Assembly Chefs Hall - The permanent popup is here.

The future of dining is here!

January 25, 2018

Assembly Chef's Hall -Grand Opening

111 Richmond St. W.

Website:  Eat Assembly

@eatassembly

#eatresponsibly

I died and went to my food heaven in Toronto this week.  I attended the Grand Opening of the NEW Assembly Chefs Hall and saw my dream of a permanent place that was like all the best pop up events in Toronto all in one fantastic space. 

Assembly is located at the Richmond-Adelaide Centre in the heart of downtown Toronto nestled in the ground floor of the Google building on Richmond St. W.

Boasting 18,000 square feet, 17 vendors, a sprawling beer hall, coffee bar and over 3,000 square feet of outdoor patio space.This is not your typical food court with generic low quality fast food. This should be the future of food courts or food halls.

Led by executive chefs, baristas and culinary directors alike, the line-up includes second locations and new concepts from some of the city’s best. Toronto will enjoy spin-offs from the teams behind Bulldog Coffee, Cherry Street BBQ, DaiLo, Hibiscus, Khao San Road, Los Colibris & El Caballito, Love Chix, Nutbar, Ramen Isshin, Bar Reyna, Short & Sweet Bakeshop, The Good Son and Tokyo Smoke. Additionally, current and former chefs of The Chase & Colette, Raca Café & Ufficio, Little Anthony's and Shoushin. 

If you have been keeping up with my blog posts over the past couple of years you will know that I have checked out most of the best food festivals, pop-ups and charity events in Toronto and there is always 1 or 2 things that bug me about them.   Mostly the locations and trek to them or things like washroom facilities and seating.  Well this new Food Hall solves all those issues.  It's as if I designed this place myself or someone has been reading my blog because I have been talking about these things for a long time.   Assembly Food Hall is located on Richmond St. W.  about an 8 minute walk from Osgoode Station and it's close to Hotels, office buildings and even City Hall.   It's also on the next block to where I used to work and at the time I used to go to the food court in that same building on the level below Assembly.  
My timing is always off.  Hopefully I will work closer to the Hall again soon though.

The space has a great flow on various levels with different seating areas and even a Stand Up Sushi restaurant that promises to deliver lunch in 30 minutes.

Most of the chef's in the Hall are experienced in providing small flavour packed bites of food at festivals, pop ups and charity events all over Toronto besides their bricks and mortar locations.  This gives them a permanent home to be able to provide the same small scale quick food without having to carry a whole restaurant.  With the minimum wage increase and the high cost of rents and taxes in Toronto this makes the most sense for a group of some of the best restaurants and I would say a lot of these people are probably friends too, so it makes sense for them to team up and provide a community as well as a viable restaurant business option.

The food is fantastic, I think I tried something from almost every vendor.  Some of my favourites included the Pork belly from Dailo,  the Gnocchi from Boemo, the ribs from Cherry St. BBQ, the chicken from Love Chix, the lamb in phyllo from Bar Reyna and let's talk about the Sushi from the stand up bar Tachi and the Chirashi from Shari so fresh is just melts in your mouth.  Also notable was the real deal taste of Italy Napolitano pizza from the Good Son.  One of the cities favourite Thai dishes from Khao San Road is their Khao Soi noodles.  

But really, most of it was amazing and really there was something for everyone even the Vegan's in your life will be happy.  It's a great place to have lunch with your coworkers or meet up with your friends because you can choose whatever you like and get whatever you want to drink too with 2 bars and a coffee stands that will take care of your beverage needs.

There will also be music in the space so no more boring background noise and the awful food court seating and lighting.  This place is modern and sleek and cozy at the same time.  Kudos to the designers of this place.  It's simple but there are touches of artistic creativity in the different stalls and the wall murals and there is even a selfie stop.  They really thought out this whole concept and I have a feeling that the wealth of experience from the group of Chefs contributed to it's design.

I can't say much about the prices because not all of the prices are listed on the menus on their website but even though it's probably higher than your usual food court prices it's closer to eating in a great service restaurant and the quality of the food is far superior to a food court.

