ROSE CITY KITCHEN
406 Queen St W
Toronto, Canada
Sandwiches - Middle Eastern - Take-out - Poutine - Salad
$$

Rose City Kitchen is most definitely an undermined eatery in Queen West, located just West of Queen & Spadina. I avoided this spot (like many other Queen West spots) while residing in the neighborhood since I believed that it wouldn't be worth trying, but really - it deserves all of the praise! Their incredible fresh flavour combinations, made to order. Sandwiches are served up in a half-cut pita. "1 for a snack, 2 for a meal, 3 if you’re starving..." is recommended - but I was strangely super stuffed after sharing (!!!) a poutine, we were struggling to finish up our two half-cut pitas. The beauty is that you start with choosing your protein - Chicken ($5), Falafel ($4), Steak ($5) and Halloumi ($5), then onto the style of condiments and seasoning, there are the "RCK" Original, Greek, Lebanese, Morrocan and Egyptian to choose from. Check out their sweet, sweet menu, here.

SMOQUE N' BONES

869 Queen Street West 

Toronto, ON
M6J 1G4 Canada

Southern BBQ - Queen West

$$

For the weeks leading up the their Grand Opening, I would often take the initiative to walk onto the South-side of Queen Street home just to peep into Smoque N' Bones. The day finally came, but I was in the wrong side of North America. I am now here, and ready to join the frenzy that Chef Alex Rad had lit up of his new joint. A Southern-style Barbecue joint is exactly what Queen Street needed. 

Real excited for a fine Southern-style grub with three Beauts of mine, Dianne, Nance and Emika. Starting, off our meal, we needed a cheer with our pints of Samuel Adams (also to be captured). It's great to see such a delicious lager on tap. I do hope that Samuel Adams is presented to many more restaurants in the future, because this would be my immediate beer of choice over any other commercial brand on tap. It held the perfect thick texture, was low in carbonation, held some fruity notes and was slightly hoppy. 

Glug, glug, glug. TGIF!

EL ALMACEN

1078 Queen St W

Toronto, ON

M6J 1H8, Canada

Cafe - Latin American

$

 Oh boy. It's been a while. It never occured to me... my cravings for this beauty. I only ever had the pleasure of trying this once, at the South American Food Festival in Fairfield. It was certainly unique. It was the first time I ever tried such a concoction, one of my first steps in venturing out of the Asian food I knew a loved. Here, it was were I had my first Empanada, and began to purchase Lebanese treats. 

El Almacen is all about Mate Beverages. It's a beautiful concept, you can read more about it here. Mate, also known as 'Yerba Mate' leaves are finely chopped and ground up to make up a powder. You can be sipping this drink hours on end. With a couple of teaspoons of Yerba Mate, you even it out with your desired amount of sugar all into a Gourd. Using your metal spoon/straw (also a Bomba), you blend it all together and sip away. 

El Almacen, as expected, has a nice set of Empanadas available, in: Beef & Green Olive, Mixed Vegetable, Spinach & Cheese and Ham & Cheese at $3.50 each. They also serve up combos of Soup of the Day - Grilled Sandwiches - Empanadas.

I've always been super curious of Filipino food. After completing my TAFE course in 2012 and putting all of my focus onto my hobbies, there were curious weeks with endless searches of recipes, of every Asian cuisine. A few Filipino food blogs would have dishes consisting of super simple ingredients together... A lot of them were hot dogs... mixed with a lot of random things, on rice (example). I was never intrigued enough to make any of them myself, though.

What made me happily agree to dinner at Lamesa, was being able to have the opportunity to try the Halo Halo dessert! I've tried plenty, plenty of variations of Vietnamese Halo Halo in Cabramatta and each were amazing. But, after finishing each cup, my curiousity would continue peaking for what the actual Filipino Halo Halo would taste like. As soon as we were promptly seated and ready to order, I immediately asked if they were serving Halo Halo tonight... But, nope, too my disappointment, it was only a Summer-time menu item. Dangit.

Once each of our dishes came out, I honestly did not understand what the server was describing to us. I just happily smiled and nodded like I eat Filipino food on a regular. There will be a lot of foreign descriptions...:

A dandy Wednesday afternoon, a few classes, an hour of work, and onwards to Dufflet! I was intrigued by the chalkboard drawing upon sight, and completely forgetting about the 2 for 1 slice deal of the day once I got in. I was pretty overwhelmed by the (semi-stale) choices in pastries. My biggest pet peeve is when a store does not have name tags and prices up. It straight up makes me want to leave - in which most cases, I do, but I had to suck it up this time around for the sake of my mate. Also, the cashier wasn't very enthusiastic either, which made the experience even more dull for me. When anybody is any less enthusiastic than I am about the goods, that is not a good thing. By this point, I was totally up for making a mini trek up to Nadege.

Their menu of Poutines, Fries, Frites and a heap of range of Sauces (And cutie forks!)

They have a few poutines, not as big a variety as Smoke's but, I think it's just enough considering that their gravy is amazing! Poutines of Vegan, Pulled Pork, Bacon and 'The Works' and in sizes of Regular ($7-10) and 'Teeny Weeny Tiny' ($5-7) (lol). Pricing here. The Bacon Poutine even had an option to add Maple Syrup! Oh, Canadians.