Against the Grain Urban Tavern: Glorified pub on the water. great view. subsubpar food.

Against The Grain Urban Tavern

25 Dockside Dr
Toronto, ON M5A 1B5
(647) 344-1562

Oh.

Damn.

Well, today was a lovely day.  The sun was out, the humid x was down, the breeze was high! And what a lovely day to have a girl's brunch by the water.  Against the Grain Urban Tavern opened up a few months ago, and one of my girlfriends took charge and booked a table for 6 of us.

I got off the subway at union and walked from Queen's Quay (while my friends went south on Jervis), while on Queen's Quay, i was pretty concerned that the sewage smell would linger to the restaurant.  Happy to report, that it did not! Toilet Smell Free!

I wanna say, that i was pretty excited to visit this place, their website boasts that their Beer Braised Short Rib Burger was featured in Toronto's NOW magazine as one of the top 15 deluxe burgers in Toronto. And THAT was the burger i was gonna order. 

Beer Braised Short Rib Burger - all-natural Ontario Angus beef burger topped with pulled Cobblestone Stout Braised short ribs in a dark ale and molasses sauce, Blue Cheese, bacon, and fire roasted onions straws on Fred's Bread brioche bun - $17.00

THE REVIEW: OK. i'm usually not that harsh.  Someone said that i could never be a reviewer cause i just like everything. but SURE, if it's worth it to like.  I put up a caution sign, cause, you have to admit, it's a pretty hot picture. the fluffy brioche bun, crispy fried onions (which was the redeeming character of this tragedy), goblets of blue cheese, lots of meat. All the good stuff..... sadly. no.  The ingredients are full of the right stuff, it's like reading the personals, and it's like "6'2", athletic, blonde  hair blue eyed doctor fire fighter ambidextrous cobbler, loves rom coms, and dressing metrosexually" and failed to mention he's a nazi racist vapid kitten killer.  My burger, just like the nazi racist vapid kitten killer, is a disgusting, dense, inedible piece of shit.  AND unfortunate! cause i was so looking forward to the date!!!!  I couldnt even finish it! It was so bad.  I think i got lock jaw trying to chew that rubber piece of patty shoe. made of the finest old construction boots i bet! Nothing but the best for $17.00!!!

bleugh! back from where ye came from vile creature!!!!

EXPLANATION: So girlfriend next to me ordered this Stone Oven Baked Pizza, Barcelona: tomato, Chorizo sausage, green and Kalamata Olives, sun dried tomatoes, fresh Fior de Latte Cheese - $15.00.  I'm pretty sure THIS wasn't what she envisioned when she ordered this.  Is there a cheese shortage that they could only afford to spare 3 slices of cheese? Was this imported from italy by carrier pigeon and they could only carry 3 tiny pieces in their tiny little feet?  Seriously WTF.  She declined the pleasure of experiencing this cheese worth its weight in gold, probably. and made the third mistake, but ordering the horrid shoe burger I got.  First mistake, was reservations.

Tavern Benny: poached eggs on Cheddar buttermilk biscuits and witbier marinated Canadian bacon topped with a citrus Hollandaise sauce, served with red-skinned potato hash browns and mixed greens - $12.00.  This was apparently decent.

Pulled Pork Tacos: molasses and Tankhouse Ale braised pulled pork on soft flour tortillas with smoked Gouda, avocado creme fraice and pickled watermelon and radish salsa - $12.

This was apparently beyond OK. so good for you pulled pork. 

Salmon Nicoise: roasted salmon salad on grilled herb flatbread with arugula, Roma tomatoes, fine beans and a black olive and caper ailoi - $15

This was apparently underwhelming but OK.

THE SITUATION:  So we got there at 12:30, I think we ordered at around 1PM.  At this point the drinks came in wrong.  Girls who ordered iced americanos got the hot steaming kind.  An additional Caesar (tho cheap! at $3.00) took about 20 minutes to mix. 

This is actually a long ass story, so to summarize i'm going to quote miss Kristine. 

-So slow they comp'ed all our drinks

-so bad they comp'ed our food

-so messed up our server had a meltdown

No i'm not coming up with my own material, you said it perfectly.

