Hey Meatball - Toronto

Date: 6 November 2013



4 - 6 November was my hell week (my workweek is only three day long but you could put another day in there as I had to pack for my US trip and I hate packing). To celebrate my temporary exit from hell, I went to have really photogenic meatball spaghetti with my awesome Swiss friend, Alexia.



I've totally just discovered the stone/concrete robot as I think about what caption to write. Perfect.



Hey Meatball has a chalkboard sign on which they write/draw random funny things. Exploring the shop's Instagram geotag page, previous jokes include IT'S BALL-O-WEEN for Halloween and EVEN MILEY COULDN'T WRECK THESE BALLS with a wrecking ball doodle (referring to my guilty pleasure - Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus). On our day of visit, it was poking fun at the Toronto Mayor Rob Ford who had admitted to cocaine use.



Hey Meatball is a farm-to-table restaurant, all the ingredients they use are natural and are sourced within a 100 miles radius. I always appreciate it when restaurants use good ingredients. After all, you are what you eat. One point to note, this menu seems to be less flexible than the online menu? I guess you can always customise.



I do! I do!



Lemon sodas. Alexia was disappointed because it was supposed to come in a jar as shown on the website. Instead they served tap water in a jar... Well, at least this plastic cup could hold more soda than the tiny jar.



Annoying Orange, I've forgot about you already.



I had Spaghetti with Pork + Beef Balls with Tomato Sauce and Cheese.



I like the texture of the spaghetti, it was slightly flat and very dense. I was so full half-way through my pasta I added spicy salsa/preserve/hot sauce for some kick. There were three levels of heat, ranging from no heat to Oh God, which is what I had obviously. It was very spicy but it definitely made the dish and helped me to eat more.



Alexia had Polenta with Braised Rib, Sausage, Pork and Beef Ball with Bolognese Sauce. I stole a forkful of the braised rib and it was so tender, "fall-out-of-the-bone" tender. It was my first time eating polenta, not usually a fan of corn-based products (I love sweet corn though, I eat it straight from the tin), it was like mashed potato.


Rating: 4/5

Food: Who'd have thought meatball spaghetti could be this tasty? Confessedly I think I'm pretty good at cooking pasta, but I know I couldn't cook what I had here at Hey Meatball. Everything was fresh, the meatballs were cooked and seasoned to perfection, the sauce was delicious. I want to go back but there's simply too many places to try out before I leave Toronto! :(

Environment: Cool decor with a big open kitchen. I like the red chairs together with the wood tables, very simple but effective. The restaurant was a bit dark though that's why we chose to sit by the windows.

Service: It's a fast causal restaurant. You'd have to order at the counter. They'd take your name and call you by your name when your order's ready. There's limited service but the folks behind the counter/in the kitchen were all friendly. I like how they called you by your name instead of your order out loud. It's always better to be known as yourself than the girl who ordered meatball spaghetti...

Price: $15 for a massive plate of pasta made with good natural ingredients and heart, along with a big cup of natural lemon soda. Though Hey Meatball is self-service, I thought it was almost a bargain because you could taste the freshness of the ingredients. I have been long deprived of affordable fresh food in Hong Kong.


Hey Meatball
719 College Street
Toronto, ON
M6G 3C1
Canada

Website
Facebook

Black Camel - Toronto

Hiiii, I'm back from the States! Posts on NYC and DC eateries coming soon. But before that, let me finish my pre-US Toronto food posts:

Date of visit: Tuesday, 5 November 2013



On Tuesday, I had an exam on Yonge/Bloor. A few days before the exam, I had already decided that I would walk up to Black Camel for a post-exam celebration sandwich. This café had been on my Toronto to-eat list ever since reading about its slow roasted brisket and roasted pulled chicken sandwiches. You could see how popular it is by the fact that they have a Twitter account to tell the world when they have sold out.



Cool shopfront. No name, just a camel!





I ordered a cup of coffee and a sandwich. The coffee was too light-tasting for my preference. I'm not saying the coffee wasn't good, but I like my coffee like I like my men - STRONG. For the sandwich, I had the Slow Roasted Beef Brisket sandwich with Black Camel BBQ sauce. I didn't know I could get a second sauce/condiment for free, even though it was written on the menu (thanks to post-exam blindness). I should really have ordered it with chipotle mayo / horseradish.



