Babur

From the outside, this looks like a fairly chic Indian restaurant on Queen; white tablecloths, cloth napkins and brown leather-ish high backed chairs facing the wine glasses at each setting in a minimalist context. Until you go in and realize it's actually an Indian buffet (!What have I said about Indian buffets before!!! However, this wasn't my choice). That being said, there was, mercifully, no paneer. Lovely naan and a decent tandoori. However, their tamarind chicken was suspiciously like sweet and sour, and the chana masala seemed more like an aloo gobee than anything else particularly. Certainly, you can get a lot of food to eat for the price, but I think I would prefer getting more quality, and paying more, for the food that I eat.

Sushi on Bloor

I can't believe I hadn't yet posted on this venerable, surprisingly long standing sushi resto in the Annex. How many times have I been here throughout the years (with the infamous soy sauce incident of 1999?)? I must say, amongst all the many low to mid-priced sushi joints along this strip, this is indeed probably the best tasting. I had some lovely spicy, crunchy tuna maki and some udon noodles; yum!

Sage Cafe

Wow, a small beauty of a gem on McCaul, close to, but not on the Baldwin strip. Had a super duper curry chicken wrap with a salad; stuffed to the gills after I'd eaten, though was starving by the time I got there. Nice ambience; almost felt like you were eating in someone's kitchen, though they had an awful lot of tables and chairs :)

Anoush

OK, well, really, I only stopped for a quick bite near the University of Toronto, so I only had a falafel, and it was a pretty OK falafel. That's all.

Olympia Restaurant

This is a 100 year old restaurant on the main drag in Lindsay. Apparently, it's been handed down, from generation to generation, always being held by Greeks. Now, what the heck possessed Greek people to move all the way to Lindsay and open a Greek restaurant in 1906 is anybody's guess, but I'm sure it would be fascinating history!
That being said: the food rocked! Much better than the standard fare on the Danforth: salad was fresher, not doused in oil, but generously served with herbed feta, utterly gorgeous handmade tzatziki, potatoes and rice that weren't coloured the typical greasy orange on the Danforth.... yum!

Kim

This is a place that touts itself as a Vietnamese/Thai restaurant in Kensington Market, but, to be honest, it's really a Vietnamese restaurant with two Thai dishes on the menu. No matter. Had the vermicelli, but it wasn't actually vermicelli noodles; they used one of those thicker rice noodles, so it kind of took away from the dish, but they were very generous with the peanuts, which was a nice bonus.

Fiesta Azteca

A little Mexican restaurant in Bayview Village. Knowing full well that there is a dearth of authentic Mexican food in the city (yes, yes I've heard of Milagro; yes, yes, I'd like to go too...). Started with some Mexican-type bruschetta and had, of course, the pollo con mole... now, I must say, lacking a gold standard, I cannot really say if this is better or worse than others I have had... certainly, it was earthier and slightly more bitter than I'm used to... perhaps they did use some authentic cocoa, then, in the preparation of their mole... I think, though, the sprinkling of sesame seeds was a bit much... I don't think that was ever a native South American plant...

The Friendly Thai

A late-r night feed at the Allen and Eglinton... obviously, ordered the pad thai... it was a bit of the sweet, ketchup-y side, lacking real tamarind flavour (actually, I don't think there was any in there)... however, I was quite starving by that point, so I wolfed in down with very little objection...

Queen's Pasta Cafe

A famous little resto in the heart of Bloor West.... although I have been biased against buying pasta in restaurants after a long rant given by one of my friends several years ago, I went to this clearly 'against the rant rules' restaurant. I must admit, it was all quite tasty, though, internally, I was a little bit aghast at myself with the amount of white carbs and non-ethical eating I was involved in (though it was oh so goooood).... bruschetta was delicious, followed by handmade penne with carbonara sauce and veal (See! Unethical! I was eating baby cow!!!! I should flog myself, except for I would have to admit it was quite delicious), followed by a chocolate raspberry tartufo. Martinis are also lovely... good, though very cozy (read squished) atmosphere...