T.O.bites | Toronto Food & Restaurant Blog

I’ve been wanting to check out Lola’s Commissary for a while now, especially after reading about the “sexy potatoes” at Foodhogger.  Their weekend brunch menu was quite enticing: Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast, Egg White Frittata, Eggsmopolitan… all really excellent sounding.

Lola’s sits just south of Bloor on Church street in an old Victorian house.  A sign just before the staircase on the first floor points out that the steps are a little crooked and you should be careful when ascending them, but hey, that’s what gives the house great character along with the paintings strung up around the front dining area.

Peach Iced Tea sweetened with Maple Syrup

There was such an awesome selection of iced teas (some sweetened with maple syrup) ranging from peach to chai.  If I could remember them all, I’d list them here, but all I can remember is the peach iced tea since it’s the one I ordered.  The maple syrup really brings out the flavour of the peach in the tea and I highly recommend trying out one of the iced teas offered that are sweetened by it.

I craved the cheesecake french toast.  Alas, I refrained, because it’s a huge plate of carbs, but we did ask to find out what it was exactly.  It’s a puree’d slice of cheese cake that’s put in between two pieces of bread and done up like french toast.  Instead, I ended up going with the second most interesting sounding item on the menu – the kitchen sink.

The kitchen sink (and someone wanting to try their sexy potatoes)

The kitchen sink is described as “lots of lovely bits, scrambled eggs, cheese, toast” mind you the toast is on the side, not in the eggs.  As for those “lovely bits”, they turned out to be spinach, tomato, and possibly bacon and a few other things I couldn’t really make out.  That’s why pictures speak a thousand words.  It was quite wonderful tasting, like an amazing mash up of everything brunch.  It was a little bit runny though so those with food texture issues may want to pass on this one.

The Eggs Lola

We also ordered the Eggs Lola which was poached eggs and pulled ancho chicken on a tortilla with a side of avocado.  The ancho chicken tastes quite nice with the added flavourings on it.  One small complaint was the tortilla underneath was a bit hard, possibly from overcooking but since they’re so thin, I imagine they get hard quite fast.

Ancho Chicken Wrap

We also grabbed an ancho chicken wrap which is the same chicken from the Eggs Lola but inside of a wrap.  Each of our brunch orders came with a choice of a side of frites, sexy potatoes, or a salad.  All three of us decided on sexy potatoes (we couldn’t pass up trying them out thanks in part to the name).  The sexy potatoes are a mix of sweet potato bits with regular home style fries.  It’s great to have a mix of those two potatoes together as I love ordering sweet potato fries but often get sick of them after a few fries, so have both together was quite nice.  One small complaint was that although they were cooked and were quite browned on the outside, they were still a little soft and didn’t really have much of a crunch or crisp to them.  They were still quite good though.

I’m looking forward to returning to Lola’s again soon and will be bringing a few friends along who want to share a Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast with me.  I’ll feel a little less guilty if I’m sharing it.

Gourmet Burger Company

I sort of have a love-hate relationship with the whole concept behind gourmet burger joints.  I mean, if a burger can become gourmet, then why can’t a place just shove a few extra toppings, such as goat cheese, on a pizza and make it gourmet too?  Oh wait, they already have that, it’s called Pizzaiolo.

Love them or hate them, gourmet burger joints are popping up everywhere across our city.  The Gourmet Burger Company is sort of tucked away on Charles St, sitting right next to the well known 7 West Restaurant.  It also happens to be a 5 minute walk from another famous gourmet burger place, Craft Burger.

When you first walk into the GBC (as they dub themselves), you’re greeted with a 5 step menu.  You pick your burger meat, then the basic complimentary toppings, then the extra toppings (at $1.00 each), then you pick your side and your drink.

If you wanna skip the first three steps, you can go with their signature burger selection which may not be a bad idea if you’re not sure what kind of toppings you want.  Although they do charge for the extra toppings like cheese and bacon, I’ve got to say that I was quite surprised by their selection of complimentary toppings.  So much so that Antony didn’t know when to stop when he was picking all the toppings for his burger.  To give you an idea, they have caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, roasted garlic & dijon mustard-mayo.. the list goes on!

