T.O.bites | Toronto Food & Restaurant Blog

Dr. Generosity’s would probably not be the first place you’d want to go to for Sunday brunch if you had a hangover. The place was packed of families with small children this morning. However, if you don’t mind the whining children, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how good Dr. G’s brunch is.

Each plate ranges from $10 to $12 (with the Steak being the only one that’s $15) and they also have a children’s selection for $7 a plate. We ordered Lisa’s Bloor West Village Special, Dr. G’s “Huevos Rancheros”, and the Classic Eggs Benedict. My first comment about the menu was that both the French Toast and Waffles came with meat in which Sara’s response was “Because he’s Dr. Generosity”.

One of the cool things, which also probably makes this a happening weekend brunch spot for families, is that all the tables are covered in brown drawing paper with a cup of crayons, much like Jack Astors. Unlike Jack Astors, you may want to refrain your friends from drawing male genitalia all over the table as this is a family restaurant. Another great thing about what’s on the tables is the big set of toast spreads: jam, marmalade, honey, and peanut butter.

Lisa’s Special contains kielbasa which is type of polish sausage that’s full of flavor (unlike the typical english sausages you get with brunch). They’re diced and mixed in the with the scrambled eggs and cream cheese. This is such an excellent dish as every bite is a bit different from the next. One bite you’ll get a full burst of some nice cream cheese while the next one may contain the nice smokey flavor of the sausage.

All of the meals we ordered came with home fries on the side. These home fries get a good high score in my book, though not as great as the tulips since they don’t have too many crispy bits, but they’re nice and flavoured. They’re also really soft on the inside too which ranks them in my top 5 for favourite home fries.

I did not hear a single complaint from Sara or Antony regarding their meals so the Rancheros and Eggs Benedict appear to be great choices as well. Sara especially enjoyed the clear glass mugs that they serve their tea and coffee in. One of the great things about the tea is that it comes steeped so you don’t have to wait for it to be ready when it comes to your table.

I highly recommend Dr. Generosity’s for brunch if you’re in the High Park Bloor West area. The prices aren’t too over the top, the service is efficient and friendly even during peak times, and above all the food is excellent.

Chew Chew's train mural

The giant mural of a train on the side of the restaurant is sure to get a few groans along with the ironic name of the diner, but if you actually step inside the front door, you’ll quickly see that this bustling little diner’s train theme actually works quite well for itself without getting too tacky.

The scene of some Canadian mountains is displayed right next to the booths lined up against the wall, acting as a faux outside window of the mock train you’re sitting in.  It’s a bit tacky, but it works.

I was told the best thing to order at Chew’s would be the Conductor’s special, but I wasn’t feeling like breakfast today so I went with the standard diner fare of cheese burger and fries.  We also ordered a hot hamburger chicken plate also with fries.

Chew's cheeseburger

The burger was quite good and came piled with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions.  The bun was nice and grilled too (I hate floppy untoasted burger buns as they got soggy right away).  The side of coleslaw was really good with shredded veggies in it, and it wasn’t too tangy, just right.  The fries were quite excellent and still had the potato skins on which is exactly how fries should be.

Hot Hamburger Chicken

The hot hamburger chicken was smothered in some nice beef gravy and sat atop a piece of texas toast bread.  It also came with some fries and some nice steamed vegetables which included broccoli and carrots.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a “hot hamburger” reviewed or mentioned on this site before, so if you’re not familiar with it and are wondering why it doesn’t look like my cheeseburger, that’s because hot hamburgers are just meat on a piece of a bread with gravy on top.  I was slightly confused the first time I ordered one years ago at Dangerous Dan’s diner and wondered where my hamburger bun was.  The waiter explained to me that hot hamburger plates is an idea that comes from the southern US and incorporates a hamburger patty placed on a piece of bread and covered in gravy.  Wikipedia tells me that it’s “occasionally compared to the poutine” if that helps at all… that statement actually allows me to revel in my state of food confusion, but hey, it’s still great food.