I will be back.

*Disclaimer - The food was complimentary but the opinions and photos are my own.

The Best Places to eat at TIFF17

With the constant change happening in Toronto and all of the restaurants that come and go and even changes to how the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) organizes their festival it has made creating this list change every year.  I am always happy to discover new great places to eat but there are a few places that just become go to places year after year.   This time I will classify my list in a new way adding *New* this year and I will only list places I would eat at from $ - $$$.  Sometimes you don't have time and want something fast and cheap and sometimes you have time to kill between films and are in need of some solid food so I will list my best bets for both.

Starving Foodie's Guide to the BEST EATS at TIFF17

Bell Tiff Lightbox - 350 King Street West

A&W Restaurant - 8 Mercer Street  

You just want some cheap and fast burgers and fries this is your best bet.

Luma or Canteen in the Bell Tiff Lightbox - 350 King St. W.  

Conveniently located in the Lightbox and near the Princess of Wales theatre great when you have time to go far between films.

Montecito - 328 Wellington St. W. 

This place is a hidden Industry secret.  Owned by great filmmaker Ivan Reitman. It’s on the high end but the food is pure quality comfort food.

Calii Love – 367 King St. West

You will probably find me here a lot during Tiff.  I love Poke Bowls for quick and light fare that will keep me running up those Roy Thompson Hall stairs.

Elgin and Winter Carden Theatre - 189 Yonge Street

Richmond Station - 1 Richmond St. West 

Top Chef winner Carl Heinrich makes his signature double beef burgers and their pastry chef is legendary.

The Chase - 10 Temperance Street

The Chase has a fantastic roof-top patio and sister shop Little Fin will be turned into a Planta take-out location soon.

*New - Sud Forno

I fell in love when I walked in the first time.  You can take-out or eat in.  It’s their second location and it’s glorious.  Salads, sandwiches, pizza, hot table items and Italian pastries.  

Carbon Bar - 99 Queen St E.

Need a great drink and some BBQ then this is the place. In the former City TV building the space is open and lush and the food is filling and fantastic.

*New - Saks Food Hall by Pusateri's - 176 Yonge Street

My stop for the best roast beef sandwich by the inch and whatever you crave to go.

Glenn Gould Studio at CBC - 250 Front Street West

Wahlbergers - 46 Blue Jays Way 

Owned by brothers Donny, Mark and Paul Wahlberg.  
Their own Burgers etc

*New – Kellys Landing – 123 Front Street West. 

It opened recently and I have already been there twice, once for a preview and went back for their light and flavourful Tuna Poke, it’s mostly tuna and fresh.

* New - Mascot Brewery – 31 Mercer Street

Rooftop Patio with their own beer and great variety in their Pub style menu. Get the Mascot Burger.

Jackman Hall, AGO - 317 Dundas Street West

Mean Bao - Village by the Grange Food Court  

Cheap, fast Bao's and dumplings

Provo Food Bar - 308 Dundas St. W.

Gourmet Casual dining and the food is really good too.

Frank - 317 Dundas Street West in the AGO

I have had food from the AGO catering at events and it's pretty good.

Scotiabank Theatre - 259 Richmond Street West

* New - Ricarda’s - 134 Peter St.

Mediterranean Restaurant and Bakery.

Carver Eatery - 101 Peter St.  

This place is a tiny hidden gem with the best award winning slow roasted sandwich take-out. 

Thoroughbred 304 Richmond St. W.

A place to chill with some interesting food and a drink.

*New - KIIN (former Khao San Road) - 326 Adelaide St. W.
Chef Nuit took Thai up another level for KIIN.

Princess of Wales Theatre - 300 King Street West

PAI - 18 Duncan St.

Great Thai food.  It's a busy place but it's the real deal.  They have a tiny patio.

Figo - 295 Adelaide St. W.

Close to the Princess of Wales and Lightbox theatres.  Great classic Italian Food and they have a patio too.  
Get the Zucchini Fritti

*New - KIIN (former Khao San Road) - 326 Adelaide St. W.

It will be busy so try and avoid peak times.  
Popular with foodies in the know.

