Ming's Noodle Cafe

Today's talk will center around a brunch I had a few days ago at Ming's Noodle Cafe.  We were there for a couple of hours as a group of 5 and of course we brought a little one along.  We thought about bringing the stroller in however we have been to this place many times before and we know this place is always crowded.  If you arrive there between eleven to two, be expect to wait.  From Monday to Friday many workers from nearby offices will either walk or drive to the place while on the weekend, many people from nearby churches will venture into the restaurant.

I decided to order the beef brisket noodle soup today.  My wife ordered the beef brisket and tripe noodle soup.  Our friends ordered a club sandwich, a Beef Brisket in Portuguese Style sauce and a curry chicken with rice.  All the meals came with drinks.  Hot drinks were included in the set meal whereas cold drinks needed an extra 75 cents.  Meals ranged from $4.25 each to $6.45.

As with all Chinese meals, the meals all arrived quickly although at separate times.  Despite a full house at the restaurant, the food arrived within ten minutes.

The beef brisket was very nicely done.  For those who like juicy, somewhat fatty brisket beef, this was the place to be.  Some places I have been to have the beef to be lean and quite stiff to eat while others have just been plain fat.  Here the pieces are a little bit of both.  The meat was soft and tender just to my liking. I usually will put some hot oil sauce in my noodle to spice things up a little bit. 

Beef Brisket in Noodle Soup

I also had a chance to try the restaurant's BLT club sandwich.  Here at this restaurant , they provide a slight twist to their club sandwich.which includes a scrambled egg and ham in the middle in addition to the bacon, lettuce and tomato.  There were 4 large pieces along with fries on the side.  I apologize but I am not an egg eater so I removed the egg from the sandwich.  The sandwich was not bad at all.  The addition of the ham did not alter the taste of a regular BLT all that much.

SET Club Sandwich

As for the curry chicken, it was decent as per our friend's son who ate it.  I wanted to sample it however you can see the size of the curry chicken bowl was quite small.  I have to admit compared to some of the other places I have eaten for a similar meal, the size proportion certainly was definitely much bigger than what was served that day.

Curry Chicken and Rice

Beef Brisket in Portuguese Style

In contrast, the Beef Brisket ala Portuguese style was certainly much larger and comparing to the price of the curry chicken  it was even 2 dollars cheaper!! The sauce was near overflowing and needless  to say it was quite filling.  The sauce itself was good, not too salty and not too strong on MSG.  Definitely recommended for a person looking for a big meal.

Overall it was another good experience.  I have to admit I do eat here on a regular basis as you certainly get good value for your dollar.  Other than the smaller than expected portion on the curry chicken, everything else seemed very good. Great place to go if you are looking for a quick meal and drink for a very good price.  I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Ming's Noodle Cafe
3447 Kennedy Road
Scarborough, Ontario

Joey Bravo's Ristorante

Tonight my wife, daughter and I were treated for a nice evening at Joey Bravo's Ristorante.  This restaurant has a family style restaurant on one side of the building and a bar on the other side.  We carried the car seat in tonight as there was plenty of room.  Once we were seated, we were given our menus.  The menu provided us a variety of appetizers, entrees and dessert.  We decided to order individual dishes but that we would split some portions of the meal. 

For appetizers, we order a couple of clam chowders, bruschetta and fried calamari.  For entrees, we each ordered something different.  I had the Baked Atlantic Salmon, my wife chose the linguine pescatore rosso, my friends ordered the Joey's Veal and fusilli fresco. 

Calamari Fritti

Bruschetta

Clam Chowder

Minestrone

Originally my friend had ordered a cream of broccoli however it was sold out so they gave us a clam chowder instead.  The texture was nice, not too creamy and moderately thick.  The taste was very good however there were fewer pieces of potatoes and a few extra pieces of celery.  Otherwise it was good. 

The bruschetta and calamari arrived next.  The bruschetta was a little dry.  There was no garlic butter on the bread but the tomatoes on top were freshly cut.  It was so-so at best.  The calamari however was really good.  Very tasty and not overly breaded.  The beauty of this dish was that there was also a salad with vinegarette dressing on the bottom.  It was the first time I had it this way but it may the dish less "heavy" and fatty tasting. Although there was probably less calamari as a result, the contrast was delightful. 

Our entrees arrived next.  The salmon was beautiful grilled.  The dish also had one piece of broccoli, 1 slice of buttered carrot, 3 pieces of potatoes, 1 piece of cauliflower, 1 slice of cucumber and one large piece of red pepper.  The salmon was slightly crunchy on the outside and very soft on the inside.  Slightly salty but otherwise no problems at all.  My wife say her shrimp linguine was very nice as well.  The shrimp and clams were perfectly cooked and the pasta was not too heavy at all.  My friend loved his fusilli fresco.  He wolfed it down in 5 minutes.  He said it was one of the best meals he had in quite some time.  Joey's Veal was also very filling.  There were 5 pieces of veal along side the pasta.  My friend was only able to finish half of it as it was very filling.  She said it was not very creamy and tasted very good.  Overall entrees were well done.

