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.

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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.