259 Host Fine Indian Cuisine

Last night on a cold December night, I ventured out to celebrate a friend’s birthday over at the Host Fine Indian Cuisine.  There are 2 locations in downtown Toronto however we decided to choose with 259 Host on Wellington Street.  We were in the mood for some nice authentic curry dishes and since one of my friends was Indian and they had a Groupon coupon, we decided to head out there and take advantage of the situation. 

We had reservations for the evening and were ushered to the top level of this three storey restaurant.  We sat down and although there were only approximately eight tables on the top floor, it had taken 3 requests and about twenty minutes before we were even given our glasses of water.  When we finally ordered, we went with five different dishes. 

Our first dish was a Samosa Sampler.  There were four different types of samosa on the plate.  Honestly I couldn’t really tell what two of the samosas were.  They were bland tasting and was actually more oily more than anything else.  The last two, the regular samosa and the avacoda samosa were the best ones of the bunch.  They had a strong flavor to them with the regular samosa a bit on the spicy side. 

Chicken Tikka

After the sampler came, there was a long wait for our main course dishes.  It was almost 40 minutes before our entrees arrived and when they did, they screwed up one of the dishes where we were given an incorrect dish.  One of the dishes that arrived correctly was the butter chicken.  Apparently this is their signature dish here at the restaurant.  It sure did not disappoint.  If I was to just have this dish alone, I would have given this place a 5 out of 5.  The juicy chicken mixed with a tomato butter sauce made this a must have dish if you do go this place. 

Samosa Sampler

Next to arrive was the Bharta Eggplant.  This roasted style eggplant came in what looked like a UFO plate.  The dish however wasn’t roasted as well as we would have liked.  In reality, it was actually quite bland and really lacked a strong taste to it.  It had a rough mushy texture to it, almost like eating oatmeal. 

Next to arrive was the chicken tikka.  It is basically chicken that has been marinated with sun dried tomatoes.  Although the chicken was of a drier variety, it was quite rich in taste and tasted quite nicely. 

Butter Chicken

We also had ordered the beef tenderloin.  Unfortunately when it arrived it was actually lamb or chicken meat inside the curry sauce.  We flagged the waiter down who took it back and got us the beef tenderloin.  Although I might not have taken notice, one of my friends believed strongly that all they did was take the old meat out and added the beef on top.  As a result, the beef was not very well marinated and was actually quite bland.  Furthermore, although the meat was supposedly medium cooked, it was very tough to chew on.  One had to use quite a bit of force to chew the meat and swallow it. 

We made three orders of nan which is almost like the equivalent of pitas and a saffiron rice which allowed one to mix it with the curry sauce in the beef tenderloin and the sauce in the butter chicken. 

Beef Tenderloin

Bharta Eggplant

Overall it was a decent night although my Indian friend said that the Host up in Richmond Hill was much better.  Furthermore, the service here surely had its quirky moments.  From the forty minute wait on food to a waiter somehow throwing my own spoon into one of the dishes, it sure made it an interesting night.  If I didn’t have the beef tenderloin, I probably would have given it higher marks.  The curries itself in both dishes were not spicy at all.  Again the butter chicken was a definite must have if you do end up going.  Overall I give it a 3.5 out of 5.   

259 Host Fine Indian Cuisine

259 Wellington Street
Toronto, Ontario
Phone: 416-599-4678

Windsor Arm High Tea

I decided to have a look back at a place we had visited a few months back.  It was high tea and they had a special deal out for during that time for people who were willing to try something different.  The Windsor Arms restaurant specializes in serving special types of pastries and teas inside their old landmark hotel, the Windsor Arms Hotel.  Inside one can also doff hats to give you that old British field as you are enjoying your meal. 

We had reservations in the early afternoon and they promptly got us in.  As we sat down we were asked as to what tea we would like.  I decided to go with Eve’s Temptation which is a fruity type tea and my wife went with the Earl Gray with Red Roses.  I have to admit it was one of my first times doing this so I was definitely not expecting the teas to be so strong and somewhat bitter.  The Earl Grey is definitely very different than the one you get from Lipton.  

