Bier Markt - Shops at Don Mills

Bier Markt - Don Mills

7 O'Neil Rd.

Toronto, ON M3C 0H2

Canada

Bier Markt Shops at Don Mills

Boxing day is meant for battling the crowds and lineups at malls and stores for great buys and doorcrasher deals. Fortunately, I don't care about that stuff. Why bother with the headaches, when you can meet up with your buds and budette for an early afternoon drinking session that will surely last into the night. We met at the new Bier Markt that just opened up a couple weeks ago at the Shops at Don Mills. No doubt, my co-foodie suggested this place (instead of Joeys.. ehem!).

The Review:

We were seated beside the window on the opposite side of the bar. The four of us quickly ordered doubles (vodka, whiskey, rum and scotch) to wet the appetite. I'm a big fan of places that pour drinks using some sort of measuring tool instead of eyeballing it. Sadly, my double scotch (asked for soda on the side) .... wasn't a double. Bartender totally eyeballed it and it was an epic failure. Now, onto the food! I had just come from lunch so I wasn't totally hungry - decided to pick at my friend's food and order a liquid lunch for myself.

Bier Market Euro trip beers

Tada! This was my second lunch, 6 mini pints of beer. From Germany all the way to the Czech Republic, each of these beers had a distinct flavor. The Czech beer was my least favourite - kind of tasted like errr... dry leaf with a hint of armpit.. or something to that effect. Why backpack to Europe when I can cheap out and go with the Euro Trip ($19) sampler. My co-foodie had the Monday special - Flanders Chicken Pie ($16). Free range chicken with veggies and Stella Artois cream in a puff pastry, with fries and and greens. I picked at her plate - the fries were fresh cut, thin - well done and semi soggy with just enough salt. Good stuff. The chicken pie was creamy and rich with large chunks of chicken. The puff pastry was crisp, light and buttery. Perfect texture combo with the huge fork full I was fortunate to have after she nearly demolished the pie like a soldier with C4.

Stella Artois Chicken Pie

My other friends shared a 1 kilo order of 'Espana' mussels ($21). Chorizo sausage, leeks and roasted red peppers in a sherry sauce. Not being a fan of mussels, I still tried them out on the insistence of my linebacker friend who threatened to pick me up and toss me across the room if I didn't eat some. I combined the mussel with the chorizo sausage and pepper with a dash of Tabasco into a single bite. The spicy/saltiness of the sausage and tang of the Tabasco along with sweetness of the sherry sauce was enough to completely mask the ocean taste of the mussel. Surprisingly, I liked it!

Mussels

The Verdict:

I've been to the other two Bier Market locations several (dozens?) of times before, but have only gone for drinks. Was glad I got to try the food this time. Their pub food is one step up from regular run of the mill English style pubs and I can't wait to try more of their menu. Not too impressed with the stiffness of their mixed drinks, but their huge selection of cold beer totally makes up for it. I'm really liking the Don Mills location since it's literally right beside one of my favourite watering holes - Joey's. Overall, I'll give this spot a 7 out of 10. Definitely going back soon on a Joey's night. 

Update:

I've been back to this location several times since my write-up. Vot is going on after verk? Beer. I also got to try the 'Turbo Boot' ($7). It's a glass boot filled with Rolling Rock beer and Smirnoff Ice. Now if only I could find one of these boots for my drinking glass collection...




Das Boot!

Update:

August 16 / 2012. Back again on a Thursday night. No band tonight - but the place is at capacity. My friends and I eagerly wait at the bar for a table while sipping on some drinks. Why the heck didn't I learn my lesson the first time around when it comes to high ball drinks here. My scotch and soda was at best a half an ounce - and the ice diluted it to the point of tasting purer than water that has run down excavated rock in Banff Alberta forest. I'm here for the food tonight, so we order some stomach expanding munchies.

My friend of mine had mentioned a couple days ago she went for lunch at the Beir Market and had the smoked poutine. She was very blunt when she said "NEVER TRY IT!". Being an ex-french fry and cheese curd junkie, I had to try this for myself. The smoked meat poutine ($9) gravy had a deep flavour and just a hint of salt which was perfect because the smoked meat and smoother than normal cheese curds added the saltiness factor to the poutine. It had pickles on top which I didn't quite understand, but overall it was pretty good.




