Konjiki Ramen & Saryo Cafe

This has to be THE place to go to now.  Everyone's been talking about it for the last month or two.  Whats the big deal you ask?  Konjiki Ramen has been on the Michelin Bib Gourmand list for the last few years.  What does that mean?  Usually when you hear of Michelin, its number of stars.  In Toronto, there's no restaurants with any stars.  Why?  I'm not sure why Toronto doesn't use the Michelin system.  There's only a few cities in the world that have the Michelin star rating.  Back to the Bib Gourmand (after doing some Googling), means a list of restaurants that are deemed as having good food with moderate prices.

I finally got the chance to check out Konjiki Ramen. I thought I planned it well too, going for a weekday early dinner.  Well life happens, and my early diner (planned to arrive for 5pm as people say there is usually no lineup then), ended up with us arriving at 6pm, with a line pretty much out the door.  So for the first half of the lineup, we waited in line just inside the door.  It was freezing cold each and every time the door opened while more ramen hungry people squeezed in.  After about half an hour lining up, I decided to stay warmer and sit and wait.  So we had dessert at Saryo Cafe (they share a space with Konjiki Ramen in the front), before dinner.  I don't know why people don't think of doing that as well.  So if theres a line, get dessert first!

We ordered the Saryo signature parfait with matcha soft serve.  The parfait started off with a layer of green tea and water jelly at the bottom, then topped with hojicha cream, red bean, granola, matcha soft serve, mochi, and matcha brownie.  Lots of ingredients! The granola I personally wasn't a fan of. I felt that it didn't add much to the parfait.  The match soft serve, I will say is the best matcha soft serve I've had in Toronto.  Great amount of matcha flavour, and not grainy.  All the other places in Toronto that serve matcha soft serve has great flavour, but you're left with a grainy powdery aftertaste in your mouth.  The hojicha cream, I don't know how to describe, was a tad more bitter that matcha, more of a roasted but mild tea flavour?  Matcha brownie was a bit too dense for me, but again good matcha flavour.  If you're at Konjiki, you must grab at least some dessert.

Saryo Signature Parfai - Matcha

Total wait time to get a table for us, was just under 1 hour.  According to Google wait time was only supposed to be less than 15 minutes.  So NEVER trust Google for wait time estimates.  But to speed things up, they hand you the menu while you are in line so you can order right away when you are seated.  From ordering to getting the food, it was SUPER fast.  The hubby took off his jacket, and went to the washroom, and our ramen arrived at the table before he even came back! We ordered their signature clam broth shio ramen, original shoyu tonkotsu ramen, and a side of braised pork belly.  Starting off with the broths.  Both the clam broth, and the tonkotsu broths are VERY different from any of the other ramen houses in Toronto.  The clam broth, very light and clear, strong truffle and clam flavours.  Nothing like I've ever tasted in a ramen broth before.  Delicious.  The tonkotsu broth, exact opposite of the clam broth, beautiful creamy pork broth that coats your mouth and doesn't seem to go away.  While being creamy, it didn't feel heavy.  I know it's a sign of respect and that you enjoyed your meal by finishing your broth.  Usually I don't.  But this time, I drank it all down!

Noodles, also different than the ramen houses in Toronto.  The only other time I've had ramen noodles like this was in North America was in New York City at Mr. Taka Ramen (sister restaurant to Bigiya in Tokyo which is also on Michelin's Bib Gourmand list).  The noodles are thinner, more al dente, and I would say more similar to a pasta than the ramen noodles that i'm used to eating.

All of their meats are done sous vide.  While the meat was tender, it felt a bit dry.  I assume because the chashu was made with a leaner cut of pork.  There was a thin strip of fat, but other than that, the chashu was very lean.  The pork belly, had some strips of fat running through it, and it was definitely a bit more juicy than the chashu, but there was a bit of gristle so some bites were a bit chewier.  I guess I'm just not a fan of the sous vide method.  The braised pork belly also came with an egg.  Presentation of the egg was flat out horrible looking.  I can't figure out how they cut it to look the way it did.  And it was also missing chunks of white too.  Usually when you can't peel the shell away from a boiled egg properly, either they did it too hot, or the egg wasn't fresh.

How to Enjoy Your Clam Broth Ramen

Original Shoyu Tonkotsu Ramen

Signature Clam Broth Shio Ramen

Braised Pork Belly

Interior wise, half the restaurant has normal table/booth seating that is friendly for everyone.  In the middle of the restaurant, there is counter height seating with bar stools, not so family friendly.