Our poor server, she was a cheerful upbeat lady, though i think the weight of an unorganized rusty machine collapsing over her head proved to be too much for her.  I've never worked in the food industry, but we had 2 veterans at our table, who were disgusted by the way things were run.  Chaotic, manic and disorganized, untrained staff was the general condenses.  If you check out the reviews on Urban Spoon, pretty much sums up our experience today.

It was super slow getting anything out.  We watched anxiously as tables who arrived later than us, all got their food. WHAT THE HELL.  thankfully, the smarts in my head got a broccoli and cheese croissant at Union Station to prepare for my 1.5 km trek to the restaurant (i love how i know myself sometimes).  The sever was totally apologetic, and said she involved the manager with the lateness of our food.  Brought extra iced coffees to make up for those who got the wrong hot coffees.

When our food finally came, 45 minutes later. I know, cause there's a time stamp of 1:45PM of when i took a camera shot of my hot burger, all before tasting it, i was impressed, i was so eager, it looked HOT! oh. how looks can fool.  As described above. it was crap. The manager came to ask us how things were, I dont complain unless i find a human body part somewhere, i'm very passive agressive (SEE: BLOG), so i let the people around me complain... a lot.....  She said she'd take care of it, agreed the burger was dry upon looking at it, they were new, and for sure there were kinks they had to work out, appreciated feedback, she was very gracious.

Then things got weird.  We were pretty much done eating/not eating our food, and the server came by and we asked her to clear the plates, she was totally emotional and abruptly grabbed the dishes and stated that after her shift she was going to quit.  I thought she was going to cry, i'm pretty sure she was.  I think all of us felt bad, (well some WITH HEARTS), i hope we didn't make her quit!  We (THEY) weren't that bad? It was quite rational to not want sub par food and service, we are after all paying customers.... 

We got our bill. $88.75 of the food was comped (ok they even got the bill wrong but whatever....)

The manager came by with a stack of coupons to let us give it another chance. Promising a better experience.

Upon leaving, one of the food industry veterans wanted to let the manager know that our server was actually really nice and sweet, i mean, we did feel bad.  BUT apparently it wasnt us, well, maybe a cumulative of things involved, the owners were there and had just given the whole staff a stern tongue lashing.  OK seriously, maybe the owners watch too much Kitchen Nightmares or something and taking a page out of the Gordon Ramsey book, but verbally accosting your staff during service is totally demotivating and what good does that do really.  I read some reviews and it's all the same, slow service, untrained scared shitless staff, cold food, crap food.  It's a total shame cause this restaurant is on some hot real estate.  If the owners can pull their heads out of their... and stop yelling at people...and if people can stop telling me they're being yelled at... and if i can just get food that didn't used to be a tire. or an old goat that ate a tire.  But right now it's just glorified bad pub food with fancy window dressing.

Also. my rebuttal is to NOW magazine and their stupid deluxe review. Seriously? did you even EAT this burger? My bet is NO. pathetic. 

Yorkville Lunch Date: Hemingway's + MoRoCo

My friend Andrea moved to Toronto 3 months ago and we never found time to see each other (boo!!!! READ MY BLOG lol) so it was totally awesome to see her today! We went for lunch in the super elite neighbourhood of Yorkville (Yonge & Bloor), stopping first at the patio section of:

 Hemingway's

142 Cumberland Street
Toronto, ON M5R 1A8
(416) 968-2828

OH. it's a new zealand joint??? that totally explains the kiwi pictures everywhere.... i am so slow.

ALSO this makes me happy that i chose their lamb burger (cause im totally getting into lamb now... slow to start but it's growing on me!) cause there are more sheep in NZ than people right! 

GRILLED CHICKEN WITH BRIE AND APPLE - $10.89

Tender chicken breast with slices of granny smith apple and brie cheese served on a fresh twelve grain bun with mango mayonnaise

Andrea got this, she said it was really good! and loved the fries

KIWI LAMB BURGER - $12.89

New Zealand ground spring lamb, grilled and served on a lightly toasted bun with goat cheese and mint 

sauce, garnished with a slice of onion, tomato and lettuce

To curb new new lamb fixation i got this lamb burger, it was SUPER juicy, in fact it juiced all over my fries the first bite.  I woulda been pissed that i sogged my crispy fries in the first 2 seconds, but then again we were willingly sitting under the plant mist to cool ourselves down from the INSANE INTENSE HEATED SUMMER WEATHER.

