セガフレード・ザネッティ Segafredo - Tokyo, Japan *.

We came to Segafredo for a quick and small breakfast. 

We had to locate a place where we can grab a light breakfast because we had to meet 天野さん for lunch lol. 久しぶりですね~

Most of the Segafredo cafes I've been to are boutique-sized. This is a great spot to sit and chat or to read / work alone. I've noticed many locals come here to use the wifi network to do their own work / study etc. Yes, there's free wifi to connect to!

I'd recommend the Morning Set menu, particularly the panini set:

It doesn't look as appealing in photos but It's actually delish!! It is toasted and the cheese inside (if any) is all melteddd D: I'm hungry just thinking about it!

I'd recommend these two items on the Panini Morning Set Menu:

* SALMON & AVOCADO TARTAR 
(Note that I might be biased because avocados are my faveee!)

* HAM, CHEESE & BACON

Above was my snap from that day.. I realized I tagged the wrong location! haha

Here's jam & toast that we ordered too:

The coffee was roasted deliciously, I'd come back for just the coffee. The sauce they place in the panini is towards the sweeter side, I'd recommend ordering coffee with less sugar to pair with your breakfast :D

Segafredo ZANETTI

￥￥  Cafes

東京都新宿区西新宿3-20-2
新宿区, 東京都
Japan

地鶏や • ジドリヤ - Tokyo, Japan *

We came here for dinner after a long day of walking around! 

The interior is small and crowded so the air within the restaurant does not get filtered out nicely. It is common to have smokers at an izakaya place in Japan and the ventilation at this particular restaurant is done very poorly. Other than that, the food that we've ordered was delicious. Service was great as well.

I'd recommend:

* Oyako-don (So delicious! A great dish to warm your tummy :P)

* Niku Skewer set (a variety of grilled meat skewers)

* Grilled chicken wings

Side note: There are a bunch of fake foods on display outside of the restaurant (lobby area) for viewing. I'd recommend browsing the fake foods as they only offer menus in Japanese. I'd definitely recommend picking up some Japanese words if you plan on visiting this place because the menu selection is really big - the fake foods only gives you a limited amount of choices to order from.

Jidori-ya

Yakitori

八重洲2-1
中央区, 東京都
Japan

ケント - Osaka, Japan *

😻  Happy June everyone! 😻 

I've been travelling last month so I've neglected blogging for a bit! 

Posts will be updated as soon as I organize my pictures! 
I have too many.. lots of updates to be posted so stay tuned :)

Kent is a boutique sized cafe located near Shisaibashi opened by a very friendly owner. 

I came here for breakfast several times for their breakfast combo. It was delicious! The portion was perfect as well. The owner doesn't speak in English, he only speaks in Japanese so I recommend that you pick up some Japanese if you plan on visiting here! :D 

BREAKFAST COMBO (5/5)

* Bread (option of strawberry jam and butter (sweetened)) 

* Boiled egg (medium boiled) with fresh banana and salad
* Coffee / other drinks with additional price

The toasted bread is my favourite! Their coffee was smooth and rich with flavour. I'd recommend this cafe to those who are looking for a local Japanese coffee shop experience.

Kent

Cafes

島之内1丁目12-24
大阪市 中央区, 大阪府 〒542-0082
Japan

Akasaka Japanese Restaurant *.

I'll rate Akasaka Japanese Restaurant 3.5/5 stars. 
I came here as a group of 4 for the teppanyaki dinner. Teppanyaki is when you're seated around a cooking table and a chef cooks your meal for you. 

I think service was good in general except for that one woman on the phone when I was trying to book a table. She said (rudely) the place was too full to accommodate our group but when I called again and a man picked up, he gave us a table right away.. very strange.. I'd definitely recommend calling and booking early!

Highlights from the teppanyaki dinner:

* Black Cod (my all time favourite dish at ANY teppanyaki - I need to know how to marinated the cod fish like they do!)
* Beef cubes
* Beef & Enoki wrap 
* Shrimps (very fresh!)
* Fried rice (I usually need to pack this because of how full I am at the end of the meal)

Usually the chefs does a lot of table tricks during the meal, the chef I'd recommend here is Ken! He wasn't there when I visited Akasaka restaurant last time but hopefully he still works there.. He's really good!

Akasaka Japanese Restaurant

$$  Japanese

280 W Beaver Creek Road
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3Z

Chabrol Restaurant *.

😻 Happy 3 Years Anniversary 😻 

My boyfriend took me to Chabrol Restaurant for dinner as a #PBsurprise over the weekend after a stroll at High Park. We were lucky enough to catch the cherie-blossoms (lol) in full bloom! 

