Away: Harlem Restaurant

Wow, this was a lunch time find, after wandering around Toronto just north of the office a decision was made, we were hungry and it looked like a quick trip to Wild Wings may be in order.

Across the road I spied a sign, Harlem, and suddenly my mind filled with thoughts of soul food, yum. We walked in, luckily the patio was full - I need air cooled space - and sat down in some very interesting chairs in the window, shaped like a spine, with a wooden pelvis to sit on.

After five minutes with the menu we decided to share, Buffalo Chicken, Catfish Lafayette, Harlem Jerked Meatloaf and a plate of Sweet Potato Fries. We ordered drinks - not normally noteworthy but the waiter heard Rum and Coke when Dave said Real Coke, we tried to make Dave drink through and make it a boozy lunch but he declined, that would of made the afternoon much more fun!

The Buffalo Chicken arrived first, a plate full of perfectly cooked chicken in a sticky heavy (but in a good way) BBQ sauce, next came the Catfish, yet again cooked to perfection in another delicious sauce, and then finally the meatloaf, a hard dish to get right in a restaurant but again spot on, at this point we are all stuffed.

Probably too much food for a lunch time but reasonably priced and I will definitely be returning here with Wissy.

Proper food served properly with decent portion sizes on Richmond East. My verdict - go try it now!

Away: Johnny Rockets

Johnny Rockets is a diner style restaurant, they are spread all over the U.S. although we were lunching at the Yonge and Dundas square location.

Three of us were eating, and we all chose different meals, although each meal was pattie based, Alex ordered the Pattie Melt, I had the #12, and Wissy had the Original Burger.

Alex probably made the right choice, our burgers were a little bit too gooey, they tasted great but all of the more liquid ingredients squished out the sides and made eating much more messy than a burger should be. This didn't stop the burgers tasting great but it did detract from the overall experience. The Pattie Melt on the other hand, what a great idea, take all of the burger ingredients, spread them out on toast and apply heat, assemble as a sandwich - genius.

The service was good, although I do always feel as if there is something slightly more important going on somewhere else that the staff want to get on to, they are attentive and speedy but I always feel like we are not where they want to be. Which is a shame as 99% of Toronto seems to get the service thing spot on.

All of the sides were good, honest fries and tasty onion rings, and the soda was as good as post mix can be although I expect bottomless sodas in a diner and they weren't, maybe I am being a snob?

Away: The Black Hoof, Toronto

It all started as a casual search on the Internet for one of Wissy's favorite foods, Bone Marrow, certainly an eclectic choice and not something that is available in every restaurant! the internet turned up several options in Toronto, most of which reviewed badly unfortunately. One though stood out, The Black Hoof and a plan was hatched.

Most of my work colleagues are quite squeamish about food but I bought it up, and after several comments about being a wrong un we had gathered another real food adventurer, Andy Clarke.  Plans made, on Thursday evening, Andy's last evening in Toronto we set off from Wellington, walking up Queen Street West - a favorite of all of us in search of "a meat and off-cut centric menu".


We arrived having been unable to book and were almost thwarted immediately, the wait was an hour, but we decided this was too important and hit a local dive bar to drink imported beers and increase our appetite.

On our return we could instantly see they had achieved their goal of being boisterous and casual, but with wine lists in hand and a big chalk board full of amazing foods our odyssey began...

Wissy had to have Roasted Bone Marrow, which was also the food to arrive, delicious and gloopy with a bowl of rock salt and a green garlicy accompaniment, already she looked satisfied!

Next up was Fois Touchon, a creamy slice of fois gras with honey and delicate brioche, again, shared, delicious, the balance of flavour between the honey and fois gras was devine, this was a dish we could of come to blows over.

Finally the starters were completed by a plate of meat - dried slices of hooved animals and fowl, all looking as good as it tasted with a pork fat whipped up into the guise of butter which spread on bread on its own would have been enough reason to visit the venue. By this point I had to stop taking pictures as I was going to miss out on the food...

On our second glass of wine or beer and onto the main events, everything we had chosen could be shared and we all sat forks poised for what ever would come next...

Beef Tartare - with slices of bread arranged quite prettily covered in egg yolk, again top notch, the best tartare I have had outside of Paris, the last slice of bread deftly cut into thirds by Wissy before we fought...

Pork belly and scallops came out, this could of been a heavy dish but the chef had captured the essence of the pork in bite size chunks without defeating us and again, the flavour combinations on the plate all matched, scallops and pork? We will all be trying this again before too long.

Finally, deep fried Sweetbreads, Fiddleheads and Ramps, as we are at the tail end of the fiddlehead season we couldn't of not ordered this dish, every element balanced and light, as it arrived while Andy was away from the table the temptation to scoff it down and hide the dish pretending it had never arrived was immense - but we would have been found out and we had to share so there will be one more person to discuss the meal with.

We had to end with dessert, there was no choice, just the menu item "Dessert", Wissy at this point was defeated but Andy and I ploughed on, and any dessert with deep fried brioche cannot be bad, right? Luckily it was yet again delicious, and just enough to complete a perfect evening of food. There was pineapple, passionfruit and the deep fried bread....

If I am in Toronto long term this will definitely be the go to venue when people visit, every dish was spot on, delicious and well presented, the staff were friendly, attentive and polite, and waiting an hour for a table was not a chore, especially as it was in a bar down the street waiting for our phone call from the waitress.

The bill - considering we drank and ate well was very reasonable, at $190 for 3 including taxes and tip. 10 out of 10 from all of us brave enough to visit.

Fun, food, and fiddleheads on Dundas West!

Away: Toronto Street Meat

London has very little street food - at least the kind that is served from a van, New York on the other hand has over 300 different types of street eats, Toronto has a happy medium.

The happy medium being Street Meat, Hot Dogs, whatever names you want to call them there are vans all over downtown Toronto and they are all good. I was first introduced to them in Liberty Village, on a warm July day, 2010 with Russell and Chris. The whole theatre of the man slicing the spicy italian sausage, the sizzling hot grill and then adding my own condiments - and all for less than $5 - wow.

Now although all street meat is good there are differentiating factors, picking a truck that is not in a rush always seems to produce a better 'dog, and then there is the condiment selection, I will now not eat unless there are bacon bits available, these little nuggets of almost pork added to an all beef hotdog make meat heaven seem possible. Next there needs to be sauerkraut and hot peppers and finally at least two different hot sauces,, a selection of mustards and tomato ketchup, after all of this perfect street food is yours.

Once and only once I made the cardinal sin of taking the hotdog home, something was lost putting a well made hotdog on a plate, the magic was gone, always eat them on the street friends...