Take Off! My Life and Times in Toronto
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
For lunch, Brian and I stopped at the Black Badger in Cambridge, ON. It was a fairly authentic pub, with "Bangers and Mash" and "Liver and Onions" on the menu, World Cup Soccer on the telly, and the usual grubby look-and-feel of a real Cambridge, UK pub. But mostly, the name caught my eye.
Click here for more badger madness.
I drove past Le Select on the way out of Eaton Centre and took this little photo of my favorite bistro in Toronto in the daylight. The photo really doesn't do anything for the place ... you gotta go inside.
Mike Jones (of Plano), you stood me up! I was at the Benihana, just like we planned, but you weren't there! Instead, I chatted with some Oracle dba from Keller, TX.
The Benihana in the Royal York Hotel is in downtown Toronto, the regal gem of the town's hotels. Valet parking is free if you order an entree, so I took advantage. The restuarant is embedded in the west end of the hotel's ground/basement floor, so it's a stretch to look "Japanese" like the Dallas Benihana. Dark and somewhat boxy, the teppana tables are standard.
The food was largely as expected ... better than the Dallas restaurant but slightly different from the Las Colinas restaurant, which is still my favorite.
Saturday night, after driving back to Toronto (Barbara's first visit there) to the RI, I called in a reservation at Le Sélect, a French Bistro restaurant in downtown Toronto. We were offered at 9:30pm table-for-two, which we accepted.
It was a dark and rainy night, so the drive down the twisty, winding Don Valley Parkway was perhaps a little bit more exciting that Barbara wanted. Nonetheless, we arrived intact downtown. I exited the Gardiner Expressway at Spadina Ave., and we ambled up to Queen St. where Le Sélect is.
The restaurant is a very upscale replica of an authentic Parisian bistro. It features a zinc bar as part of it's authentic Paris look and feel. I found this quote on the webpage rather amusing:
We were seated near the back, in an intimate corner where the wall seating wrapped the corner. The walls are decorated with replicas of various jazz concert and artshow posters from all eras, but not in excess. The clientele was urban eclectic, which was a delight for me. Back in Collin County, it seems like everyone is the same in almost every possible way. Here, there were young and old from multiple cultures and races ... it was very refreshing to see.
The menu is very traditional, and features many lamb dishes. I had a goat cheese salad with a raspberry vinaigrette (the menu lists it as Salade frisée au chèvre chaud) dressing. The cheese is lightly toasted onto the greens, which was a very nice touch. The baked onion soup (the menu lists it as Soupe à l'oignon gratinée) is very good ... not a salty, bland soup you'd expect at an American restaurant.
For a main course I had (of course) the Alberta 8 oz. cut (the menu lists it as Pavé de boeuf de l'Alberta). It was quite good, and the sauce was rich and delicate. The peppercorn was very subtle, not like versions of this dish where the peppercorn is seared onto the meat. It was filling without being too much (nutrition tip: 8 oz. is a lot of meat!).
I finished off with zee Chocolate Mousse, which Barbara pointed out is really just a pricy chocolate pudding. True, but still ... mmmmmm ... Chocolate Mousse.
Barbara picked up the meal (thanks again!). All through the meal I kept thinking about how much Anne will like this place when she comes to visit in June!
I stopped at the Texas Lone Star Grill tonite on a seemingly endless search for a floor fan for my cubicle (a long story for another weblog entry). When I was approached by the host, I showed him my Texas drivers license (like I did at the TLSG downtown) and to my surprise, he immediately pulled the PA mic to his face and told everyone in the restaurant there was a "real Texan" here tonite. I was grinning ear-to-ear.
The food wasn't bad ... the salsa was a bit weak as it was mostly tomato, but given my tummy troubles, that's not a bad thing. I had the 1/4 lb. chicken fajitas. Verdict: not bad. Not bad at all.
They have one of those huge floppy Texas hats which they put on birthday party victims. I asked my waiter why they didn't make me wear it during my entire meal :-).
Apparently this chain was started in the mid 80's by a displaced Texan named Val Belcher from Houston, so it's got more than a passing glance of authenticity. The waitstaff said that Val was still a Texan with a thick drawl even after living in Canada for nearly thirty years. Somehow this doesn't surprise me at all. Val is famous for ... wait for it ... the "Belcher Burger". Say no more. Say no more.
In the cluster of corporate styled restaurants across Hwy 7 from the Residence Inn is a chain steak house that opened in Irving when I worked there called The Keg Steakhouse. I never went to the one in Irving, but I did try out the one in Markham, ON.
The Keg is "yet another wood paneled" steakhouse. Reservations are suggested, but arriving by myself on a Sunday for dinner, I was seated in the bar which had nice two person booths. Suits me. The decor is, typically, dark wood walls and darker tile floors. While I was there, they turned on the dark lights, which lit up dark. You get the idea.
The food is standard fare steaks and some seafood options. I went with the safe sirloin cut 8 oz., and wasn't too dissappointed. They charred the outside a bit, which is odd for a "medium" steak, but the steak was juicy and mostly tender. Their garlic mashed potatoes were quite nice, and had bits of the potato skin in them for garnish. Veggies were string beans, kind of bland string beans.
Their "mudslide" wasn't anything to write home about and they're a Pepsi shop (no one, but no one has Dr. Pepper up here -- I should have brought a flat) so the drinks were unremarkable.
One the whole, I found it a bit dreary, and wished they had a better cut of meat for the money (around 20$US for the meal).
Dinner was at The Lone Star Texas Grill. Modelled roughly after a honky tonk, it is a chain around town (the other Lone Star Texas restaurant is part of that chain -- see below) that goes for the beer swilling, rough hewn Texan of legend. IOW, a sports bar. While the menu contained largely "authentic" Texan grub, there were the occasional Canadian items like french fry's with vinegar. Can't shut the locals out of the process entirely.
I had the "Texas Sized Fajitas (1/2 lbs.)" -- chicken, of course. The fixin's were close enough to the real deal, and while they put a kind of pepper salt on the tortilla chips, the salsa was actually pretty good.
When I approached the hostess for a seat, I pulled out my Texas driver's license and said, "I'm a native Texan. Impress me." They got a chuckle out of it, and I found a place that servers decent fajitas. Deal.