Tenon Vegetarian Cuisine *.

We were looking for healthy options for dinner and thought we'd try out Tenon Vegetarian Cuisine.
It is a vegan Japanese restaurant with foods that mimic meats, seafood etc. It's a good option for those who are vegan. My friend said this place was good but it was "meeeh" to me heh.. D:
Service was good.

GREEN DRAGON ROLL (4/5)
(Avocado, imitation crab meat sushi roll)

We loved it! The avocado was fresh and the imitation crab meat was still warm (I think it was served tempura-style). Yummy :)

SALMON SUSHI (2.5/5)

It's fake salmon! It's actually very cool. The texture of the salmon is similar to konjac (konnyaku) or jelly but the taste is like.. salmon!! D: Why the 2.5 stars though? It's just too weird for me to try again hahaha

BENTO COMBO - CHICKEN TERIYAKI (2/5)

I didn't like this. The fake chicken meat tasted very mushy and the sauce wasn't good.

Tenon Vegetarian Cuisine

$$  Sushi Bars, Vegetarian

8362 Kennedy Road
Markham, ON L3R

QQ Thai Ice Cream *.

Yaass! I like QQ Thai Ice Cream! 

Interior-wise, the food photographer in me is saying I hate the green wallpapers all around the shop because it made all my pictures have a green tint D: 
Dislikeee :(

Came here on a weekend with my friend after dinner (around 9-ish). Usually at thai ice cream places, the line up is usually crazy. But at QQ Thai Ice Cream, it wasn't that bad of a line up. We waited a max of 10 mins to get our ice cream.

In the making.. They make each ice cream roll one by one, you can see the whole process!
This is why it takes forever if the line up is long.. each thai ice cream roll probably takes around 5-10 mins to chop into shape.

I'd recommend the:

* MANGO TANGO (4/5)

It was topped with fresh mangos and a cookie. They also drenched this with condensed milk (MY FAV LOL). I was basically sold when I knew condensed milk was part of this. The ice cream had a milky mango flavour to it, very delicious! I'd come back for more :)

QQ Thai Ice Cream

$  Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt

3278 Midland Avenue
Toronto, ON M1V

Chat Bar *.

Feho and I were looking for new places to try for our GNO (LOL) and came across Chat Bar! 

Tbh we were actually going to the izakaya place at the same plaza but the grill meats smelt so good from this place that we changed our minds hahaha

We came here for an early dinner, without reservations. We waited about 20 mins for a spot. 

Service was great - the servers spoke mostly in Mandarin even though we were ordering in English lol. 
We were seated at the booth area. 

It was funny because at the booth area, they hung up napkins with customers' (or not LOL you'll see why) comments on it. Almost all of them are like "OMG the waiters are SO HOT" (in Chinese - did they write these themselves HAHAHA).

They were also people who were looking for their lifelong partners and put down their wechat ID LOLOL
Anyways, back to the food..

Each table had a hot plate to keep the skewers heated, which is nice! 
That kept everything nice and hot. It would be nice if they lit up the place more, it was kind of dim.

Highlights of the night (skewers):
* Okra
* Lamb 
* Beef
* Chicken

Sides:

[on the left side of the picture above]

* Enoki mushrooms (These were marinated so well!)

Items I DON'T recommend:

* Pork belly rice - there was no sauce and it was SO DRY.. don't get this.

* Rice cakes 
It was SOO HARD to chew on.. omg we only ate 2 lol

* Beef tendons 
This was one of the skewers with the "highly recommended" stamp beside it.. omg bad idea; it was like chewing on rubber with no taste hahaha

Then we headed for desserts near by... to be continued.. :D

Chat Bar

$$  Barbeque, Tapas Bars, Chinese

633 Silver Star Boulevard
Toronto, ON M1V 5N1

* Grilled pork on rice
There's no sauce and the grilled pork was so dry.

R&D Restaurant *.

