A blog about food around town, abroad and at home
A blog about food around town, abroad and at home
I’ve never heard anyone say, “I went to Costco, and no one was there.” If you have, can you please let me know when you went? It would be nice to shop there without feeling like I’m playing the video game, Frogger, with my cart. …
488 Lake St, St. Catharines, ON L2N 4H4 Some people might associate “dive bar” with a negative connotation, but I prefer dive bars and hole-in-the-wall restaurants to trendy or pretentious ones. I, personally, don’t need the food to look like art (it all ends up …
2361 Brimley Rd Unit 5, Scarborough, ON M1S 3L6 I am looking forward to visiting Vietnam one day. If Vietnamese food tastes this good in the Greater Toronto Area, I can only imagine how good and fresh (and cheap) the food is in Vietnam. The …
2367 Kingston Rd, Scarborough, ON M1N 1V1 I haven’t been this excited to blog about a restaurant in a while. Maybe I shouldn’t have admitted that, but it wasn’t to take anything away from the other restaurants featured on my recent blog posts. It is …
4060 45, Cobourg, ON K9A 4J7 Being smoked meat fans, my husband and I bought our own smoker five years ago and have been trying to perfect our smoked meat ever since. It is still a work in progress since our smoked meat is not …
2501 Victoria Park Ave Unit 3, Scarborough, ON M1T 1A1 If you love Middle Eastern cuisine as much as I do, Scarborough, Ontario is a food haven due to the numerous shawarma and kebab restaurants, especially in the Warden and Lawrence area. For some reason, …
1500 Eastbeach Wy, Orlando, FL 32836, United States What type of traveller are you? I am the type to stay at hotels that have 4 or more stars and good ratings and reviews from customers because I don’t want to stay somewhere that is worse …
253 Taylor Rd, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0 For my birthday this year, my best friend wanted to treat me to a spa getaway, but she admitted that it was as much for her as it was for me. We ended up choosing White Oaks Resort …
1967 Taunton Rd, Hampton, ON L0B 1J0 Food trucks are less common in Canada than in other countries, like the United States. This is due to the strict food truck regulations here, which contribute to high start-up and operating costs. However, there seems to be …
3595 Sheppard Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1T 3K7 Are you a fellow crab lover? It can be a lot of work to enjoy the little piece of crab meat we get with every “crack”. Yet, we are willing to put in all that effort when …
Ippokratous 37, Athina 106 80, Greece Greece is a beautiful country, the people are nice, the vibe is good, and the food is amazing. My husband and I went to Greece (Athens, Crete, and Santorini) for our honeymoon in 2019, and it was everything I …
105 Queen St W, Fergus, ON N1M 2L3 If you have never been to Elora, a charming village in southern Ontario, Canada, I recommend that you visit it someday. It is home to the Elora Gorge Conservation Area, which has limestone cliffs surrounding the Grand …
Æðarhöfði 36, 270 Mosfellsbær, Iceland I was looking forward to writing this blog post because it is another about Iceland and the food there (see my Fjallkonan blog post for the first one), which despite being expensive, was unexpectedly delicious. On our last day in …
3720 Midland Ave #109, Scarborough, ON M1V 0G3 I wasn’t a big fan of Korean BBQ before because I was against paying to cook my own food. Isn’t the point of going to a restaurant so you don’t have to cook? Then I tried Gyubee …
200 Epcot Center Drive, Orlando, FL 3283, United States For my best friend’s birthday this year, we went to Orlando, Florida in February for a mini getaway and spent a day at EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). She had pitched going to Walt Disney …
1961 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1R 2Y8 The last time my husband and I were at Ibrahim B.B.Q. Shawarma, we noticed that the parking lot across the side street from it was pretty full. I found out the reason when my husband and I …
229 Lake Ave, Traverse City, MI 49684, United States Mackinac Island, located in Northern Michigan, is a popular summer travel destination and is known for its timeless Victorian charm, Fort Mackinac, Arch Rock, being America’s Fudge Capital, and its ban of motorized vehicles since 1898 …
