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.