Ruth's Chris Steak House

Ruth's Chris was not recommended by one of my coworker when Miss S.Yang and I decided to buy our $20 (along with a $5 discount deal) voucher for $50 worth of food from DealFind.  However, we did not listen since there was a Holiday Three-Course Lunch that attracted us at Ruth's Chris.  Upon our arrival, we were surprised that the restaurant was actually in the basement, hence the atmosphere was very romantic and the lighting was very dim.

For starter, Miss Yang ordered the Lobster Bisque.  The lobster bisque was probably the best choice offered as a starter, however I chose the Steak House Salad, served with iceberg lettuce, Spinach and Spring Mix with Cherry tomatoes Garlic croutons and red onions.  I just wanted to keep it light since I know I will be consuming lots more calories and fat later on in the meal.

Both of us selected the 6 oz. Filet & Frites served with Shoestring potatoes for our Entrees.  Along with that we shared our sides:  Sauteed Mushrooms and Creamed Spinach.   The steak was very tender and juicy.  It was worth the money even if it was for regular price.  The mushrooms were delicious, however we just thought the spinach was way too creamy which tasted a bit weird.

The favourite part of my meal (maybe not this time), dessert.  I ordered the Chocolate Sin Cake, while Miss.Yang got the New Orleans Style Cheesecake with Blueberry Sauce.  Both of us didn't even finish half of it because it was way too sweet and heavy.  The cakes weren't bad though.

Overall, the meal was very satisfying.  We loved Ruth's Chris's environment.  It was nice that the restaurant was very close to where we work.  The food was fantastic since it must have been set for at some standards due to the fact that it is part of a franchise.  Rating of 8/10 will be honoured. 

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.

Bannock

It's been a while since Oliver & Bonacini's new restaurant, Bannock, opened across from where I work.  Bannock is one of the more convenient dining restaurants that targets the busy ones in the financial district since it is both a grab-and-go cafe, and a dine in restaurant. 

On Friday, my coworker suddenly suggested to go try out Bannock for lunch.  We got their around 12ish but was told to wait for around 20 minutes.  It was packed since the location is pretty convenient and it was during a Friday lunch time.  It felt more casual to dine at Bannock compared to the other Oliver & Bonacini because of the atmosphere, the noise level was comparably high.

I ordered Bannock Bannock without knowing what it was due to my laziness to think and I figured it was named after the restaurant so it must be good.  Bannock is actually a flatbread cooked on griddle or stone.  Anyways, my lunch was served in a bannock (as one can guess) with house smoked salmon, onion, cumin and cream cheese. The layer of cream cheese added was thick and heavy which was very delicious.  From a chips fans point of view, the crisps were very different, thick and simply good.

One of my coworker was craving for pizza, so she got the Carne pizza.  The pizza came with smoked meat, pingue prosciutto and soppressata.  

The other just got a burger & root crisps.  The burger looked amazingly delicious because the meat was described as 'very juicy' and tasty.

.

Bannock deserves a 8/10 as it serves food that cannot be found in typical restaurants.  Also, the standards are expected since it is afterall from the Oliver & Bonacini family.  Throughout the whole experience at  Bannock, we were craving for the same thing as was seen in mostly half the table, the Poutine pizza.  It sounded fattening and unhealthy but due to 'pressure' from others around us and the 'looks' of it, we decided to be back some other time these few weeks to try it out!

Bombay Grill

Used my 'Deal of the Day' offer at Bombay Grill - $10 for $20 of food on the day it expired.  The main entrance of the restaurant was hidden and I always had doubts about Indian food, so we had the urge not to walk in when we arrived.  However, we peeked inside and the restaurant looked decent so why not give it a try.

The only dish I will order in an Indian restaurant is Butter Chicken, a boneless tandoori chicken cooked in butter, tomato and cream.  (due to my limited knowledge about Indian food and since I am concern about the feelings of my taste buds)

The other dish we got was Madras Curry served with fresh pieces of lamb cooked in spicy coconut sauce.  

Along with our Non-Vegetarian dishes, we also got Nan and Tandoori Roti to be served with them.  After all, the meal was quite satisfying and surprisingly it was better than expected.  We actually want to try Tandoori dishes from the charcoal clay oven since many people around ordered them.  'To.live.my.life' gives a rating of 7/10 to Bombay Grill because of the satisfying, average dining experience gained.