8611 45, Roseneath, ON K0K 2X0 If you have read my other blog posts, you probably know that I am not a big fan of sweets, but I do have a few exceptions that I enjoy once in a blue moon. Butter tarts are one …
5651 Steeles Ave E #10, Scarborough, ON M1V 5P6 Greek food is one of my favourite cuisines. Grilled meat, tzatziki, feta cheese, fried cheese…what’s not to like? That’s why I was in food heaven when my husband and I went to Greece for our honeymoon …
Hafnarstræti 1-3, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland Even though Iceland wasn’t at the top of my bucket list (because I live in Canada and it is already cold), it was a country that I wanted to visit one day so when my best friend asked my husband …
4559 Concession 6, Uxbridge, ON L9P 1R4 After a day trip to Georgina, which is on the southern side of Lake Simcoe, my husband and I wanted to find somewhere to stop for dinner on the way home. Doing a quick search on my phone …
French fries used to be the food I would choose if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, but I have been getting a little sick of fries lately so I might switch my answer to chicken wings. I don’t …
1585 Dundas St W, Toronto, ON M6K 1T9 My husband’s cousin was celebrating a milestone birthday recently and decided to have her birthday party at Lula Lounge. It is located at Dufferin and Dundas St W and has Latin nights on Fridays and Saturdays. It …
4227 Sheppard Ave E Unit B2, Scarborough, ON M1S 5H5 Want to eat some good Chinese food? No problem, when you live in the Greater Toronto Area (and Asia). I take it for granted that the GTA has good food from pretty much every ethnicity …
355 Pitfield Rd, Scarborough, ON M1S 3E5 Pizza…I was going to start this post differently, but thought that saying the word “pizza” first would grab your attention because who doesn’t love pizza? It has been a while since I last posted. This is what happens when there are too many good restaurants…you …
3280 Midland Ave Unit 27 and 28, Scarborough, ON M1V 4W9 When you hear about a restaurant twice in one week from two different people, you can’t help but think to yourself that it must be good. Pho Anh Vu was such a restaurant. They …
1549 O’Connor Dr, Toronto, ON M4B 2V7 Strange to say, but I don’t have a favourite Mexican restaurant in the Greater Toronto Area. I used to like the one that was in Unionville (I can’t remember the name of it), but it closed so I …
Buttery fettuccine noodles with shrimp, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and lemon juice? It doesn’t get much better than that for those of us who prefer buttery pasta. There’s just something so delicious about it. Maybe it’s that you can taste each ingredient instead of the sauce …
5701 Hwy 7, Markham, ON L3P 1B1 Although I drove past Peter’s Fine Dining near Markham Rd and Hwy 7 in the past, I didn’t pay attention to it until a friend suggested that our group of friends go there sometime. It didn’t end up …
100 City Centre Dr, Mississauga, ON L5B 2C9 Before I rave about food court Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, I wanted to mention that I haven’t been writing blog posts as frequently lately because I haven’t tried any new restaurants that have amazed me or their customer …
2105 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1R 2Z4 Raw oysters…you probably either perked up at the mention of that or cringed. I never knew what the fuss was about with raw oysters. I had some in the past and they were ok, but it wasn’t …
MGM Grand, 3799 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109, United States What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, except for good food experiences? If so, I wanted to blog a little about TAP Sports Bar… There definitely isn’t a shortage of places to …
5328 Hwy 7 Suite 4, Markham, ON L3P 1B9 My friends and I tried Haidilao Hot Pot Markham recently and we liked it so much, we went back again a few weeks later. You can choose up to 4 soup bases per table, and they …
3621 Hwy 7 #106, Markham, ON L3R 0G6 One of my favourite sushi restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area is Gal’s Sushi, which is (more specifically) located at Warden and Hwy 7 in Markham. I used to go there often many years ago, but I …
