T.O.bites | Toronto Food & Restaurant Blog

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.”

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 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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Local coffee chains are sort of given a bad reputation.  I’m not talking about Tim Hortons, but looking more towards Coffee Time and Urbana (Urban Chic, Urban Cool, Urban You… need I say more?).  So when I first heard about Coffee Culture, a new chain which started in back in 2006 in Woodstock, I just dismissed it like everyone else.  Then I was told “they’ve got free wi-fi and lots of plugs!” but so does every other ma and pa cafe.  Then I was told “they’ve actually got good cheap food too!” and with that I was sold.  On a side note, their US website completely leaves out the fact that they’re Canadian!  Of course, it’s not that hard to find out where they originated from, but just odd that they left it out.

Coffee Culture sits near the intersection of College and Bathurst, right at the edge of Little Italy.  It’s a busy little cafe and has an overall great ambiance, much like that of a European cafe.  The floating LCD TVs piping CP24 give you somewhere to stare off to when your date-from-hell turns to ice.  Now that I think about it, wouldn’t Starbucks be that much better (and local) if they too hung televisions from the ceiling and aired CP24?  I guess not.  Like Mama always said, “Television rots your brain!”, it also kills conversation.  Thankfully, at least on the day I went, the TVs lacked any sort of volume and were more there for the visual aspect.

Now onto the food.  They had a special going on that day – for just shy of $7 you get a soup, any sandwich of your choice, and a bottled water.  I choose the minestrone soup while Antony had the butternut squash.  We both went with the roast beef and cheddar sandwiches.  The sandwiches themselves were great, grilled with a panini press.  I’m starting to learn that the most plain sandwiches become the best sandwiches in the world once they’re shoved in a panini press.  I absolutely love how they get these nice crisp ridges in the bread.  Bread aside (I’ve got to get me a panini press.  Hey, my birthday is coming up soon too), the roast beef and cheddar was nicely done, garnished with a slice of lettuce and tomatoes.  There wasn’t anything special about the roastbeef though.  It was just your standard cold-cut meat, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t taste great.

The soups were surprisingly good.  I have to say, I’ve never had butternut squash as good as the one these guys serve.  I’m not sure if they actually make it there themselves, or if it’s prepackaged, but whatever it is – it’s awesome!  There’s a hint of cinnamon in it too, so it gives your tongue a happy.  I’m planning to return there soon just to get some more butternut squash soup pending they are serving it that day.  The minestrone was also incredibly good and had tons of vegetables in it.  The broth was great too, not too salty and not too water-y.  I would also recommend it too!

Oh and did I mention this place also has free wi-fi, and a decent amount of plugs?  Not to mention the front booth tables are really comfy.  They made my 5 hour study session quite comfortable.  I also had a piece of strawberry mouse cake, which was fricken huge!  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of it.  It wasn’t the best mousse cake I’ve had, but it was also far from bad.  I highly recommend this place if you’re ever in the area, and it’s also a great place to study at too if you’re looking for an alternative from Golden Griddle, which I’ve noticed is getting a lot students now.  Coffee Culture is open until midnight (or 1am on weekends).  It doesn’t quite qualify for the late night study places, but it’s not a bad alternative.

Average Price: $4 – $8 per entree
Hours: Sun-Wed 6:30am – Midnight, Thurs – Sat 6:30am – 1:00am
Address: 409 College St
Phone: 416-868-9078?
TTC Directions: Hop on the College streetcar and head towards Bathurst.  Hop off at Bathurst and College and walk half a block east on the south side of College.

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.

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.

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.

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