Frankie Tomatto's

Passed by the Leaning Tower of Pisa all the time and have been there ages ago.  We've talked about dining at Frankie Tomatto's for months and finally we were there on a weekday night for some casual all you can eat Italian food.  It was surprisingly pretty busy.  The restaurant was considerably huge and they have spent time with their Italian decor (along with some Christmas decorations at this time of the year).

As one can guess, Frankie Tomatto's serves antipasto, pizza and pasta.  However, they also have seafood, Parmesan, pastries, insalada, rotisserie, zuppa, carvery, al forno, and ice-cream.  The food quality was average and met my standards for an all you can eat restaurant.  The price was actually pretty decent, the bill came to around $40 including tips for two.  To.live.my.life will give a rating of 7/10 for Frankie Tomatto's due to its positive reputation built up over many years, and the reasonable price charge for the quality of food provided.

Osechi Japanese Cuisine

Osechi is another AYCE Japanese Cuisine in the Richmond Hill area.  It opened recently and the decor did not change from the previous restaurant, Dozo.

Positive:
-Large Variety
-Fresh Sashimi
-Quick with orders
-Serve Fresh Oysters

Negative:
-Lots of Mosquitoes
-'Fresh Oysters' were not too fresh all

Cafe Mania

Another dessert lunch with Mr. Szeto.  Bought this Groupon for $7 on $25 of food and drinks at Cafe Mania, and I knew it would be great for our dessert lunch.  The environment at Cafe Mania was very comfortable.  They serve breakfast, savory and sweet crepes & waffles, along with coffee and different drinks.

Of course, we both ordered sweets.  I chose the Mania's Darling with fresh apple slices, walnuts, chocolate ice cream, caramel fudge and cinnamon.  The waffle was quite heavy.  It would have been better if the apple slices were in thicker slices for better textures.  Overall, it was very satisfying. 

Mr. Szeto ordered the Exotic Mania served with hazelnut nutella,fresh strawberries, fresh banana, shredded coconut, chocolate ice-cream and sugar icing in a crepe. 

We ended up spending up to our $25 and when we went up for our bill, we saw that most tables there have purchased the Groupon as well.  Overall, Cafe Mania was definitely worth a try and to.live.my.life rates it with a 7.5/10. 

Wildfire Steakhouse & Wine Bar

My long awaited date with one of my favourite girl, Miss. J Lui, finally happened.  Ever since we bought the $24 for $50 voucher from Wildfire Steakhouse, we decided to spend a romantic night together to catch up and relax.

I like the fact that Wildfire Steakhouse is in the midtown area because it's closer to home.  We were both surprised when we arrived because of the atmosphere of the restaurant.  It was pretty romantic with candle lights on every table.  They have a lounge and drinks area, which should be nice for gatherings and parties. 

After a look at the menu, we decided to just get mains and share since neither the appetizers or the desserts stood out at us.   We ordered the 8 oz. Filet Mignon seasoned with house-blend steak spice, and served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and grilled seasonal vegetables.  As usual the quantity of the steak was relatively small.  However, it was well cooked and was very tendered.

The other main dish we ordered was the Wildfire Back Ribs.  The ribs caught our attention in the menu because of its description "Awarded “best ribs in North Toronto!”".  However, there aren't many steakhouse in "NORTH" Toronto, so who were they compared to?   The ribs were basted with homemade barbecue sauce, and served with hand cut fries and seasonal vegetables.  The quantity of ribs served was enormous. The taste barbecue sauce served on the ribs was tasty.

Overall, we were very ssatisfied and had an excellent dining experience at Wildfire Steakhouse.  Hence, a rating of 8.5/10 is given.

Ginza Sushi

I'm finally back and life is back!  (at least for a little while...).  After writing the mentally and physically tiring 6.5 hours exam, I celebrated by going out out for dinner at Ginza Sushi.  I've passed by Ginza Sushi at all four of their locations before and knew of its existence for a while, but have never dine in it before.  The environment was somewhat different from those Asian AYCE restaurant, it had more of a Western-style sushi restaurant scene. 

Mr. Y and I ordered a sashimi combo and two sushi rolls.  It was quite a surprised when our 30 pieces sashimi combo arrived.  It ONLY had 26 pieces, so we told the waitress and without a word she brought the sashimi boat back to the sashimi bar.

 Here comes the real surprise.  The waitress brought our 30 pieces sashimi combo back to us with hamachi, tuna, salmon, octopus, snapper, white tuna, surf clam, sweet shrimp, as listed in the menu. However, the whole dish literally changed from the one she brought back in and she just put it down on our table without a word or an explanation. I believe our originally dish was then given to the table across from us.

 See the differences from the two dishes?

Next, our Philadelphia Roll with grilled salmon, cream cheese & green onion in BBQ sauce, and Black Pearl Roll with snapper tempura, BBQ eel, black caviar served in a special tangy sauce arrived.  There wasn't a 'wow' to them from my taste buds or from the appearance of them.

'To.live.my.life' rates Ginza Sushi with a 3/10 due to the sashimi incident.  Taste and environment were very average, so your experience might not end up to be as bad as mine.