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.

Last September, when Zelda’s closed and ran up Yonge street, people started to cry out that due to the rising cost in rent, the village was doomed to become a collection of high-end stale corporate chain shops and restaurants.  Heck, there was even a rumor that McDonald’s was going to take over the old Zelda location.  To make matters worse, Lettieri closed up shop a few months later and is now a Hero Burger.  Then Il Fornello decided to take off.  What’s going on?  Thankfully, there’s been a slight change in the doom and gloom of the neighbourhood: the Church St. Diner recently opened back up and a new comer, Chi-ko-roo, has taken up the space once formerly housed by Il Fornello.  I had the chance to sit down and have a bite to eat there just a few days after their opening.

Chi-ko-roo’s menu contains a huge collection of meals and food options to eat, so it usually takes a bit of time to decide what you want.  We decided to go with brunch for this visit, but I do plan on going back some day and trying something more dinner-like.  There hasn’t really been much of a change of the inside since Il Fornello left.  Infact, aside from the tables, everything else seems intact from when the Giannone Petricone Associates Architechs first redesigned the interior for Il Fornello.  But hey, if it’s still pretty then why destroy it?  One thing I noticed is that it’s a lot brighter in there, possibly a bit too bright.  It might not be a bad idea to change those 100 watt bulbs to something a little less bright.

You can still tell it used to be Il Fornello

After we placed our order, we were served with a basket of bread that had a side of different savory spreads.  One was hummus, the other was a mash of sun dried tomatoes, and the final one can only be described as some sort of garlic paste.  Not bad for a complimentary appetizer.  I hope this is something they do regularly and not just for the opening week.

the bread appetizer with three sides

One complaint I have (aside from the bright lights) is that our food took a bit of time to come to the table.  Perhaps that’s why we were given bread first.  It took roughly 30 minutes from when we placed our order until it was in front of us.  It could have just been opening week hiccups, but the place was hardly busy, so I wouldn’t recommend heading there for lunch if you’re on a 1 hour break.  Even though the kitchen is a tad bit slow, the wait staff is incredibly friendly and nice.  They’re also pretty prompt when serving you, but keep in mind, I was there during a slower time of the day.

french toast with berries

I ordered the french toast with berries.  It came with a little side of ice cream and a tiny jar of syrup.  Antony asked for a second jar of syrup (since I gave him two of my pieces of toast) and they had no problem giving us another one.  It’s kind of hard to tell in the photo, but these aren’t really your traditional slices of bread.  They were more like bricks of bread that were fried in egg batter.  Definitely different from the standard french toast, but also really good.  It had a nice light crunch on the outside with warm soft bread on the inside.  Now you put some of that ice cream on top of it and you’re in food heaven.  The fruit was also a nice touch, with a mix of blueberries and strawberries.  It made me feel less guilty about eating the fried fatty bricks of french toast.

three eggs

Antony ordered a traditional brunch/breakfast of 3 eggs, toast, hashbrown potatoes, and bacon – extra crispy.  It came with a slice of melon as a garnish.  The hash browns were amazingly good, nice and crispy.  Everything else was of the standard breakfast platter, and yes, his bacon did come crispy.

His favorite part of the meal was not so much the meal itself, but the huge case of jam, honey, and peanut butter that was brought to our table for his toast.  We have a pet peeve with places that give you one small jam when you’ve got 4 giant pieces of toast so this gives Chi-ko-roo a thumbs up in his book.

Chi-ko-roo is a great addition to the village which I highly recommend.  Their large portions of food will satisfy any appetite, and the cost of the meal won’t break your wallet.  But just make sure you’re not in a rush, though I hope kitchen service will improve in the future.

Cora's courtesy of Google Maps

Cora’s has become quite popular in the last decade.  Infact, I don’t know a single person living in Toronto who doesn’t know what Cora’s is… except for my mom!  To put it simply, I told her that it’s like eating from a greasy spoon but with piles of fruit on that spoon.  Yes, in my world, Cora’s has always been known as the place you want to go when you want your filling of fruit.