I went with the chicken burger, while Antony went with the beef burger.  Both come in at about $5.50-$5.95).  Antony had a bunch of toppings put on his including the above mentioned while I only had lettuce, pickles, and smokey chipotle honey-mayo.

Chicken burger

For the sides, you get a choice of homemade french fries, beer battered onion rings, sweet potato fries, and either a mixed organic greens salad or a caesar salad, any choice of 1 included in the combo, which is an extra $4.00.  Kind of steep I guess but it does include a pop or bottle of water.  You’re only saving .30 when you make it a combo.  We both went with sweet potato fries.

The burgers were both excellent.  I could tell they’re both made with high-grade meat.  Not to mention the toppings were nice a fresh.  Oh and the burgers were pretty huge themselves too.  Antony did feel that the house sauce (called the GBC sauce) was a little on the weak side though.  The burgers came on some fresh kaiser buns too.

Beef burger with caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms

The fries were great too but they were both huge!  We could hardly finish them off but I like the fact that I left the place feeling filled and satisfied.  So to keep this short, I would definitely recommend the GBC to anyone who enjoys a good burger.  Without a doubt, I would pick them over Craft Burger any day!

Saigon Sister was popular?

If you want cheap eats near the Yonge/Bloor area, everyone knows (aside from fast food) that you’d just head over to Ginger.  Alternatively, you can now head across the street to Hue’s Kitchen, which is a lot like Ginger.  Well, I guess that’s probably because it’s owned by the same people.  Hue’s Kitchen offers pretty much the same stuff Vietnamese/Thai cuisine that you can get across the street for roughly the same price.  But they do have a few interesting additions to their menu.  They offer butter chicken, caramel chicken, and even breakfast.  But aside from a few sauce changes, it’s essentially the same stuff.

Antony, Tona, and myself decided to go check it out today and order a few different things from their menu that aren’t really offered at Ginger.  I went with butter chicken served with naan and mango chutney.  Antony went with the caramel chicken-mango, and Tona, decided to be brave and go with pad thai.  I say ‘brave’ because everyone knows that Ginger’s pad thai isn’t the greatest.  Actually, let me widen that statement — any pad thai in Toronto isn’t that greatest.  Why?  Because, everyone seems to use ketchup in it!  Sara is actually on an ongoing hunt to find a place that doesn’t use ketchup in their pad thai.

Caramel Chicken-Mango

Much like at Ginger, you’re given a numbered card stand to place on your table and wait for your food to be delivered.  first came Antony’s caramel chicken-mango.  First off, you may notice, it doesn’t really contain much “caramel” sauce on it.  It didn’t really have much of a taste to it at all, oddly enough.

Second up was my butter chicken.  The butter chicken uses the same pieces of chicken breast from every other meal on there, just that they’re smothered in butter chicken sauce.  The sauce also doesn’t really taste that much like butter chicken sauce, but more like a thai curry.  It was somewhat spicy.  But hey, where’s my mango chutney?!  I asked the cashier (as the flyer said “with mango chutney” while on the board up top, it made no mention of it) and she said that they removed it because of people not liking it that much.  I can see why since I can only remember eating mango chutney with crunchy papadum which this meal doesn’t have.  But the nice cashier brought me a side.  Oddly enough, it also lacked rice.  So you were just getting butter chicken with naan.  The problem is there’s way too much soupy sauce to not have this with some rice, so you have to spent an extra $1.50 for some rice with the meal.  Also, the butter chicken costs a staggering $9.50 while the other meals ranged from $6.50 to $7.50.  I think $8.50 or even $7.95 would be more reasonable for the cost of it, but I guess I’m just a bit of a penny pincher.

Butter Chicken and Naan

Tona’s pad thai was ketchup-ey, as expected.  I can’t say much more about it other than she wasn’t really a fan of it and found it to be a bit too greasy.  I’ve had pad thai a few times at Ginger and I think if they just took out the ketchup, it would make it a heck of a lot better.

So if you’re looking for a fast and cheap place for lunch near the Yonge and Bloor area, then go ahead and give Hue’s Kitchen a try.  I feel like they’re trying to go with more of a Spring Rolls type eat-in restaurant with the decor and design of the place but unfortunately the quality of the food just isn’t as high.