Roy Thompson Hall - 60 Simcoe Street

Ritz Carlton - DEQ - 181 Wellington St.W.

This is where my Entourage team congregates to on long weekend shifts for a break between films or after a film.  Great patio and the Parmesan fries are great.

Elephant & Castle - 212 King St. West

This is where my Entourage team goes when we are hungry because it's comfort food that fills you up and you can get a beer too.  The menu has changed but the food is still great. You can get Jalapeno Mac and Cheese with Chicken or Shrimp.  It's fantastic and the perfect amount.  

Los Colibris /El Cabalito - 220 King St. West

Tacos, they got Tacos and guacamole and Los Colibris has upscale Mexican food.  They have a rooftop patio but be warned the music is really loud.

Ryerson  - 43 Gerrard St. E.

Banh Mi Boys - 399 Yonge Street

Fast, cheap and great.  My fav is the Fried Chicken Banh Mi sandwich.

Salad King -340 Yonge Street

Ryerson students may be everywhere. Always packed. You can eat in communal style or take out. 

Hot Star Fried Chicken – 374 Yonge Street

Very popular with the young Asian crowd.  If you want hand held pounded fried chicken this is the place for you.  They just opened their 2^nd location in North York.

Summerlicious 2017 tips.

It's Summerlicious time of year.  I have mixed feelings about Summerlicious and I think a lot of people that go to restaurants regularily probably do to.

All of a sudden everyone decides that they want to have a fancy dinner at a bargain and they descend from all over for Summerlicious lunches and dinners.  It's great business for the restaurants, right?  Yes it is, but at the same time certain restaurants get slammed with so many people they can't keep up and there are others that still don't fill their spaces.  I don't know how many staff actually like working during Summerlicious,  probably not many, so you need to take that into consideration when judging the food and service you receive during this time.

I was invited to the Summerlicious preview at the fairly new O & B restaurant Lena on Yonge Street just south of Queen.  All of their Summerlicious dishes were on display but we only sampled 4 of their dishes.  I have been wanting to go to this restaurant for a while since I work not too far away but haven't had the chance to go yet.  It's a beautiful restaurant.  The dishes on display looked gorgeous.  I can say that I really liked 3 out of the 4 dishes I sampled and would like to go back and choose off their menu sometime soon.

I also organized a lunchtime Summerlicious meal with my co-workers as part of our Healthy Workplace Initiative.  We walked down to Batch on Victoria St. on a cold, windy and rainy day.
Batch makes their own beer so it's a Craft brewery space which is open and airy.  There were 7 of us for lunch which isn't too bad.  The staff were friendly but we waited at least a half an hour before we got our appetizers and this is pretty long when it's supposed to be our lunch HOUR.
I ordered the salad, the Burger and fries and the sticky toffee pudding.  The salad was over dressed and a soggy but it tasted ok.  The Burger and the bun were very dry but the fries were fantastic.  The sticky toffee pudding was cold and dry and nothing special.  I only actually took 1 bit of it and took the rest back to the office because we took so long.  The food was a bit hit or miss but I am told by a friend who has been during regular times that their food is good.  So this is a case in point where it might be better any other day or different meals.

But then there are the GREAT places like JI on St. Clair Ave West.  The same owners as Pukka on the same street.  It's Indian Street Food but on a higher level.

It's a lovely bright space and we were able to get reservations easily on a saturday afternoon.   We went to celebrate my friends birthday and he likes Indian Food.

I ordered the Vegan Caesar salad, it has coconut bacon and chickpeas for croutons and a vegan cream for the dressing.  I really enjoyed it.  My friend had the sweet potato chaat and he liked it.  We both ordered the Butter Chicken Cavatappi.  It was Indian spice flavoured Mac and Cheese but it was a nice creamy sauce.  I thought the portion was good but my friend was really full, maybe that's because he ate the sweet potato before it.  For dessert I had the spiced Brownie which tasted a bit like Mexican chocolate cake.  My friend had the pistachio flavoured Kulfi in the shape of what he called a Christmas tree.   He enjoyed that and said it had an interesting flavour.