After lunch, we were super stuffed. and just wanted to get ourselves in an A/C environment ASAP.  Did a little, well window shopping around (couldnt find anything :( but with the intent to get some gelato or frozen yogurt after.  She brought me to Moroco Chocolate:

Moroco Chocolat

99 Yorkville Avenue

Toronto, ON M5R 1C1

(416) 961-2202

this place is sooo pretty! Intent: Frozen Yogurt...

You step into their chocolate boutique area, i swear if i didnt know better (which i dont) i would have thought this was some fancy jewelry store.  Everything is delicately displayed, with a touch of decorum and class, fancy schmancy.

Beyond the chocolate boutique is a dining area. Black white and purple. Crystal studded plush black couches, and crystal chandeliers, zebra printed pillows.... basically if Lisa Frank had a back room for grown up parties, this is what it would look like. 

Case and point (from the star)

Well, we couldnt get our frozen yogurt :( Apparently, too many people came into the dining room area to order the frozen yogurt that it crammed up the dining room space. They only let you order if you have a big party and somebody wants it, or if its a private party or something other reason where there's a lot of money involved and not some schmutz who wants a measly froyo when they could be serving big spenders. 

They actually serve food, (but we were full). We noticed they do a high tea service here too! Would be nice to check out one day.

Well. these were my dessert options. 

I REALLY wanted a frozen desert type, cause it was soooooo hot. 

The only option that carried anything frozen that we saw was The Melteaser - $18.00

If i would have paid attention to the menu instead of seeing FROZEN... GET THAT. i would have read:

"Watch the Chocolate Sauce melt the Cocoa Shell to unveil three sweep scopes of Frozen Yougurt and Fresh Seasonal Berries"

If i saw that i woulda had my camera preparred! instead of just gawking at the waiter as he brought me a plate of chocolate globe. and poured a stream of chocolate over it, melting the chocolate globe away revealing the OVERSTATED scopes of FroYo. more like melon ball scoops. and a pinch of berries.

But HELLS was it AWESOME!!!!! those little malteaser balls added an awesome crunch!  I gotta say, it was totally impressive to eat, and felt a lot healthier than using my 18 bucks to buy a DQ chocolate log. The chocolate sauce was not too sweet, so it wasnt overbearing to consume such a large amount of chocolate.  

I ordered a glass of milk..... um... apparently nobody has ever ordered a glass of milk.... um.... except for children..... she gave me a straw. 

Andrea got the Kiss Me Kate

Moist Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. - $14.00

I think the presentation was very nice.  Although i think Andrea (and myself) were a lil disappointed with the cake... it was less red velvet than super chocolate. I much rather have a nice traditional red velvet with lots of perfect cream cheese frosting! 

It was a gorgeous place.  I kept saying, I FEEL LIKE A PRINCESS!!! it's a really nice place for girls to get their brunch and desserts on, you can fondue too, and the service was really good.  I would go for special occasions.... I would also go there if i didnt have to pay.....  but next time i have a frozen yogurt craving.... i'm going to Yogen Fruz... um that's more my budget....(unless someone wants to pay for my food!)

Tea Shop @ 5184 aka Stop and Seat

So on yonge street, between finch and sheppard, there are a few bubble tea places, there's teashop 168, near by is Ten Ren (by the Loblaw's), and then there's the teashop with no name other than Tea Shop Chinese Characters.... WELL, good thing i took a picture of the menu, because the elusive name of this little tea shop is indeed:

 "STOP & SEAT" 

5184 Yonge Street, North York, ON M2N5P6
Phone: (416) 229-6288

where i would have translated it as... one bustop one seat. oh. there was no bus in there. so i would have been right if i could actually read things without associating them with other words...

I like this place. 

they let you sit there for as long as you want, there's free wireless, you get to play with cards. wait. that's every other bbt place. ok how is this place different....

i really like their Taro Sherbert. which is what i get. and all that i get.

and my date only ever gets the watermelon sherbert.

