It was in Manarola that we discovered the best food we would have in all of Italy. We randomly walked into this restaurant for lunch – the restaurant was no different from any of the other dozen restaurants along the street, except that it was quite busy – which is usually a good sign.

Service was quick (by European standards) and friendly, and soon we were served with a large deep-fried seafood platter with calamari, prawns, squid, and anchovies.

The seafood could not have been more fresh, the batter was light and did not soak a lot of oil, and everything was fried to perfection. The squid was unreal.

I had a trofie with sea bass in tomato sauce. The trofie was definitely made in-house, perfectly chewy. The sea bass was tender and delicious, and my only complaint was that there wasn’t more of it. The tomato sauce was somewhat inspired, but this was honest to goodness Italian home-cooking, straight-forward and uncomplicated.

Best gnocchi I’ve ever had, no doubt about it. Pesto sauce was also quite good. Again, simple, uncomplicated, delicious.

I don’t remember exactly what this was, possibly a mussle soup. No complaints from any of my trip-mates, so I assume it was also satisfactory.

I don’t remember what this was, tuna salad perhaps?

Seafood spaghetti came with plenty of seafood and perfectly cooked home-made spaghetti.

We also ordered a lobster pasta of some sort that was delicious, the lobster-infused tomato sauce was unreal.

After this extremely satisfactory meal, we decided to eat out again in Manarola for dinner. We went to the restaurant across the street, which boasted “whole large lobster” on its menu. Thinking that the restaurant across the street couldn’t be that different, we decided to try it. We were wrong. The seafood here was not as fresh as the seafood in the first restaurant. Moreover, they didn’t seem to take as much care in preparing the food.

The grilled calamari and squid was basically uneatable. The calamari was hard and rubbery (note the difference between ‘chewy’ – which is ideal, and ‘rubbery’ – which is not), and the squid was so fishy I immediately spat it out.

Lobster ravioli sat better with my friend, although still a little fishy if you ask me.

Whole large lobster with pappardelle ended up being half large lobster with pappardelle. The dish was the most successful out of the ones I tried. Pappardelle is broad fettucine. At least it was made in-house and had a good chew to it.

The next day, I searched high and low for ‘farinata’ – chickpea focaccia, the internet tells me – but it was sold out in the two shops that sold it in Vernazza. So instead, I settled on pizza for lunch.

We did end up finding farinata in La Spezia, but it was soggy and tasted awful. There were many locals buying it too, so we thought maybe that was what farinata was, although why it was so popular escaped me. After a quick Internet search, it turns out farinata is supposed to be crispy, so I guess the place we went to had it all wrong. As did the locals that were actually eating that stuff.

Three and a half hours and $60 later, I walked out with only two good things to say about the place: the servers are courteous and the washrooms are clean.

We had a reservation for 7:00 pm but were cooling our heels in the lobby until 8:00 pm. Unacceptable.

It took another 40 minutes for our first course to come. Granted, we had a party of 12, but we were all ordering off the Summerlicious menu, so they could expect the volume ahead of time (and everyone knows its pre-made anyway), so how long does it take to arrange appetizers on 12 plates?

Grilled romaine lettuce heart tasted exactly like what you would expect romaine lettuce hearts to taste like. The portobello tasted bizarre, and not in a good way.

Gazpacho is a cold Spanish tomato-based vegetable soup. Given that it was a vegetable soup, I wasn’t ready for the chill. It tasted fine, nothing to write home about. The half-cherry tomato came with goat cheese, which was not on the menu. Kind of a big deal, I’m surprised they didn’t put that on there given how they like to put every single ingredient on the menu. Lobster medallions tasted like they’d been frozen and then thawed, but what did I expect? I don’t know, maybe something fresh from such a “fine-dining” establishment.

I love duck. When I order duck, it’s hard for me not to enjoy it. But last night, I left half my duck breast on the plate. Why? It was undercooked, the meat was hard, not tender at all, and the breast itself was barely marinaded. There was plenty of fat under the skin, if it had cooked longer, I’m sure the meat could have been juicier. After having made my own orange-infused duck breast in Paris, I now knew what to expect and this was definitely below-par.
The duck leg confit lasagna was very creative, and was quite good – the only thing I ended up finishing that night. The lasagna was made with duck meat, spinach, cream cheese, and Parmesan sprinkled on top.

The halibut filet tasted like nothing, perhaps a hint of salt, but really, nothing. Of the four people that ordered this entree, zero enjoyed it.

Well, it’s a bento box. I mean, it looks cute, but really? This is the “vegetarian option” on your Summerlicious menu? If I were vegetarian, I would be downright offended. Here, have a few string beans, beets, and asparagus. The wasabi mashed potato sounded promising, until we realized it tasted no different from regular mashed potato, but green. Yes, that is exactly what this meal needs to look more appetizing! Green mush!

“Lemon-lavender-blueberry dome with chocolate arts, lemon-grass vanilla sauce” sounds like a mouthful, but it was really a small cake with some decoration. We had a laugh over how specific the menu was, even to go so far as to name the three triangular white-chocolate pieces as “chocolate arts.” The lavendar in the cake made it taste rather strange, although not altogether horrible.

I like crepes. I like crepes flambe even more. This crepe, however, was soggy. And tasted strongly like marmalade. No thanks. The cherry jubilee tasted better with the vanilla ice cream, but wasn’t all that inspired.

I did not get a picture of the third dessert option, “warm peach tart and peach ice cream”, which turned out to be the best one. The peach tart was good, it tasted like a fruit tart with less sugar.

After tax and tip, the meal came out to $60 (not including drinks). Considering there wasn’t a single course I was completely happy with, I was utterly disappointed. I’ve always been told Summerlicious meals are sub-par, but this was just a disgrace.

Rating:

Our first night in Vienna was a Sunday night, so most stores and even restaurants were closed. We settled on going to a family-run Chinese restaurant with a very diverse (and questionable) menu that included: Chinese food, Thai food, Malay food, and Japanese food.

The next day, we walked through the oh-so-hip MuseumsQuartier, which had a post-modern installation of hot pink blocks that many young Viennese hipsters were sunbathing in, and decided to stop for coffee at one of its cafes.

I had a specialty Viennese coffee, which really didn’t taste any different from regular coffee.

We tried the Original Sacher Torte at the Sacher hotel restaurant. It looks just like a chocolate cake, but the difference is that there’s a layer of apricot jam in the middle that gives it a tang.

We took our time walking through Naschmarkt, which is an open-air market that also has a lot of cafes and restaurants lining its streets, and I found myself in gastronomic heaven.

The next night, we returned to Naschmarkt for dinner. I wanted to try a wiener schnitzel, a traditional Austrian and Viennese dish. It turned out to be exactly what I’d think breaded and fried pork taste like¹ – just like the da pai we made in our family except we use a pork chop cut, or like the Japanese katsu (breaded pork cutlet).

Then we had dinner at Deli, a very popular café in Naschmarkt. There were tons of locals there, hanging out with a drink and cigarette. Apparently this is where everyone went in the afternoon/evening.

I had a stir-fry vegetables dish, which came with fragrant rice². Unfortunately, they fried the rice in butter, which completely ruined it for me. What was wrong with plain flagrant rice?

On our final night in Vienna, we once again returned to Nashmarkt, this time for some Asian food!

I had duck on sizzling platter, a top of bed of mixed vegetables. The duck was so tender and the sauce was delicious. One of the most satisfying meals I had in Europe.

Would I return to Vienna? Hell yes, if not for the art and music, then definitely for Naschmarkt!

1. It’s supposed to be veal but I’m almost certain the one we had was pork, a common replacement these days.
2. Can you tell I was missing Asian food? I was missing rice so badly I thought my stomach would go on protest.

We sat down at one of the many cafes with street-side patios for a late lunch.

The chicken was very tender and satisfying. Oddly, everything here comes with fries.

We also stopped at several crepe shops for some coffee (espresso) and crepe.

First course: Soupe à L’Oignon (French Onion Soup)
Caramelized onions swim in a twist on the traditional poule-au-pot soup, with swiss cheese on the bottom, and parmesan cheese and soaked bread on top.

Second course: Salade de Trinité (Trinity Salad)
Good things come in threes, and everything about this salad is good. Smoked salmon sits atop a bed of zucchini, corn, and onions, that can be enjoyed with three different yet harmonious sauces: teriyaki, garlic and mayo, and pineapple sauce with a kick.

Third course: Magret de Canard aux Pommes Rissolées (Duck Breast with Golden Potatoes)
Orange-infused duck breast with a sizzling crisp skin is bathed in a Bordeaux wine reduction with raisins and caramelized onions. On the side, golden potatoes in herbes de Provence.

Fourth course: Fraises au Chocolat et Truffes (Chocolate-covered strawberries and Truffles)
Orange-dark chocolate covered strawberries alongside raspberry-mint truffles dusted in cocoa.

The starters were enjoyed with a Gewurtzraminer from Isreal, while the main was accompanied by a rich red from Catalan, and dessert was served with a young Riesling. The entire meal was enjoyed with rays from the setting sun streaming in the large open windows of the salon of our Paris apartment with views of the Eiffel Tower.

The recipe I used for the duck breast was adapted from this one: French Countryside Duck Breast.
The modifications I made were to add the OJ directly to the duck breast. I changed the sauce quite a bit because the vinegar made it too sour, so I poured in more poule-au-pot stock and added onions and raisins.

The recipe I used for the potatoes was similar to this this one: Pommes Rissolées (French Browned Potatoes).
The only difference is that instead of using all those spices, I just used herbes de Provence, which is still very traditional.

This was my dish. The quail was a bit over-cooked, not as tender as it should have been. The veggie was also overcooked, but I suspected it was cooked in a large batch and kept warm (for everyone). The fries were quite good.
This was clearly a family restaurant, and the food was exactly at the caliber I would expect from a family restaurant.

I don’t think we knew what this was when we ordered it, since everything was in French, but it turned out to be almost like an almond tofu dessert. Very delicious.

Our server did not speak very much English, but we got by with my Spanish. Service was moderately attentive by North American standards, very attentive by Spanish standards. Although the restaurant was nearly empty when we walked in, it started filling up as the meal went on (mostly with tourists, unfortunately).

We started with a pitcher of sangria, which came with large chunks of fruit. The Spanish really know how to make a good sangria. Then the food started coming.

The deep-fried cuttlefish was the best I’ve ever had, with a practically non-existent batter and fresh cuttlefish. Instead of the usual rubbery-ness of fried foods in the squid family, this cuttlefish was surprisingly tender, although still chewy.

Patatas bravas is the Spanish take on home fries. The potatoes were average but the smoked paprika sauce was an interesting twist from ketchup back home.

The sizzling prawns in clay pot were soaked in a butter, garlic, chili concoction, whose fragrant smell filled the room as soon as it was brought out. The prawns were not as big as expected, nor as savoury.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember what these were because I didn’t order them, and the people who did can’t remember ever having it. My guess is that it was tuna fillet. Its lack of memorableness can be attributed to its absolute bland character.

This is a plate of mushrooms. They were fried. They tasted like mushrooms. The end.

This was the fanciest dish that we were presented with, but I was told it was average.

The chickpeas and sausage were supposed to be a staple for the meal, but the sausages ended up ruining the dish. The sausage was house-made cured, but it was so salty that each piece tasted like we were eating salt.

In the end, the only outstanding dish was the fried cuttlefish. I would probably not return to this restaurant if I come back to Barcelona. We should have known better than to pick a restaurant in such a touristy neighbourhood.

Rating:

The restaurant is less than five years old, so the interior was still in good shape. However, they had tried to cram so many people inside that all the aisle space was taken up and chairs were back-to-back. I am pretty sure that’s a fire hazard, but nobody seemed to care.

When we were finally seated, we had to share a table with another family, which is never something we really enjoy. The other family was speaking rapid Cantonese extremely loudly non-stop for the entire meal. I think what they said in minute was more than what the three of us said combined for the entire meal.

The food arrived relatively quickly, and in a sensible order much to my surprise, starting with appetizers, then steamed items, and finally dessert.

The Nanjing Salted Duck was very tender and delicious. The Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs were definitely mainland style, although they were under-cooked, and they didn’t use the best cut of pork ribs.

Ji Cai Fish and Egg Drop Soup was thick and fragrant. It was not too salty, and naturally xian without MSG.

The xiao long bao were very savoury, second only to Ding Tai Fung’s soup-filled dumplings.

I haven’t had sheng jian bao since my summer in Shanghai, but these definitely did not live up to the savoury pan-fried pork buns in my memory. The baos were too big, and the pork filling was not savoury enough.

We don’t usually order fried noodles, but we saw this dish on every table, so we decided to try it. It was very average. It was surprisingly bland, despite the dark colouring.

Green onion pancake was my favourite item, the best I’ve had anywhere in Toronto. It was the perfect thickness, very crispy on the outside, with just enough green onions to savour.

I’ve had these red bean rice cakes before in Ding Tai Fung but these were still warm. They’re supposed to be room-temperature. Because they were hotter than normal, they were extra soft. There was also too much red bean paste inside, and the candy toppings were overpowering.

The food was Shanghai-nese after all, but the clientele certainly wasn’t. We were seated near the door, so throughout our entire meal, there were pushy people waiting right next to us, hovering over our table and practically elbowing us or swinging their purse and smacking us in the head. These people clearly did not know how to keep a respectful distance. One lady sneezed into our food. Another lady kept leaning over our table to get the waiter’s attention. She was there for 10 minutes and the entire time, we weren’t able to eat at all. I was appalled by how pushy they were; they had no sense of propriety despite the angry glares I tried giving them. What was worse, the waiters clearly saw that about 10 people had spilled into the dining area (all crowded around our table, as it happened) and wasn’t asking them to step back and wait in the foyer area. Customer management was non-existent apparently.

So even though we ordered eight dishes, we barely finished and left as quickly as possible. Would you be able to enjoy a meal with five people elbowing you in the head, leaning over your table, and sneezing into your food?

Rating:

Author’s Note: I had to take cameras with my phone, so they came out very low quality. Some photos have been supplemented courtesy of Marz.

As soon as I pulled open the massive wooden door to its entrance, I was greeted with a loud and energetic chorus of irashaimase! from all over the restaurant. I was temporarily shell-shocked and froze in the entrance way, literally too dazed to take another step. Was this a restaurant? Was I still in Toronto? The warm, lively, chaotic scene before me seemed a world away from the wet, cold, windy, and empty street I had just left. I spotted my friends at the bar and quickly joined them.

The restaurant was not very large, but they seemed to have somehow fit a hundred people inside. The commotion of the Japanese chefs behind the bar, along with everyone else in the place, made it so loud I found it difficult to hear myself speak. Every few seconds, the entire staff would shout a chorus of Japanese together, and I would again be shocked into a daze. It took us a long time to order as the shouting made it hard to focus on the menus in front of us. Time here also seemed to go at a faster pace than the outside world. Our server came by four times before we were ready to order – it seemed like we were taking a long time when in reality, we took no more than twenty minutes. When we finished our meal (in a rather timely fashion I would say), we realized we had maxed out our two-hour time limit, but it felt like no time at all.

The food arrived very quickly and in no discernible order. This was a pub after all, whatever was made first was immediately served. The serving sizes are rather small (like tapas) and all menu items are under $10. For the four of us, we ordered six items to share, thinking it would be more than enough. We later ordered a second round and a third round, totaling 11 items.

Tonkatsu, a special that’s not on the menu, arrived first. Deep fried pork tenderloin drizzled with wasabi mayo sauce. As far as tonkatsu goes, this was decent, but tonkatsu is a pretty unexciting dish.

Salmon natto yukke was a dish I had been dying to try. Yukke is actually borrowed from Korean cuisine, which basically means raw seafood with seasoning and a raw egg, meant to be mixed together before eating. The salmon natto yukke was mixed with natto (fermented soybeans), shibazuke (pickled eggplant and cucumber in plum vinegar seasoned with ginger), takuan (pickled daikon), wonton chips, diced garlic “chips”, chopped scallions, and raw egg. Wrapped in crisp nori sheets, the mixture was a delicious juxtaposition of sweet and savoury, soft and crispy. The marinade was very aromatic, reminded me of cooking wine. The salmon chunks were fresh, and every ingredient was authentically Japanese. What a treat!

I find it interesting that this was called “hotate carpaccio” when there was a Japanese word readily available: hotate sashimi. Scallop sashimi swam in a creamy wasabi mayo dressing. The scallops were the freshest I had ever tasted. The localvore in me cringed at the thought of shipping these scallops from across the Pacific, but damn, it really was like no scallop I’d ever tasted on this side of the ocean.

The fried Japanese pancakes were not nearly as good as I imagined. The batter of okonomiyaki is supposed to be made of flour, grated yam, water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and other ingredients such as green onion, meat (generally pork or bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, kimchi, mochi or cheese². What I tasted was mostly flour and eggs, although I visually identified the green onions. I didn’t taste any seafood, although my companion claims she found a piece of shrimp. For something that is supposed to be the soul food of Osaka, it was rather bland.