Normally I prefer something lighter (such as Roasted Pulled Chicken) but I felt like eating something more flavourful after an exam. Besides, someone left a tip on Foursquare saying first timers should go for the Slow Roasted Beef Brisket sandwich with Black Camel BBQ sauce. (Why do I trust Foursquare tips?)



Layer upon layer of tender and juicy brisket, which took five days to prepare - three days to marinate, twelve hours to cook and twenty-four hours to rest.



So much sauce was dripping that after a few bites I had to stop eating and clean my hands! That's why they gave me a wet wipe.





Rating: 3/5

Food: According to various reviews and websites, Black Camel is the one of the best, if not the best, sandwich shops in Toronto. And I was let down. The beef brisket was tender and flavourful but I'm not a fan of the bun. The sandwich was wrapped in tin foil so it was natural to think the bun would be warm but it wasn't! Their Twitter keeps track of the number of buns remaining so you would think it would be good, but sorry to say it felt rather like a supermarket bun to me. But apparently it's called a Portuguese bun and it's a signature??? A lot of people seem to like it, though.

I still believe my experience could have been better and I was just unlucky. I would go back to sample the Roasted Pulled Chicken sandwich and Pulled Pork Shoulder sandwich and perhaps have the Eggspresso Breakfast Sandwich for breakfast. Time to eat something other than Timbits for breakfast. I want to eat everything on their menu!

Environment: Located in Rosedale, a nice neighbourhood in Toronto, Black Camel is a great spot for people-watching. It is a small shop with several bar stools indoors and four tables outdoors. As a devoted food blogger, despite the cold, I sat outside so I could take better photos. Though I was close to freezing to death, I enjoyed watching the world go by as I sipped my coffee.

Service: There wasn't much service as Black Camel is a café. But from my interaction with the barista/cashier and from eavesdropping on other customers' conversation with her, she was as nice as she could be in a busy café.

Price: Sandwich + medium coffee = $9.59. I wouldn't say it was cheap but it wasn't expensive either. Plus the sandwich was incredibly filling and it got me into a semi-food coma...


Black Camel
4 Crescent Rd
Toronto, ON
M4W 1S9
Canada

Website

Sunrise House Restaurant - Toronto

Date of visit: Wednesday, 30 October 2013



It's crazy considering how close the campus is to Koreatown and I have never visited. So when my friend suggested we head to K-Town for lunch, I couldn't say no! I'd picked Sunrise House Restaurant after discovering it (and drooling over geotagged photos) on Instagram. It turned out one of the Korean friends in our group had been there before. She said it was good, so good it must be?



Each item on the menu ranges from $6 - $9 (apart from a few pricier options) and there are LOTS to choose from. It took us more than a while to decide what to order.



Bright green walls! Woke me up after a morning of boring lectures.



Banchan (side dishes), my favourites are miyeok muchim (seaweed) and japchae (sweet potato noodles). I asked for a refill... and contemplated to ask again...



I had the Bulgogi Bibimbap. There was so much rice and veggies I could barely finish. It was really tasty as well, with the red pepper paste. I enjoyed every mouthful of this spicy veggie rice goodness.



We also ordered a Kimchi Seafood Pancake to share. So much seafood and vegs hiding under the crispy batter. I thought it tasted quite different from the kimchi pancakes I'm used to, but it was still good.



Table full of yum yum~ My friends found their meals very enjoyable too, even if the kam ja tang (pork bone stew with a mountain of bean sprouts) was a bit bland.



Free candies!


Rating: 4/5

Food: Unfortunately my mum doesn't cook, or I can use the phrase cooking that 'tastes just like mum's' because supposedly that means really good comfort food? Bonus points for being a no-MSG restaurant!

Environment: Cosy home-style restaurant with only 5 - 6 tables. It's so tiny that I was amazed by how fast the kitchen could churn out our dishes.

Service: It's a small restaurant so there was only one waitress. She was friendly and reminded us that we could always ask if we wanted more side dishes!

Price: Came in a little bit more than $9 pp. I definitely was willing to pay more for what we had!


Sunrise House Restaurant
661 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON
M6G 1L1
Canada

Facebook