Scaddabush in Scarborough

Location:  Scaddabush Scarborough
Address:   580 Progress Ave, Scarborough
Website:   http://www.scaddabush.com/
When:      Aug 3, 2016

I got a very last minute invitation to attend a media dinner at the new Scaddabush Italian Restaurant in Scarborough, ON.  I said yes because I was curious about the food because they have been popping up all over the place in Toronto.  The hard part was that I was working in downtown Toronto and had to trek it out to Scarborough from downtown on an extremely hot day.

The restaurant is located just outside of the Scarborough Town Centre so you can drive there which I would have preferred to do if I was able to.  You can also take the LRT to McCowan station and walk over from the station, and the Go bus will get you there too.

A small group of food bloggers were invited along with a group from the Scarborough Bluffs Food Bank to sample a huge amount of food from the Scaddabush menu.   They wanted to show us some of their favourites.  The people from the Scarborough Bluffs food bank were there because the proceeds from the sales of Scaddabushs' Charity Bread are donated to the food bank.  It's pretty great that a simple thing like selling bread in a restaurant can help people that can't afford to even go to the restaurant and buy that same bread.  It makes a lot of sense and they have donated a lot of money to local food banks through the sales of their charity breads.

The restaurant is big and has great lighting for people but wasn't as good for showcasing the food but they do have a patio.   When you walk in you are greeted by a giant head beside the host station.  I am not sure what that is for but it got my attention.

There are lovely chandeliers to light the room and the seats are all mixed I suppose to symbolize an extended Italian family dinner.

One of the popular features of the restaurant is the Mozzarella bar where they make fresh mozzarella and serve it in a few different ways.   People can sit at the bar and watch the staff make the mozzarella.

They also make their pasta and breads fresh from scratch each day.

We sampled a huge amount of food.   We started with 3 different kinds of charity bread and 3 different preparations of the mozzarella.

We tried a pizza topped with a raw egg and a pollo chicken pizza.  The pasta dishes we sampled were the Pollo chicken which was everyone's favourite pasta and we also tried their squash ravioli and lobster pasta.

To top it all off we were presented with 3 amazing desserts.  I think this was my favourite part of the dinner.  The 3 dishes were a very flavourful Tiramisu, zeppole donuts with a nutella dipping sauce and a classic cheesecake topped with berries.

My photos don't really show the food properly but hopefully you can sort of tell what it looks like.

I wouldn't say this is a traditional Italian restaurant but more of a North American style Italian restaurant.  The food is really rich and decadent so make sure you have a big appetite when you go there.  We all waddled out of the restaurant.  Not pictured that we tried were their 2 types of meatballs and the 2 different salads that we sampled.

I think it's a nice place to go with a big family or for a birthday because the ambiance and the staff are fantastic and you don't have to go somewhere else for dessert.  It's also a great place to go after a day of back to school shopping at the mall.  Yeah you know that time of year is coming up.

Hope you check it out and enjoy.   My tip... order the Pollo pasta and the Tiramisu.  I think those were my favourites.

Sea Witch -Just simple classic Fish & Chips

                      

Last night I was invited by my blogger pal Vicky (Momwhoruns)  to another one of her great Media Nights with fellow food bloggers.  

This one was at SEA WITCH Fish & Chips on St. Clair Ave. West.  About a dozen food bloggers left the restaurant with very full bellies after sampling a few of their menu items.

We were welcomed by Co-owner Jacki Strahl who provided us with all of the dishes and the details of their restaurant and it's menu.  Strahl and her husband Kevin Kowalczyk have only been open for about 8 months but the restaurant is already getting a lot of great reviews including a nod from Chris Nuttal-Smith in the Globe and Mail who said it was one of the best new restaurants.

Kevin was the former fry cook at the now defunct Penrose Fish and Chips where he spent many years perfecting the art of battering and frying fish.  Jacki Strahl was also the owner of a pub in Richmond Hill where she spent many hours training staff and keeping the restaurant going.  Jacki sold her restaurant 4 years ago after having kids and wanting to change the direction of their family life.

They searched for a location in their area which they knew was a great place with lots of different restaurants with a great community feel.  They found their spot just around the corner from where they live and snapped it up quickly but took their time in creating the design of the store and the decor has a slightly nautical theme and mostly sort of an old world fish and chips shop.  Lot's of old wood in their booths and tables and chairs.  

They also thought carefully about their menu and chose to keep the menu simple and true to classic fish and chip shops from days gone by where the menu is comprised of all made from scratch foods.

