Primary Taste Yunnan Rice Noodle

On a cold winter night and unsure of where to go to get some nice warm comfort food, one should look no further than Primary Taste Yunnan Rice Noodle Restaurant located in North York.  The restaurant has been in existence for quite some time and focuses on a few of their signature rice noodle dishes.  It was like minus 20 degrees outside and my friend and I were in high demand for some good old fashion hot rice noodles.  Looking at their menu, they had about 10 bowls of rice noodles and about a dozen appetizers as well.  I decided to go with the Tomato Sauce Rice Noodle with Specialized Meatballs while my friend went with the Spicy Sauce Rice Noodles with Seafood.  We also ordered a side dish of Vinegar Peanuts as an appetizer to share.

The Vinegar Peanuts ($3.99) were the first to arrive and there were certainly plenty of peanuts on the plate.  Despite the price, the peanuts were carefully roasted and marinated with onions and a sweet vinegar sauce.  I love peanuts and have never had it in this manner before so this was quite delightful and a pretty good appetizer to have.  The price might have been a little steep but if you love peanuts then this was well worth the price. 

Peanuts with Vinegar

My friend's spicy rice noodle bowl looked very delightful to have.  The soup base was red with spiciness and there were 2 rather large pieces of shrimp within it  There were also some mussels as well to give it that seafood manner.  There were ten extra small bowls of condiments that one could add to the rice noodle bowl and the noodles themselves came in a separate bowl.  There were also 2 extra raw pieces of pork that came with the condiment tray.  The soup was still boiling as it was still bubbling when served.  Since her dish was same as mine, I only gave the soup base a try.  It was spicy, tasted pretty good but not as spicy as one would think. 

Spicy Sauce Rice Noodles with Seafood

The Tomato Sauce Rice Noodle with Specialized Meatballs looked great.  Just like my friend's noodle bowl, the noodles and raw meat came separate from the bowl of meatballs.  The noodles and the raw pork were as is but what made this bowl so interesting were their "specialized" meatballs.  Each meatball was not the regular meatball  but instead each one were individually stuffed with a mixture of what I believe to be a green onion/pork stuffing.  It actually made the meatball taste better however for a couple of them (the white ones), it made the meatball more oily and starchy like.  The soup base was meat base but lacked the really strong flavor that would make it a standout. I actually like my friend's spicy soup base as there was flavor and zest to it 

Tomato Sauce Rice Noodle with Specialized Meatballs

Still it was a pretty decent meal and on a cold winter night, this was certainly good noodles to have.  The extra condiments and their do it yourself style of creating your own hot rice noodle bowl certainly made it more enjoyable although as mention I wished a couple of the meatballs tasted better and that there was more flavor to my soup base.  Still I would go back again as the place was packed on this cold weeknight.  Overall I give a 3.75 out of 5.

Primary Taste Yunnan Rice Noodle
109 Ravel Road,
North York, Ontario

416-499-3836

Mizuki Sushi

Food for Thought went on hiatus for a couple of weeks due to a very busy schedule however now that things have settled down, we are back at it, exploring the many restaurants in the Toronto and Greater Toronto area.  Japanese was squarely on our minds so doing a quick drive through in the North York area, we spotted Mizuki Sushi hidden in the corner of a plaza.  We drove in and were pretty quick to find a parking spot.  Even though it was lunch hour, we were able to find seats readily available without any reservations needed.

I scanned the menu and because I was looking to try something that it had a little bit of sushi and curry, I ordered the Red Curry Chicken and California Roll ($8.95) while my friend decided to order the Dynamite and Avocado Roll. ($8.95). Our dishes arrived within 15 minutes after ordering.  For starters, although the chicken was crispy on the outside, the meat inside was pretty dry and had very little taste to it.  It was very difficult to describe the quality of the red curry as it was sour and didn't taste like curry at all.  It was almost as if they had added some sort of vinegar to it.  Instead of adding flavor to the curry, it actually almost inedible.

Red Curry Chicken and California Roll

The dynamite and avocado rolls were well interesting to say the least.  Hard to describe it but the the rice was mushy and the sushi was cold.  The avocado, although green and and appearing fresh, was probably the only thing that tasted good.  The shrimp was cold and was poorly fried.  My friend only ate about 4-5 pieces and was done with the dish.

Dynamite and Avocado Roll

Overall, maybe not the best sushi place that we had been to .  Their curry had a funky taste to it, their sushi was not cold and mushy and was hard to eat.  I only was able to consume half the chicken and rice before it to rest.  I hate wasting food but it was just difficult to consume.  I'm not too sure about their dinner menu however on paper it looks better than their lunch menu.  Personally it would be difficult to have a return visit at this restaurant.  Overall I give it a 2 out of 5.

Mizuki Sushi
3555 Don Mills Road Unit 5
North York, Ontario

416-492-8880