R&D Restaurant is opened by Masterchef Canada's winner, Eric Chong and the demon chef, Alvin Leung. 
My friends and I came here for a birthday dinner on the weekend.

This is the bar area ^

We came here with high expectations but unfortunately, the hype was waaay too high.. 

Service was okay. 

We had a large group and our orders weren't mixed up :P

DRINKS:
Mai Mai (Cocktail) - It was actually more bitter than I thought it would be. Drink is still better than Karen's because hers had milk in it LOL ?_?

CSB (3/5)
(char siu, mexican topping)

The cha siu bao was pretty good - we started off great!! One thing that needs improvement is the char siu. By itself, it didn't have enough taste and was a bit dry. If it was marinated more, it would've made the bao (bun) even better.

FOIE GRAS TORCHON (2/5)
(five-spice, plum honey, sesame crackers, green apple gastrique)

Niuuuuuuu!!! I did not know this was a pâté until the dish came.. D: 
I'd prefer sautéed foie gras of course! We gave this a try and didn't like it.. hahaha...

SON IN LAW EGGS (2/5)

(saku tuna tartare, sesame, tamarind)

Cee ordered this (hi haha). I didn't try it but I heard bad reviews LOLL

ROASTED EGGPLANT (2/5)
(thirteen-spice garlic butter, pine nuts, cilantro)

The eggplant has no taste and wasn't soft. The garnish was separate from the eggplant itself and did not have much taste to it as well. Karen LOVES eggplant dishes but didn't even finish it.

PORK TENDERLOIN (2/5)
(sweet miso, ginger spätzle, applewood cheddar)

We were surprised at how soft the pork was! It was good until we ate more.. There was no taste in the pork, it really required the sauce for flavouring. The sauce wasn't very tasty either. We thought the dish was garnished with fried eggs at the bottom of the tenderloin but it was actually applewood cheddar.. lol.. It sure tasted like fried eggs haha (with no salt!).

They showed us the peking duck before slicing it up.

BEST DUCK IN THE CITY (2/5)
(whole roasted pekin duck, roasted garlic hoisin, cucumber, leeks, pancakes)

My friends and I were trying to accept the fact that this is "fusion Chinese food".. but we'd recommend saving the money and going to a Chinese restaurant for some authentic peking duck for half of R&D's price D: The worst part of this dish was the "pancakes" which were very dry.

On the plus side, the demon chef was there that day! His blue hair is definitely what caught our eye to spot him out from the crowd!

Then our group headed to the "Miami beach house" for drinks:

HBD Phil!!

R&D Restaurant

$$$  Asian Fusion, Chinese

241 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON M5T 2E2

Pursuit OCR *.

Pursuit OCR was so much fun! 
We came here for birthday celebrations. This place reminds me of the show Wipeout haha

Here's me coming in like a wreeeecccckingg baaaalll!!! (This swing was so much fun haha)

This pic is my only contribution for the "foodie" side of Pursuit OCR - the rest is no joke, an intense workout! 

This place is an indoor obstacle course which includes hurdles, monkey bars, rope climbing, ball pits etc. 

Here is our group gearing up for the big race!

My favourite would be the ramp where you need to pull yourself up with a rope, the monkey bars over the ball pit and the multi-level hurdles. All obstacles were really fun and challenging. After one full run of the obstacle course, we were already sweating buckets haha

Kho & Moni in the ball pit ^

Here's PB & Francis racing at the hurdles!! 

Here's me at the rope & hurdle D: For the second hurdle, you'll have to climb OVER it - most people were crawling underneath!

Parking spots are available right outside the front entrance. If not, there are small streets across the front entrance where parking fees are not needed (but double check the times!)

This place is a good idea for a birthday event because you'll have an excuse to make the birthday girl/boy go in the dunk tank hahaha.. 

Here are the results of the day - these were all from screen captures LOL

Alton

Alex

Kho

Pursuit OCR Website

Pursuit OCR

Gyms

444 Dufferin Street
Toronto, ON M6K 2A3