It was gorgeous but parking was a beetch haha. We were smarty-pants enough to park near Lakeshore Blvd W instead of the entry point for High Park. So there's your little tidbit if you plan on going soon! 

I tried guessing where P was taking me for dinner but I really had no idea lol. Zero clues given. 

He mentioned that he booked a table one month prior so I'd highly recommend booking well in advance! Chabrol is a boutique-sized restaurant. It seats 5 tables of 2 and a bar of approximately 10 people. We were lucky to be seated away from the group of 2's or else everyone would basically eavesdrop each others' conversations haha. 

I think Chabrol is a great impress-your-date place but the quality of the food wasn't as good as we expected. We had a good time judging the food nonetheless hahaha #foodcriticsforlife.


DRINKS:

* Domaine Merlin Chardonnay 2014 - Macon La Roche Vineuse (mine)

* Pinot Noir (his)

* RIESLING-POACHED FOIE GRAS with black currant and salsify (2/5)

Ok.. I LOVE foie gras. I had very high hopes for this fancy sounding riesling-poached foie gras! Unfortunately, it was rather.. stinky(?) I really didn't like this. 2 points are given for the nicely displayed pieces of bread and salsify haha. Great for Instagram.

* TARTINE OF RABBIT with braised endive (3.5/5)

We felt a little guilty for ordering rabbit meat but the meat was delicious...!! It's a simple appetizer to cleanse your palettes before the mains. Even though this dish had a lot of bread, it wasn't overwhelming. I'd recommend sharing this dish between two people.

* "TTORO" (4/5)

This was delicious - I'd recommend this soup. It tastes like a squash soup with fresh seafood. Seafood included fish, mussels and shrimps. The fish was delicious! The soup was not overly thick so it didn't make us feel bloated afterwards. 

* MUSCOVY DUCK with barigoule of artichokes, chestnuts, fennel and pearl onions (2/5)

It's a boiled duck with watered-down flavour. What stood out to me the most were the chestnuts in the dish. Otherwise, the whole dish was quite bland in taste. The duck meat was way too soggy. I wouldn't recommend ordering this.


DESSERTS:

* APPLE TARTE with calvados sabayon (4/5)

Our server highly recommended the apple tarte for desserts. Good recommendation! The apples were still crispy, which paired nicely with the soft pastry for the tarte. The sauce they poured on top was creamy and light. Save your tummy for this dessert!

We got two mini pieces of French dessert when we asked for the bill. It was almost the size of our thumbs but we were SUPER stuffed from that little piece. I wish I could remember the name of this dessert.. :S here's a picture of it:

It tasted a little minty in flavour and the dough is quite chewy - Interesting!

😻 I made the explosion photo box above for our 3 years! 😻

Chabrol Restaurant

$$$$  French

90 Yorkville Avenue
Toronto, ON M5R 1B9

Colette Grand Cafe *.

😻 Congratulations Dom & Lily!! 😻 

Dom organized a pre-wedding celebration dinner at Colette Grand Cafe. 

The interior at Colette is very cute, the theme of our area is a tiffany-blue colour. It was a wonderful experience!

 Service was excellent, the staff were so friendly and attentive to our needs. 

There were a bunch of decor that were left around by the time everyone started leaving at night, the servers offered to clean up after us when we were scrambling around trying to collect everything - aww! so nice!

* FRENCH ONION SOUP (4.5/5)
(Sherry, sourdough, gruyère)

I loved the onion soup! A great portion of melted cheese and onion pieces. It came nice and hot. There were also fried onion pieces on the top, giving the soup more texture.

* STRIPLOIN & FRITES (4/5)
(Red wine butter & bordelaise jus)

Delish! I was surprised when our server didn't ask us how we wanted our meat but it was all good because my striploin came medium-rare, which I prefer. The fries were actually the highlight of the dish. Loved the dipping sauce as well!

* VANILLA ICE CREAM PROFITEROLE (5/5)
(Caramel cream & warm chocolate sauce)

My favourite part of the meal.. desserts! The ice cream was deep fried and it wasn't oily and overly filling. We were stuffed by the time the desserts came, but there's always room! Highly recommending this dessert - lots of flavour :)

😻 Eva & I 

😻 We made these wine labels ourselves.. took me forever to think of what to write on there after I was given "Honeymoon" as my "theme-bottle" haha 

😻 Last but not least, a piece of the wedding cake topped with gold flakes :D so delish!! I couldn't finish it because I was suuuper stuffed.. 

😻 Now we wait for the big wedding day ;D

Colette Grand Cafe

$$$  French, Cafes

550 Wellington Street W
Toronto, ON M5V 2V5