Joons Korean Cuisine

Dinner at Joons Korean Cuisine was somewhat of a hassle after the long traffic jam and the unsatisfying customer service that Saturday night.  The restaurant was packed as expected since it was weekend.  The three of us ordered the HoeMoci DakGalBee which is 'Joons Special Table-Top Cooking' of chicken (boneless dark meat), assorted seafood (baby octopus, shrimp and mussel) and assorted vegetable (cabbage, sweet potato and green onion).  The sauce we chose to use was 'The Joons' Original spicy sauce', which of course I found not at all.  Then we add on Mozzarella Cheese and Rice Cake for something extra.

We sat there with hungry stomachs waiting for the dish to cook in front of us, but when the waitress told us our food is ready, we realized our order of Rice Cake was missing.  Long story in short:  They emphasized the point that we did not order Rice Cake.  We told them to add the rice cake back on for us then, but they refused to.  Hence, we were VERY unsatisfied with their customer service.

Overall, Joons Korean Cuisine's table top cooking is pretty unique.  However, the food is just average and the service is certainly below average, so a 5/10 rating is given.

Bluestone Bistro

Would have never notice Bluestone Bistro if I didn't buy my first ever 'Deal' online because the restaurant is literally hidden in one of the plazas on Highway 7 between Warden and Kennedy.  I purchased the $20 for $40 of food at Bluestone Bistro a few months ago, but finally had the urge to pull out all the deals I got online and go 'chew' them down. 

The environment in Bluestone Bistro is warm and welcoming because the restaurant was designed to serve casual family and friends gatherings and also for private functions.

Sum sum and I ordered two dishes to share for the night.  Sum chose one of the dish under Chef's Feature Plates, 'Chicken Marsala'.  It was served with wild mushrooms, mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus.  I found this dish pretty salty but the overall taste was excellent.  The Marsala wine was strong enough that we actually tasted it.

I selected a pasta from the menu.  'Frutti de Mare', it contained gnocchi, lobster, shrimps, sherry, tomato and tarragon served in a tomato cream sauce.  Compared to the chicken, the pasta was cooked with less seasoning and the taste was more mild..  This was my first time (I think) having gnocchi (small, thick, soft dumplings), and I love it.

Overall, 'to.live.my.life' gives a rating of 7.5 out of 10 to Bluestone Bistro because the overall expereince was just in the 'meeting the expectations' standards with nothing overly unexpected.

Eggspectation Resto-Cafe-Bar

My crave on eggs at Eggspectation is finally over.  Love the name of this 'All-day-breakfast' cafe, but it also gave us too much hope.  My friend and I decided to try out Eggspectation two weeks ago, but we expected a little too high since then.

There are many choices on the menu but most are served with the same ingredients (as one can guessed ...with eggs, potatoes, ham, sausages etc...since it is a 'breakfast' cafe).  I ordered Eggwhat?, which is served with corned beef hash, two eggs, grilled potatoes, toasts and fruits.  The eggs (scrambled eggs) was not special at all.  However, I never had corned beef hash before so it was something different and was worth a try.

My friend got the “Cabane à Sucre”.  It was served with 2 scrambled eggs, two crêpes bretonnes, ham, baked beans, grilled potatoes, maple syrup, toasts and fruits.  He was also disappointedd on the eggs and mentioned that the crepes were too dry and plain.

Overall, Eggspectation did not meet 'to.live.my.life''s expectations.  However, there was nothing wrong with the whole meal.  It just wasn't anything exceptional or outstanding, hence a 6/10 will be granted.

Wanda's Belgian Waffles

Another dessert hunting lunch with Mr. Szeto.  There aren't too many options around where we work, so we chose Wanda's Belgian Waffles today.  The cafe is small and it is a bit of a 'food-court' style, since we ordered and paid up front first.  Both of us got a Wanda Original Vanilla Waffle topped with Ice Cream.  One of us chose chocolate sauce and the other chose maple sauce with our Belgian waffle.

The price is around $5 which is considered cheap for dessert waffles. However, it is worth what it's charge due to its quality and quantity. The only word to use to describe the waffle is "DIFFERENT". It's different from other Belgian waffle, there's this weird softness in the batter. I personally think it is not bad, but I know high quality waffles are not suppose to be like this.  A rating of 6/10 will be given to Wanda's Belgian Waffles due to my bias ratings for desserts (again :P) and the absence of high quality in the waffle.

Unionville Co. Restaurant

A night out with the girls at Main Street Unionville.  Main Street was extremely busy that night due to the Jazz Festival, we managed to get a table on the rooftop patio at Unionville Co. Restaurant for dinner that night.  The restaurant is more petite than we thought, however the environment at second level patio is great since it is quiet and peaceful (unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures from the patio).

We ordered some healthy non-alcoholic drinks at to start with.

