Auberge du Pommier (an old review from Feb. 9)

Ahhh...Winterlicious. Something as a foodie, I look forward to every year. It's difficult getting a reservation here because of it's fame and for $45/prix fixe 3-course meal, it's supposed to be good bang for your buck. And being a foodie, I have heard delicious things about Auberge du Pommier. It is one of those Oliver Bonacini restaurants that are like a dime a dozen here in Toronto, except this one is supposed to be the Mother Ship of them all. Maurizio and I went with our delightful friends, Beatriz and Alberto, whom we always have a fabulous time talking and catching up with. But my food was so-so and the service was worse so. When given a menu that describes each dish with a written essay, I grow very wary. To start, we had the tiniest of all amuse buches - which was a mushroom quiche or tart. Meh, it was just o.k. All 4 of us ordered the "Salade de Saison" - arugula and endives with Muscat raisin dressing, Bleu de Gex and toasted walnuts. I am sad to say, this salad was the best thing on my tasting menu (next to the bread basket, the artichoke/onion/olive oil spread and the plump kalamata olives). As the main dish, we ordered the "Medallions de Boeuf" - swede aligot and roasted onion with comet tail (btw, what's a comet tail?) peppercorn jus. Everyone's meat was chewy in texture, and over cooked for a fine dining experience. I had and still have no idea what swede aligot is and if it was on my plate. Lastly, for dessert we had the "Brioche Pudding" - bread and butter pudding with apple puree and milk chocolate caramel. There was no brioche bread in here and no milk chocolate. It was more like flan meets creme brulee. It had no structure and no real taste. I ate it anyways more out of hunger than delight. Funny thing is, our waiter also agreed that to call this dessert a bread pudding was false advertising. The drip coffee was made of beans on the over burnt side and the coffee came AFTER we had already eaten our dessert. The "mignardise" were short bread cookies - to their credit, they were flaky, but again, no taste. My husband and I had a lovely appertif at the start of the meal and we ordered a bottle of the Shiraz, a 2006 Penmara Shiraz from New South Wales, Australia. It was nice and reasonably price pointed at $40/bottle. Would I ever come here again? No way. No one could pay me enough money to come here again. I would certainly go to Quince or Delux faster than I would go back here again. I can not, in good faith, recommend this restaurant to anyone. It's just not worth the bang for the buck and we clearly went on a night when the wait staff were not on their game.

Foxley's on Ossington

Foxley's - located on Ossington, a few blocks north of Queen Street, is Asian Fusion at it's finest.  My girl, Janice, and I went there a couple weeks ago - it's taken me this long to write about it because it was such a special evening and a very unique dining experience.  We had no wait - we arrived a bit after 8 PM, I believe, and we sat at the bar.  We ordered a couple glasses of red wine that was very smooth and easy to drink.  As this is a tapas type resto, we ordered a few treats - the shrimp with spicy sauce, the ribs in a shallot glaze and the blue crab avocado salad.  The shrimp was amazing - each one, very fresh, crispy and the sauce was spicy without being too over the top.  I believe the word jalapeno was in the sauce description and if you know anything about Mexican food, a jalapeno can be "burn your mouth" spicy!  The crab salad came on top of a halved avocado.  I took a spoon and separated the avocado from the skin and we just dove on in for what was a delicious and fully loaded crab salad.  It was just awesome.  The textures of the crab and the avocado were just amazing.  Lastly, the ribs - omg...those ribs are out of this world.  We actually ordered 2 full orders of the ribs, knowing how good they were - Janice had been here before and absolutely drools over these ribs and now I know why.  If ever I want a unique dining experience, or to treat myself to a nice meal, Foxley's Bistro would be an excellent choice.  Between the 2 of us, with tip and tax, we spent $36 each.  Not bad if you ask me!  As it is Asian Fusion, I don't know about you, but I have to be in the mood to be enticed by different flavors and textures - so when the mood hits you, go for it, because you can't go wrong here.  

Alice's Tea Cup in NYC

I forgot to write about my favorite little place in NYC called Alice's Tea Cup.

