Chinese Dumpling House

This is by far my favourite place to order delicious dumplings in Markham.  If I could come here every week, I would.  I love dumplings.

Location

Chinese Dumpling House is located on the edge of Metro Square, west of Warden Ave. and Steeles Ave. East.  If you enter from Ferrier Street, it's the restaurant with the red sign on your left when driving into the central parking lot.  I've been here a few times and parking isn't too hard to find.

Decor

This a your typical small chinese restaurant.  The isles are basically wide enough for one person to walk through.  If you come during peak time, expect to wait.  I do enjoy the fact that you get to see the making of the dumplings while waiting to be seated.  Also, there isn't really room designated for waiting so it's okay to stand outside.  The place doesn't seem to be in its cleanest state, as in you can feel a oil residue on the tables.  You wouldn't come here for the ambiance, just for the food.

Service

Once you get seated, the service is pretty quick.  But don't expect any exchange of smiles when ordering food.

You will be given two menus, a booklet with some of their items with pictures and english names and a menu sheet to write down your order.  The sheet has all the items the restaurant serves (over 50 items!) where I think the booklet has their best sellers.  Surprisingly, I'm usually given the chinese menu sheet.  If you cannot read chinese, I believe you can request an english version.

Food

Green Onion Pancake ($1.99)

This isn't your typical green onion pancake.  I'm used to the green onion pancake with countless layers of pastry filled with green onion in between and pan fried.  This one was more like dough rolled into a cylinder with green onion in the center.  This version was definitely not salty and buttery enough.  However, for $1.99, it's an alright appetizer.

Pork and Leek Dumplings ($4.99 - 15 pieces)

The dumplings were delicious.  It's juicy and flavourful.  The dumpling wrappers were homemade to perfection!  When biting into the dumpling, beware because the soup inside is burning hot.  I have no complaints.  It's simply delicious.  This is always my go to dish.

Pot Stickers ($3.99 - 6 pieces)

I'm not a huge fan of pot stickers.  They were alright.  I don't think they were the best pot stickers I every had.  They weren't terrible as well.  They were crunchy and filled with juices inside.

There were 6 pieces!

Price

The prices are pretty reasonable.  Cash only!

Verdict?

Of course!  I think for the price and quality of the food, it is totally worth coming here again and again for a fresh, hot, tasty, and inexpensive meal.

Cheers,

achoo

Brick Toast at Phoenix

I have food cravings a lot. Angela is very easily convinced.

This makes for a very dangerous combination. 

So I was craving "brick toast" or "toast box" or "honey toast" for a very long time. It's a Taiwanese dessert that's essentially a cube-shaped toast that's hollowed out and filled with ice cream, whip cream, fruits and other yummy deliciousness.

In other words, it's a brick of sugar, carbs and calories

Whatevs, YOLO! (Note to self: I can never be a nutritionist...)

One of the few places that serve these brick toasts is Phoenix Restaurant, a chain "cha chaan teng" or 茶餐廳 - Hong Kong style cafés.

Location:

There are 2 Phoenixes, one north of HWY7 and one closer to Scarborough. We went to the one on Woodbine and Steeles, on Woodbine, about 2 intersections north of Steeles - very convenient being on the border of Scarborough and Markham. It's in a kinda obscure industrial-looking plaza but you can't miss it with its bright green sign!

Decor:

Typical Chinese restaurant decor, nothing special. Fairly clean with large booth seats as well as round tables.

Food: 

We ordered a brick toast with black sesame ice cream and a Napoleon puff pastry with green tea ice cream. The toast was what dreams were made of; warm and crispy from being toasted and lined with melty butter and stuffed to the brim with ice cream, whip cream and fruits (banana and strawberry). The puff pastry was good too but it kinda toppled over before we even touched it. Although both were good, I have to say I prefer the brick toast more, probably because the sesame ice cream was absolutely divine.

Service:

Phoenix closes at 10pm and we arrived a little past 9 and was told they'd be closing soon. We felt kind of rushed while ordering because the waiter basically stood over our shoulders (he probably wanted to get off work) and we were also asked to pay the bill halfway through our meal so they can calculate the day's bills or something. Tip: probably go a little earlier next time if you don't wanna be rushed!

Price:

Both items were around $8 or so and the total with tax came to around $17 something. We dropped a twenty.

Verdict:

We will definitely be back for more brick toasts. They're rather addictive and are probably suicidal in terms of health but they taste so good! We were also told that if we bring our receipt back within 10 days, we'll get 10% off our next bill! :) Score!

-M.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

I have a confession: I am a tiny bit obsessed with avocados.

I, Mandy, love avocados. And guacamole (which shall be affectionately called "guac" from hereon)

This past Thursday, I hit up Chipotles with an old friend for a quick get-together lunch.

And boy was it good.