 

The pastries were somewhat pre made as they were sitting on the side.  The waiter brought it over and next thing you know it was bon appetit.  On the bottom tray were Fresh Scones with Preserves and Devon Cream.  I don’t know about you but I have never been a scones fan.  They were quite dry and hard to chew on.  It actually felt like eating three day old bread.

There were three different types of sandwiches. There was the Smoked Salmon and Wasabi Sour Cream with Salmon Caviar, the Cucumber with Sundried Tomato Paste and Dill Cream Cheese and the Grilled Chicken, Granny Smith Apples Citrus Mayonnaise, Greek Yogurt & Chives.  My favorite of the three was probably the smoked salmon.  Not that I am biased with the salmon but it was probably the “juiciest” of the three. It also had some roe sprinkled on the top which helped with the juiciness of the sandwiches.   Truthfully, the sandwiches were all very dry and were somewhat hard to swallow.  It certainly was quite different then your average bowl of noodle soup.

 
At the end of the meal, you really are not full at all.  You are about half full, however you really just can’t stuff any more scones or sandwiches into your system.  The thickness of the pastries makes it quite difficult to eat more of this stuff.  Truthfully if I had this with a cup of coke or a beer, it might have gone down easier.  Otherwise the experience was an interesting one however it will probably be my only one.  At forty five dollars per person, personally I think it could have been better spent.  Lucky for us we had a two for one coupon. For this, I give this a 2.5 out of 5.   

Windsor Arms Hotel
18 Saint Thomas St  Toronto, ON M5S 2Z7

(416) 971-9666

Ichiban

A birthday was upon us so we decided to go get a big platter of sushi and sashimi from Sushi Ichiban in south Scarborough.  This place has been existence for the past 20 years with its fresh sushi and sashimi and friendly service. 

When one walks into the place, there are only three small tables available to sit.  The staff no matter how busy they are will always say hello when you walk through the door and one of the policies at the restaurant is that if you are made to wait for more than fifteen minutes for your meal, you were treated with a free hand roll. 

We placed a take out order earlier in the day and told the lady that we would pick it up at five p.m.  When I got there at five there were four other people inside the place.  I thought they were going to be late however at 5:05 pm, my extra large platter was ready to go. 

We brought the platter back and opened it up.  There were about 100 pieces of sushi and sashimi on the tray.  Included were tuna fish, salmon and butterfish and various types of sushi and maki rolls.  As you can see in the picture, the entire large plate was packed from one end the other end.  There was really no room to spare.  

As many of my readers know, there are two things I look for, taste and freshness.  In the past, there has never been a moment where there has been bad sashimi or sushi from this place.  This time did not disappoint either.  The fish was neither frozen nor mushy.  The fish was nice and tender and the salmon was sweet tasting.  The rice used for the maki and sushi were nicely cooked unlike the last place I was at.  The rice was not soggy or wet and it held the contents well. 

There was also a different type of butterfish on the plate that I had never had before.  The next time I am at Sushi Ichiban I will be sure to ask them what it was.  Although there was the usual white butterfish, there was also a reddish yellow butterfish that was mouth watering and very tasty. 

Overall a great experience once again.  There is a reason why this place has been in business for over 20 years.  There may be a couple of times where they had to make the extra hand roll as they were late making the meals, but it was definitely all worth it.  The only thing that has always plagued this place is the lack of parking that sometimes occur at the front.  Otherwise it is a decent place and for an extra large platter that contained over a hundred pieces, it only cost me 90 dollars, tax included.  With fresh fish and great tasting sushi and sashimi you couldn’t have asked for more.  Strongly recommended I give this place a 4 out of 5. 

Sushi Ichiban

80 Ellesmere Road, Scarborough, ON M1R4C2
Phone: (416) 447-3250

Frankie Tomatto’s

Last night we went out with some colleagues of mine out to Frankie Tomatto’s

to celebrate our Christmas Dinner up in Markham.  When we got there the place was packed with people at the door however there were a lot of empty seats on the inside.  The staff appeared to have a little bit of trouble clearing out the backflow.  We were given a pager even though we had reservations however the wait time was only five minutes.