Smoked Meat Poutine

Legs and I being on a diet of the stars, split the wurst board sausage trio ($20). It hit the spot like a drunkard downing his first beer of the day. All three wurst sausages had distinct flavors - two of them were on the mild side and the third (the darker one) had a bolder flavor. The three sauces added a nice touch. This board came with pickles, a thick slice of cheese that tasted like a smoke Gouda and two large soft pretzels. I'd order this again - the perfect size for snacking while slowly getting inebriated.





Wurst Board Sausage



Spring Rolls - All You Can Eat!

Spring Rolls

45 Eglinton Ave. E.

Toronto, ON M4P 3A2

Canada

After a hard night of drinking, waking up the morning after (well, err.. afternoon) is always a tough task. After shaking the cobwebs out of the cranium, my thoughts quickly flash to food. My buddy and I decided to walk over to Spring Rolls on the southeast corner of Yonge and Eglinton. I've always liked the food at Spring Rolls, so when I heard they had an all you can eat deal on I had to test out my capacity for gluttony.

The Review:

We were seated in the upper level, which was already packed with couples and families. The all you can eat ($18.99) menu was huge with almost 80 items and divided into categories. They had everything from dim sum to Thai noodles to sushi and sashimi. They even had something called a 'sexy roll'. Does that mean the roll is sexy, or I'd become sexy if I ate the roll? Hmm. Back to the food. We started off with miso and hot & sour soup, along with lime infused chicken wings, crispy squid tentacles, har gow (shrimp dumplings) and shu mai (pork dumplings).

Miso Soup

One thing I always do whenever I have all you can eat asian food is start off with a miso soup to get the old belly ready for action. I find it coats my stomach with a layer of warmness that will protect it from the impending speed overeating session. The miso soup had a good, flavourful base with chunks of tofu and big pieces of seaweed. I liked how all of the tofu and seaweed pieces were different sizes - with every spoonful I'd get a different combo mixed with green onion. My only complaint was that they put the white part of the green onion in the soup which overpowered the taste of the soup base if I happened to scoop up a piece. After a couple bowls, I moved onto the lime infused chicken wings and crispy squid tentacles. The chicken wings had the unmistakable taste of the classic Chinese style deep fried chicken wing, but had a hint of lime and black pepper which was a nice added touch. Crispy skin, juicy chicken. The crispy squid tentacles were small to medium sized which was great for one biters. The squid was battered in a light coating that was seasoned perfectly and had a nice crispy texture. I loved them.  The har gow and shu mai were smaller than the dumplings at other places, but were on par with the taste. Straight up average.

Surprise #1 - If you ask for the hot mustard you're used to at regular dim sum spots, they give you regular yellow mustard instead - yes, the kind you put on hotdogs. Weird.



Gyoza and Korean Short Ribs

Next up, the gyoza dumplings and Korean short ribs. The gyoza dumplings were moist and soft on the inside (pun intended), and pretty big. Good flavor with what tasted like a soy ginger dipping sauce which went well with it. Overall the dumpling was soft, but it was very 'doughy'. The outside was dense and chewy which kind of threw me off a bit. Now the star of the show. I find a lot of Korean BBQ joints use a marinade that is way too salty on the beef and ribs. Let me tell you - I've fallen in love with short ribs again. Not Koreans, just their ribs. The perfect balance of salty and sweet, meaty with a touch of fat and grilled perfectly. These guys were unbelievably tender. Had to re-order more.



Salmon sashimi, tuna (butterfish?) and spicy salmon rolls



We had a few other random dishes, and throughout the meal we were picking at salmon and tuna sashimi. The salmon was great - bright with a lot of fat. What I liked were all the pieces were fairly big and were uniformly the same size. Every piece was butter soft with no chewiness. I had about 24 pieces to myself. Totally got my money's worth in salmon alone. Our mistake was that we left the spicy salmon rolls for the end, and after an hour and a half of pounding back food this would be challenge. Sushi rice is dense. Eating these rolls with no more room in the bag seemed impossible. So we did what anyone else would do. We hid the rolls. Under scraps of short rib bones, in bowls of half finished noodles and in sauce cups. Tada! All done. Finished off with the ritualistic end of meal green tea ice cream. It was a huge scoop, actually overflowed the little bowl it was in. Good stuff. 