Whenever I go to Montreal, it’s not hard to find a Cora’s.  They’re as abundant there as Starbucks in Vancouver.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Toronto, with our lone Cora’s downtown sitting way down by John and Front streets.  Thankfully, this summer, a new Cora’s opened up on Carlton St, just east of Yonge.

Sara, Antony, and myself went this past weekend for brunch around 2pm and the place was packed.  We had to wait in a 15 minute lineup and there wasn’t really much room to stand.  I can see this being a problem going there on a cold yet busy day, where the lineup easily pushes beyond the front door leaving you standing on the street.  The funny thing about this new location as well is that from the entrance, it looks quite tiny.  But once you’re actually inside, you’ll see that the place is pretty huge.  I can’t remember what ambiance music they play in the background at the Front St Cora’s but at the Carlton location, they seemed to be pumping it with the Top 10 dance/club hits that morning.  I wonder why this is.  Perhaps due to the store’s location to the village.. who knows?

Cranberry, raspberry, strawberry smoothie

Sara and I ordered the special smoothie of the day while Antony got an English breakfast tea.  The smoothie that day was a blended puree of cranberries, raspberries, and strawberries.  It was pretty good although I personally felt it could have been filtered a bit more.  Sara, on the other hand, enjoyed the fact that with each slurp, you could bite down and pop the tiny seeds in your mouth.

The tea "vase"

As for the tea, well we all agree that Cora’s tea pot isn’t the greatest.  It’s actually kind of cheap, but in an Ikea sort of way.  You see, even though there’s that black plastic grip at the top for pouring, it was still nearly impossible to hold onto without burning your fingers.  The fact is it actually looks like it’s supposed to be used as a vase for flowers.

For our main entrees, Antony and myself both went with the 1990s Harvest, a plate containing two pieces of chocolate brioche dipped in french toast batter (which is eggs with cinnamon and nutmeg), along with bacon and an egg, topped with a mountain of fruit.  Sara went with her favorite, but always good, theo’s omelet.  It comes with a variety of vegetables in the omelet and topped with melted cheese and a side of fries with toast.

1990s Harvest

Antony’s entree was ordered with bacon extra crispy and mine with sausage and the egg scrambled.  When Antony’s order came, the bacon didn’t come crispy.  Fortunately, our nice waitress noticed that and got him an additional place of bacon on the side, this time extra crispy.  The french toast like brioche was pretty good, and had just the right amount of chocolate in it to make each bite an amazing one.  One thing about this dish though is that there are way too many sweet things on this plate and not enough savory things.  I suppose having one egg scrambled on your plate doesn’t look as plentiful as having a sunny side up egg, but looking at the amount of scrambled egg on my plate, I felt a bit gypped.

Re: bacon extra crispy

Sara’s omelet came with the cheese sort of sprinkled on after it was made.  This resulted in unmelted cheese, yuck!  Our waitress quickly had them melt the cheese for Sara so in the end, it was all good.  Sara’s omelet was fantastic and as she says, “is always a safe choice”.  I didn’t try it this time so I can’t really comment on the taste of it but at least it looked pretty good.  One thing Sara did note is that she felt her fruit was a little bit on the unripened side.  For some reason, her kiwi still had its skin on too.

theo's omelet

Cora’s is a safe choice if you want a nice sit down brunch.  Almost all of their food options are great and their menu has pretty much remained the same for years.  On the downside, some things are a bit pricey compared to other brunch places (2.50 for tea?!) but the quality and quantity is what justifies it.

Average Price: $8 – $14 per entree
Hours: Mon-Sat 6:00am-3:00pm, Sun 7:00am-3:00pm
Address: 27 Carlton St.
Phone: 416-340-1350
TTC Directions: Get off at College subway station and walk half a block east on Carlton on the south side of the street.  (note: Carlton turns into College on the west side of Yonge St.).  Alternatively, if you take the College/Gerrard streetcar, you can just get off one stop east of Yonge too.