If one has never been in here before, Frankie Tomatto’s is mostly an Italian buffet style restaurant.  On this evening, they served a lot of pizzas, pastas, turkey, lasagnas, salads, seafood dishes and ribs.  The price for tonight’s dinner was $15.99 per person not including drinks.  One may want to go on their website at www.grankietomato.com to check out the rest of their pricing as it can be different for weekends and even on weekdays pending on what time one shows up for dinner. 

Again with buffet style places it is difficult to really photograph or even go through all the dishes one eats.   The place is rather large and can accommodate and/or seat quite a number of people.  As with my previous blogs, it is probably best that I give you a couple of the highlights and a couple of the lowlights. 

Bloody Caesar's

Let’s start off with what I thought was the bad.  The ribs here at the restaurant are huge which although optically is good, may not be the best ribs in town.  The barbeque sauce they use is not bad but when the ribs are big and are served big, it makes it very difficult for one to eat.  You literally have to eat with your hands and the meat so tough because of the age of the meat it makes it is difficult to cut and you literally have to “rip” the meat off the bone.  One suggestion is to possibly go with baby back ribs rather than full scale ribs. 

Another disappointment had to be the Caesar salad.  The romaine leaf is already mixed with the Caesar salad dressing however when one is trying to find croutons and bacon bits, they were no where to be found.  I asked the chef who was making the salad and he told me that “they were out”.  I found that to be quite odd but how can one be out of croutons as well as bacon bits.  To me it was more like they never had it to begin with.

On the flip side, the spaghetti and meatballs were quite nicely done.  The pasta sauce which was already mixed in with the meatballs was not too heavy or salty and blended well with the spaghetti.  It actually felt “light” and the noodles were somehow kept pretty soft which made it a pretty good dish to have. 

Another dish that went down well was the cranberry vegetarian rice which was located near at vegetarian table.  Again not fattening at all, it had a mixture of small vegetables, cranberries and white rice.  The rice was not like that of Chinese white rice but of the Uncle Ben variety.  Again, not a heavy dish which actually helped compliment some of the other food on the plate. 

Overall, it was a satisfactory experience. For the price one pays this place will feed you for the night.  The waiters are nice and they clear your dish quite rapidly.  The drinks however could have been better.  I ordered a double shot bloody Caesar thinking it was going to be strong, however it was basically 2 shots of alcohol with double amount of V8 and juice which made the drink super dilated and lacked and degree of spiciness to it.  Personally it felt as if some of the potential star dishes including some of the seafood and ribs failed while some of the more lackluster tight plates were better than expected.  A good place for office parties and again for the price one pays for buffet it is someone satisfactory.  Overall I give this a 3.25 out of 5.

Frankie Tomatto’s

7225 Woodbine Avenue  Markham, ON
(905) 940-1900

Sam Woo Seafood Restaurant

This morning we had a chance to have dim sum over at Sam Woo Seafood Restaurant inside Bamburgh Mall.  We decided to venture out there on a weekday morning as we hadn’t been there in quite some time.  We were told that the restaurant had early dim sum breakfast before 11:30a.m. where all dim sums were more or less $2.50 each.  After this time, the prices tend to jump an extra dollar or more.

We got there about 10:00 a.m. where the restaurant was about half full.  This restaurant does not have servers who call out the food on push carts but one needs to check off the food that they want on a piece of paper..  We chose about 12 items which were to be shared amongst four people. 

We ordered the usual shrimp dumplings, steamed rice noodle with shrimp and beef,  chicken feet, chestnut sponge cake and BBQ pork buns.  The food arrived slowly despite the lack of people in the restaurant.  Although it is difficult to really comment on everything that arrived, I could make comment on a couple of dishes that I liked and disliked.  

BBQ Buns

Sesame Balls

 The best was probably the sesame balls with sweet sesame paste on the inside.  The hot sesame paste was just perfectly sweet and the overall dish was a nice dessert to have at the end of the meal.  I personally liked this dish even though I am not really a sweets type of person. 