165 E Liberty St, Toronto, ON M6K 3K4 Whenever I think of Brazen Head, an Irish pub in Liberty Village, it brings a smile to my face. I previously worked at a company nearby so my coworkers and I went there often for lunch and …
224 Garrison Rd, Fort Erie, ON L2A 1M7 Living in Toronto, I am spoiled food-wise because there are so many restaurants. Smaller towns in Ontario have a different charm, but naturally have fewer options for restaurants, which is the case with Fort Erie. That’s why …
7010 Warden Ave, Markham, ON L3R 5Y3 I have been going to Ajisen Ramen at Warden and Steeles since before ramen restaurants really exploded here and it is a restaurant that I suggest often. It is located in the same plaza as other restaurants, a …
40 Lakeshore Rd E, Mississauga, ON L5G 1C8 My best friend wanted to cheer me up a couple of months ago because my dog had passed away so we made plans to go out for dinner. We couldn’t find many options in Etobicoke (halfway for …
8921 Sodom Rd, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6S6 Family restaurants are good restaurants to go to with your (did you guess?…) family. I went to one with my in-laws on New Year’s Eve. Betty’s Restaurant is located in Niagara Falls and was on my sister-in-law’s …
I know, I know…I am blogging about popcorn yet again. At least this time it is about bagged popcorn instead of microwave popcorn. Does that make a difference? As you can tell, I love popcorn and Farm Boy Real Butter Popcorn has quickly become one …
3587 Sheppard Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1T 3K8 Chinese restaurants in the GTA and probably a lot of countries in the world are not too difficult to come by, but there are noticeable differences in the quality and deliciousness of the food. I will eat …
96 Laird Dr, East York, ON M4G 3V3 There doesn’t seem to be a shortage of fish and chips restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area so kudos to the owners of the ones that serve fish and chips which stand out. Even though I will …
1225 Kennedy Rd, Scarborough, ON M1P 4Y1 Indian food is delicious. I wasn’t a big fan when I first tried it as a teenager, but I went for Indian food pretty often with a friend in my 20s and have come to love it. I …
My friend and I were talking about how much we like pickled daikon radish and carrots one day so we both set out on a quest to try making it ourselves. The first challenge we faced was finding daikon radish. They seem to be in …
866 Wilson Ave, North York, ON M3K 1E5 For a few years in the past, I was introduced to several different Turkish restaurants, courtesy of an ex who was from Turkey. A Turkish restaurant that always stood out to me is Mustafa Restaurant. They serve …
1540 North Service Rd W, Oakville, ON L6M 4A1 My husband and I were looking for a restaurant to eat at while heading home from the Niagara Region one day (because Wayne Gretzky Estates had a HUGE lineup) and decided to try Tin Cup Sports …
28 Lee Centre Dr, Scarborough, ON M1H 3J1 It is not difficult to find a Japanese restaurant in the Greater Toronto Area nowadays, but finding one with fresh, good-quality sushi is a little more difficult. For dine-in restaurants, I have a few favourites, but sometimes …
Miss Vickie’s chips have been one of my favourites since I was a kid. My grandma used to bring me to the convenience store some Sundays (when my mom allowed it) after my parents and I went to church and lunch with her so I …
1047 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14209, United States When my husband and I were in Fort Erie two weekends ago, he suggested going to Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. The Main Street location in Buffalo is the home of the original buffalo wing, back …
251 Ellesmere Rd, Scarborough, ON M1R 4E4 It was a milestone birthday for my dad this year. I originally wanted to throw him a party or BBQ to celebrate it, but since several family members wouldn’t have been able to make it, my husband and …
3550 Rutherford Rd Unit 88 & 89, Vaughan, ON L4H 2T8 Ordering products online is very convenient (and if there’s free shipping – bonus!), except for if you need to exchange or return the item. I need to estimate my size more accurately. That is …
Even though hot and sour soup originated in China, you can probably find it on a menu in some Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, or even Indian restaurants. I can see why different versions of it have been developed over time – hot and sour soup is …