Baked Atlantic Salmon

Joey's Veal

Fusilli Fresco

Linguine Pescatore Rosso

We ordered 3 desserts however the one I really wanted to try, the apple pie with rum sauce, was out of order.  It was the second thing off the menu that was sold out.  They gave us an extra 2 pieces of tiramisu cakes to make up the missing apple pie.  We also order a caramel brulee.  The tiramisu cake was slightly heavy on the alcohol and light but it sat well in the mouth.  The creme caramel was okay.  There wasn't anything special to it, tasting like a Chinese egg tart at best. It was soft but not overly sweet.

Tiramisu

Creme Caramel

Other than being slightly over dimmed with the lights, the decor was quite nice and peaceful feeling.  Although there was a bar on the other side of the restaurant it was hardly noticeable and it did not disturb our dinner.  Since we were treated, we were unaware of the bill but based on my calculation it was probably around the two hundred dollar mark for 5 people.  If the restaurant did not have 2 orders on its menu as sold out it probably would have gotten higher marks.  As it stands, I would give it a 4 out of 5.

Joey Bravo's Ristorante.
4505 Sheppard Ave.
Scarborough, Ontario

Yogi Noodle Delight

This morning my wife, my daughter and I had a chance to eat breakfast at Yogi Noodle Delight.  We got there around 10:30 in the morning.  We brought in our stroller and we parked it at the front of the restaurant.  The restaurant is of a medium size with the interior and menu similar to many of the Tea Restaurants in Hong Kong.

We were given a breakfast/lunch menu.  I ordered the instant noodle with meat luncheon and an ice tea and my wife ordered a suet choy minced meat rice noodle soup and egg sandwich.  From the time we ordered the food it arrived within ten minutes.  The instant noodle was flavored properly.  The soup based although loaded with MSG was not as salty tasting.  The meat was cooked and tasted like regular luncheon meat.

Instant noodle with luncheon meat

My wife's comments on the vermicelli soup noodle was that it was filling. She said it was tasty.  Suet Choy is also known as preserved vegetable.  The portion size was slightly larger than a medium size bowl.  We ended up having to pack up the egg sandwich as the noodle was a little too filling.

suet choy minced meat rice noodle soup (sorry for the blurry picture)

All and all it was a typical HK style Tea restaurant.  The staff worked fast and the chefs brought out the food in a quick manner.  One thing I saw was that the boss noticed a table that was sitting idle for about 15 minutes.  Although food was ordered at that table, the boss was still curious as to why food was not served promptly to this family.  She quickly yelled out to the staff to put a hurry on it and within 3 minutes the people at that table all got their meals.  That is customer service!  Overall it was a good experience.  No major complaints.  The total cost was about 15 dollars.  Overall, I would rate it a 4 out of 5. 

Yogi Noodle Delight
325 Bamburgh Circle Unit 109A
Scarborough, Ontario

Kaori Japanese Restaurant

Tonight I had the chance to try out Kaori Japanese Restaurant.  It was my first time there and I had the opportunity to share my first time experience with my wife and a couple of friends.  Again, we brought out little one and our friends brought their 1 year old as well.

We had made reservations at the restaurant however when we got there we were still told to wait for ten minutes.  The restaurant was fairly clean, quite large and the decor was nice.  One thing I did notice for this evening was that they were a little short staff and the place was packed.

We brought in the stroller and were given a private room.  There was plenty of space for the stroller and a high chair for our friend's baby.  Tonight we decided to try the medium Sushi, Sashimi and Roll party tray.  We also did a side order of Blue Ocean Roll, Kaori Special Roll, Uni and Beef Terayaki.

The night started with with some appetizers which included spicy tofu slices, spicy baby bok choy, cucumber tempura, miso soup and salad.  The appetizers were fairly good, no complaints here.

Appetizer

Next came the entrees and they all came at once.  The boat, the beef, uni and both rolls all came at the same time.  I tried the Kaori Special Roll.  It consisted of rice paper, lettuce, radish, carrot, avocado, cucumber, shrimp tempura, crab meat and spicy tuna.  I have to admit although the taste felt like a Vietnamese spring roll, it was pretty tasty and the texture although contrasted was quite nice.  We followed up with the Blue Ocean Roll.  This consisted of tuna, salmon, cucumber, and seaweed salad topped with tobiko.  Personally it tasted bland.  I am not too sure if it was because I had the Kaori Special Roll first which may have stolen some of the taste but I certainly didn't get a WOW factor when eating this roll. 