We decided to share since there were too many things on the menu we wanted.
Here is the menu of or night:
1) Sweet Potato Fries served with chipotle mayo
2) St.Louis BBQ Ribs served with house brewed bbq sauce, and fries
3) Roast Duck Pizza  served in thin crust with mushrooms, arugula, and goat cheese

The food were great, nothing too outstanding or disappointed.  However, credits must be given to the pizza because I personally dislike anything to do with goat/lamb.  I still love the pizza so it was amazing.  'To.live'my.life' rates a 7.5/10 to Unionville Co. Restaurant

Joey Restaurant (Shops at Don Mills)

Life is perfect to have lunch during a beautiful Saturday afternoon at a relaxing upper level patio with the bestests.  Finally, I had my first dining experience at Joey Restaurant in Shops at Don Mills.  This is my fourth attempt of going to Joey, the first three times were all during dinner time.  I was told to wait for at least 1.5 hours, an extremely impatient person like me will never waste time waiting so I just dined at other restaurants around.  This time we arrived at the restaurant at around 12:30 pm and it was not that busy, so we got our table right away.

While I was waiting for Mr & Mrs. LCS, I ordered a martini, the Thai Lover - alize red passion, lychee liqueur, pineapple & cranberry juices.  It smelled very good and tasted much like 'soho seven'.

We wanted to be healthy once again, so we ordered the Viva Salad served with roasted chicken, sundried cranberries, avocado, apples and feta with a honey balsamic vinaigrette, garnished with cilantro.  It was different since I never had salad served with apple. 

I also chose the Lobster Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  Basically, it was an atlantic lobster, brie and cheddar grilled cheese sandwich served with fries and cocktail sauce on the side.  Both dishes we planned to share, so the kitchen divided up into two for us which was a good customer service.

Overall, due to all the good feedback I heard about Joey, I had high expectations from this lunch.  I will rate the restaurant with a 8.5/10, because the patio is one of the best I've been to so far and the food was excellent.  Everything was very tasty and delicious.  However, in my opinion, a lot of the dishes are a little over-priced compared to other restaurants of this type.

Mr. Greenjeans

There are way too many better places to choose from in Toronto Downtown instead of Mr.Greenjeans. However, the environment is very bright and natural, and the restaurant has many long tables, so it is great for department events.

My co-workers had some bad experiences with their Baked Crab Mac n' Cheese appetizer.  Basically, it was served cold inside.  They gave it back to the server and it was brought back out cold again.  Another bad experience that shouldn't be seen in a restaurant was one of the serving plates stacked at the table was not clean at all.  It looked like they did not wash it.

Anyways, I ordered the Lunch Size Twins Combo with Pasta and Salad.  I chose Vodka Salmon Pasta served with hand rolled noodles and Atlantic salmon in tomato vodka cream sauce.  It was average food that I couldn't say much about.

'To.live.my.life' gives Mr.Greenjeans a 1/10, and the only one point is for the green nature environment inside the restaurant.

Baton Rouge Restaurant @ Scarborough

On an OK special evening after work, had a filling and fattening dinner at Baton Rouge Restaurant near Scarborough Town Centre.  As I remembered, I only been to Baton Rouge once during a work lunch in downtown.  I don't remember what I had so I assumed it was just an average big chain restaurant around the city. As expected, it was pretty quiet on a Tuesday evening.

For appetizer, we ordered Cheese Lover's favourite "Nachos + Cheese", Cheddar Dip.  The dip was a warm blend of cheeses topped with diced tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. It was the best dish of our night.

To balance out 'not-so-healthy' appetizer, we ordered a salad and Mr.Cheese Lover chose the Seared Ahi Tuna Salad since I was telling him about that I wanted to try tuna served rare with a cool interior.  On the greeny dish, there was a 6 oz. tuna seared and topped with diced tomatoes and chives along with mixed greens topped with toasted sesame seeds drizzled with Lime & Ginger dressing.  The salad part was average but I like the tuna. :D

We also order their Prime Rib Sandwich served with an 8 oz.  tender sliced prime rib smothered with grilled red onions and melted Monterey Jack cheese. It came with a toasted baguette with a side of au jus, and french fries.  I was quite disappointed because I was expecting Canyon Creek's Prime Rib sandwich but it was nothing close to it.

'To.live.my.life' rates Baton Rouge a 6.5/10 because of its average dishes served. Nothing amazed me from what we ordered that evening.  However, if searching for a nice, warm and casual dinner, there's nothing against going to  Baton Rouge since after all it is one of the chain restaurants with standard quality.