T.O.bites | Toronto Food & Restaurant Blog

Hey guys, don’t delete us from your bookmarks just yet.  T.O.Bites is going to be launching some new changes within the next few weeks, along with a few new writers.

In the meantime, please visit my brand-spanking new website that I recently started with a group of friends. It’s called Gizmomash.  It’s a new tech-junkie blog website based out of Toronto.  It’s also one of the reasons why I had to put T.O.Bites on the backburner – I spent a lot of time working on the creation and launching of Gizmomash, but I hope to return to food blogging soon.

I love buffets. Even the really bad ones.  I love that you can try out so many different things, get your food at your own pace, and eat til your buttons pop off your shirt.  There are, however, two major downsides to buffets: The food is made in huge batches and spends a while sitting under a hot lamp diminishing the quality, and I can never really eat enough food to justify the price tag of most buffets.  And, at $25 a head for sunday brunch, the Boiler House is a bit on the steep side.

However, the quality of the food is so superb that even at only eating one and a half plates, I felt satisfied at having spent my money at such an establishment.

There is a pretty wide variety of foods to consume at the buffet.  You have all your continental staples – fresh fruit, croissants, french toast, home fries, scrambled eggs.  But you also have some excellent additional choices such as shrimp cocktail, fresh slices of ham and roast, custom made omelettes, and fresh made belgian waffles.  All the food is kept warm (or cold) and is constantly replenished and kept fresh.

Service was excellent and even though we were located on the second floor tucked away in a corner, our servers were still quick to refill our coffee and collect our plates. To top everything else off, they had a live band performing during brunch too which really help to set the atmosphere.

On the downside, the condiments were tricky to find.  There aren’t any bottles of ketchup or syrup on your table and they’re way down by the other end of the buffet (no where near the french toast or home fries).  For some strange reason, when they’d refill our coffee, they’d only fill it 2/3rds of the way and we had to tell them to top it off.  I understand the need for space to add cream but it was a bit ridiculous.  The final downside is this place rarely ever accepts walkins for Sunday brunch.  You almost always have to book ahead a week in advance.

Over all, the Boiler House had been an excellent experience – one that has further whet my appetite for finer brunch buffets which I plan on scouting around for.

It took long enough but my Guu cherry has finally been popped. The reason why it took so long is because I could never figure out why anyone would want to wait over an hour just to eat at a restaurant. Sure, it’s getting rave reviews, but is it really worth it to wait an hour in the pouring rain to go inside?

Yes, it’s worth it, but with the Church street location being so close to various coffee shops and Eatons Centre, I hardly see why anyone would wait around outside, especially when Guu will give you a courtesy call 15 minutes before your table is ready.

When you first enter Guu, nearly all the staff stop in their tracks and greet you with a really loud “irasshaimase!” Get used to the volume now because they’re going to be shouting it every time someone else walks in the door.

Our party ordered around 9 tapas (which came to about $70.. pretty cheap) and I’ve got almost no complaints about any of them. The food came instant and was fresh and hot.  The service was amazing with the waitress constantly checking on us to see if we needed anything else or wanted to order more.  They also gave you nice lemon scented warm hand cloths to wipe your hands before you eat – a really thoughtful touch.

Since I’m sure most people have already heard countless times how amazing Guu is, I’m going to forgo describing everything in my usual great detail and instead present you with a bunch of food photos and their description. So here goes…

Okonomiyaki, Beef short ribs, and smoked salmon

Fried Brie with blueberry sauce, tofu salad, mushroom and cheese bibimbap

Deepfried pumpkin with egg in the middle (eat it while it's hot!), black cod, nasu dengaku (eggplant)

My low light iPhone photos do the food no justice.  Guu is good, really good.  However, waiting nearly 2 hours to eat said food isn’t fun unless you plan your evening around it.  Guu doesn’t take reservations so if you don’t want to wait, you should go pretty early around 4pm when the place is starting to open.

For one reason or another, I’m very hesitant to review anything that’s either a chain or a franchise unless it’s local.  I feel like my time is best dedicated towards reviewing locally based restaurants.  I have made a few minor exceptions in the past and I’m about to make one now with The 3 Brewers.  Though, technically, there is only one place in the world called “The 3 Brewers” because all the other locations are all in Quebec and are known as “Les 3 Brasseurs.”

there be beer in there!

Much like the name says, The 3 Brewers centers around the creation and presentation of beer.  The reason why they’re called a microbrewery is because, low and behold, they make their own beer there.  You can even request to take a tour of the place and see all their lovely beer vats.

However, I’m not here for the beer (for the most part), I’m here for the food!  T3B has your standard pub fare.  Burgers, sandwiches, pizza, salads, and even sauerkraut.  But given that this is a micro-brewery, it’s their beer selection that really shines -they have an interesting menu full of different types of beers (white, blonde, amber, brown, and the special brew) and a colourful assortment of different beer cocktails.  We ended up going with the beer cocktails: a monaco and a titi du quartier.  The monaco is a mix of blonde beer, sprite, and grenadine while the titi has creme de cassis instead of grenadine.  Both were decent but I personally preferred the titi du quartier since I’ve come to realize that I don’t like grenadine that much.

For food we ordered the Royal Sauerkraut and a Pulled-Pork Sandwich.  In an astounding 8 minutes after placing our order with the waitress, one of the kitchen staff had our food promptly in front of our faces! A wise foodie friend once told me that food which is served directly by the kitchen staff is good service since you know your food isn’t waiting under a hot lamp for the waitress to eventually pick it up.

The Monaco and the Titi du Quartier

The Royal Sauerkraut was amazing.  It had a combination of sausage, grilled ham, and a pork shank.  The sausage was really thick and incredibly flavourful, the grilled ham was really juicy and nice, and the pork shank was exceptionally well made, nice and tender.  There was also enough sauerkraut on the plate to feed you for a week.

The pulled pork sandwich was full of flavour and sauce.  The pork literally just melted in your mouth!  The topping of onions and swiss cheese were the cherry on top.  The bun that it was in was nicely baked and quite crispy.  This is probably one of the best pulled pork sandwiches I have had.

the yummiest pulled pork sandwich and the royal sauerkraut

As long as you don’t mind waiting up to an hour for your table and congregating with the mass of toursits to be seated, then I would highly recommend that you go check out T3B.  The place has great food, prompt and friendly service and, above all else, excellent beer.  Given the amount of negativity that a lot of my fellow locals and “whiners” seem to give this place, I’d like to add that when I went the place wasn’t that packed (it was a cold and rainy Monday evening).  We didn’t have to wait for a table and our service was prompt.  I can see having a different experience if the place is packed to the brim and the food is being rushed out even faster.  But 8 minutes from order to fork on a slow day is still pretty amazing.