Poutini's

1112 Queen Street West, Toronto - (647) 342-3732

So who would have thought, Toronto is really becoming a poutine town.

We have been a few times to Smoke's Poutinerie (who have now opened a second location right across from Filmore's Strip club on Dundas.

The new kid in town was Poutini's, I read a really positive review in Now Magazine and decided I needed to give it a shot.

So on a Saturday afternoon last summer we headed down Queen St. looking for the place (like many times in past I had no idea what the address was)

We finally found it a few blocks East of Dufferin just doors away from the Drake Hotel.

Staff were friendly, but ordering 3 orders of poutine took nearly 20 minutes.

The fries are really good, but they need a system to not make people wait so long.

The menu was pretty plain, either poutine or a baked potato and drinks.

As mentioned, the 3 of us tried 3 orders of poutine.

Because it was summer, it was crazy hot out, and the restaurant didn't seem to have any air conditioning, so sitting, or rather standing (as there were no seats inside) was not an option.

We took our poutine across the road and sat on the front steps of the Post Office.

There we enjoyed our poutine.

It was fantastic, the gravy was like the old style gravy you find at a real burger shop (as apposed to Smoke's who use a more Montreal style sauce).

The cheese was good too, and very generous.

Cool too that the packaging, even the fork was 100% recyclable.

In all I really enjoyed the poutine, I'd recommend it for sure.

We haven't been back, since it's not in an area we normally go to, but if you are near by, give it a try.

Their website is.

http://www.poutini.com/

Reggie's Cheese Stick's

So Toronto finally has a good 24 hour sandwich place

http://www.reggiessandwiches.com/

They opened a few months back down on King St (571 king street west) and seem to have already captured quite a following (and not just from the strip club down the street)

I read a really good review in Now Magazine and decided we should check this place out.

The Menu http://www.reggiessandwiches.com/menu.html was pretty big, so much to choose from, but the staff were very gelpful in making suggestions.

We decided to have the Monte Cristo sandwich for me, Ham, roast turkey, Swiss, mozzarella,, Dijon mustard & mayo for $7.25, and the Chicken Parm for her $7.95Breaded cutlet, spicy tomato sauce & mozzarella.

Took around ten minutes for our sandwiches to come from the kitchen (the cook told us it was because he dropped one and had to make a brand new one)

The sandwiches were a fair size, and had generous amounts of meat.

I really enjoyed mine, hers was ok, but after having the same at California Sandwiches it's hard for these guys to make a better chicken parm.

My only complaint would be for nearly ten dollars a sandwich, give me some sides, some fries, a bag of chips, whatever.

Since we knew that there were no sides we ordered a side of cheese sticks (because the description reminded me of a great appetizer at the cheesecake factory)

The sticks were ok, but nowhere near cheesy enough, they are essentially macaroni and cheese formed into sticks, battered then deep fried.

I think with a cheese dip on the side they could be really good.

Overall, fast friendly service, good food, open all night, I'll be back.

Taste of the Danforth

So this weekend was the 15th annual Taste of the Danforth Festival.

We went Friday night, and I must say it was the smallest Friday night crowd I have ever seen at this festival.

I'm thinking it had a whole lot to do with the weather (which was very cool Friday night) but turned to rain for the rest of the weekend, so seems Friday night was the best time to have been there.

With the giant propane fire all over the news http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/475968 I'm not sure how much media attention was on the Danforth, but I am willing to bet that had it been a slow news weekend we would have heard of the low numbers at this years festival.

I have always said to friends, the only time to even bother going to Taste of the Danforth is during a rainstorm, as normally it is too busy to even attempt to walk through, the festival has become a victim of it's own success.

The festival idea came from the Taste of Chicago Festival http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Taste+of+Chicago&entityNameEnumValue=166(in Chicago of course) and there, once the festival outgrew the area it was held, it was moved to a nearby park.

There is no reason that TotD shouldn't do the same thing, I mean on a busy day, you really can not even get from one side of the street to the other in less that 20 minutes, so you may as well forget about the food.

After a block or two of this I have always given up and gotten back on the subway.

Anyways, as for Friday night, it went well, we had some good (if not really overpriced) food.

I'll go again, but I have to say it saddens me that every year it's getting more and more expensive.

I mean we went to Kalyvia (we have been going there every year for as long as I remember)

http://www.kalyvia.com/

We started off eating there one time just by chance (pretty much means there was no lineup there) and we were wowed, the meat was generous, the pita was fresh, and they drizzed some sort of olive oil and lemon over it before serving.

It has gotten worse every year, Friday I paid $10.00 for 2 chicken on a pitas, there was maybe 3 little pieces of meat on each pita (the pitas were dried out) and the sauce was the tiniest drizzle.

I mean isn't the thought of this festival to wow people so they will come back after the festival for more?

But year after year it has just become a bigger and bigger cash grab.

Most of the restaurants tick me off enough that I wouldn't go back when the festival is not on (and I spend a lot of time on the Danforth).

The organizers don't even hire any good bands anymore, I remember seeing some great shows at this festival (Jim Cuddy, Crashtest Dummies, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings) So even if the food was overpriced there was a reason for me to go there anyway.

Well, here is hoping that next year will see a better set up.