The Verdict:

Although I'm not the biggest fan of 'chain' restaurants, I've always thought Spring Rolls was consistently good. The food on the all you can eat menu was more or less good. The Korean short ribs and crispy squid tentacles were fantastic. Overall, I'm giving the all you can eat ($18.99) at Spring Rolls an 8 out of 10. I'd definitely go back for a second, and probably a third round of gluttony.

Sushi Kai

Sushi Kai

168 Eglinton Ave. E.

Toronto, ON M4P 1A6

Canada

This small sushi hideaway is located in the Yonge and Eglinton area. Being an avid Groupon and Living Social buyer, I impulsively bought 2 deals for $40 of sushi for $20 each at Sushi Kai. I bought these last December, and nearing the expiry date I 'axed' some family and a co-foodie to join me for some sushi madness. This place is only open for 4 hours a day on the weekend (5pm - 9pm), so we needed to make a reservation. After phoning between 10 - 12 times, they finally picked up their phones and a reservation for five people at 7pm was cemented.

The Review:

We were seated immediately near the back close to the kitchen. We quickly ordered some Asahi beers to stimulate the appetite while looking at the menu. The menu was small and simple - we opted for a 45 piece salmon boat ($48) which consisted of sashimi, maki rolls and some sushi. We also ordered two (5 piece orders) of gyoza dumplings ($3.50), spicy scallop roll ($6) and a red dragon roll ($10).



The boat came quickly after ordering and took up most of the table. The salmon was deep pink and soft with a decent amount of fat. The sushi rice was on point, moist and packed tight enough that the sushi and rolls didn't fall apart when handling or dipping into soy sauce. The rest of the food came soon after we near demolished the whole boat. The gyoza dumplings were small, and a little hard on the outside but the filling had a good flavor and overall it wasn't as greasy as other gyozas I've had before. Being a larger roll, the red dragon was packed tight enough that it didn't fall apart into a million pieces when I bit into it. The textures were on point with the tempura still crunchy. 

The Verdict:

Sushi Kai meets the standard of average. The service was decent, food came quickly and the price was on par with the other 1 million sushi joints in the area. Their salmon was better then other places, so I'd give this place a 7 out of 10. Would I go back? I might, but ONLY if there was another Living Social or Groupon deal for this place.

Chako Barbecue Izakaya - Why is This Place Always So Busy?

Chako Barbecue Izakaya

2190 McNicoll Ave.

Scarborough, ON M1V 0D3

Canada

A friend organized a Saturday night out for 9 of us at 8pm. I drove up to Chako's in Richmond hill eagerly anticipating the sights and smells of searing seasoned and sauced cuts of meat. I quickly realized after a quick call that I was at the wrong location. I wasn't even in the right city. Oops, my bad. I guess I should have asked which one we were meeting at. After recklessly speeding down the highway and cutting several people off, I finally got to the other Chako's.

Surprise #1 - They don't have tables that seat more then 6 people in the main room. Our group was seated at 2 separate tables (guys at the 6 seater table, girls at the other). The girls table was far enough where we couldn't converse with them.

Surprise #2 - Apparently, they have all you can eat after 10pm Monday - Thursday for $10.

The Review:

Korean barbecue is fairly simple for normal people - you know, the people who aren't falling down drunk or people who have never cooked anything in their entire lives. If you fall into the normal category, good - I can skip all the bullshit explaining the grill and raw meat ordering process. One of our grills was off, and we had to ask the waiter to light the second one for us. Waiter (I think his name was Steve), you really expect 5 guys to cook on only one grill? C'mon bud! The second grill didn't seem to work properly - the heat was never high enough to really get a good charred look to the meat.