Was this ramen good?  Yes, it was delicious.  Would I wait an hour for this again?  Definitely not.  Having said that, when we were paying, there owner or manager there, told us that they are planning on starting a regular line, and a priority line.  Anyone with a child under the age of 2, or a senior over the age of 70 will be placed in the priority line.  It doesn't mean that you will be placed in front of everyone thats waiting, but they will try and seat the priority line quicker than needing to wait the regular wait.

Konjiki Ramen & Saryo Cafe
5051 Yonge St.,
North York, ON
M2N 5P2

Konjiki Ramen Phone:  (647) 350-7766
Saryo Cafe  Phone:  (647) 350-6611

Hours:  Monday 1130a - 1000p
             Tuesday CLOSED
             Wednesday - Sunday 1130a - 1000p

http://konjikiramen.com
http://www.saryocafe.com

Faley Restaurant

A small restaurant located in a small strip plaza, that if you weren't specifically looking for it, you would never know they existed.  The reason why we chose this place for lunch was because it was near my friend's home, and because I'm always on the hunt for good Hakka food.  When I go to Hakka places, I always order chilli chicken.  I made the mistake or ordering chilli chicken wet (with gravy) once before at another restaurant, dislike.  So I made sure to order it dry this time.  So good!  Had good garlic, onion, and of course green chilli flavour.  Perfect when eaten with plain white rice.

Chilli Chicken

Friend ordered Manchurian chicken.  She didn't like it so much.  She ordered it wet (with gravy).  We were trying to figure out what the difference between chilli chicken and Manchurian chicken was, because both dishes tasted so similar.  In the end we couldn't' figure it out.

Manchurian Chicken

Since we went for lunch on a weekday, these were lunch specials.  I can't remember for sure, but I think it was around $7 each.  For the amount of food, thats a great price.  Too bad I live so far away.

Faley Restaurant
62 Overlea Blvd.,
Toronto, ON
M4H 1C4

Phone:  (416) 423-3222, (416) 423-4420

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 1130a - 1100p
             Friday 1130a - 1130p
             Saturday 1200p - 1130p
             Sunday 100p - 1100p

The Green Wood

I'm not that familiar to the south east end of toronto, or more specifically the Leslieville/Beaches area.  I honestly don't remember how I stumbled across the Green Wood.  But I was so glad I did.  We went for a very late brunch, technically it could have been considered a late lunch if anything.  Surprisingly, even though it was so late, the restaurant was full, no lineup but full.  We got the last table that was available.  But there was still bar seating.

We ordered, a fried chicken sandwich with fries, and the classic shakshuka.  The fried chicken sandwich of course was the hubby's order.  The chicken had a crispy outside and juicy inside, topped with a lightly dressed creamy coleslaw, all sitting on a brioche type bun.  I found the bun to be a bit too light to hold up to such a dense filling, but taste wise it worked.  Fries were great, thicker cut than normal, but not thick to the point of it being wedges.  House made ketchup had a slightly smokey flavour, not too sweet like store bought ketchup can be.  The shakshuka, my new favourite brunch dish.  It was so good (although I don't really have other comparisons), that I attempted to make it at home for dinner the same week.  Of course, mine didn't match up quite as well.  I loved the tanginess of the tomatoes, the softly cooked eggs, and the homemade bread (honey oat I think) that was served alongside.

Fried Chicken Sandwich

Classic Shakshuka

Too bad the Green Wood is so far from home, otherwise, I would be eating here way more often.  I love how their restaurant uses all local ingredients and chooses sustainable food items.  If you would like to see what they get their ingredients from, check them out on their webpage.

The Green Wood
1402 Queen St E.,
Toronto, ON
M4L 1C9

Phone:  (416) 778-4343

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 900a - 400p

http://eatgreenwood.com

Satay Sate

I'm not familiar with Indonesian food at all.  I think the closest encounter to Indonesian food was on a cruise ship many many years ago.  I ordered some noodle or fried rice dish (its been that long, that I can't even remember) for my main for dinner.  I just remember it tasting good.  I'm sure though that it probably wasn't very authentic, and probably no where near what the dish would taste like in Indonesia, but nevertheless I enjoyed it.  So when a friend recommended Satay Sate, I dragged the hubby to try them out.

