here but I'm guessing some of these waitresses were probably hired for reasons other than their amazing waitressesing abilities.

I got the buffalo chicken fingers ($11.99 + tax/tip) which were pretty much in line with my expectations...5 farily big chicken fingers and fries but nothing too special. Everyone else also played it safe and ordered the classic burger with bacon ($?.?? + tax/tip) - ok, classic cheesebuger (just imagine the same picture with cheese instead of bacon), and chicken fingers ($10.99 + tax/tip). I'd actually prefer the regular chicken fingers as the hot sauce on mine caused them to lose their crispiness and it was just generic hot sauce anyway. The lattice/waffle fries were an extra $1.20...but everyone else was doing it so yea, somehow we all ended up getting them...good ol peer pressure though they were pretty decent.

(Wey says: those waitresses were hired for 2 very big reasons)

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classic burger with bacon / chicken fingers

Stix n Stones Bar and Grill
401 King St. W
Toronto, ON
RATING:

Tai Ping Hsiang

Fried pork chop rice w/ “four seasons” beans, marinated pork and fried tofu

Aside from the conquest of finding the best beef noodle soup, you might remember that at MyAmazingFoodBlog, there is also a search for the best fried pork chop rice. I dethroned Chin Yuan Pai Ku awhile ago, so the next contender is Tai Ping Hsiang which coincidentally, it’s right beside Chin Yuan Pai Ku. Several times (three to be exact) I drove past this place looking to give it a shot, but it was closed every time. When I finally got the chance to go when it was opened I understood why. The place is extremely small, with only 4 tables and works mainly on takeouts. They also have limited daily ingredients and will close early if everything is sold out before closing (they usually close at 9 but I went at 8:00-8:30 before and they were closed).

Onto the fried pork chop rice ($6.25 + tax), which spoiling it for you guys, is the current champion of fried pork chop rice. The best part is that it comes with 3 side dishes of your choosing (there’s about 9 different side dishes ranging from boiled vegetables to marinated meat). The fried pork chop itself was not greasy nor dry, a true achievement comparing with other restaurants. It wasn’t thin as well so I would consider it a decent quality for fried pork chops. On the other hand, the rice portions is rather low so expect to finish the rice before the meat (especially for you, Gabe). Other than that, I have nothing to complain about this place.

All in all, Tai Ping Hsiang is definitely worth going and I encourage everyone to give it a try. Other than the fried pork chop rice there are also numerous other Taiwanese dishes (popcorn chicken for one) which seems to be pretty good. Be prepare to go early though or else you might not be able to enjoy it.

another closer look

Tai Ping Hsiang
3636 Steeles Ave E
Markham, ON
RATING: