Adorned in soft pastel tones, comfy high-backed seats, crisp white tablecloths, and with a warm light descending from ornate chandeliers, this intimate restaurant is more akin to a king’s palatial tearoom. Source: Time Out

I couldn’t have described it better myself. Service is extremely attentive, among the best I’ve experienced in Singapore. They also happen to have delicious Thai food, the kind that will be featured in recurring dreams afterward (I should know).

Pandan chicken is well-seasoned and very tender. Fantastic with the sweet Thai sauce.

The menu called this “Shrimp with coconut strips” but it did not prepare us for what came out. It was more like shrimp cake, with coconut strands in the batter, but after frying, there was no fragrance from the coconut at all, which was a little disappointing. The shrimp cake was executed well but the batter itself was just average.

Traditional duck in red curry is the dish that I dreamed about after my first visit, and was the object of my return visit. The first time we had it, the duck was tender and succulent. There were also many ingredients in the curry that surprised and delighted us, like pineapples and grapes for a sweet taste. The second time we ordered this dish, the duck was tough to chew and the vegetables in the curry were under-cooked. The curry paste itself was good, but overall the dish was a bit disappointing.

Pad thai came with truly enormous prawns, that were less appetizing in real life than in photos. The pad thai itself was very well executed though, with a harmonious blend of sweet and sour.

Custard with roasted pumpkin and ice cream was a unique dessert that initially surprised my taste buds, but after I got used to the custard-pumpkin combination, I really liked it. The ice cream, on the other hand, was supposedly vanilla but had a very bizarre after taste that made me think there had been an herb of some sort mixed into the vanilla.

Thai iced tea here is the best I’ve ever had. It is vaguely like bubble tea in that it’s black tea with milk and sugar syrup, but it is so much better than that.

This is a rather pricey joint if you have frequent Thai cravings like me, but I would definitely want to come back to try more of their menu. In future, I might only come for dinners as I have reason to suspect their chef skills are better for dinner than for lunch.

Rating:

The wine selection was all-French, categorized by region, and I was very happy that we settled on the Gewurtzraminer.

To start, we had oysters and foie gras. It was my first time trying oyster, and I have to say, I did not like the experience. My companions told me that oysters were an acquired taste. I suspected it was a taste I would never acquire.

The foie gras was unexceptional, perhaps because I had had the best foie gras of my life at Stella. Their superiority remained unchallenged.

I asked for a traditional duck confit, although I had read rave reviews online about their alternative duck confit (shredded duck meat under a layer of mashed potato), which I had had before at Sen5es in Toronto and likened to lasagna. Not my style. The traditional duck confit here was among the best I have ever had. The meat was savoury and falling off the bones, the skin was fried to crisp perfection, and all of it swimming in the juices… oh the juices! The French really know their way around duck (and the rest of the world doesn’t eat nearly enough of it, in my opinion). The mashed potato was also exquisite, so smooth and creamy you could forget it was potato.

The rack of lamb and steak were also a hit with my companions.

For dessert, we had a delicious hazelnut mousse cake and a sweet dessert wine.

I confess, I want to go back immediately and try their other entrees, like the pork neck or beef cheeks. The only obstacle? The price. Oh, and the fact that the washroom is outside the restaurant and down the hall, which is shared by the McDonald’s next door. Classy.

Rating:

Lunch at a Chinese restaurant near work.

I didn’t get pictures of our first dinner, which was at Jumbo Seafood Restaurant and included such memorable dishes as the jumbo chili crab, deep-fried beancurd, steamed fish, liang ban jellyfish, prawns with cabbage, and seafood fried rice.

Dinner at Otto, an upscale Italian restaurant, the next night.

Dinner at an Italian pizza joint.

Dinner at Stella, a fine-dining establishment on the 62 floor of a building downtown. One floor up is the world’s highest al-fresco bar, with stunning views of downtown Singapore.

I’ve never enjoyed foie gras, but these were quite good, and the pastry was unbelievably light.

These were the best maki rolls I have ever had. The combination of flavours and textures was almost overwhelming.

The scallops unfortunately tasted a bit funny to me, probably because they’re not fresh enough. The prawns in the risotto was overcooked, while the risotto itself (the rice grains) were undercooked. The cream base was quite good though.

The desserts were to die for. The creme brulee was just perfect, with bits of macadamia on top. My favourite was the hazelnut mousse, although the toffee cake and pistachio tart were both surprisingly good – both were a little bit different than the norm. I was impressed by the creative use of ingredients.

Lunch at a tiny but busy Japanese joint near Causeway Bay MTR. They are known for their fatty tuna sashimi.

Lunch at an apartment-turned-restaurant near Sham Shui Po, Western-style cuisine, prix-fixe menu that included appetizer and entree. The dessert (every single dessert on their menu) was compliments of the owner, who seemed to know my friend’s aunt.

Brunch at 霞飛點心拉麵 (Xia Fei Shanghainese Restaurant). Each dim sum item was better than the last!

Brunch at a traditional Cantonese dim sum place, 蓮香樓, Lin Heung Tea House. This was actually the most disappointing meal, I don’t know why this place has such great reviews (is considered the best Guangdong dim sum place in Hong Kong). It was extremely chaotic and dirty, the food was also terrible.

Dinner at a cafe/diner in Lan Kwai Fong. The food was average.

Breakfast at The Brunch Club.

1. Curry fish balls, lobster meatballs, sausages, roasted octupus, and deep-fried calamari. With a side of Hong Kong milk tea.
2. Deep-fried seafood platter, soooo good. Pumpkin risotto was also delicious.
3. I got two pictures from it, but the rest of the meal went unrecorded. I can’t remember what else we ordered, other than xiao long bao and shrimp dumplings, but I know there was an order we added at the end that was delicious.

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:

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 not 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 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.

They boast the best burgers in town but at $12 a burger, they’d better be good. We settled on chicken fingers, poutine, salad, and a cod sandwich.

The chicken fingers were made from fresh chicken breast, and were tossed in a thin breaded coat with light seasoning. They were piping hot and absolutely delicious. Not oily or soggy in the least.
The poutine was made with what seemed to be beef gravy, on a bed of thick-cut fries. The fries were delicious, but the dish would have been even better if they hadn’t used cheddar cheese strands.

The side salad was your average garden salad, but the homemade sauce, in my case honey dill, was surprisingly good. The Guinness-battered cod was tender but bland, although the tartar sauce was one of the best I’ve had. The burger/sandwich was too large to eat together, so I had to eat each half separately.

For dessert, apple crisp was the featured special. The apple was heavily doused in syrup and cinnamon, with a generous serving of vanilla ice cream on top. Presentation was a bit shabby, but the taste made up for it.

Rocky road mud pie was nothing more than chocolate ice cream cake, with loads of almonds and a very yummy chocolate crust¹.

Service was attentive, and the food arrived quickly, although that may have been because the place was practically empty at noon.

Rating:

1. The crust tasted like an Oreo crust even though the menu said “wafer crust”.

I settled on the Thai Peanut Power Bowl while my friend chose the Pate Sandwich. The sauce in my Thai Peanut Power Bowl was more like a red curry sauce than a peanut sauce. In fact, I don’t think I tasted or saw any hint of peanuts in the bowl. The chickpeas and sweat potatoes gave a nice texture to the sloppy mess, which rested on a bed of quinoa. The dish certainly could have used more kick, the sauce was bland and most of the flavour was from the sweet potatoes. I was disappointed to realize that this restaurant perpetuated the vegan reputation: blandness². Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I thought that perhaps they did not want to put in too much sodium – you know, being health-conscious and all.

On the side, I had ordered a sweet potato cornbread, which turned out to be dry and tough and tasted nothing like sweet potato. I took half of it home in a paper bag, and when I got home, the paper bag was soaked through with oil. So much for the health-conscious defense.

For dessert, we shared a velvet chocolate cake. It was slightly more dry and crumbly than I’d have preferred. It was not too sweet, like the cakes of the “good ol’ days.”

Service was hit and miss. Sometimes the server would check on us twice in ten minutes, other times she wouldn’t come by for a stretch of 30 to 40 minutes. The washroom was small and cramped, but not anymore cramped than the rest of the restaurant. It has a homey feel, and the staff are certainly very welcoming. Unfortunately, I suspect the chef of this restaurant is also a family cook.

Rating:

1. Jambalaya is now at 119 Dundas Street.
2. Blandness is not something that vegan restaurants have to suffer from. I have had plenty of vegan dishes that were just as flavourful, if not more so, as non-vegan dishes.

“The skylights really let the light in,” I comment to my friend as we are seated. The linens are neatly folded in front of us and feel thick to the touch. The tables are set far apart for privacy and easy navigation. So far so good.

A greasy-haired waiter shows up at our table promptly inquiring after our drink choices. We hadn’t had a chance to look at the menu yet, so he leaves and returns with water. When he returns a second time, we still weren’t ready, and he seemed to have decided we were never going to order. It takes much longer for him to return a third time.

My friend and I both made selections from the Summerlicious menu, and I added a pot of tea to my order, surprised that they had a tea menu at all¹.
The food came reasonably quickly.

We both had the charcuterie to start.

The salamis were forgettable, and the cured vegetables were far too sour. The pork rilettes on toasted ficelle turned out to be something like a meat pâté on a slice of demi-baguette bread. The pork rilettes were good, but considering it was the only eatable item on the plate, that wasn’t saying much.

My entree was the Lake Trout, while my friend opted for the mushroom risotto.

The Lake Trout was a horrendous disappointment. The skin was nice and crisp, but the trout itself was completely lacking in flavour. The green beans and potatoes were boring, the kind you might find at a large banquete dinner. The roasted almonds and shallots were an interesting mix, although far too buttery, which made the aromatic almond and lemon noisette less noticeable.

The mushroom risotto fared better with my friend’s palate, although tomato in risotto was a questionable choice. The risotto was creamy, but far too salty.

For dessert, we both chose the Niagara Angel Food Shortcake. We were hopeful that dessert would satisfy our taste buds – after all, dessert was virtually always agreeable to us.

The apricots in crème Anglaise were quite nice, but the angel food shortcake part was peculiarly foam-like – you can tell from the picture how spongey it was. It was also tough to break apart, I had to use a spoon and a fork together to pull the cake into smaller pieces.

The waiter came back only once to check on us during the meal, and another time, looked over while I had an empty plate in front of me but did not come to clear it.

“So… why did you insist we come to Pangaea?” My friend asked out of curiosity, assuming I had read a rave review somewhere. I admitted I had not, but had made my decision largely because the chef had followed me on Twitter. She rolled her eyes. I deserved it.

I felt a little guilty about making her accompany me to this disappointing experience when I went to the washroom and – to my horror – found myself in a tacky tiled bathroom that looked like it had been built 20 years before the rest of the restaurant. The metal stall doors were rusting, the tiles on the floor were uneven and dirty, and there was barely any water pressure coming from the cold water tap. Classy.

Not only was the service inconsistent, the food disappointing and overpriced (I would never, ever, ever come back for a regular-priced meal), but the washroom was dirty! There was toilet paper on the floor and pee on the seats. For goodness sakes, Moxie’s has nicer washrooms, and there are drunk people there on a weekly basis!

The washroom was the last straw. My friend and I grabbed our purses and vowed, with good reason, never to return.

Rating:

1. A very decent selection, I might add.

My friend celebrated her birthday by giving us all an excuse to pig out on pub food and chocolate cake.

I love La Rocca cakes, and the Nut Buster is one of my favourites, but I also had a chance to try their Strawberry Shortcake, which was amazing and inspired me to make my own.

More birthday celebrations at The Old Spaghetti Factory, followed by a late night preview of Star Trek.

Another birthday celebration, this time at my favourite upscale restaurant in Yorkville: Sassafraz.

Lunch in Korea town (North York) at the much-loved Owl of Minerva, followed by bowling to work off all those delicious panchan and entrees.

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries halfway through the month, so I have no pictures from:
Lettieri Espresso + Bar – their almond biscotti was good, but definitely not made in-house
Panorama Restaurant and Lounge – a disappointing coffee creme brulee
Northern Dumpling Kitchen – review coming soon
Mengrai Gourmet Thai – decent pad thai (not very flavourful, although heaped with toppings), excellent service, and a very interesting green tea creme brulee