Our server was a lovely friendly young Irishman.  It did take a while to get our bill but it was a lazy Saturday afternoon so it was ok.  We were in no hurry then.

My advice regarding the Summerlicious meals is to find out the reputation of the restaurant year round and then decide and at the same time if you don't have a great experience take it with a grain of salt and maybe try the place again another time and you may have a different experience.

But it's a great way to sample new restaurants that you may not have thought of and try things you might not have ordered normally.    It's only food,  so you might as well enjoy it.

Check out #liciousTO to see all the drool worth photos from fellow diners to see where you want to dine and don't forget to share your Instagram and twitter photos with them @liciousTO

For more info on each restaurant and their menus click here:  SUMMERLICOUS 

And don't forget to make reservations well in advance.

Enjoy.

Food, Travel & Photographer/Chef Dennis Prescott

The Tourism Authority of Thailand invited me to a lunch event recently with  none other than celebrated Canadian ‘foodstagramer’ (357k followers and counting) and newly published author of "Eat Delicious”, Dennis Prescott (@dennistheprescott) hosting the lunch to learn all things Thailand and #foodstagram shooting tips! 
The event took place at Mengrai Gourmet Thai located at 82 Ontario Street (at Richmond Street East). 

Dennis is a  former musician and self-taught cook who learned to cook by taking out Jamie Oliver cookbooks and working through them.

We celebrated their travel brands’ 2017 Asia launches and guest culinary experiences. 

We viewed a presentation on travelling to Thailand before Dennis gave us some of his tips to taking better food photos.  A couple of his tips included telling a story with your photos and try and get movement into your photos.  After the presentations we sat down to some delicious Thai food prepared by Mengrai Thai.  I didn't know about this hidden restaurant but I heard it's in the know of some celebrities.  My favourite dish was the Chicken Curry served in a Pineapple, it's a showstopper with amazing comforting flavour.

Check out Thai trips at https://ttc.com/destinations/asia/ and make sure to follow them on Twitter and Instagram at @ttc_canada and @thailandinsider

For more information on their brands, check out https://ttc.com/destinations/asia/;  follow  on Twitter and Instagram at @ttc_canada and @thailandinsider. 

I have loved Thai food for years and have been wanting to go to Thailand and see all the beautiful traditional foods and beautiful views.  I hope to get there one day.

Khao San Road reopens with a Bang Sue Bar

Media Event - Opening of the new Bang Sue Bar
Where: at Khao San Road
Date:  February 23, 2017
Location:  11 Charlotte Street, Toronto
Website: Bang Sue Bar/Khao San Road
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bangsuebar/

I got an invitation to check out the new Bang Sue Bar that just opened at the new Khao San Road location on Charlotte Street near King and Spadina.  Khao San Road just had a free opening preview the week before so I knew all about it and wanted to check it out.

I have been to the former Khao San Road in it's previous location not far from the Bell Tiff lightbox.  It was a very small space and it always had a lineup out the door.

This new space is 2 levels.  The main level is the Khao San Road restaurant with a lot more space than the previous location and on the upper level is the new Bang Sue Bar which is meant to be a space to go to late night or when you are waiting for a table at the restaurant.  The bar has a different smaller menu of Thai Street Foods which are meant to be simple small bites of food.

I sampled a number of items off the menu starting with their Morning Glory Daiquiri which has kaffir lime in it.

Some of the other items I sampled included:

Tom Yum Nuts, flavoured like the soup
4 Flavour Caramel Corn to represent the spicy, salty, sweet and savoury flavours of Thai food
Shrimp Chips and Dip of Roasted peppers
KSR Potato Salad, not what you would think.. it's more like a hickory stick looking salad.
Pickled vegetables - I really liked this option, it's nice to see something healthy and light
Vegan Spring rolls with tamarind in them for a nice surprise
Steak Tartare on shrimp chips which was my favourite bite of the night.  I asked for seconds of this.
Chicken Satay and peanut sauce, fairly mild compared to others I have had before but good.
Pandan Chicken- Chicken wrapped in Pandan leaves.  A bit messy to eat because the leaves are not edible so you have to unwrap the leaves from the chicken inside.
Pork Jowl - this one tasted like fatty bacon.
Fried Chicken - This was really great chicken that comes with a remoulade and sriracha sauce.