2282 Kingston Rd, Scarborough, ON M1N 1T9 My husband abstains from consuming meat during Easter weekend so in turn, I mostly avoid meat then as well (“mostly” because I did eat one slice of pepperoni pizza that weekend). Since we eat a lot of fish …
The restaurant my best friend and I went to for her birthday this year, The Wilcox Gastropub, had a dish called Japanese carbonara. We ordered it because it sounded interesting…and it was delicious. Ever since then, I have wanted to try making it at home …
700 Elgin Mills Rd E, Richmond Hill, ON L4C 0H8 “Scrumptious” is a word I should use in my blog post as a synonym for “delicious” when describing the food I’ve tried and loved. It makes you almost salivate for the food it is describing …
During the icebreaker portion of a meeting at work a few years ago, we were each asked to say our name and what our favourite snack food was. I instinctively said “popcorn” and that was the first time I realized my favourite snack is popcorn, …
4400 Sheppard Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1S 5H9 East Court & Mike’s B.B.Q is a takeout restaurant located in the plaza at the Northwest corner of Brimley and Sheppard. It has been featured on blogTO and Toronto Life and I also keep seeing it on …
2131 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1R 5G4 Jerk chicken is always so tasty, but none of the jerk chicken I’ve previously tried in restaurants has become my favourite. That’s why I was glad when I finally found Islanderz Caribbean Grill, which wowed me, and …
1265 Morningside Ave, Scarborough, ON M1B 1C1 Chubby’s Subs at Morningside and Sheppard is proof that you shouldn’t judge a restaurant by where it is located or how it looks. I did that and ignored the fact that Chubby’s Subs kept showing up on searches …
I love French fries; it is one of my favourite foods. If someone asked me if I had to eat just one food for the rest of my life, what would that be? I might actually pick fries. For some reason though, roasted potatoes are …
2075 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1R 2Z4 Delicious food is abundant in Scarborough and a lot of these restaurants seem to be in the Warden and Lawrence area. I could probably spend a week eating at all the good restaurants there and still wouldn’t …
2501 Victoria Park Ave, Scarborough, ON M1T 1A1 I have lost count of how many times I’ve been to King George’s Arms so that’s a testament to how much I like it. The funny thing is that even though I have been there so many …
1744 Lakeshore Rd W, Mississauga, ON L5J 4N8 My friend and I were looking for a restaurant to eat at in Mississauga and came across Clarkson Pump & Patio in some Google searches. It is one of 5 locations, which all have different names. I …
2901 Markham Rd Unit 4, Toronto, ON M1X 0B6 Since I like cars, especially fast and sporty ones, I wanted to check out the new BMW my friend had just leased. We decided to go for dinner at Wing Station (my friend wanted to try …
If you want a healthy appetizer that’s fun to make, Vietnamese fresh spring rolls are a great choice. They are on the menu of most Vietnamese restaurants and are similar to fried spring rolls, but use rice paper as the wrapper instead. Rice paper is …
279 Main St W, Picton, ON K0K 2T0 Prince Edward County (PEC) is one of my favourite places to go to in Ontario because they have wineries, cideries, breweries, good food, and picturesque scenery. I don’t think I’m the only one who likes PEC because …
351 Pitfield Rd, Scarborough, ON M1S 3E5 I used to work in Liberty Village and my favourite roti restaurants were the King St. West location of Island Foods and Gandhi Indian Cuisine, both of which are now closed. Since I no longer work in that …
271 Cornwall Rd Unit 101A, Oakville, ON L6J 3J1 My friend got engaged recently so our group of girl friends wanted to get together for dinner to celebrate her engagement. We were originally going to go to Red Lobster, but since they weren’t taking reservations, …
210 Martindale Rd, St. Catharines, ON L2R 6P9 My husband and I rode our electric scooters on the Niagara River Recreational Trail to visit some wineries in Niagara last weekend. It was just as fun as when my friend and I rented e-bikes a couple …
