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

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.

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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 

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)

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.

Wei's Smelly Tofu - the original booth that sells smelly tofu

Photo credit: Long T.

Look at the goodness..MmmMm

I believe that the stinkier the tofu is, the better it tastes

Didn't get a chance to try this - Oyster Omelette (a popular Taiwanese street food)

Pineapple smoothie - $6

the Takoyaki booth!

Always my favorite night market food - Takoyaki (aka Japanese squid balls)

Paper fish netting! I caught two! Yippee!

Tornado taters - potato carved in a creative way (Warning: super oily)

A very popular event indeed! Look at the crowd!

More updates later! :)

jump || summerlicious 2011 menu

18 Wellington St West, Toronto, ON
http://www.oliverbonacini.com/Jump.aspx

*Edit on my last post: Taste of Danforth is at the beginning of August (stupid me =_=", I thought it already passed....) 

Another O&B franchise - jump! Starting as an amateur food blogger, I first thought to myself: "isn't it important to try at least some of the summer food events/festivals in Toronto?" Well, summerlicious is definitely an event one foodie CANNOT MISS. You are eating at one of the most notable restaurants in Toronto (I hope) for a good value price. Unfortunately, I couldn't book Summerlicious menus for the restaurants I REALLY wanted to go, I am a tad bit late. So I have not much choice left but to choose Jump. Not that there's anything wrong with Jump....just wanted to try something else....

This year, Jump offers a $20 lunch menu and a $35 dinner menu. I decided to pick the lunch menu for $20 because I noticed the lunch menu and the dinner menu is EXACTLY the same. Why pay $15 more for eating the same things? It just doesn't make sense to me! Some people may say: "That's because dinner portions are bigger!" Bleh~ I am a petite girl and I can't stuff myself anyways for $15 more. Just sayin' =P

Enough talk. Time to show the real deal.

I most often try to take pictures of the interior design of the restaurant, if it is allowed. 

jump's "sky high atrium glass ceilings"

jump's interior wood design - New York style

Bread and crackers to start off with :)

Berry Blast martini - $9.95 - fruity and not so alcoholic

Ravioli topped with cherry tomato pomodorina sauce and basil cress

Lemon curd & blueberry sauce

Wild & tame mushroom soup

Writing tremendous amount of food entries as got me afraid of one thing: being a food snob. But I also noticed that it does not take a genius to know what is good and what is not. Or maybe, overall, critiquing on food is a very subjective thing, people may like chocolate because it is very sweet but some people may hate chocolate because it tastes sweet. See what I mean? I think what I am trying to point out is that I am an average Joe and my goal is just to show people around town (or perhaps, later, around the world) things I have tried and whether they would try it later or not, it is solely up to their choice :).

All the food was good in general, I really liked the mushroom soup because I am a huge fan of soup. However, I thought the soup could have been a bit hotter (in terms of temperature). Drinking cold soup is disgusting, it is like trying to drink a warm beer. URGH. Oh, and I ended up trading my dessert with my boyfriend~ ALWAYS HAPPENS, I end up eating something he orders because his dish looks better than mine (plus, I noticed I am not a huge fan of lemon after all), doesn't that always happen to you too? Eating someone else's dish? =D

Amaretto Chocolate Marquise Cake - crunch crunch crunch!

service || do not expect friendly service during rush hours (i.e. Lunch time) but service is super fast.

food || average - great? The only thing I really liked was the mushroom soup, it was original because it had no cream nor butter. The soup had a fresh taste of mushroom, loved it!

price || $20+ (Summerlicious 2011 menu price)/person

decor || "This big bold American-style bistro by Oliver Bonacini carries plenty of bravado, with sky-high glass atrium ceilings, rich wood interiors and a killer New York style bar."(Jump - Summerlicious) - oh, and worth mentioning, they also have a huge patio outside! If the weather is nice, I highly recommend sitting outside or at least somewhere near the patio. :) Patio is NOW OPEN at jump! 

what I ordered || Berry Blast martini (not part of the Summerlicious menu), Summerlicious menu: Wild & Tame Mushroom soup (appetizer), Ontario Buffalo Mozzarella Ravioli (main),  Sour Cream Lemon Cake (dessert).