Le Pain Quiotidien at the corner of Yonge and Yorkville

Bread, bread, and more bread.  Bread means carbs.  Too many carbs are bad. Incase you haven’t noticed, I’m sort of going on a bit of a health kick lately so I was actually a little reluctant to go to a place known as “the daily bread”.  Fortunately, as noted a few times by Antony, there aren’t too many unhealthy selections at Le Pain Quotidien.  Infact over 90% of the menu, not counting the desserts, are actually healthy choices full of grains, fruits, and many other organic ingredients.  I’ve been told that they use local ingredients too though I don’t see anything on their website which confirms it.

the joint's quite hopping on a sunday afternoon

For our mid autumn brunch, Sara, Antony, and myself decided to head to LPQ (now I’ll say LPQ because an acronym looks better than Le Pain) up in the Yorkville area which is located a hop, skip, and jump from the subway Bloor subway entrance.  The place was bustling with patrons and staff, eagerly serving the Sunday brunch crowd.  It had a very nice rustic and cozy feel to the place, with wooden tables, and a wood-colour stained cement walls.  The restaurant also sported a bunch of chalk boards listing the specials up on a couple of walls, giving it a very french cafe feel.  They also had this one wall in the back area of the restaurant that had these giant metal items hanging on it which I could only describe as.. bicycle seats?

the awesome tea setup/the cold coffee and sorta hard but yummy croissant

For starters, Antony ordered a tea and Sara ordered a coffee, while I just stuck with coffee.  Antony noted that the tea setup was wonderfully done and came with traditional style french teacups.  Yes, he’s pompous about his tea and even what type of pot the hot water comes in.  On the other side of the table, Sara’s issue was that her coffee came in a pot which cools down too quickly, and would’ve preferred to have had the diner system, where waitresses come by every 10 minutes to refill your cup with hot coffee.  She also said her coffee was overly roasted.  We can thank Starbucks for this trend as they’ve trained everyone’s taste buds to prefer overly roasted coffee.

For our entrees, I went with the Rustic Tuna Sandwich which comes with bacon bits, cheese, and green onions.  Probably not the healthiest choice, but definitely sounded tasty.  Their soup of the day was butternut squash so, knowing my love for that soup, I had to order a small cup of it.  Sara went with an almond croissant to start, and a quiche lorraine as her entree.  Antony with a bowl of handcut oatmeal and berries served with non fat milk, and a fruit salad bowl on the side.

butternut squash soup

First let’s start with the butternut squash soup which came with a squirt of pesto oil on the top (thanks goes to Sara for identifying it for me).  Even though it’s a cream based one colour soup, you could easily taste an array of different types of vegetables within it’s creamy yet textured goodness.  But I’ll be honest, my first initial taste was a little disappointing.  This is mainly due to the fact that the last two butternut squash soups that I’ve tried have been loaded with brown sugar and gave it an excellent sweet taste.  LPQ’s soup didn’t really contain much sugar at all.  But after a few more spoonfuls of the soup, everyone agreed that it was awesome.

rustic tuna

As you can see in the photo, the rustic tuna sandwich is presented open faced with a few slices of tomatoes.  The collection of ingredients sitting on the nicely toasted and crunchy bread was quite good.  The tuna was nice and flaky and didn’t have much mayonnaise on it, which is a good thing.  The addition of bacon, green onions, and bit sof cheese added a nice touch and helped to dissipate the fishy taste which is usually present with tuna.  The downfall about this sandwich is that it was sort of difficult to eat.  It wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to pick up with your fork if you’re going to cut it and eat it, and it also wasn’t much fun to pick up with your fingers as the bread would absorb some of the moisture and collapse from your fingers.