We went for a late lunch on a Saturday afternoon.  The place is small, but there is seating, all bar height seating.  I actually hate that kind of seating, but that's just because I'm short.  Service wise, its almost cafeteria style.  You order and pay at the cash, and they bring out your food when it's ready.  The visit started off not that great.  There was a group of people in front of us that couldn't figure out what to order.  And I was hungry.  I've become one of those people that get HANGRY.....so I was not happy.  I have to admit, this was not the fault of the restaurant.  So at this point, I was quite annoyed already, and finally it was our turn to order.  We ordered the nasi goreng, and the beef satay.  Unfortunately this took a long time too because the cashier was new.  She didn't know how to put in the order.....ughh......

Back to the more important topic, the actual food.  Our food arrived relatively quickly.   And it smelled so good!  My nasi goreng was like a garlic fried rice, topped with a fried egg, pieces of chicken and a cucumber salad.  It was delicious.  The rice was fried well, with lots of garlic flavour.  I just wish the chicken was mixed into the fried rice.  My other complaint would be the the rice got increasingly spicy as I ate it.  It would have been nice if there was a warning about the level of spiciness, or if there was the possibility of customizing how spicy the dish would be.

Nasi Goreng

The beef satay, there were 2 skewers drizzled with a peanut sauce, served with a side salad and some coconut rice.  We've never had coconut rice before, but the hubby loved it.  He asked if we could try and make coconut rice at home.  Now I just need to find a recipe.  The beef satay was just ok.  The beef was tender, but almost like it was tenderized with something.  The downside of the beef was that it was pretty stuck onto the bamboo skewer.  We tried taking it off with a fork but it was so stuck we couldn't, so we had to pull off pieces with our teeth.  It was almost dangerous to eat!

Beef Satay

As for how authentic it is, I have no clue.  I would definitely go back and try some of their other dishes.  If you hate bar height seating as much as I do, get takeout.

Satay Sate
5025 Yonge St.,
North York, ON
M2N 5P2

Phone:  (647) 351-7283

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 1100a - 900p

http://www.sataysate.com

Adamson Barbecue

Now this trip has been a long time waiting.  Ever since it opened I have wanted to try.  But their hours made it really difficult.  When they first opened, they were only open weekdays for the lunch hour, when pretty much everyone has to work.  Super glad they're now open on Saturdays.  I know it's been a while, but finally made the time.

As I've heard the lineups can be pretty long, especially on a Saturday, the plan was to drop off the hubby so he can wait in line and make the purchase, while I hang out with a friend nearby.  And then friend's hubby picks up my hubby.  We thought we got there early enough, before they even opened their doors.  But we were wrong.  There was a long line already, and apparently that long line snaked inside.  So I think my hubby lined up for 45 mins to 1 hour for our BBQ eats.  Usually a good sign if lines are that long.  And since they have been been around for quite a while, they aren't just a fad and that there's repeat customers.  The boys picked up 2 two meat combos (ribs, pulled pork, and maple coffee sausage), some brisket and a slice of coconut cream pie.  Each meal came with a slice of white bread, 2 sides, and some pickles & onions.  

Pulled pork, tender, smokey, and juicy.  One of the better pulled porks I've ever had.  Although my friend said he liked another place better, but it was definitely up there.  Ribs, I thought were just ok, but I think its because I'm not a huge fan of ribs in general.  Smokey and again tender, but not fall off the bone.  It came off the bone easily but not fall off the bone, which I prefer anyways.  If it falls off the bone too easily, to me it feels like you would be missing out on actual rib eating!  Sausage was smokey, and had a bit of sweetness, but I didn't taste any coffee.  The best part of the meal, the brisket.  My mouth is salivating just thinking about it.  Super tender and very moist.  No visible gristle or fat, but i'm sure the brisket was very well marbled since the butcher paper that was wrapped around the brisket was nice and shiny.  This is definitely a must get.  The slices of bread that we got with the meal, just take it and wipe off the fat on the butcher paper.  It's better than buttering your bread, seriously!  It might not sound so appealing I know, even borderline disgusting, but just do it.  You will think, why didn't I think of this earlier!  Because I thought that, I wasn't the one that thought of doing it first.

Sides that we got to try was cole slaw, potato salad, and beans.  Coleslaw was nice, light, and refreshing.  I liked how the dressing wasn't overly heavy and creamy.  Potato salad was good, surprisingly light for what is normally such a heavy and filling dish.  The beans I wasn't such a fan of, it tasted mostly of bbq sauce with beans mixed in it.  I prefer beans that are more tomatoey, and kind of sweet.  Sounds bad, but the kind of beans that come out of a can.  Guess thats more nostalgic than anything, my  mom used to buy those for us as kids.

