Escape for the day at Suzzet's Cabaret.

I know you are all wondering,"What the hell is this?". It is actually more normal than it seems, yet it is still unique. Suzzet's Cabaret is a fairy-tale themed cabaret-a concept similar to Medieval Times only that the men wearing tights are portraying fairy-tale characters and fairy-tale authors.I found this place when I was babysitting a friend's four year-old daughter in Harbour Front.

                                                                                          
                                                                                            Clean and moderately bright. The waiters wear simple peasant costume gowns or tunics. The service is unbelievable considering that this place attracts hundreds of young children a day. The waiters are courteous and very helpful towards parents with picky eaters. The only problem is booking a table for a birthday party; available reservation spaces fill up quickly.

 The food is also surprising. Instead of burgers and fries for the children, menu items include Big Bad Wolf's bratwurst and pretzels, Magic Egg soup (matzo ball soup), black forest cake, Jack's bean medley, and the Six Swans cream puffs. ( I believe the German and Yiddish food is a reference to the original cabarets of Wiemar Germany.)  My friend's daughter enjoyed the Magic Egg soup and the cream puffs. I only had the bean medley and the black forest cake, but I wanted more.

 A cabaret is not complete without a little entertainment. The MC is a quirky court jester with a slightly inappropriate sense of humour-nothing to risque for the kids. But the big cheese is Suzzet, the fairy god-mother that narrates the stories. Other characters include: Tilda, the most beautiful witch of the woods; Merlin, the smartest wizard of the kingdom; the Grimm Brothers; Monsieur Perrault; and Hans the Cobbler.

     Even though fairy-tales have been overdone in past theatre productions and films, Suzzet's Cabaret manages to a fresh twist to these tales. This place even features it's own original musical acts. One act that caught my attention was "So Like a Friend" which was a duet with Hans the cobbler and Doro the dancer; the song was about Doro gratitude for Hans friendship not knowing Hans' true feelings (friend-zoned).

 
 I would recommend this place to families that enjoy theatre and European food. The best suggestion is to attend first for a family dinner before deciding to make party reservations.  Try it yourself. Escape for the day at Suzzet's Cabaret.


-Jessica C.



 

Princess Heart

 On my first trip to Toykyo, my cousin and I "arranged" our food plan to eat eggs, bread, and instant ramen in the hotel room for breakfast and late night snacks. We  would only go out to restaurants for one meal a day. Because my cousin was hesitant on the whole "eating radioactive raw fish "  thing, we decided to go to more novelty themed restaurants or hot-pot restaurants. One restaurant that made the biggest impression on us was Princess Heart.

   Princess Heart is a fairy-tale princess themed restaurant geared toward 18-24 year old women. (Yes, it is a cultural trait for Japanese adults to relieve themselves with nostalgia and novelty indulgence.....More like a universal trait of humanity) The food served there are princess themed pastries, and the waitresses are dressed in frilly maid costumes.

  Two things about the food surprised us: 1)These are the best pastry dishes ever. 2) Everything is served in a glass slipper or a slipper shape.  Apparently, these pastries such as the princess shape taiyaki (bean-paste filled pastry) are made from simple recipes used everywhere in Japan. One significant difference between Japanese pastry recipes and Western pastry recipes is the egg and flour ratio.
Instead of using six eggs in the sponge cake batter, Japanese chefs use three eggs; the yolk and egg whites are whipped separately to give a fluffy texture.

 If you happen to be in Tokyo with a group of friends or young daughters and you don't want to eat radioactive sushi, try Princess Heart. Be a princess for a day.

  -Jessica C.

Smoke's Poutinerie

SMOKE'S POUTINE!!!
By: Alyssa Jackson

If you are unfamiliar with the word poutine it is a dish made by a french man in Quebec.  The classic take is an assortment of fries on the bottom with cheese curds on top and gravy on top of that.  

Smokes Poutinerie started in Quebec and has traveled all over the place. There is one located in every province of Canada and in the U.S.  The have over 30 different combinations on their menus. Anything from the simplest to the extreme. They even have different meats like beef, chicken, pork, even veggie ones for all those vegetarians out there.  Or you could even create your own poutine.  Eveything is deleish and must give it a try! i would give this place an overall rating of 10/10.  Bring an empty stomach and be prepared to be amazed!

