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Tuesday, 11 October 2016

Mayze *.

We had so much fun playing the escape the room at Mayze



Double date activity!! Jess and I were both stoked and scared for this room.
A mini spoiler is that.. it's a scary theme..

The theme was that an Osaka high school student, Aya, has gone missing in the high school.

Our goal was to: 
a) locate Aya 
b) find out what happened to her 

I think 4 people is ideal for this room. The more players, the less scary but there will be more confusion if you're all looking for hints together. Without giving out spoilers, I can say that there is NO way I would stay in one of the rooms alone (There were multiple rooms). It's soo freaky!! 



Honestly got to give props to the boys for doing practically all the work hahaha.. Dan & P were both VERY generous on being the first ones to enter the next room LOL.. Why is it that we always do something to do with scary themes?!

We had a lot of hilarious moments when we were waaaay off on the hints - it was a lot of fun! 
Hints are unlimited and the owner was super nice! He told us that him and his friends engineered the whole escape the room experience, everything is mechanical and techy! A job very well done :D We look forward to the opening of the second escape the room!

For the record, we DID escape haha * clap clap clap *



2210 Markham Road
Toronto, ON M1B 2W4

RoyalTea *.

I saw many cute photos of lightbulb drinks being posted by friends, so I decided to come to RoyalTea to give it a try.




Pretty disappointing as service wasn't good and the drinks weren't good either.




* LIGHT BULB MILK TEA with tapioca 

It was kind of bitter (??) We didn't like it. This is their signature drink but the taste just isn't that good.
On the plus side, it does look cute for photos lool.




* GREEN TEA WAFFLE & RED BEAN ICE CREAM

The waffle was pretty good. 
The waffle wasn't hollow on the insides like some other places I've tried. 




LOL at Eva hahaa made her hold two things for this pic!! I should've taken a "behind the scenes" picture too

The problem was that we ordered two different flavours for the waffle and the server told us it will take another 20 mins for our next order.. which then she completely forgot about our order after and said they ran out of waffles for the day and returned our money.. lollll

Will not return.



$  Tea Rooms
4186 Finch Avenue E
Toronto, ON M1S 3V1

Thursday, 6 October 2016

Pokito *.

I was invited to the opening of Pokito






It is a poke bowl restaurant opened by Bake Code, Chatime and Menufoodtrucks.





Ever heard of poke bowls? It is a Hawaiian dish which combines raw fish in a salad bowl.

"Poke" is Hawaiian for "to slice or cut" or "section", hence the sashimi blocks in this dish.






As this was a pre-opening event, I'm not going to review them on Yelp until I revisit :)






Firstly, thank you Hal & Brian for the invite!

At the media event, we got to choose the pokebowl of our choice, personalized with our names.





* 420 SIGNATURE POKE BOWL
   
(diced tuna and salmon sashimi mixed in ponzu lime sauce, sweet onion, cucumber, and hawaiian guacamole)

They spelled my name wrong :*( lol. I chose two items as part of the sides, mango and corn. 
I completely forgot about my love for guac. 

Side note: Poor PB had to wait across the street at a cafe when I was at the event ..awww!! :3



$$  HawaiianSeafood
420 Queen Street W
Toronto, ON M5V 2A7




Wednesday, 5 October 2016

The Alley *.

The Alley became Ev-erie's (It's me and Eva LOL) new "it" spot for bubble tea. Girl's night out!!

The times that I've been to Taiwan, I didn't notice The Alley bbt shop there.. The hype is actually Prestotea in TW, which is surprisingly not as popular here!





It's a small boutique sized bubble tea shop. It is hard to find a seat here. 
I'd recommend coming on a weeknight if you're looking for a place to sit and chat.
Since this place is situated in Markham, we bumped into everyone here.

Service was excellent - all smiles by the cashier hahaha

I'd recommend the:




* Royal No. 9 bubble tea

Love this! I came here two days in a row to grab this drink lol.. It's addicting! This bubble tea has a hint of blueberry aftertaste. It's light and refreshing. I usually get this with less sugar and less ice :)




* Garden Milk tea

It looks like a plant because it is served with chocolate deerioca and Oreo crumbles on top of the milk tea with leaves in the middle. Very cute. The taste is creamier than the usual milk teas I get at bubble tea shops, it has more of a milky texture.



$  Taiwanese
505 Highway 7
Markham, ON L3T 7T1

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Alo Restaurant *.

❤ A very successful #petersurprise event I must say ;) 

P took me to Alo Restaurant! Very very close to a Michelin star experience! 
Food critics say that this restaurant is inching in to be the first Michelin star restaurant in Toronto :D




PB told me the reservations he booked was two months in advance.. so book early! 
Mega props to him for holding in the urge to tell me what and where he booked for my random surprise. And here I thought we were just watching a movie.. LOL 




We had an excellent experience dining at Alo Restaurant




The atmosphere is modern - "Nouveau French". I liked how spacious the restaurant was. The tables weren't packed together so there is more privacy during our dining session. We were seated near the windows so we got great sunlight for my food pictures :D 



Service was absolutely amazing - we were attended in good intervals. 
The servers knew the menu by heart!
They also changed the utensils for every dish that we had.