Last but not least, the coconut cream pie.  So creamy, custardy, coconutty deliciousness.  And thats all I'll say about the pie, I'll leave it for your imagine how delicious the pie was.

Adamson Barbecue

Adamson Barbecue
176 Wicksteed Ave,
Toronto, ON
M4G 2B6

Phone: (647) 559-2080

Hours:  Monday CLOSED
             Tuesday - Saturday 1100a - 200p (or until sold out)
             Sunday CLOSED

http://adamsonbarbecue.com

Himalayan Coffee House

I needed to go pick up some lotion, and I wanted some coffee.  And thats when I remembered (from a super long time ago), that a friend recommended that I check this place out.  And usually if I'm in the area, I beeline it to my favourite coffee house, De Mello Palheta.  What interested me in Himalayan Coffee House were the latte art pictures that I saw on Yelp.  I was super excited to see what kind of fancy latte art I would get!

So for lunch, I ordered a grilled cheese with cheddar and a latte.  The hubby ordered the naan panini with chicken, and a flat white.  When our coffees came, I was disappointed.  We got normal boring old latte art.  Blah.  But at least the coffee tasted good.  Just strong enough for me, without leaving any strong after tastes.  My grilled cheese was disappointing.  It was 2 slices of white bread, with a slice of processed Kraft singles cheese, put in a panini press.  I guess I should have known based on the price of the sandwich.  Super disappointing.  It came with a side of tomato relish/salsa, so that saved it a tiny bit.  Hubby's naan panini was pretty good.  There was chicken in a type of curry mayo sauce, and spinach.

Himalayan Java House Lunch Picks

Come for the coffee, and not so much for their grilled cheese sandwiches.  There were also sweets options, we just didn't try them.  Also, I'm confused whether this is named Himalayan Java House, or Himalayan Coffee House.  Signage says Java, their Facebook page says Coffee.

Himalayan Coffee House

2552 Yonge St.,

Toronto, ON

M4P 2J2

Phone: (416) 485-6464

Hours:  Monday - Saturday 800a - 600p

             Sunday 800a - 500p

https://www.facebook.com/himalayancoffeeinc/

Stack Restaurant

It's pretty hard to find some good BBQ in Toronto or anywhere in the GTA in my opinion.  I have yet to try out the new joints that opened up though.  So maybe those new places will hopeful.  But because they're a bit farther downtown, it will definitely take some time before I will be able to check them out.  One night while browsing through Yelp, I noticed Stack Restaurant's BBQ Platter.  It looked awesome!  So I scheduled something with a few of my friends to go and check it out.  I reminded them that they need to make sure their stomachs were empty since the platter in the picture looked pretty big.

We arrived, the restaurant was pretty empty.  I have to mention that it was a weeknight though.  What I noticed even more was the lack of BBQ smells.  Who knows, maybe they have a great ventilation system unlike Korean BBQ places.  So we ordered the platter and the food arrived shortly.  There was a good amount of food that arrived.  Whats included:  baby back ribs, quarter chicken, pulled pork, brisket, smoked meat, fries, mac & cheese, beans, slaw and buns.  This platter feeds 3-5 people, and we had 4 people.  I wish I could say the food was so good, because everything looked good, but it wasn't.  Nothing here was particularly memorable.  What I do remember is the chicken being super dry (so dry to the point that my friend really didn't want to finish it, but because he didn't want to waste food, he ate it while drinking A LOT of water), the brisket having no smoke flavour, smoked meat being super salty, and mac & cheese being cold.  And for a platter that is supposed to serve 3-5 people, why are there only 2 buns?  Pretty disappointing.

BBQ Platter

Stack Restaurant
3625 Yonge St.,
Toronto, ON
M4N 2L5

Phone:  (647) 346-1416

Hours:  Monday - Friday 11:30a - 10:00p
             Saturday 11:30a - 11:00p
             Sunday 11:30a - 9:00p

http://www.stackrestaurant.ca

Market 707: NomNomNom, Gushi, Petit Nuage

The idea of Market 707 is pretty cool.  Its like a normal small restaurant crossed with a food truck, resulting in food being served out of a shipping container.  I would assume since it's a place with actual running water and fixed gas/electricity, food prep and storage wise would be safer than a food truck as well.  The only downside is that you end up eating the food at a picnic table with busy road traffic running down Bathurst St.