There's a nice assortment of yummy taiwanese treats... tho many have been crossed out... i really would have liked to try the "Onion Intestine"...

Here's the Spicy Salt Crispy Shrimp -$3.99

I love eating this, heat and all, and the deep fried basil adds a touch of greenery, so i feel this is a healthy dish.

Golden Fried Chicken Wings - $3.99

mmmm i've probably devoured a couple dozen of these, which tells you how many multiple orders i order each time i sit! at one stop and one seat! the wings are super juicy! (though i must say that Teashop 168 has pretty juicy wings itself!)

Pan Dried Onion Pancake $2.99 (I wonder if they meant "Fried")

These are mini pan fried onion pancakes, i like them cause they're perfectly fried up cause they're small, and i also get to feel like a giant. 

I usually only order the appeys, but there was one occasion (and if you know me, it was known as the time i spent $60.00 at a BBT place... and now you know why)... anyway, i was not in the mood to go home (scared of my roommate), and decided to hang out all night and play age of mythology at BBT..... haha... hey also i ate, so its ok.

Shanghai Fried Rice Cake - $6.99

For around the price of an extra value meal... you can get a burger and fries or shanghai fried rice cake. I'm not sure why i'm making the correlation cause now i really want a burger so there is no point to this sentence.  But! i always like gluttonous rice cakes, i love the chew chew chewing, its like eating salty gummy bears. if... that appeals to anyone... at all.

Here's some sort of fried rice in egg, im sure it was around the same price range, like $6-7 bucks.  Im an OK with this, i'm always impressed by a thinly fried scrambled egg, with really no other reason than it looks pretty cool when it's covering a plate of rice.  i think i remember the rice was also ketchupy tasting. so... kind of overkill on that.

Another attempt to try something new, some lemon chicken. again it was OK! Obviously it was all devoured but... i really like the lemon chicken at Oh Geul Buh Geul the Korean bbq place a few blocks down.

I think the next time i go, i'll continue to stick to the appy's. They're deliciously tasty, though it can rack up the bill, and a few bucks each, but washing it down with an ice cold sherbert... mmmmm. thank goodness it's opened late!!!! 

Tah Deeg (Khorak Sara) @ Yonge and Finch, another Kebab on my kebab quest!

TAH Deeg

5525 Yonge St. South of Finch on Yonge

416-225-1688

416-562-0138

one of the flyers they have, not actual menu

So, i have only recently discovered the AWESOMENESS (and apparently healthiness), of kebabs!

The first stop i made was at Taftan Kebab and i was in love... i had it like 3 times in a week.  It was threatening thundershowers and i still flip flopped over...and it totally did thundershower...

I've been doing this Sheppard to Finch walk back on Yonge for awhile now, one weekend i was peering into the window and checking out the menu, and was like, ok, i'll come check out out some time, when the owner chased after us (ok walked briskly behind us to get something at the korean store next door) was like hey! dont you like ********* food? i cant remember what he said. And i was like, oh YESSS!!!! i'll come back! i promise! and i did.

here's the inside of it, its pretty small, its like a small persian grocery mart.

here's the chef griller grilling away, he took off his glasses for my shot. hehe.

The owner came over and was like, here's a free appy, on the house!  It's a yogurt with shallots he says. thick thick yogurt with salty bits, was interesting. gonna save this to sauce my meats!

He also gave me this Sumac powder, i'm not too familiar with it, he said to put it on the meat.  I looked it up, its a greek/middle eastern spice, used as a rub on meats, and has a sour lemon taste. oh! also its like bright red and really crunchy. i totally forgot to use it after taking this picture.

So here it is. I got the number 4. which... i forgot what it was, but consisted of barb beef, and koobideh, which is a ground beef kebab. there were also these yellow rice cakes, he said usually they make it with chicken but today, it was rice and egg and saffron.  Also! i finally found out what the butter was for.... you pour it on everything.  kind of an no brainer if i actually think about it.