I was actually laughing out loud, literally, when I went through the food pictures that I took at Alo... the plates were so shiny and clean that you can see P's face reflected on it LOLL and each plate that caught his face is like "Are you done yet :*(!", "Can we eat yet :*(!" hahaha awww. I'll point out which ones it was below hahaha



DRINKS: 
[to start off]


* cocktail bouteille pour deux



* reds

TASTING MENU



* AMUSE-BOUCHE (cheese puffs & mini foie gras cakes) (4/5)

This dish was a set of cheese puffs and foie gras cakes on a cute plating display. This was a great start to our tasting menu! The cheese puffs were still warm and the foie gras paste was perfection.




* VENETIAN CAVIAR, POTATO (5/5) 
[Note: PB's face LOL]

The foamy and creamy potato purée was a great pairing with the caviar (Peter's fave)





The potato taste was very light and contrasted the caviar's flavour very well. A light dish to start off.



* STRIPED BASS, CUCUMBER, HONEYDEW MELON, RICE (5/5)

This was one of my favourite dishes of the night. The striped bass was served as a sashimi, it was fresh, sweet and delicious. 




Each of the sides were marinated differently. A cute and unique display.



* PAIN AU LAIT (4/5)

My boyfriend loved this! This was sourdough bread with salt sprinkled on the top.





 We were generous with the butter that came with it, as the server advised.. It was soo good haha




* ANTEBELLUM GRITS, DUNGENESS CRAB, CORN, NORI (5/5)

Loved this! There was a strong taste of nori (seaweed) and sweet corn. The crab meats were in big chunks. The portion may look small, but it fills you up quickly.




* QUEBEC FOIE GRAS, SUNCHOKES, HIMROD GRAPES, VER JUS (4/5)

The foie gras chunks were delicious. I do like the sauce, but I don't love it haha. 
I felt like it overtook the foie gras a bit.. but yummy nonetheless.




* NOVA SCOTIA LOBSTER, CHESTNUT, SALSIFY, BRUSSEL SPROUTS (5/5)

[Note: this picture made me laugh so hard hahaha.. 
PB's face: are you done yeeeet, can we eeeattt yeettt :( LOL]

I'd revisit Alo Restaurant for this dish alone. This was deeeelicious!! The lobster was poached to perfection. The sides were fresh and its flavours were distinct from the lobster itself.




* PACIFIC HALIBUT, CHERRY TOMATOES, SAMPHIRE, SHELLFISH EMULSION (3/5)

Compared to the lobster, this was definitely not as good. The halibut was fresh but was a bit dry. 
We felt like we needed to dip the fish in its sauce in order to enjoy this dish more.




* RACK OF PORK, PEACHES, PEPPERS, PISTACHIO (4/5)

We usually eat these rack of pork at Chinese restaurant so we were curious to see how Alo would cook them. It was great! The pork meat was juicy and went pleasantly well with the peaches and pistachio. Big points goes out to the pistachios!




* BEEF RIBEYE, MATSUTAKE MUSHROOMS, SPINACH, BERNAISE (4/5)

We felt like the vegetables that paired the ribeye overtook the main itself! The mushrooms and spinach were so good - all marinated with different sauces. The ribeye itself was good, but did not wow us as much as the sides.



* AMUSE-BOUCHE (popcorn ice cream with popcorn bits) (5/5)

I was sold the moment our server told us the amuse-bouche was popcorn ice cream!! It was light and had a great texture. Yummy yummy.




* HONEY CRISP APPLE, PUFF PASTRY, CALVADOS (5/5)

Loveeed this! It combines both the sourness and sweetness of apples in one dessert. 
The crispy cookie also stood out to us in this dessert.




* LAST OF THE SEASON BERRIES, ALMOND, FENNEL (4/5)

A colourful and cute display. A variety of mixed berries were part of this dessert. I'm not a big fan of raspberries but it was still pretty good :) 




* DARK CHOCOLATE, MINT (5/5)

This was aaamazing! Note that I don't even like mint ice cream haha! The dark chocolate was a bit bitter. They've included milk chocolate in the mix, along with the mint chocolate, which balanced the flavours well.




To end off your tasting menu experience for the night, they give you an envelope with the list of the dishes and wine pairings. I thought this was a cute personal touch :)

Yes! We were 100% piggies for the night! 





❤ Thanks for the surprise pbb!! 





 We'd definitely revisit when they change up the tasting menu later on :D



$$$$  BarsFrench
163 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON M5V 2A5