NomNomNom
Known for their poutine and crepes.  I wasn't feeling for crepes that day, so was looking at their poutines.  They have lots of options on their menu, but because of the purist that I am, I ordered the plain or regular poutine.  Portion was quite big!  The fries, cut in house, and fried fresh, topped with real squeaky cheese curds and gravy that wasn't overly salty.  Love their poutine.  Probably one of my faves in the city now.

Poutine

http://nnncrepes.com

Gushi
This is a place I knew the hubby would be interested in checking out.  One of their best sellers is the chicken kaarage.  We got a large order of Original Gushi Chicken on Rice.  We probably shouldn't have ordered the large, but the hubby always has an issue with thinking we can eat more than our stomachs can handle.  So in the end, he stuffed his stomach.  I loved how the rice was a purple rice rather than a white rice.  Just something different, and I think purple rice is supposed to be healthier right?  The kaarage was good, a piece or two was a little fatty for me, but the hubby didn't notice, i'm probably just pickier about food having hunks of fat on it.  I have to say that there quite a few pieces of kaarage in the order.  Worth the price paid for sure.

Original Gushi Chicken on Rice

https://www.facebook.com/gushitoronto

Petit Nuage
Last but not least, saved some room for dessert.  I got 2 macarons, and a cream puff.  To be honest, I don't remember which macarons I bought, and I don't remember if they were good or not.  But, I LOVED the cream puff.  I've never had a cream puff like this before.  The outside, pastry, was like the normal pastry crossed with the top of a pineapple bun.  Amazing!  The inside cream filling was a matcha filling, that filled the pastry to the brim!

Daily Selection

Matcha Cream Puff

http://www.petitnuage.ca

Market 707
707 Dundas St. W.,
Toronto, ON
M5T 2W6

Hours:  Spring & Summer (April to September) Tuesday - Saturday 11:30a - 7:00p*
             Fall (October to December) Tuesday - Saurday 11:30a - 5:00p*
             Winter (January - March) Hours vary depending on the vendor
* Hours of individual vendors may vary

The Fry

My hubby loves fried food, in particular fried chicken.  Every once in a while, he requests to eat fried chicken.  And more often than not, I say no, not because it’s not healthy, but because my stomach is quite sensitive and I can’t handle all that grease and salt.  But this time, I agreed to eat some Korean fried chicken for a late dinner.  The place was packed when we arrived at 930p.  Could also be because the restaurant is quite small.  We had to wait almost half an hour for a table.

Korean fried chicken, to me is pretty much like any regular fried chicken, but with slightly less batter, and more Asian flavouring.  We went to The Fry on Yonge through a recommendation from my friend.  We kind of over ordered……  My friend had said repeatedly that we won’t need so much food (there was the 4 of us), and I didn’t listen.  My eyes were bigger than my stomach (old Chinese saying).  We ordered an order of French fries, boneless chicken with green onion, half chicken with soy garlic sauce, and half chicken original flavour.  Before the chicken came out we got some free appetizers.  Appetizers included lettuce salad, pickled radish, coleslaw, and this hot corn kernels dish.  The coleslaw I think was bought that way, nothing spectacular.  The salad, the lettuce was fresh, nothing wilted.  The corn kernels were hot and buttery.  The french fries were nothing special, just normal frozen fries.

Free Appetizers

French Fries

The boneless chicken pieces with green onion, was essentially original flavour boneless chicken pieces topped with a heaping stack of fresh/raw green onions.  The raw green onion was a good refreshing contrast to the piping hot chicken.

Boneless Green Onion Chicken

The other 2 dishes we ordered, half chicken with garlic soy, and half chicken original flavour, in my opinion was much better than the boneless.  I guess the bone in factor retains a lot more of the moisture, resulting in much juicer meat.  I preferred the original flavour over the garlic soy, but that’s just personal preference.  I just like my food plainer. 

Garlic Soy Half Chicken

Original Half Chicken

One thing I did like was that it wasn’t overly salty like Popeyes or Kentucky Fried Chicken.  What I did notice was that the chicken wasn’t as crispy on the outside.  My friend said that normally it’s crispier and maybe it was just an off day.  Means a repeat visit will be required one day.