Chako's Short Ribs

Meats:

After ordering way more food then we could actually cook, we threw on a full grill of short ribs. The short ribs were cut thick - thicker then I've seen at any other Korean barbecue joint. Fatty, and marinated to the max - they took a while to cook on the good grill. Well worth the wait, very meaty and loaded with flavor and enough sweetness to balance out the saltiness. The regular beef order was sliced thin for fast cooking, but I found it was too salty for my taste. The chicken had a good flavor from the marinade, but this was also too salty for my liking. More salt doesn't mean more flavor argh!

Seafood:

The salmon came in trays of 4. They were also thicker, bigger pieces then what I'm used to at other places. Cooked fairly quick, meaty and salmony. Good stuff. The shrimps cooked quick as well, but spending all that time peeling the shrimp and making sure you get rid of all the Little legs takes too long. I'd skip it. The calamari (squid) had a good flavor, but a few pieces weren't cleaned properly before they landed on our table. The tilapia, err.. white fish? Decent, took a little longer to cook.

They also had a decent selection of veggies to grill up. The girls happened to notice the shape of the peppers before they put it in their mouths. Grilled mushrooms and zucchini are always winners. I by no means have anything that even resembles a sweet tooth, but they had pineapple rings that when grilled, get even sweeter. Grilled pineapple is awesome.  

Our grill was filthy by the time we finished. The black sludge from the fat and meat debris was caked on pretty thick. They didn't offer to change our grill at any time during our dinner - if you ask them I'm sure they're be quick to switch it. We were just too hungry to even ask. Ugh.. all that sludge can't be healthy.  Note to self: ask to have grill changed next time.

The Verdict:

Chako Barbecue Izakaya gets a 6 out of 10. Overpriced at $22, they also automatically add the tip on to the bill. The defective grill and some overly-salty meats and unclean squid soured my experience a bit. Good, thick cuts of short ribs and plump pieces of salmon are good - I'd stick to just those next time, along with the veggies and grilled pineapple. If I went back to Chako's, it would only be for the $10 all you can eat after 10pm.

Dangerous Dan's Diner - Does it Live up to the Burger Hype?

Dangerous Dan's Diner

714 Queen St. E.

Toronto, ON M4M 1H2

Canada

If you know me, you know I'm all about chase. But when it comes to beef, more specifically - burgers, it's all about the catch. I've been on the hunt for the cities best burgers for a while now. If only I had kept track of where I'd been and which burgers I've tried - prior to a couple weeks ago that would make a lot more sense.. doh!

I first read about Dangerous Dan's Diner a couple years ago on an online article about unhealthy food. It's located in an area of the city known as 'Leslieville'.  Dangerous Dan's Diner is nestled between a strip club (Jilly's) and small, local area specialty shops. Their claim to burger fame is their outrageously big and greasy burgers. I headed inside along with 3 friends who were up for some burger madness.

The Review:

Inside, it lived up to reputation of being a 'dive'. At first glance, it looked like something out of the movie 'The Hills Have Eyes'. The chairs and booths were old seats out of Dodge Caravans that seemed to be stained with what smelled like shit and spoiled food. There was a large picture on the wall of Dangerous Dan himself with his cat. I wouldn't be surprised if he f*cked that cat, killed it, and used the cat meat to make a mystery burger which was the inspiration for his now famous burgers. Far fetched, but possible. We sat down, and were quickly told that nobody serves us and we need to go the front to order. My 3 friends all ordered single 8 ounce (1/2 lb.) burgers with cheese - $5.39. I opted for the 16 ounce (1 lb.) double with cheese - $8.65. Somebody ordered onion rings - $3.35, and a side order of fries - $3.09.