They have one of the best buttermilk scone's I have ever had.  Dense but not too dense.  Flaky, without being doughey and pastry like.  It is cakey without being cake.  And accompanied by one of their many loose leaf teas (I always get Earl Grey), it is one fantastic scone with clotted cream and jam.  Yum...

Alice's Tea Cup is located on 102 W. 73rd Street off of Columbus.  

www.alicesteacup.com

Quince Restaurant (2nd time)

It is Friday the 13th, the day before Valentine's Day, and my husband just took me to Quince for yet another good meal.  We started off with aperitif's - sweet vermouth on the rocks and dubonais on the rocks for me.  We shared the pork/celeriac/apricot terrine - it was good, but Delux's terrine's are softer and more flavorful.  I'm always in awe of the way the grainy mustard is presented on a plate - the cutest spoonful of mustard shaped like a mini-football.  For entrees, one of tonight's special's was fresh pickerel.  It had a lovely broth and came with sugar snap peas and beautiful thin sliced mushrooms, and heirloom looking tomatoes.  My husband ordered that.  I had the braised lamb shank with mashed potatoes and watercress salad.  It was melt in your mouth delicious.  We paired our meal with a half liter of Pinot Grigio.  For dessert, we both ordered our own chocolate bread pudding with vanilla ice cream.  It is SO good.  This is what bread pudding should be.  Not like the one at Auberge that was a cross between flan and creme brulee.  I most definitely recommend Quince now the way I did before.  Even more so because service came with a smile, the price point is just right, and the food is delicioso.

Community Restaurant in NYC

As I was leaving on the Saturday morning, Jan. 31st from NYC, I thought, should I have my last meal be at my favorite haunt, Sarabeth's?  Or should I try something new?  I decided life's too short - I've gotta try something new recommended by Elena.  And I'm so glad I did.  Ziv and I went to Community Restaurant on Broadway between 112th and 113th and it was delicious.  Started with the freshly squeezed pear juice (amazingly refreshing) and I ordered the BELT - bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato sandwich that came with an awesome potato/carrot hash.  Ziv ordered the famous blueberry pancakes with maple butter that was all melted and so delicious. 

I'd gush about this meal even more, but I've gotta give my kid some attention right now...more soon!  

Pear Juice:

Blueberry Pancakes:

BELT:

Red Mango on 32nd St.

Have you heard of this crazy new fad in Korea/Japan of frozen yogurt?  There are so many different stores, versions, rip-off of store concepts, etc., but all I know and care about is Red Mango.  It's located down W. 32nd St. in the heart of Little Korea in NYC, and I love it!  I've probably already written about it here once, I've been here now 2 times, and will always go back as long as I am standing.  There are only 3 flavors of yogurt here.  Plain (which is what I get), and on the 30th of January, they had pomegranate and something else, I don't remember.  Probably green tea.  You add toppings, like MOCHI bits, oh, was I a little excited about the mochi?  Uhhh, yeah, I was.  I love mochi - sweet rice cake bits - no red beans, just sweet chewy rice cakes on top of the frozen yogurt.  And I also got greedy and had fresh pineapple and strawberries.  It was divine.  I love it there.  Super refreshing and no matter how much Korean food I've just eaten a few steps away, I seem to be able to make room for this dessert.

Han Bat, Korean food in NYC

On 53 W. 35th St., is this Korean eatery open 24/7 called Han Bat, and I used to go there fairly often.  Introduced by my friend, Alan Gilbert (I am soooo name dropping here, but I love Alan and he took me here whenever he came thru town), I recalled meals of crunchy, savory pah jun's: a seafood and green onion pancake, and the infamous dolsot bim bim bop, which is a mixture of rice, meat, veggies, and egg all served in an extremely hot stone pot that you stir as soon as the food arrives at the table.  The side dishes of kimchi were great - especially the napa kimchi and the radish kimchi.  I could do without the half moons of hard boiled eggs in soy sauce.  I went with my foodie cousin, Elena, Ziv and his fiancee, Megan.  It was good, but I was thinking how the food is better in Toronto or maybe we should've have gone next door to get bijjie jigae.  Ahhh...there's always next time for next door.  However, my next post is one of my new favorite places in the world!  Red Mango!  Yummy...dessert!