They only accept cash or credit cards! No debit!

Chipotle is a chain that specializes in Mexican "grill" food; ie. burritos. At Chipotle, you can basically get any variation of burritos; in a bowl (without the tortilla wrap), as a salad (for the health conscious) and they also have sofritas and chips w/guac. I'm drooling as I type this. I'm someone who will probably walk a mile on my hands for some good Mexican food.

Location:
The location we went to was the one near Eatons Centre (Yonge & Dundas). Very easily accessible by TTC or walking.

Decor:
The joint was cozy and set up like a fast food assembly line with minimal decor; wooden picnic tables/benches and wooden high stools.

Service:
The line was quite long when we went (around 12:30pm - prime lunch time) but it moved fairly quickly. The staff were friendly and one actually went around offering samples of their tofu sofritas! One thing I didn't quite like was how loud it was. It was kind of hard trying to order as it's an assembly line and you kinda have to shout and tiptoe (in my vertically-challenge case) over the tall glass barrier in order for the employee to hear your request of toppings. I felt like it was really rushed and I actually forgot to add corn to my burrito bowl. :(

Mmmmm! Chicken burrito bowl with guacamole

All mixed up!

Food:
Amazing. That's it. That's all I'll write. No I'm kidding. It was very yummy. I got the chicken burrito bowl with guacamole and it was a big bowl of creamy goodness. LOVE LOVE LOVE the guac. The chicken was flavourful and juicy (although I felt like there wasn't enough). It was a very good portion and we were both stuffed by the time we chowed down our burrito bowls. We also tried the tofu sofrita samples an employee was handing out and it was surprisingly quite yummy! Might try that on my next visit.

This is the free sample of tofu sofrita that was handed out. It was really yummy!

Price:
Fairly priced since the bowls are very filling. The burrito bowl was $8.99 but the guacamole (very big scoop) is an extra $2+ so the total came to around $12~ with tax. Not bad for a yummy and filling lunch!

Verdict?
I will definitely be back! If you love Mexican food or some good guac, definitely drop by a Chipotle!

- M.

Aka Teppan

So the new hype around Markhan recently is that the infamous foodcourt chain from Asia, Pepper Lunch, has arrived!

I'm pretty sure this is NOT a franchise of the actual Pepper Lunch but it's the closest thing we have here!

I first tried Pepper Lunch in Mongkok in Hong Kong. It was a food court restaurant that served meals on hot plates or "Teppanyaki".

Aka Teppan follows this trend.

Location:

It's located at First Markhan Place on HWY7 and Woodbine. Fairly accessible by YRT or driving and not difficult to find.

Decor:

The decor was clean and simple with white tables, white walls with a few posters of their specials and when we were there, they were playing Avril Lavigne songs lol. Later the music changed to canto pop.

Food:

They had many different Teppanyaki options, the two main being pasta or rice. Different kinds of meat were available such as beef, duck breast, salmon or chicken.

I ordered the Atlantic Salmon Teppanyaki with rice while Angela ordered the Supreme beef with rice.

The food came on hot plates with the meat surrounding a little mount of rice and we were advised to mix quickly to cook the meat. As we broke apart the rice, we discovered there was a clump of butter and terriyaki sauce inside.

The food was very flavourful and had lots of pepper - very reminiscent of Pepper Lunch indeed. I must say it's the closest I've tried in Toronto to the original Pepper Lunch! However, we found ourselves quite thirsty after the meal.

Sevice: 

We were seated promptly and served tea. Although as we left there was a small crowd waiting for tables. The servers could all speak English. One thing I didn't quite like was that the food came individually so one person could be awkwardly waiting for their food while watching their friend devour their dish.

Price:

It was fairly reasonable for a lunch. Both of our dishes were $8.99+tax.

Verdict:

I'd definitely come back to try their pasta Teppanyaki! If you're a fan of Pepper Lunch, definitely come try Aka if you're ever in the area!

-M

Sephora VIB Rouge Spring Social

Recently I became a Sephora "VIB Rouge" member.

I'm not proud of it.

For those who don't shop at Sephora frequently, Sephora has a free membership called "beauty insider" that allows you to incur points for every dollar you spend and you can exchange those points for perks and samples. $1 spent = 1 point.

Vib rouge members have over 1000 points in a calendar year. Yes, that means all vib rouge members spent over $1000 at Sephora.

Hi, my name is Mandy and I have a Sephora addiction.

Haha, just kidding (kinda). Anyway, one of the perks of being VIB rouge is you get discounts earlier than other members and invites to "exclusive" events.

This past Sunday we were invited to an exclusive VIB rouge "spring social" that involved getting 15% off as well as a cosmetics bag full of free samples!

So we woke up bright and early on a sunny Sunday and headed to the Scarborough Town location. 