I used to not like making chicken wings at home because I could never get them crispy enough for my liking. Even when I got my air fryer, the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven, and tried air frying the wings, they just didn’t seem right. …
2601 Matheson Blvd E Unit 2, Mississauga, ON L4W 5A8 This year, I decided to help my husband a little bit with his plans for my birthday. I don’t usually like eating Italian food at a restaurant because I’m perfectly happy with, and sometimes prefer, …
195 First St, Collingwood, ON L9Y 1A6 It had been a while since we’ve been to the Collingwood area so my husband and I decided to go for a day trip when we had some days off work this month. For those of you who …
4045 Sheppard Ave E, Toronto, ON M1S 1S8 It took me a while to find a good go-to Afghan grill restaurant. I have tried a few in the past and they were ok, but none of them wowed me. Kabob Guys at Kennedy and Sheppard …
5631 Steeles Ave E #5, Scarborough, ON M1V 5P6 Like most of the restaurants I’ve tried recently, SumilLicious Smoked Meat & Deli came up in some Google searches of best food in East Toronto. I managed to convince my husband to go there for take-out …
371 Old Kingston Rd Unit 12, Scarborough, ON M1C 1B7 Why does barbecued food, especially smoked barbecue, taste so good? I’m tempted to get a smoker so I can smoke my own meat, but I doubt my smoked meat will taste as good as the …
2919 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1P 2S8 Party time!! Oops, this post is supposed to be about Patty Time and patties… I think pretty much everyone (in the GTA) has eaten a patty at some point in their lives. When I was a kid, …
1145 Morningside Ave #40, Scarborough, ON M1B 0A7 I first heard of World Famous Pizza when someone I know mentioned that their pizza is so good, they drive all the way from Don Mills Rd to Morningside Ave to get it for their team lunches …
Corn seems to be one of those vegetables that everyone likes because it tastes good in so many different forms. One of my favourites is creamed corn soup, although I don’t think there is anything with corn in it that I don’t like… Popcorn is …
170 Kingston Rd E Unit 4A, Ajax, ON L1Z 0C7 I first learned about Firehouse Subs when a commercial for it came on TV one evening. Thinking they were only in the U.S, I wished that there were more sub-options in Canada. Curiosity got the …
2570 Birchmount Rd, Scarborough, ON M1T 2M5 Someone suggested Chris Jerk when my co-workers and I were trying to decide where to go to grab lunch one day at work (before covid-19 and working from home every day began). That was the first time I …
Sometimes there’s nothing better than eating a good steak…yummy! I used to think that making steaks at home can’t compare to the steaks at steak restaurants like The Keg until I pan fried some ribeye steak recently. I might have lucked out this time, but …
144 Main St N, Markham, ON L3P 5T3 I don’t typically like going out for breakfast because I feel like most of it is food I can make at home myself for less than half the cost, that is until I had breakfast at Main’s …
2 Invergordon Ave, Scarborough, ON M1S 2Y8 Since I’m not big on sweets, I have probably passed by Francesca Bakery thousands of times (my grandma lives nearby) without a second thought. My husband loves sweets though so he kept mentioning that we should go there …
180 Laird Dr, East York, ON M4G 3V7 Patios have been even more popular this year due to covid-19 and the limitations of eating inside. If you want a good one to go to in midtown Toronto, you should definitely try Local Leaside, near Leslie …
I discovered that my oven-baked salmon is actually decent when I first brought it as my pot luck dish for my family’s Christmas dinner one year. My aunt said the salmon was really good and asked me if I had bought it from somewhere. I didn’t think …
93 Front St E, Toronto, ON M5E 1C3 I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I find it really difficult to find good lobster in the GTA. Most restaurants in the GTA that serve lobster only have lobster tails, except for Red lobster …
I’ve had an Instant Pot for a few years now, but we haven’t used the “Pressure Cook” option too often. My husband and I usually like to slow cook our meat, but sometimes we forget to prep or season and put the meat into the …