Chew’s is a great addition to the Cabbagetown restaurants and I do plan on going back some day and trying the conductor’s special.  One of the great things about this diner is it’s open concept kitchen area.  I know there’s a great deal of older restaurants that have their cooking area right out in the front, but I just think it’s great that you can see your food being cooked while you wait.  Thank goodness they didn’t make their staff wear conductor uniforms.

Sukiyaki hot pot... just make sure you ask for the original broth

The best part about Natural Sushi are their lunch specials.  But this review is about dinner as you can see by the really red lighting of the photos.  Much like Okinomi House around the corner, Natural Sushi has also adopted the Japanese red lanterns to adorn their decor.  I can’t say I’m a fan of the red lighting.

"den kaku" aka eggplant

Natural has been known as one of the best places to get cheap sushi, but it’s definitely not bad sushi.  Tonight, we ordered a Tepanyaki with teriyaki chicken and their beef sukiyaki hotpot.  The hot pot has become a favorite of ours but since we haven’t been to Natural in almost a year, we were shocked to find out that our sukiyaki hot pot broth tasted bland and salty like the broth from an udon soup.

We asked the waitress about this and she said that due to many complaints about the sukiyaki being too “sweet”, they modified it and started using the udon brother instead.  She said next time to let them know that you want the original brother and they’ll take care of it.  Fortunately, after a bit of persuasion, she agreed to get us a bowl of sukiyaki with just the original broth in which we transplanted the noodles, beef, and veggies from the not-so-good broth to the good one.  So keep this in mind if you’re going there for the sukiyaki.

Tepanyaki with Teriyaki Chicken

The tepanyaki was pretty good and the chicken was of high quality.  The plate came out of the kitchen with a nice loud sizzling sound which lasted a good 3 minutes while sitting on my table – beware of the grease splatters!  It comes sitting on a bed of sprouts with some broccoli on the side.

If you’re in the Bloor and Yonge area and are looking for a cheap and decent sushi place to eat, then be sure to head to Natural Sushi.  Out of the handful of sushi restaurants in that area, Natural may not be the best, but it’s a great value for your dollar.

Just Thai is just ok.  I don’t eat Thai food that often and haven’t actually consumed any of it in months, but I’m pretty sure when you order something that says in the menu that it’s supposed to taste like peanuts, it should taste like peanuts, not pineapples.

Maybe I’m starting this review on a bad note because the food wasn’t overall that bad albeit a little pricey. We started by ordering the appetizer sampler which is a mix of some of the appetizers offered on the menu.  Satay shrimp (which I asked to replace with chicken due to my allergy), cold rolls, mango salad, crispy beef rolls, and fried calamari.  The mango salad was excellent with a sprinkling of crushed peanuts all over it.  The fried calamari, chicken, and the beef rolls were okay too but were made even better with the dipping sauces you get with it.  Unfortunately, I felt the cold rolls contained a bit too much lettuce.  As you can see in the photo, nearly 85% of the roll was lettuce.  I’d rather them remove half of the lettuce and give a smaller roll.

The appetizer sampler

We ordered the Island Chicken (with Mango Chicken being our first choice but we felt since the appetizer sampler came with mango salad that we’d be all mangoed out) and were looking forward to it’s “peanut flavour”.  Unfortunately, it came tasting more like pineapples than peanuts.  In fact there were no peanuts on it at all.  Mind you, it wasn’t awful tasting, it just wasn’t what we were expecting.

The Island Chicken... which tasted more like pineapple than peanuts

It seems like if you’re interested in trying Thai food then I’d say your best bet would be to head over to Yonge street and check out the Friendly Thai.  But if you’re looking for good service (the waiters were quick and quite friendly) and decent food that could be Thai with a few alterations, then go ahead and check out Just Thai.  The food isn’t bad, but it just isn’t what I was expecting.