We arrived at around 9:30am to an empty mall and a Sephora employee greeted us at the door to ask for our names (we had to RSVP to the event) and the email invitation.

There were "bites" served at the back of the store; mini croissants, cupcakes, danishes, Starbucks coffee and little Sephora bottled water that had the vib rouge logo on it!

The event was 9-11am and as it got closer to 11, more and more people showed up. We spent around 1.5 hours there and spent just under $200 each. Our wallets are wincing. 

Here is what we got!

And here is the freebie cosmetics bag and samples. Not overly impressed as the samples were skimpy and mostly one-time uses.

Overall we had a fun Sunday morning and look forward to future VIBRouge events! (I can hear our credit cards crying already :P)

- M.

Sunrise House

Once again, we find ourselves at a Korean Restaurant on a cold day in Toronto.  This time, we went to Sunrise House found in Koreatown on Bloor.

Decor
The walls were painted in a shade of lime green, perfectly matching our St. Patty's Day's outfits.  The restaurant immediately gave us a nice and cozy atmosphere as there were many cute miniature figures around the room.  There were about six tables that seated 4 to 6 people and two smaller tables on the side that only seated two.

Food
We almost instantly decide to order the Pork Bone Soup for two as this is usually the case at every Korean restaurant we go to (we're an old fashion couple). Just like every other Korean restaurant, they serve us six side dishes that includes japchae, bean sprouts, spicy pickled tofu and cucumbers, kimchi, pickled seaweed, and potatoes.  I enjoyed the dishes that were not spicy the most as they had great flavours.

The pork bone soup hot pot came in a wok placed on top of a gas stove.  We were not impressed by this dish.  The meat on the pork bones were under seasoned and the soup was just spicy.  It seemed like the soup was just chili powder mixed with water.  It didn't seem salty nor loaded with MSG.  Also, we expected that there would be korean rice cakes or mandu (Korea dumplings) included.

Service
When we arrived, we were the only customers and were greeted with a warm welcome.  However, the restaurant filled up quickly as it supper time.  They graciously refilled our sides when requested.  We had to ask twice for our tea to be refilled but since the restaurant was packed at the time, we understand that they forgot as there were multiple requests.

Price
The pork bone soup (gamjatang) for two was $14.99 and with tax, it was $16.95.  Note that Sunrise House only accepts cash.

Verdict
Sunrise House has 4 out of 5 stars on yelp.  I expected more, especially as gamjatang is a staple Korean dish.  We would not recommend coming here for the Pork Bone Soup.

Ruelo Patisserie

We decided to be fancy ladies this past Friday and went for afternoon high tea! How posh!

Reality: we actually bought a Groupon (like the poor savvy students we are) for Ruelo Patisserie's newest location, located on McNicoll near Victoria Park.

Location
The location is REALLY new. As in we can still smell the paint on the walls - almost. It was kind of difficult trying to find the location as it was in the middle of an industrial area, surrounded by packing/shipping warehouses. We actually had to do a u-turn to find the location.

Decor
Since this recently opened, the furnishing was quite bare. Simple purple couches and tables with large windows that let in a lot of natural light (great for taking photos!). They didn't even have a chance to lay out the macaron mountain/pile when we were there. The fridge at the front was empty actually.

Food
Our tray was a typical 3-tiers with the bottom layer being savoury mini sandwiches & prosciutto, followed by the middle tier filled with scones and a tiny little bowl of jam and butter and the top tier had cakes and creme brulee. It was an appealing presentation. Everything was very dainty! #girlymoment

Nomnomnoms

Hits included the mango & shrimp sandwich, smoked salmon sandwich, custard twist & scones and the matcha mousse cake.

The bottom tier of savoury mini sandwiches

Middle tier had warm scones and a custard twist

Top tier had macarons, mini cakes and creme brulee

The creme brulee was a bit too watery/runny and the prosciutto was quite oily. We would've also liked for there to be a bit more butter for our scones (we like our lard! haha).

Tea
We loved the large selection of tea. We were offered either a choice of Kusmi tea or coffee. Being the insomniacs that we are, both of us chose herbal teas.

The zen blend was quite good, with strong hints of citrus and a rooibos base. The detox green tea had a very strong green tea presence so if you don't like strong teas or the matcha taste, don't go for it!

The teas came in little individual diffusers good for one cup.

Service
There was only one waitress on duty when we arrived (in fact, we were the only ones there for a good half hour or so before another couple finally showed up). She was great; very courteous and polite.

Price
Our groupon was $27.50 for 2, taxes and gratuities extra. Over all, it was good value for the amount of food we got. We left with full bellies (or until after we hit the gym).

Verdict
Definitely worth visiting for the price we paid because the food was beautifully presented and tasted good.  I'm not really sure if it's worth a visit for its full price.