Their fries are hand cut, and only bought from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. 

It isnt just the food though.  the atmosphere in the place is comforting and definately kid friendly.  The resturant is open and accomadating lots and lots of space for everyone to sit and enjoy each others company.

The Keg & Swiss Chalet

Hey folks at Trent U!  All of you must be getting so drained from all those hours of studying!! if you are looking for  places to eat or avoid check out these restaurant  reviews I've prepared!!

First is the Keg in Oshawa I had the pleasure of eating there last Saturday for a friends 25th birthday.  The service was good and the food came fairly quickly.  I had the 20oz steak with smash potatoes and vegetables the food was perfect.  To drink I had bud-wiser on draft, the beer tasted a little flat but was still pretty good.  To finish I had the chocolate cake, it was WAY to much for me but still very delicious!  Overall I had a great time and I would rate my dining experiences with the Oshawa Keg eight out ten and would recommend it to any hungry students needing a meal break!

My second review is on Swiss Chalet in Whitby.  I had gone there for my sisters 27th birthday last week. The customer service was average.  I wanted the chicken and ribs with fries they said "we our out of that"  rather then the server recommending another choice I had to look for myself.  I ordered the quarter chicken with fries which took forever! my coke was warm and the server only checked on us once quickly.  At my own risk I ordered the apple pie, which was a big mistake! it looked like someone sneezed on it, I took one bite and hated it.  I would not recommend the Swiss Chalet in Whitby to anyone for lunch or dinner.

Chris Del Duca.

Chinese Cuisine

Hello everyone, my name is Franco. Last week, me and my family wanted to eat some home country foods, so we went to china town to and we discovered a delicious traditional Chinese restaurant, call Sky Dragon Chinese Restaurant.

Sky Dragon Restaurant located inside.

It is located on 280 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 3A5, inside of a shopping mall called Dragon City at 4/F. If you look closely in the photo I provided above, you can actually see Sky Dragon's yellow logo at the top. This restaurant is not big but has lots of traditional Chinese foods.

We ordered shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, mini glutinous rice bags, steamed chicken feet and so on. They are all delicious and made fresh. 

Shrimp Dumplings! Yum.

The one that I like the most and I recommend people to try is "Cheung Fung", a dish of rice flour rolls with BBQ pork. The BBQ pork is wrapped in rice flour rolls and covered in soy sauce; it tastes sweet and salty.

Cheung Fung!

Also, the prices of the foods are cheap too. I would recommend this restaurant to all my fellow food lovers who are fans of Chinese cuisine.

- FRANCO.

Burgers. Enough Said.

HEY FRIENDS!
Nicole again! I'm a big lover of burgers and I thought i'd share two of my favourite places to mow down.

PLACE? Baldwin Street Burger.

WHERE? Brooklin, ON. 

WHY? Because their burgers are amazing and I think I'm in love.

A quick summary of them; their burgers are farm fresh and hand made. The range of different burgers they have is pretty crazy. I usually order the Philly Cheese burger..."Caramelized onions, sauteed peppers & mushrooms, provolone cheese, roasted garlic aioli". My stomach is growling. 

The burgers are $8.00 each and definitely worth it. The wait time for your burger is a little longer than a fast food joint, but that's because they are preparing your burger fresh.. so once again, worth it. The burgers are actually pretty hefty too. After finishing one of these bad boys it usually feels like I am carrying an elephant in my womb. Oh yeah and when your burger is ready they serve it to you on a wooden chopping board. VERY cool.

The Philly Cheese Burger! 

You can read a lot more about them here: http://baldwinstreetburger.com 

IN THE WORDS OF JAY-Z...ON TO THE NEXT ONE!

PLACE? Shake, Rabble & Roll

WHERE? Whitby, ON.

WHY? Because I love burgers and also this place reminds me of Pulp Fiction my favourite movie ever!