Thinly sliced salmon arrived, drizzled in wasabi mayo and ponzu sauce. It was very lightly grilled, so it still tasted raw. The wasabi mayo was a bit overpowering for the pieces on top, but otherwise, delicious.

Kakuni came in a small clay pot with two pieces of braised pork belly and a boiled egg. The braised pork belly was cooked until it was falling apart and extremely tender, practically melting in my mouth, and its savoury juices had dissolved into the sweet miso soup. This dish left me begging for more.

The oden udon came with a boiled egg, daikon radish, and konnyaku. The oden soup was light, and the udon was very chewy, of the highest quality.

Ikapiri was an eatable bowl of deep fried calamari in a spicy red sauce which reminded us a lot of BBQ wings sauce. There was very little batter on the calamari, so it was basically squid with BBQ sauce.

Takoyaki is a favourite of izakayas in Japan. The deep fried octopus balls were a little heavy on the flour, not as crispy as I’d imagined.

For dessert, we opted for banana tempura and almond tofu. The banana tempura was fried to perfection and drizzled in mango and chocolate sauce – unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of banana tempura. I much more enjoyed the coconut ice cream that came with it. But that was nothing compared to the almond tofu. The light, refreshing tofu dessert made me want to burst out in song (which wouldn’t have been so out of place in Guu). The almond tofu alone was worth coming back for.

Guu also serves a wide variety of Japanese drinks, from Asahi to sake to Japanese soju. And even some house specials, like Guu’s own Ramune, and a variety of unique cocktails.

It was hard to be infected by the boisterous energy of the staff, particularly when sitting at the bar. Halfway through our meal, the entire staff burst into a Happy Birthday song for one of the customers, and soon the entire restaurant joined in. It was adorable to see the chefs and sous chefs raise their hands, clapping and singing.

The total came to about $20 per person, not including drinks and tip. Very reasonable considering the variety and freshness of the food, and the fun atmosphere.
By the time the meal was over, I felt like I was high (a Guuuuud high, as their menu would claim) and as I waved goodbye to the smiling and waving faces of the chefs and servers shouting sayonara!, I couldn’t wait to return.

Rating:

Author’s Note: Many of my photos from the dinner were rather bad quality due to the low lighting. So, some photos have been supplemented from elsewhere: Sifu Renka, tebpp, and snowpea&bokchoi.

1. It seems that weekends are not as busy as weekdays. Guu is open daily from 5 pm to midnight; if you go before 6pm, there usually isn’t a line-up. After 6 pm, on a weekday, the wait can be up to two hours.
2. Source: Wikipedia.

I love the fact that these noodles are not the thin egg noodles that most “crispy fried noodles” in Cantonese restaurant refers to. These were far more aromatic, my mouth is watering just thinking about them. The pork and vegetables (mostly celery strips) were very xian (savoury) but not salty. That is true for most of their dishes, they’re not as salty as the ones you’d find in many Chinese restaurants in North America, true to the Shanghai style.

Very tender, excellent sauce.

Just as good as the big version, except the Lion’s Head meatballs are sometimes over-cooked. The vermicelli tends to be easier to eat in the small version, since the heat is on the big hot pot the whole time that by the time you get to the bottom where the vermicelli are, most of it’s too breakable to scoop up.

These two are from the dim sum menu. On the left is a special kind of guo tie, it’s basically fried rice¹ except it’s fried until it’s crunchy. On the right is a sesame covered pastry ball with a savoury meat filling inside. It is absolutely delicious.

There was also an appetizer, called Shan Xi liang fen, which was a very good cold dish with huge portions (considering it was on the dim sum menu for under $5).

The following is what not to order:

On the menu, it just says “pork filling” so we didn’t realize it was going to be shredded cooked pork. This wasn’t very good, the dough could have been sweeter and lighter, the filling just tasted strange.

Xiao long bao. Their xiao long bao filling reminds me of wonton filling, which is just wrong. All wrong. In fact, many of their dim sum items are questionable. I would not order any of the cold dishes from the dim sum menu as those are sitting out buffet-style by the kitchen until they’re consumed, and they don’t look appetizing at all.

1. Think the bottom of a sushi pizza.