Sarah’s almond croissant was a little on the hard side, but this could be due to the fact it was sitting in the dessert bar all morning before being consumed.  It did appear to contain a lot of butter, but what croissant doesn’t?  I didn’t try any of it but her and Antony both seemed to enjoy it.

the quiche lorraine

The quiche lorraine came along side a slice of bread, and a mesclun salad.  I had a bite of Sara’s quiche and it was nice and fluffy in the middle with an excellent flaky crust.  The mesclun salad is a nice healthy alternative to the usual garden salad, but in my own experience, it sort of churns my stomach after eating.  Maybe it’s due to the fact that I don’t eat enough organic greens, or it could be all in my head that I feel like I’m eating a houseplant rather than a salad.

the oatmeal.. looks smaller than it actually was

Antony’s oatmeal came with a nice assortment of blackberries and raspberries on the top.  But rather than add sugar in his oatmeal, he decided to start throwing in his fruit salad which contained the same berries but also had melon pieces and strawberries.  It was a pretty large bowl of oatmeal though, which he couldn’t completely finish.  Without the fruit added, the oatmeal tasted no different than the microwave oatmeal you’d buy at Loblaws, so I saw nothing special in calling it.  But I guess whether it’s handcut or not, it’s still going to taste the same.

Overall we had no complaints about our experience aside from the staff not coming to check on us as much as we’d like.  But this was a Sunday afternoon and the place was packed.  Not to mention that the table we were sat at was kind of in the corner and not completely accessible without playing hopscotch over the other patrons to get to us.  The price was a little up there though (just shy of $11 for my sandwich, and Sara’s quiche coming in at $12) but given the area it was pretty reasonable.  There are cheaper choices on the menu though, but we went with our stomachs, not our wallets.  I definitely look forward to returning to LPQ again in the future, and I recommend if you do go with a few friends, don’t hesitate to try the Organic Baker’s basket if it’s your first time checking the place out.  It’s well worth it and gives you a nice assortment of their different types of breads and spreads to try out.

Average Price: $6 – $12 per entree
Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30am – 7:30pm, Sat 8:00am – 7:30pm, Sun 8:00am – 6:00pm
Address: 10 Yorkville Ave (not 18 as listed on Urbanspoon)
Phone: 416-926-7555
TTC Directions: Get off at Yonge/Bloor station and exit out into Yonge street.  Walk two blocks north on the west side of Yonge until you reach Yorkville Ave.

New Yorker Deli

If you’re going to insert “New York” somewhere into the name of your restaurant, then you’ve got some big shoes to fill.  Does the New Yorker Deli live up to its name?

Sitting right up near Bay and Bloor, the New Yorker Deli caters mostly to the office crowd and probably gets the odd patron heading down from some high end shopping in Yorkville looking for a cheap eat outside of the ‘ville.  The deli was pretty busy on the Sunday afternoon when Antony and I decided to go check it out for brunch.  They do have an amazing breakfast deal for under $5 but unfortunately we weren’t early enough for that.

inside the New Yorker

Antony ordered the three eggs and hash special which came with toast and homefries.  I decided to order a burger with cheese.  Our food came pretty quickly, and we sat where we could see the front counter as the cooks prepared our meals.  Antony’s eggs came over easy, as asked.  The toast was nice and thick texas style toast which is the best toast for egg yolk dipping.  The meat hash wasn’t all that great, nothing too special.  No added spices or anything to give it a burst of flavor.  The home fries were you standard McCain frozen then deepfried variety, almost like the same ones you get from Frans Diner.

Eggs and meat hash

My burger was also the same mediocre patty you get from President’s Choice.  Actually, I think it was the same as those thick President’s Choice burgers, as they have a pretty unique gear-like shape, as did this thick burger.  Not saying using frozen supermarket burger patties are a bad thing, but they also lack imagination.  I prefer hand made burgers myself.  The bun was a great choice though, an onion bun, which you don’t see too often in Toronto.  The fries that came with my burger, shoestring, were actially a bit better than the home fries, as they weren’t nearly as potatoe’y in the middle.

Cheese burger

A note about the staff, we had a really great waiter serving us, but when he wasn’t present, we did ask the manager (I’m assuming she was the manager as she wasn’t dressed in the usual waiter uniform) for water as she walked by.  Instead of her getting it for us, which was right behind us, she snapped her fingers and told another waiter to grab us water.  Her hands were free and honestly, there was no excuse for her not to grab the water herself.  Antony wanted to add a comment about how she seemed like the type of manager who walks around and looks for stuff that has to be done, but gets everyone else to do it for her.  This creates a stressful environment for the staff and as patrons, we can feel it too.

