Restaurants Recap 飲食回顧

I actually started this post long time ago, during the period of time when I didn’t feel like writing about food/updating my site. Finally, I’m gonna finish this up tonight…

It’s quite funny that I always have a tendency to relate any location to restaurants. Rstaurants are the landmarks that I would recall. For instance, if you tell me you live near Yonge & 16th, I’ll picture it with the Lone Star. Recently, I’ve been to quite a few new restaurants – the restaurants that are new to me, and also the ones that are actually “new”.

The first one was the Owl on Yonge. I think that might be the one Carol mentioned in her blog yesterday. So many times I drove on Yonge, looking for food, I saw this owl logo outside this 24 hr Korean restaurant. I finally went there and tried their Gamja Tang (Pork bone soup). To be honest, I found this place quite different from what I expected. It was quite dark insidewith TVs located at the top corners. The dark atmosphere made it like a bar, but all the design/deco/tables/TVs made it more like a family restaurant. Patrons consisted of both Korean and Chinese people, and a few westerners. There were about 1-2 waitresses. Service wasn’t great as we had to ask the waitress several times in order to get our rice and coke. I ordered the Gamja Tang and my bf ordered the sweet and sour veggies + rice. I found the Gamja Tang wasn’t spectacular compared to the other ones that I’ve tried, e.g. the ones at Yummy Bar-B-Q, Joon’s, and the “Truly Korean” in the International Gourmet Street plaza. The price was good if you order from the 6 combos menu, but the ones on the main menu wasn’t cheap. The opening hour is of course one of its selling point… If you suddenly feel hungry late at night, here’s another choice besides the Mc’D and Wendy’s.

FYI: Owl Of Minerva 貓頭鷹
5324 Yonge Street,
North York, ON M2N 5P9
Tel: 416-221-7275

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Skating, skating and skating…
I haven’t skated for a long time til recently I finally bought a pair of skates, and started feeling the ice again. The night after my first skating in several years, we went to the Wasabi All You Can Eat Japanese restaurant near Steeles and Midland. I think this restaurant has opened for at least one year already. It’s so close to my home, but since I don’t really like AYCE, I haven’t been there til that night. The place was quite nice. AYCE dinner $18.99 (Fridays, weekends or public holidays + 1.99), and for a few bucks more, you can order the king crab leg, uni and other more expensive stuffs. Unlike some other Japanese AYCE restaurants, the sushi there wasn’t too “rice-y”. You know… some AYCE places try to fill up your stomach with lots of rice and less sashimi. The food was served quickly. Overall, the impression was quite good. But still, I wouldn’t want to go AYCE so often. It’s just too much for me.

FYI: Wasabi 十八番
668 Silver Star Boulevard,
Scarborough, ON M1V 5N1
Tel: 416-226-9988

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Another Korean restaurant. Went there with some colleagues for our Friday lunch. The food there was good, but a bit more expensive than the average Korean food. The same plate would cost more if it was during dinner time. e.g a Bibimbap (비빔밥) costs about $9 in the lunch menu, but around $12 in the main menu. Thank to my Korean colleague, we were able to get a lot of side dishes =) I love those little side dishes. I think “side dishes” was pronounced as something like… “pun chang”. The service was good, and I think the restaurant is operated by Korean people.

FYI: Dae Jang Keum Korean Restaurant 大長今
324 Hwy 7 East,
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 1A6
Tel: 905-886-9989

Useful expressions at Korean restaurants