food for thought: July 2011

Sunday, 31 July 2011

trattoria mercatto || classic italian cuisine since 1997

101 College Street (inside Eaton Centre), Toronto, On
http://www.nadege-patisserie.com/

If you always liked to eat in Downtown, Toronto, there is no way you could have missed Mercatto. Mercatto has currently opened three restaurants in the core of downtown - College Street, Bay Street and Toronto Street. Mercatto serves Italian food and I would say their franchise at Toronto Street, serves Italian food at its best. I have been to all three of Mercatto's restaurants and my favorite is the one located at Toronto Street for its food quality.

It was my first time eating at Eaton Centre's Mercatto.

Here I go again with zzz French Onion Soup:

The soup had all the flavors: the melted cheese and the onion taste BUT, it was warm. I hate warm soup, why can't soup ever be served to me HOT? *sad*

arancini

tagliatelle

service || awesome! The waitress accidentally placed her finger in my boyfriend's cup and she quickly took the cup away and gave him a new glass of water. Now, imagine if that happened in a Chinese restaurant....Also, the service was quick! I ate during the rush hour (around noon time) and the wait for my order was not long at all.

food || the french onion soup tasted great, i didn't like the risotto balls all that much because it felt like i was eating risotto rice with tomato sauce. =T the tagliatelle had strong pesto taste and it would have been an amazing pasta if they gave me more tomatoes since it was a vegetarian meal! Next time, I shall go back to the Mercatto on Toronto Street!

price || $15-25 per person

decor || clean and urban design, their washrooms are very original lol.

what I ordered || zuppa (4 onion soup), tagliatelle (paste menu), arancini (apristomacco menu)

Friday, 22 July 2011

dolce || gelato goodness

697 College Street, Toronto, ON
http://www.dolcegelato.net/

I apologize for the "slightly" low quality pictures from my past few entries (including this one)! I forgot to bring my camera with me so the photos were taken with an iPhone 4 instead =P.

I ate this really yummy gelato as dessert right after eating at vivoli's! The one on the left is pear-flavoured and the right one is chocolate-flavoured. I really liked it even though I was half drunk after the 60 oz red wine sangria hahaha. Gelatoes are great when they are soft ~~~

service || average
decor || modern (black&white), designed like any other ice-cream/dessert place, there are high chairs there for people who wants to sit individually
food || the gelato was soft, which means it's freshly-made!? =D
price || $5-$10/person
what i ordered || pear-flavored gelato

Thursday, 21 July 2011

vivoli || rooftop patio restuarant

665 College St., Toronto, ON
Vivoli

absolutely the best day to eat at the patio :)

baked manicotti - my original order..then I traded it with Long lol

fusilli - SO GOOD!!! I LOVE IT

red wine sangria - $35/pitcher (60oz.)

service || good (didn't really pay attention to be honest)

food || i loved my fusilli!!! I think it was because of how the sauce was made, it was addictive. I could have ate two dishes of fusilli. SERIOUS. As for the baked manicotti, it was good but a bit too filling for my little stomach so I ended up eating my boyfriend's order because the linguini was lighter. FYI: like many other Italian cuisines, bread is served before the waitresses/waiters take your order. YIPEE for free bread! (olive bread in this case, miam miam).

price || $20-30 per person

decor || nice italian decor inside and out (I felt like I was at a beach resort :D) and the patio is just amazing, the patio gives you a "spectacular" view of Toronto. Also, in the winter time, the patio is heated!

what I ordered || baked manicotti, a pitcher of red wine sangria, linguini genovese

blacksmith bistro || classic italian cuisine

166 Main Street, Markham, ON
http://www.blacksmithsbistro.com/about.html

One of Markham's famous communities is Unionville - Main Street. Main Street is so beautiful, I am in love with the environment there. The street is far from urban, it's more like the pioneer times..you see rustic/antique-looking restaurants and residential houses. Also, there's Too Good Pond, ice-cream/candy shops, Starbucks, etc....definitely drop by there when you have time. I like how there are mini bridges there and some nice areas to take cool pictures. I once had a photo shoot there, just for fun =D

That's me on the right. Twin sister on the left.

Stella Artois [left], Apple Martini [right]

Bf's lunch: Chicken Panini :)

My Sesame Chicken Salad, second best salad I've ever had.

service || the waiter was friendly and every 10-15 minutes he would come over and ask us if everything was okay :)

food || loved my salad, I love how my salad was not dry because of the amount of vinaigrette they put in it. The apple martini lacked alcohol (even though it was 12 in the afternoon LOL).

price || $13-20 per person

decor || classic italian restuarant, looks a bit rustic outside, I guess that's the theme of Unionville? The pioneer-ish village? lol

what I ordered || sesame chicken salad, apple martini

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

romano's || $20 for $50 value of food (dealfind)

830 Rowntree Dairy Rd., Woodbridge, ON.
http://www.romanoscuisine.com/menus.html

Coconut shrimp! I LOVED the sauce.

Linguini Puttanesca - Black Olives & Anchovies Pasta

My boyfriend's meal: Osso buco

Will there be a next time? No. And if I actually ate the food for full price with no offers, I don't think it would have been worth it.

service || SLOW SLOW SLOW. I waited 5 minutes to have the menu handed to my table & waited another 10 minutes to have my food ordered (the restaurant was not that busy).

food || average - my pasta was too saucy, real italian pasta does not have sauce taken over the taste of pasta. ALSO, I only found ONE piece of anchovy in my pasta. I never knew anchovy was a delicate food? [sarcasm mode ON]

price || used dealfind offer: pay $20 (+tax and tips) for a value of $50 worth of food, on a daily basis, it would be $15-20 per person.

decor || I give TOTAL props to the photographer who took the photos for this restaurant! He/she must have some amazing skills. When I took a look at Romano's official website, I thought this place was so PRETTY and spacious inside! The fireplace, the candle lights, the furniture, EVERYTHING just looked so amazing. However, when I went there in person, my jaws dropped (in a bad way). I was so disappointed, the restaurant looked nothing like the pictures shown on their website. The restaurant was small, the lighting was bad because it was too dim inside Romano's and there were no candle lights =(. It looked like a restaurant that needed renovation. I felt embarrassed bringing my boyfriend there because we both saw the pictures and was expecting something good.

what I ordered || linguini puttanesca (black olives & anchovie pasta), coconut shrimp (appetizer)

Monday, 18 July 2011

NIGHT IT UP 2011

One of the most awaited food festivals of the year - NIGHT IT UP! This year, they have changed their location to Markham (Warden/Hwy 7). For many years, Night It Up (formally called Asian Night Out) was located at Metro Square (Warden/Steeles). Changing their location did not make a big difference because it is still SO CROWDED this year!!! You know an event is popular when you go there and you bump into more than three friends lol.

My sole purpose of attending to this event was to eat stinky tofu and takoyaki (like every year as usual). One smart tip when going to these food festivals is know what you want to eat and line up for that booth first OR line up for the most popular food first to avoid long and huge line ups. My boyfriend and I lined up for the two most popular food first once we got there: stinky tofu and takoyaki. We ended up leaving without no hassle and no long line-ups. :) I was a happy camper indeed.