Overall, the food was okay although most of it seemed to be frozen supermarket food rather than made from scratch. The price of it all was pretty cheap though considering the area, and service was quite fast. I’d definitely go back if I’m in the area for a cheap eat and not feeling up to shopping at the grocery store nearby.

Average Price: $6 – $10 per entree
Hours: Open 7 days a week [I'll get back to you on the actual hours when I find out]
Address: 1140 Bay St
Phone: 416-923-3354
TTC Directions: Get off at Bay Station, at the Bay Street exit, and walk south a block towards Charles St on the west side of Bay

Antony and I couldn’t believe that the previously vacant Coffee Time had finally been renovated and opened into a new restaurant, so we couldn’t resist the urge to go in and have a bite to eat.  We were greeted with an extremely friendly waitress who promptly sat us to the desired seat, “near the sun but not directly in it”.  She was very attentive to our needs and was not too intrusive.

Inside Eggsmart

Even though it’s largely a breakfast place, the Eggsmart menu does come with more lunch oriented choices, such as sandwiches, salads, and wraps.  But I was feeling like a brunch this time so I ordered the Sausage Scrambler, a bowl of scrambled eggs mixed with sausage, cheddar, green peppers, and onions.  It came with a side of excellent texas toast, and home fries.  The Sausage Scrambler was an excellent choice, with it’s nice blending of the two tastiest brunch vegetables.  There was enough in the bowl for it to be filling too, and I had more left over to share with Antony who also liked the dish.  The texas toast came buttered, but was slightly drenched in it.  Antony noted that sometimes it’s best to ask them not to butter your toast.

Sausage Scrambler

A container of jam packets sits at each table, so you never have to worry about being short of jam.  And the home fries… they were excellent!  Soft in the middle, crispy on the outside, and they had just the right amount of seasoning (a bit of salt and a bit of spice) to make them really good.  Antony said his home fries came out a bit too salty for his taste, which he told the waitress about.  She quickly had them replaced with no hassle, and even inquired later how they tasted.  Antony said they were excellent and was glad that there was no problem getting them replaced.

Antony had the traditional breakfast, 3 eggs served with choice of meat (bacon, ham, or sausage) choosing “bacon, extra crispy and eggs over-easy” as usual.  His eggs came in perfect shape, with the yolks intact and waiting to be punctured releasing their slimy, yolkie goodness.  His bacon was perfect and his request was met, it came extra crispy!  Each dish also came with a slice of orange twisted with a slice of melon, a great addition to the meal.

Traditional Breakfast, bacon extra cripsy

We both were extremely satisfied with our meal, and even more satisfied with the bill.  The grand total of all this good food for the both of us?  Just shy of $14.  It’s been ages since the both of us have had great food at a sit down restaurant for under $20.  In fact, I don’t think we ever have outside of a fast food restaurant.  While looking at the small bill, I’d also like to say that you better make sure to tip your waitress.  At $14, I felt stingy leaving the usual 15% tip, so I went ahead with Greg’s Twoonie Rule (that you should usually try to give a toonie per person), and gave her a $4 tip.  This place is also open until midnight, and I’m a sucker for great late night eats, so I definitely plan on going back again. [Edit: I recently went by Eggsmart about a week ago, and unfortunately, they are now only open until 3pm.  I guess staying open until midnight wasn't viable for them.]

Here’s something cute.  On the way home later on in the day, I walked by Eggsmart, and caught a picture of an Eggsmart Smart car in the parking lot across the street.  Once again, reaffirming, that these guys are smart.

The Egg-Smart car

 

Average Price: $6 per entree
Hours: 6am – 3pm
TTC Directions: Get off at Dundas Station, walk west on Dundas St. until you reach Bay St.  Walk 2 blocks north to Elm St.
Website: eggsmart.ca