Kaori Special Roll and Blue Ocean Roll

The Uni was next and it was pretty good.  Not exactly the greatest Uni I have ever tasted but it was I would say above average.  The beef teriyaki was average for the evening.  Although it was pinkish in the center it was a little bit chewy as if it was slightly over cooked.  The final thing we had was the platter tray.  It consisted of various sushis and sashimis including salmon, tuna, butterfish and spicy salmon sushi.  I have to admit I wasn't too crazy about the boat.  I asked my wife after dinner to see whether this bitter taste I was eating was for real or was it my imagination.  My wife said she thought the sashimi was a little bitter tonight.  I am not too sure if it was because of the food we ate earlier in the night that may have altered our tastes.  I t was hard to put my finger on it.  It wasn't as if the fish wasn't fresh but it just had a bit of a bitter taste to it.

Sashimi and Sushi Party Tray

Uni

Beef Teriyaki

Dinner was concluded with sliced oranges.  They were Sunkists and they were sweet.  The tab was approximately $128 for 4 people.  In conclusion, I would be willing to give it a second try.  It certainly wasn't the worse and their unique rolls certainly gives rise to a second chance.  If the sashimi was slightly "colder" and not as bitter, I think it certainly deserve full marks.  Overall it was an alright experience.  I would rate it a 3.25 out of 5.

Kaori Japanese Restaurant
30 High Tech Road
Richmond Hill, Ontario

905-707-8858

Inakaya

I had the opportunity to spend my Mother's Day this year at Inakaya Sake Bar Restaurant. There were six of us, my wife, my father, mother, brother, and myself.  We also had a little toddler with us as well.  I was told this was one of the more higher class sushi/sashimi restaurants in the city.  When I first walked in, it seemed to be a little cramp.  It was a little difficult to maneuver into our seats.  Having said that, I was always told that some of the best sushi places in town are found at ones where the places are the smallest.  We brought our baby along to see if it was car seat friendly.  I can tell you the waitresses were a little shocked that we did for they too were not too sure whether we could get the child in the car seat through without bonking someone on their heads.  Thank goodness we left the stroller in the car.

Once we got settled, I order their special 2 for $130 dinner.  This included, shrimp and scallop tempura, sea bream sashimi fish, 6 pieces of beautifully grilled duck breast, 2 grilled pieces of salmon, 2 bowls of seaweed soup and dessert.  We ordered pork belly, volcano rolls and oyster tempura wrap as a side.  

With respect to the special, the shrimp and scallop tempura appetizer was tasty but nothing special.  There were about 10 portions altogether with some sweet potato tempura added to the mix.  Next up was the sea bream sashimi fish.  Now for the 2 for 1 you would expect there to be 2 fish, however only 1 was sliced up.  The presentation was nice however the number of slices from the one fish numbered about 20 small pieces.  The rest of the boat was decorated with a mixture of assorted sashimi.  Next came the sushi, and there were 8 pieces altogether.  Seaweed soup came next, however again there was nothing spectacular about it.  Finally the dessert.  We had the waffle fruit special and a black sesame ice cream.  The ice cream was definitely different but very tasty and not very sweet and thick.   

Duck breast

Sea Bream Sashimi Fish

Assorted sushi

The pork belly was very filling.  Brought to you on a skewer there were about 8 pieces altogether.  A little bit on the fattening side but it was definitely very juicy.  Next came the volcano roll.  The presentation was very neat with the fire surrounding the meat. Each piece was wrapped with what appeared to be rice and alvacado on the inside and a perfectly "burned" piece of meat on the outside.  The oyster tempura wrap was my favorite.  At $5.00 a piece, it was the cheapest thing ordered but by far the most filling.  

Volcano Roll

Oyster Tempura Wrap

Pork Belly

In closing, 2 for $130 dinner special was probably best put quite expensive and not quite as filling.  For two people, I would imagine that extras would definitely need to be ordered to fill one's stomach.  The type of fish used certainly added to rather more expensive price.  However the food was delicious.  I know people will say this is a sake bar.  How was the sake?  I did not drink that night.  My family are not much drinkers so we passed on the sake.  The total bill for 5 people was about $250.00 tax and tip included.  The fish was fresh, the grilled salmon was slightly over grilled but otherwise well done, the oyster tempura and the pork belly were very rich and tasty.  For the average person, it is probably a place that you will visit on special occasions only.  A quick scan of their menu showed the prices of their regular sushi and sashimi are about 3-5 dollars more expensive compared to other sushi restaurants.  Overall I will give this place a 4.5 out of 5.

Inakaya
126 Willowdale Ave
Toronto, ON 
M2N 4Y2
416 224 8881