Dessert:
Khanom Krok a coconut custard in a donut like pasty with green onions inside.  This is a very strange concoction that is kind of weird when you first take a bit and then you kind of love it after a few minutes when you realize what it is.
Gelato from Millies- It comes in 3 flavours, I tried the coconut and a taste of the Pandan one which tasted a bit like the tea you get in Japanese restaurants, the other flavour was Thai tea which my table mates said tasted like nesquick.

The bar is really cool looking with great wall art from a local artist.  The wooden seats are a bit hard if you are planning on sipping cocktails for a long time so be prepared for that but overall it's a cozy space.

The staff were super nice and informative and explained the dishes and the concepts.  I could see some products come out of their bar food menu that could be sold as packaged snack foods so will see what happens there.

I still need to revisit Khao San Road downstairs and maybe the next time I go to see a movie at the Lightbox I can pop over for dinner beforehand.

There seems to be a lot of Thai places downtown but this one was extremely popular before and it was full by the time I left so I expect it to be very busy in the spring months when people are out and about again.

Twitter;  https://twitter.com/KhaoSanRoadTO


*Disclaimer - Food and drinks were provided by Bang Sue Bar but the opinions and photos in the blog post are my own.

Little Sister big Indonesian flavours

Where:  LITTLE SISTER
When:   Sat, Jan. 14, 2017
Address:  2031 Yonge Street, Toronto
Social:    @littlesisterto

Website:  http://www.littlesisterto.com/

I tried Little Sister's food for the first time at the Taste of Toronto Festival and the first year they won a prize for their mind blowing sweet pork belly dish.  I had their fried rice again last year but even though their restaurant was on my TO DO List of places to check out, I never seemed to have the right opportunity to go until this past weekend.  My fellow food blogger Natalie (http://www.cookingquidnunc.com) and I decided to go see a movie and after a long search of places that were near the theatre at Yonge and Eglinton we both thought the best choice would be Little Sister.  We didn't realize it was only a few blocks south of Yonge and Eglinton.  It's got one of those signs that don't pop out when you drive by so you have to pay attention to the address.  We have both been saying for a long time that we should go so early Saturday evening was the perfect time.
We got there around 5pm before the crowd and the reservations started flowing in.  That was the perfect time for us because we sat by the window and actually had some daylight for our first items but as you can see the food looks a bit more yellow as we lost the sun.

I ordered the Chicken Satay.  I love Chicken Satay this one had a great satay sauce.  It's made with chicken thighs, although not my favourite, I prefer the white meat, but it keeps the chicken a lot more moist when it's the chicken thighs.

We both shared the Beef Wontons with Sriracha sauce.  Nice and crispy and a bit of spice kick.

 

I also ordered the Roasted Cauliflower with Puffed Rice.  It was served cold.  I expected it to be a warm dish but I guess it was more of a salad or street food type of dish.  The flavour was really good and it's one of their popular dishes.

The dish that blew our minds was Natalie's Braised pork in Star Anise.  The balance of flavours was perfect.  The star anise wasn't overwhelming.  The pork was perfectly seasoned and all of the flavours were rich and satisfying.  I really want to make this dish in my slow cooker one day and if I go back to Little Sister soon I am having this again for sure.  

Natalie also ordered the fried rice which was good but the photo didn't really make it look great so I didn't include it.

The place is really cozy with rustic wooden tables and a beautiful bar.  It feels like a downtown hipster westend restaurant but it's tucked away Uptown.  It would be insanely packed all the time if it was located on Queen Street but I am really happy that it's Uptown where people really appreciate that there isn't anything else like it in the area.

It's one of those places you don't want to tell anyone about because you want to save it for yourself.

They aren't open for lunch and I would suggest making reservations because it's not a huge space.

Enjoy.

*This is not a sponsored post.  We paid for our own meal and the opinions expressed are my own as well as the images.