Burrito Boyz

OK, so I finally made the visit to this hole in the wall in the middle of clubland, after being told several times to get there and eat! And yes, they do make a mean burrito; had the halibut one, which is pretty awesome with the guac... would I have to pick between Big Fat and the Boyz? Hope not; they both make some excellent burritos....

Mandarin

People have pointed out to me that I haven't written about the Mandarin yet, and that I'm just trying to avoid reviewing it. However, I think this doesn't count for this page, considering how often I go, as my parents love eating there. Frankly, I'm quite sick of eating there. However, I love my parents more than I hate the restaurant, so there we go...

Jack Astor's

OK, I promise I will endeavour my very best not to eat at these suburban chains anymore. This one was, appropriately, in Mississauga. I will give them this; their garlic bread is fairly addictive, despite the fact that it's white-as-white bread, and a titch too salty. Drawing on your tablecloth is a plus. Obviously, they have got the rotate-through-as-many-diners-as-possible-in-an-evening down to a science; we were in and out within less than an hour, which is incredible. The food came ludicrously fast. ('Das no' Ludacris... I is Ludacris...) However, it was passable. Ordered the pizza, which I could at least give them credit for making it fresh rather than from frozen, which a lot of those chain restaurants do.

Fred's Not Here

This is one of the restos on that little touristy strip by the downtown Holiday Inn. It's actually owned by the same people that own a few of the other touristy restaurants in the city. At any rate, went there for dinner. Had a venison stew (gasp! Venison??Isn't that red meat? Yes, but, unlike mass-quantity farming, deer/elk tend to be done in small batches) with gnocchi. Apparently, it was spinach gnocchi, which threw me for a loop, as I wasn't sure what all those very fat green grubs were doing in my stew...
Had bread pudding (of course), which had a very nice vanilla ice cream, though the bread pudding was fairly standard fare (cinnamonny and eggy, though quite good).

Ghengis Khan Mongolian Grill

Yessiree... a Mongolian Grill... previously, I'd been to one in Cleveland, but it was suggested to try this one... in case you don't know what this is, a Mongolian Grill is based on the ?legend that Mongolian warriors would cook over campfires on their shields in order to minimize travelling baggage. I believe there is one up in Markham somewhere (unsurprisingly), but the one we went to was up by Celestica at Don Mills and Eg.
Very nice decor; the bathrooms are really nice! Pretty much, you fill up your bowl with various meats, sauce, vegetables and noodles, you bring it over to the chefs who then stirfry your whole meal in a few minutes, and slide in nicely into a bowl. It's nice cause it's fresh.
Another point: This is the place that my cousin played Ghengis himself in their promotional commercials for KTV...

Bright Pearl Restaurant

This is that landmark on Spadina, hard to miss, second and third floor dim sum restaurant. Three different people told me how it's 'haunted' - their grandmother/friend/other person said so, including a story that if you go to the bathroom alone, a little girl's legs will be seen in the other stall.... OOOOOOKKKKK....
At any rate, we went for dim sum. It was good dim sum. They even had imitation Korean beef ribs.... what I particularly appreciated were the stirfried pea shoots.

Margarita's

OK, it is well known that there is a dearth of authentic Mexican restaurants in the city of Toronto. There is lots of Mexican food, but most of it is along the lines of an echelon above Taco Bell, which isn't saying much.
Margarita's is one of supposedly hipper joints to eat Mexican, seeing as it's survived a really long time on Baldwin. And they do make their own tortilla chips, which is nice. But there is still something lacking in the authenticity. I think when you can offer fried calamari and caesar salad on your menu, do you truly believe in your own ethnic cuisine?
I had a (massive) glass of sangria, which was more sweet than wine, and ordered the enchilada with mole sauce. Now, the mole sauce wasn't bad, but it was hard to pick out the chocolate and the chili in it... like, you couldn't pick out: "Ah! There's the cocoa!"
Service was also a bit, ???. One of my dining companions was late, and asked that we pre-order for them. When we stopped out waiter to ask to order her food, we were told, "Well, the kitchen is really busy right now"..... What???? Isn't the point of a restaurant to be busy?

The Village Idiot

This is a little pub down by the AGO. It was nice to be able to sit by an open window, and not freeze half to death. Ate a pizza... it didn't appear to use freshly grated cheese... it obviously seemed like cheese from those pre-shredded bags, but it still worked, which was the point. I nice little thin crust pizza, just the right size for eating. My companion also chose the veg-friendly cheese omelette and salad too...

Mt Everest Restaurant

This is a Nepalese restaurant found in the Annex. It's a quiet, clean place offering various dishes, and, it seems like they also have a lunch buffet as well. We ordered naan, chana masala and some biriyani (which I thought were Indian dishes??), as well as some other foodstuffs. I must admit, I was a bit confused, as it seemed to me that -I- couldn't distinguish between the food that we ate and the usual Indian fare. We even had lassi!
It was all very tasty: I was particularly taken with the chana masala and the naan. So overall, a very good resto, but I'm still a bit confused, as I'm not sure if I actually ate Nepalese food...

Swiss Chalet

I KNOW! Another chain! However, to be fair, being pressed for time, and being on that rather less-than-inspiring strip of Bloor between St George and Avenue, and having been at Pho Hung the week before, led to this being the best option available. Also, to be fair, my dining companion hadn't had a proper lunch, and so was ravenous for food. (I wasn't terribly so, as usual)
So I can't really say very much, as I had their ?new garlic cheese bread, which wasn't terribly bad. It was their regular Swiss Chalet bun dough, elongated to the size of a quarter baguette, with scant sundried tomatoes interspersed in the bread, stuffed with cheddar, melted, and sprinkled with green onions and almost invisible tomatoes, and then the usual garlic bread/oil stuff that many chains use (ie at Jack Astor's). Not bad... I mean, Swiss Chalet does make pretty good white bread (especially when you use the particularly addictive secret Chalet sauce)...

Sushi & BBQ

This is a small little resto near the AGO. Tiny little place; seats about 15 or so. The one bright side is that it's run by Koreans; this is important in that this is a combined Korean/Japanese place to eat. Clearly catering to the students at OCAD: service is fast, food is cheap!
Alas, my same lament about low to mid priced sushi in this city: It all pretty much tastes the same. So nothing particularly good, or bad, about this place. It's fine if you're looking for something cheap and fast to eat.