The worse dish ordered was probably the chestnut sponge cake.  It was rather dry and had more of a chocolate taste to it rather than a chestnut taste.  I ordered it for my daughter and she ate it without hesitation however I couldn’t help to say the taste certainly could have been better. For me sponge cakes should be sweet tasting and slightly moist so that it can somehow melt in your mouth or at least give you a juicy taste to it.  This one was rather dry and bland and therefore it did not taste as good as I would like it to have been. 

Chicken Feet

Chestnut Sponge Cake

 

Although these to me were the best and worse dishes ordered, there were also the MIAs.  There were two beef dishes including a beef meatball dish that never arrived.  After 30 minutes of waiting we flagged a waitress down about the missing two meat dishes.  She apologized and went to the back to check it out however another 20 minutes went by and it still hadn’t arrived.  Disappointed, we couldn’t wait much longer so we asked for the bill. 

Overall the food was satisfactory however my own personal pet peeve has always been if you go with the pick and choose on paper format rather than the push cart format, you better be able to bring all the food that was ordered on the order sheet.  Somehow, not one but two dishes were missing.  Humans make mistakes however what gets me is that when you remind the waitresses that two of our dishes were missing and they still don’t arrive, then that to me is unacceptable.  That is poor restaurant service and no matter how good the food may or may not be, it will never be acceptable and in some cases can ruin one’s entire meal.  There was also no wow factor with the shrimp dumplings or with the siu mei’s either.  Slightly disappointed, the highest I can give is a 2.5 out of 5. 

Sam Woo Seafood Restaurant

375 Bamburgh Circle 

 Toronto, ON
416-502-2888

Takara Bune

Today we decided to go to Takara Bune for lunch.  This is located at the corner of Victoria Park Avenue and Sheppard Avenue East in the east side of North York.  I have been to this place for lunch and dinner in the past and they have provided me with some decent Japanese food. 

I got there about a quarter to noon and the guy told me that they were not opened yet.  Most Japanese restaurants don’t usually open until noon hour.  I figured since I eat a lot of sushi and sashimi I would mix it up and try something a tad bit different.  On their menu, they have a Spicy Maki Tray which basically has about 40 pieces of maki and rolls for $35 dollars. 

It took about 20 minutes to make but it did look good. The 40 pieces are made up of 6 pieces of spicy tuna roll, 6 pieces of spicy salmon roll, 6 pieces of spicy ebi roll, 6  pieces of scallop roll, 8 pieces of fire dynamite and 8 rolls of kamikaze maki. 

The fire dynamite in my mind was one of the better ones there.  Its uniqueness lies within the maki where they sprinkle bits of tempura crumbs on top of the maki to make it crunchy.  By doing so, it changes the texture of the roll.  While, the rice, avocado and fish are “soft” and where the crumbs are “hard”, the contrast of these two makes it a nice roll to have.  

The kamikaze maki was not that spicy at all.  Actually the whole dish was not spicy at all.  Personally I think the wasabi soya sauce that my wife made was way more spicier than what was in each of these rolls.  Overall, I would give the overall spiciness a 3 out of 10.  There really wasn’t much to report on the kamikaze rolls. 

Out of the tuna, ebi, salmon and scallop rolls, the scallop probably tasted the best out of the four.  The scallops were nice and fresh and the spiciness in the scallop was a tad bit more spicier than the rest of the rolls.  I don’t know whether if it was my imagination or whether the wasabi just blended better with the scallop but it just felt that way.  The tuna and salmon rolls were really unspectacular.  If anything they tasted like any other tuna or salmon sushis. 

Overall it was satisfactory however I will make one comment.  I don’t know whether it was because I was the first in the restaurant but the rice to make the makis was a bit soggy.  It seemed like I was eating leftover rice and there was a chance that they could have been the case as I was the first one there.  It made all the rolls have that wet and soggy feeling and taste to it which is really too bad.  I truly think that this entire plate could have earned another half to full mark if the rice had been better.  As well, I would have expected it to be more spicier since it was advertised as a spicy tray.  These two flaws unfortunately probably made this dish a little bit harder to stomach but in the end 40 pieces will still fill one’s stomach.  Overall I would have to give this a 2.75 out of 5.   

Takara Bune

2450 Sheppard Avenue East Unit 106

Toronto Ontario

416 491 6688