At $11.99, this portion was smaller than the $12.99 at Taftan, where  you get a larger piece of meat.  But the koobideh was super moist and juicy and flavourful.  You also get a salad at Taftan which i missed, but instead you get these rice cakes here.  Ever since i got horrible service at Utopia Cafe last week (update soon!), i have been all about good service, like the exceptional service we got at Sassafraz in Yorkville this weekend.  The owner was SUPER NICE, super friendly, and really happy that i was trying his food out, brought me stuff to try. He was like, how did you find out about kebab!?!  Even the guy who was dining in earlier, him and the chef was like, how is your food? are you liking it? and he gave a thumbs up and they were like giddy schoolgirls.  It's stuff like that that's cool, when people are just happy to make food for people to enjoy. When we went to pay, the pop was gratis, a special he says.

The portions may be smaller. but the heart of a restaurant is the ppl behind it, and their hearts are huge!!! Such nice people. 

There he is! the owner standing behind the til! Go give him a visit! Tell him you found out about it on some girl's blog who came and took pictures.  maybe he'll give you a free pop! haha.

sassafraz - the heart of yorkville. pretty pretty pretty!

sassafraz

100 Cumberland Street

Toronto, ON M5R 1A6

(416) 964-2222

http://www.sassafraz.ca/

Today is my friend Jessica's birthday! (Happy Birthday!), and she picked this gorgeous place for brunch, in the heart of Yorkville, as the tagline goes.  I was going to say "lil" but it's not little at all, there's a patio, and then a front room with bar, separated by glass doors, you see this room, with the grand piano, and a waterfall behind (that i should've taken a picture of!), and an upstairs area, i think for private parties, that's probably even more gorgeouser. 

First time ever i was probably the first to arrive.... monumental... 

And you know what else was awesome, the service.  i had arrived first and got an earl grey and everyone else got a coffee type that came with a biscotti... and in my hungry state i was like, awww man!!!! i shoulda got a capo!!! and the waiter came back and gave me 2 biscotti's! give me free food??!!!! i love you forever!!!!

The brunch menu isn't extensive but looked great, 4 out of 6 of us got the Bellair Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with lobster, 5 year aged cheddar, grilled andouille sausage & potato chive  croquettes.

Scrambled eggs with lobster, 5 year aged cheddar, grilled andouille sausage & potato chive  croquettes - $18.00

I still can't look at eggs right now... it was sooo much! and it was soo good!  the eggs were super light and fluffy, and there were actual lobster bites in there, oppose to lobster flakes. I would always prefer lobster chunks, but i probably need to take a trip over to nova scotia to get that (and it would be worth it.. just to have lobster every day)... The andouille sausage was great, everyone loved it, i kinda wanted a bun and slap that on with some mustard. and the potato croquette was crispy crunch, i love deep fried texture... haha. 

Two poached eggs on smoked back bacon, fresh baked English muffin with hollandaise & potato galette - $16.00

The birthday girl got the eggs benny, i know i said that i always get the eggs benny every time i go for brunch... but i decided to switch it up. so i'm not a liar OK? just switching it up. crappy hollandaise will ruin the whole thing for me, and this hollandaise was really nice,  i suppose the eggs could be more beautifully poached, like those i got at Sarabeth's in nyc,  but whatever, i'm chewing it up anyway.   And then there's this potato galette thing that i've never had before, an it was really good.  Wiki just told me that Galette is some french term that applies to a flat cake. so i guess its a potato cake with a million layers... which reminds me, anyone remember those things called Vienetta Ice Cream Cakes, and its a million layers of thin chocolate with ice cream in between? I LOVE THOSE. where can i get some???

well. as much as i hate to admit it. i could not eat another bite.  Birthday Girl Jess got the bright idea to ask for ketchup, and even with the flavour switch i couldnt... i told the waiter i was sad cause i couldnt finish my food :( what a shameful moment in my life ....

We were waiting for the bill, and wondering why it took so long, when after a good 5-10 minutes, the waiter came back out with this! Isn't that so sweet??? Dark chocolates with ganache or whatever i'm just talking out of my ass, some ... soft thing inside. truffle? But it was great, and a bite of shortbread cookie.

So pretty. Everything was so pretty today, it was a really really good experience, great food, great service, great friends! Happy Birthday Jess!