Average Price: $6 – $9 per entree
Hours: Opens at 7:30am for Breakfast (yes, breakfast)
Address: 774 Yonge St.
Phone: 416-967-0404
TTC Directions: Get off at Yonge/Bloor station, walk south half a block on the west side of Yonge

A few years ago, my friend Anna and I were spending an afternoon walking around the gentrified Queen and Broadview village area and were looking for a place to eat.  We walked by this new place called Burger Shoppe which intrigued us.  Keep in mind this was near the beginning of the establishing gourmet burger join craze that our city’s experiencing.  After spending a minute of inquisitively staring at the menu board and doing the math in our head, we politely walked out of the place and crossed the road to the Pizza Pizza.  Why, you may ask?  Because for $5 at Pizza Pizza, we could get a slice of pizza, a side of french fries, and most important, a drink.  And for $5 at the Burger Shopper, we could get.. well either just the side of fries, or just the drink.  It would have cost roughly $12 to get a full combo there.  Ouch!

Time hasn’t really changed the prices that much, but it has changed my perception of quality over cost.  If you want a good burger that’s hand made and done on an open flame, then you’re going to have to shell out at least $10 big ones.  I’ve realized this over the years with buying burgers at pubs.  Infact, pubs seem to usually make the best burgers over any of the fast food crap that’s served.  But on the other hand, you are paying twice the price for them.

Now that the gourmet burger joint craze is starting to settle and become a welcomed group of restaurants among our city, I decided it’s about time I go and check one out.  I’ve been hearing a lot of things about Craft Burger from some friends and have been meaning to head up there for quite some time but I always get distracted by all the Korean and Japanese restaurants along the way.  Burgers aren’t the best thing you could eat so it’s usually pretty easy to go with Asian food instead.  But not today!

The chalk board menu

As you walk into the dark restaurant with a wood grain motif, you’ll notice the strong pungent smell of vinegar which makes sense given that they probably sell as many order of fries as they do burgers.  As you approach the back of the restaurant to place your order, you’re greeted with a huge  blackboard scrawled with burgers and prices.  It’s about $6 to $9 for each burger, and you can add a few dollars more to make it a combo (can of pop plus a side of fries or onion rings).  I went with a regular cheese burger and Antony went with a Lamb burger.  It’s interesting to note that each specialty burger isn’t just about the meat they use, but also about what they put it on it aside from the ingredients on the list in front of you.  For example, the Lamb burger comes with a cilantro and feta spread on it, while you can’t get this on any other burger.

Cheeseburger with a side of fries

After you order and pay, you’re given a little numbered card stand to place on your table so that your order can be delivered to you.  It didn’t take too long, only about 6 to 8  minutes or so for our order to come.  I can’t really comment much about my burger because the toppings you put on it are what make it or break it, really.  They’re hand made, and the meat is never frozen but kept fresh.  You can taste the quality of the meat in it but even though it was char broiled, it sort of lacked the taste of open flame one usually gets from having a burger cooked char broiled, but it was still pretty good.  One complaint I have about it though was that the bun wasn’t toasted at all.  I prefer to have my buns toasted (ha…ha…) and to have that option would’ve gave it a bit of a crunch factor.

Lamb burger with a poutine

Antony’s lamb burger had a very distinct after-taste of lamb, so beware, if you don’t like lamb then make sure you don’t order this burger.  Now, on the other hand, if you love lamb, then go for it!  The fries were great, sprinkled with sea salt.  All were crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.  They were actually a lot like New York fries, even complete with the skin still on some bits – just the way I like them!

Overall, I was somewhat pleased with my Craft Burger experience, but I can’t say for sure if I’d be going back anytime soon.  The prices are somewhat reasonable and the quality is there, but I feel like I’m sitting in a wooden cave with uncomfortable chairs.  As sad as it is to admit it, if I had to choose, I’d probably still go back to Lick’s.  Even though their burgers are getting smaller and they’re getting stingier with the cheese, they still somehow manage to make the best burgers for your buck.

Average Price: $6 – $9 per burger, fries and drink extra
Hours: Mon-Thur 11am to 10pm, Fri 11am to 11pm, Sat 12pm-11pm, Sun 12pm-9pm
Address: 830 Yonge St.
Phone: 416-922-8585
TTC Directions: Get off at Yonge/Bloor Subway station, walk north on Yonge half a block on the west side of the street.