Since the patties are pretty thick, it took about 10 minutes before the burgers were ready. Ready, set, eat! My 16 ounce double burger with cheese was huge. Taking a massive bite, the burger pattie started to fall apart immediately. Pieces of the pattie were falling onto the plate at a fast pace. It was soft, greasy and didn't have any seasoning. It did however have a strange sort of 'gaminess' taste to it. Scary. The damn thing just kept breaking apart with every bite. By the time I was half done, it looked like I had ordered a plate of ground beef. Most of it had crumbled onto the plate and I was forced to use a fork to pick up the pieces. My co-foodie told me her burger tasted like cleaning products. I don't doubt her - there were probably traces of cleaning product in there. The onion rings and fries - stay away. From the taste of them, you can tell the oil in the fryer hadn't been changed in a long time. The fries were the standard shitbox frozen kind. The gravy was completely bland. The bun? Now the bun was pretty good. Nice and soft, so you could really compress the burger to make it manageable.

The Verdict:

Dangerous Dan's Diner - now I know why there are marijuana logo's all over the menu. The only way to enjoy the food there is if you're high. IMHO, it's a 3 out of 10. The prices were good for the size of the burgers. The bun was good. But the texture, blandness, gaminess and cleaning product taste of the actual pattie combined with the old grease tasting frozen fries and gravy with no taste make this a place I don't think I'd come back to. Not even if I was high. Even if you offered me a joint and then a free meal followed by free drinks I'd have to reluctantly say no.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: Mulberry Ristorante - worth the drive to NY for a big meatball?

Mulberry Italian Ristorante

64 Jackson St.
Lackawanna, NY 14218

United States

Being a HUGE fan of the show 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives', I caught an episode where they featured this small joint down in western NY. My co-drinker Krissy and I decided to take a road trip to check it out Mulberry Italian Ristorante Located in the city of 'Lackawanna ' just south of Buffalo (grimey!), this little restaurant on a suburban city street was a little hard to find at first thanks to my horrible navigating.

We had a reservation at 5pm, and to our surprise it was empty when we walked in. All the hype on Triple D made us think we'd be walking into a packed house! The hostess was cute - a solid 7. She quickly seated us at a nice corner table, and being the alcoholics that we are - quickly ordered some drinks to get the night started.

Surprise #1 - Cheap drinks: Top shelf mixed drinks only $3.25!!

The Review:

The Mulberry Italian Restaurant menu was simple and to the point. We started off with some cesar salads - $7. The lettuce was crisp, and the homemade cesar dressing had a little tanginess and wasn't overly creamy. Overall, a decent cesar - but nothing to write home about.

They were beautiful. Huge, round.. and super soft. It might sound like I'm talking about boobs - but let's get back to the food. I'm talking about their famous Mulberry Italian meatballs. We each started off with one of their 5 pin bowling ball sized meatballs - $5. It comes in a big bowl. Smothered in their homemade red sauce with parm ontop and a single basil leaf. The texture of the meatball was like nothing I've had before. When you cut into it, it holds up and doesn't fall apart at all. BUT, as soon as you take a bite - it literally melts in your mouth. Super tender, and had a great flavor. A lot of stuff going on in there! The red sauce was light with a touch of garlic - scooped up the rest with my bread.

For our main, we split a large order of their cinder block sized homemade lasagna - $18. Since everyone in America is fat, this must be normal to eat something this big for dinner... right? Apparently they make a couple of these monsters every morning, and as soon as they sell out - it's off the menu for the rest of the day. The lasagna was stacked. It was loaded with their sliced homemade meatballs, chicken, sausage and a ton of mozz and parm. Again, it held up when you cut into it and didn't fall apart! The red sauce balanced everything out. My only complaint about the lasagna was that their was WAY TOO MUCH ricotta cheese on the top layer. Did someone spill the whole container in it and forget to tell the chef? WTF! My co-foodie pointed this out to me first, and I mean c'mon, we literally had to scrape out most of the ricotta to enjoy it.

The Verdict:

Overall, I give Mulberry Italian restaurant a 7 out of 10. Everything is homemade. The prices were great. (Well, isn't everything including food in the US cheap? I think I'd be morbidly obese if I could get Taco Bell combo's for $2 or a steak at a restaurant for $10). The meatballs lived up to the hype. The lasagna was decent but I wouldn't order it again due to the ricotta explosion in there. WTF lol. 

Q: Would I go back to Mulberry - and is it worth the drive if shopping in Buffalo?

A: I think so. I like cheap drinks, and I like oversized food.