5762 Hwy 7, Markham, ON L3P 1A5 I wasn’t always a fan of sushi. Eating raw fish took some getting used to because of the texture, but now I love it, especially spicy salmon. Fresh sushi can be difficult to find in the Great Toronto …
I put “orzo” at the beginning of the name of this blog post because whenever I eat orzo, I find it is the star of the dish. Orzo might look similar to rice, but to me, it doesn’t taste anything like rice. I like the …
67 Bronte Rd, Oakville, ON L6L 3B7 For my birthday this year, my friends organized a dinner at the patio of Plank Restobar in Oakville. They wanted to do something special for me since it was a milestone birthday, even though we had to celebrate COVID-style. As …
259 Ellesmere Rd, Scarborough, ON M1R 4E4 Ok, I know I blog about Greek food a lot, but how can I resist when it’s so tasty? On Valentine’s day last year, I was craving Greek food as I often do so I decided to check …
I don’t think I know anyone (personally) who hates cheese. What’s to hate? There are so many different kinds of cheese, it tastes good and it tastes even better when it’s melted so I use every opportunity I can to melt cheese on my food. …
What is purple and is called both an animal product and a living organism that grows on the earth? Eggplant isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the people who eat eggplant seem to love it. When I first heard of eggplant fries, I knew I had to try …
280 Van Wagners Beach Rd, Hamilton, ON L8E 3L8 Do you love fish and chips as much as I do? If so, one of the best places to go for fish and chips in the Greater Toronto Area is Hutch’s on the Beach. It’s in …
1967 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1R 2Z2 The Greater Toronto Area has a lot of great food and being so multicultural, you can find food from pretty much every ethnicity. I think the only other city that is similar in terms of variety is …
If you like spicy food and cheese, air-fried jalapeño poppers are quick and easy to make from scratch. It only requires 3 ingredients – super simple! It also tastes much better than frozen jalapeño poppers because it’s fresh and you can choose how much cheese …
Dekigala, Thira 847 00, Greece When my husband and I went to Greece in late September/early October 2019 for our honeymoon, we didn’t plan which restaurants to go to except one – Lucky’s Souvlakis in Fira, Santorini. When I was researching the cities we would be …
69 7th Ave S, New York, NY 10014, United States My coworker told me about Bleecker Street Pizza, “an amazing pizza place” in New York City, so we decided to try it when we went in 2016. It ended up being our favourite meal in NYC and that …
I tried making roasted chickpeas today since, like many of you, I am self-isolating at home. I like to normally eat out at least once a week to change it up from cooking at home, but that seems to be a thing of the past, …
If you want something easy, quick, and tasty to make, this ground beef and vegetables recipe might be for you. Even though I don’t normally like eating rice (unless it’s with Greek or Indian food), I like eating rice with this dish. I first started …
736 Kingston Rd, Pickering, ON L1V 1A8 One of our favourite pubs is Bollocks Pub & Kitchen. There are 3 locations…in Pickering, Whitby, and Oshawa. The Pickering one is the closest to us so we have only been to that location so far. I first …
1100 E Fort Ave, Baltimore, MD 21230, United States I’m going to start off by saying I love crab. It is my favourite seafood and since I live in a city that is not near an ocean, there aren’t as many restaurant options that serve …
657 Bongards Crossroad, Waupoos, ON K0K 2T0 For my birthday last July, I wanted to do a day trip somewhere so my husband and I decided Prince Edward County would be a good choice. It was only a 2.5h drive from our place and they …
Even though I love eating out, one type of food I rarely order when I go out to eat is pasta. I usually find the pasta they serve in restaurants too rich and creamy. It’s super tasty, but for some reason, I feel guilty for ordering it even though I …
Pl. Pithagorou 2, Chania 731 34, Greece Patridogevsia was a restaurant we found by chance when we were vacationing in Chania, Crete. We had hiked 13km on rough terrain for 7h through Samaria Gorge earlier that day and didn’t get back to our rental car until dark …