They make their own hand cut fries, fresh made daily classic coleslaw.  They cut their fish and do all their prep each morning and their is a guy assigned to only chipping potatoes.  

They are an Ocean wise partner and try to get at least 20-25% of their fish that is sustainable.

They serve 5 different types of fish,  Halibut, Pickerel, Pacific Cod, Artic Char and Atlantic Haddock.

MEDIA TASTING MENU included:

The Witch's Brew (house chowder) a very classic and simple chowder with potatoes, carrots, onions and corn and I think it was Haddock that they used.  This was really back to basics with the seasonings of thyme and bay leaf.  Not fancy but kind of what chowder originated as.

Halibut Cakes (aka Market Croquettes), They halibut cakes were perfectly seasoned with a balance of sweetness from the chopped vegetables inside.  The pan fried cake was crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside and served with their house made pickled onions.

Onion Rings - the onion rings are made with the same simple 3 ingredient batter that they fry their fish in.  It's just onions coated in batter and fried.  Once again simple.  No chefy tricks.

ColeSlaw - The coleslaw is a vinegar based slaw but very mild on the vinegar and not the usual punch of processed coleslaw.  It's just fresh cabbage and carrots and onions and all the things that belong in coleslaw.  

Halibut & Chips - The Chips are all hand cut daily and they go through tons of buckets of them.  The ocean wish Halibut fish is battered in a special 3 ingredient process and cooked in Beef Towel an unsaturated natural fat that makes them golden brown and very crispy on the outside and the interior is light and moist and perfectly cooked.

Sweets -  We also tried 2 of their rotating selection of cookies.  One was a pecan shortbread cookie and the other was a 3 layer bar of shortbread, caramel and chocolate.  Jacki said she started off baking pies but I guess it made more sense to have small grab bag sized treats that you can pick up from a tackle box on the counter.  A very cute idea.  The cookies were very good.

Even though Kowalczyk worked at Penrose he wanted to change some of the way he did things in his own restaurant and eliminated all the processed things like the tartar sauce and coleslaws and that's why they kept the menu short and simple and wanted to focus on just making great fish and chips and not have a million things that take away from the quality control of the fish.

If you want some great Fish & Chips from a nice little local shop then this is the place to go and support a nice family business and the nice owners Jacki and Kevin.

www.seawitchfc.com
647-34-WITCH

Dr Laffa is no joke

Dr. Laffa is a Middle Eastern/Israeli restaurant located on Bathurst Street just south of Lawrence Avenue in Toronto in the predominantly Jewish area of Toronto.  So it's a great location for some serious food that is made by the staff at Dr. Laffa.  The spices are even shipped in from Israel.

I was invited to go for a tasting with a bunch of fellow food bloggers.  I think we ate everything on the menu.

This is the carnage a bunch of foodies can do to loads of great food.











Laffa is a bread that is a cross between a pita and naan bread but it is much thinner and lighter.  It takes only 56 seconds to bake.  It's so good you can eat a tonne of it.  Dr. Laffa is no joke.  It's the real deal.












We sampled so many different things and all of it was fantastic.   Some of the things everyone liked was the Shakshuka, eggs cooked in spicy tomato sauce.  I tasted a hint of cumin and some other spices.

The meat hummus is one of their signature dishes.  It was featured on You Gotta Eat Here on Food Network.  It's ground meat on top of really creamy hummus.


I really liked the Morrocan cigars.  A crunchy dough wrapped around ground beef.

A couple of things that reminded me of things my mom made when I was a kid were the roasted eggplant with tahini, it had a great smokey flavour.  The marinated peppers, similar to what my mom used to make.  Also baba ganoush.  My parents were married in Israel so it influenced some of my mom's cooking.

One thing I never had before but will probably drive there to get in the future was the dessert called Krembo, a chocolate covered coffee flavoured mousse on a cookie base.  It was light as a feather and not too sweet.

Dr. Laffa is owned by Yoram Gabay who opened the restaurant about a year and a half ago.   He formerly partnered with the Dr. Laffa that was located on Magnetic Drive but they separated and he opened his own restaurant.

Some of the other things Yoram served us were Sabich, Chicken Shawarma, Fries, Lentil soup, beets, tabouli and falafel.   We tried pretty much everything.   We all left fully stuffed.  I was glad I was really hungry when I got there so I could try it all.   I have been there before but I had only had the falafel and the chicken shawarma.   It's great to sample all of the other things so that I know what to get the next time I stop in.

It caters to Jewish clientele so it is closed for Jewish Holidays and Sabbath so you should check if they are open before you go.  You can see the full menu and the location details here:  Dr. Laffa