This burger joint is a visual roller coaster..for those of you familiar with Pulp Fiction by the king Quentin Tarantino.. the $5.00 shake scene in "Jack Rabbit Slims" ...I FELT LIKE MIA WALLACE ORDERING A BURGER HERE!

Anyways, for those of you not familiar with Pulp Fiction, here is your standard burger restaurant review. Really good burgers, really friendly people! What more could you really ask for. Oh...really good sides as well? They have that too. So there you go. BUY THEIR FOOD YOU WON'T REGRET IT. Not a burger person? They have sandwiches. BURGERS, SANDWICHES AND FRIES like really what are you waiting for....

I would try to describe what the restaurant looks like but there are no words to justify the visual ..

The front. Oh yeah, they have cruiser shows Saturday and Monday 5pm til dusk. 

The inside. I love you Shake, Rabble & Roll.

Until next time folks!

-Nicole T

xoxo happy munching!

Sashimi Showdown

ARE YOU HUNGRY? I AM!!

Hey everyone, Nicole here with the inside scoop on sushi. So if you haven't already noticed sushi is quickly becoming the new food trend and I wanted to help YOU choose the best of the best. I'm here with a couple reviews on two of my favourite sushi restaurants!!

This weekend I went to Teriyaki House. A little sushi joint in Whitby. First off, if you're coming here with a first time sushi eater, this place is great. The entrance is welcoming and cozy; the only thing that maaaaay slightly off put your sushi noob is the fact that their sashimi a.k.a raw slabs of salmon is displayed in a glass case for everyone to see. 

Anyways! On to the fun part, the FOOOOOD!!!! 

The food here is delicious. I usually go in for lunch time because they have a special of $11.99 for all you can eat! The sushi is neatly prepared and comes to your table quick! My favourite sushi roll to order is the "spicy dynamite" -- basically a deep fried shrimp wrapped in rice, seaweed, avocado etc. 

Most sushi restaurants have pretty similar menus but one big pro for me is that Teriyaki House switches it up a bit!! I was super excited to see that they had a bunch of new exciting ice cream flavours on their dessert menu. Usually on sushi all you can eat menus the ice cream flavours are pretty limited to Green Tea, Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry and Mango. At Teriyaki House they had Coconut, Ginger and Tempura! I went for the Coconut flavour and I have no regrets it was awesome! Not only did the ice cream actually taste like coconuts but it actually had some coconut chunks in it! I'd definitely recommend for coconut lovers. 

DYNAMITE ROLLS!! DROOLING!!

STAFF:

The food is great but to be honest I feel like the staff could learn a thing or two about manners...My friends and I had asked the waitress for some napkins and she didn't hear...about five times....but that's not what i'm complaining about. I totally get it if you don't understand me and need me to repeat a couple times but you should probably say "pardon?" instead of HUH??? HUHHH???? and giving a frustrated look..wasn't too pleased about that but besides that my experience at Teriyaki House was excellent!

FOR THE GLITZ 'N' GLAM SUSHI LOVERS!!!

Dragon Rolls restaurant in Pickering. All I have to say is COOOOOLLLLL!!! If you want to feel like you're eating sushi in 2050 GO HERE!! You order your sushi off an iPad! AND even COOLER you don't even need to call your waitress over. I don't know how but somehow someway they have a sensor or SOMETHING!! But you just place your iPad at the end of the table and they come racing for it and send your order in ....I was personally blown away by this and was very impressed. OH! Also, a bonus about Dragon Rolls, not only are they a Japanese restaurant but they are a Thai restaurant as well!

Ordering off the iPad!

Basically everything I have to say about this restaurant is positive. 5 stars. 500 stars. 5000 stars. I'd definitely recommend it as an awesome place to impress your relatives from Timbuktu. The sushi is excellent, the staff is polite, the entire restaurant is clean, polished and very modern looking. Dragon Rolls is one of my favourite sushi restaurants. 

WHAT YOU NEED TO ORDER: Dragon Roll's specialty...The Dragon Roll. They make their sushi look like a dragon. The end. That's all you need to know. Your welcome.

KA-BLAM!! DRAGON ROLL!! COOL OR COOL?

Until next time my sushi lovers!!

- Nicole T

 xoxo happy munching!