The Fry 

4864 Yonge St.,

North York, ON

M2N 5N2

Phone:  (416) 546-6159

Hours:  Monday - Saturday 5:00p - 3:00a

             Sunday 5:00p - 12:00a

Boar Sandwiches

Sandwiches, sometimes you just have a craving for a really good sandwich.  I’m not talking about a cold deli sandwich.  I’m talking about a piping hot sandwich.  I looked my trusty Yelp app, and initially all I could find was the Black Camel.  I know a lot of people who love the sandwiches at Black Camel, but I don’t know, I wasn’t a huge fan of it.  I then saw Boar.  Don't be fooled and think that Boar only offers pork options!  They have chicken, beef, pork and veggie options.  Pick your meat (or veggies) and your toppings to make your own sandwich, done.  

The decor is a bit lacking, concrete everything.  Kind of makes you feel like you're in an unfinished basement, or jail cell.  But the smells of barbeque made everything all better.  I chose chicken topped with tomato sauce and arugula.  The hubby got steak (I don't see steak as an option on their website, but I'm pretty sure he didn't order the veal) topped with arugula aioli and mushrooms.  We had to wait around 10 minutes for the sandwiches to be prepared, a sign the meat is only cooked after you order.  The bun was like a ciabatta bun, so it was crispy on the outside, and slightly chewy on the inside, which I loved.  The meats were grilled really well, had good char, and juicy on the inside.  I liked the beef over the chicken, just by a slight margin.  We also got a side order of the roasted potatoes.  They were AMAZING!  Super crispy on the outside and super soft and fluffy on the inside.  The only downside was that the portion size was a bit small for the price we paid.

Sandwiches and Roasted Potatoes

Boar Sandwiches

3 Glebe Rd. East,

Toronto, ON

M4S 1N7

Phone:  (416) 482-1616

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 11a - 8p

http://www.boarsandwiches.ca

Jatujak Thai Street Style Food

A while ago, I found an article titled “30 Of the Best Restaurants in Scarborough”.  Although I grew up in North York, Scarborough was foreign territory to me.  Scarborough never has anything that interested me, so I never ventured into that area.  I also find Scarborough a bit sketchy to be honest, theres some pretty ghetto looking areas……  Anyways, I sent this link to a friend and a few days ago I got a message from my friend asking if I was free for dinner and that we should try something from this best of list in Scar bough.  There were some restaurants on the list that we’ve tried already, so we were able to narrow down our choice pretty quick to Jatujak (also because we didn’t want to drive too far on a weeknight). 

I was pretty excited, the reviews on Yelp for Jatujak were pretty good.  And I love Thai food.  My favourite is Pai in the Entertainment/Theatre district.  But that’s FAR!  So I was really hoping that Jatujak would just as good so I wouldn’t have to go so far to feed my Thai food cravings.  For the four of us, I think we ordered a lot of food.  Guess it’s because one of the guys essentially eats the amount for two people.  Drinks, we got Thai iced tea, and a Nom Yen (Red Milk Tea).  The Thai iced tea I found was too sweet and too weak.  Previous iced teas I’ve tried usually has a really strong black tea base.  And for some reason, it smelled like grass jelly.  The red nom yen, supposedly a Thai specialty drink, smelled sweet and syrupy, reminded me of cough syrup.  It looked like Pepto Bismol in ice.  I wasn’t so keen on trying it.  The friend that ordered it said it was just meh….. 

Thai Iced Tea

For appetizers, we got chicken and beef satay (an order only comes with two skewers), lemon grass chicken wings.  I’ve never been a fan of satay skewers.  I’ve always envisioned the skewers to be barbequed at a high enough heat to cook the meat, not overcook it, and also carmelize the outside of the meat.  I’ve never had that, EVER……  These skewers had some colour on it, but very little, it could have been nuked in the microwave for all I know.  Served alongside the skewers was a salad.  It seemed to have pieces of iceberg lettuce, red onion, apple and green mango.  The salad was just ok, nothing special. 

Beef & Chicken Satay Skewers

Lemongrass chicken wings, looked like soy sauce chicken wings, lacked lemongrass flavour.

Lemon Grass Chicken Wings

For mains we ordered holy basil with chicken & egg, khao soi with beef, gaeng kiew whan with chicken, and pad see eew with beef.  The holy basil with chicken is my favorite dish when I eat Thai food.  I love how fragrant the basil is.  The chicken is cooked with the basil and served with steamed rice and a fried egg.  The chili sauce that was served on the side, was spicy and very salty.  I thought there would be some sweetness in the sauce but there wasn’t.  

Holy Basil Chicken

Khao soi is a must order for us whenever we see it on the menu.  When the curry sauce/soup/broth is done well, I eat it with any sort of white rice that’s left on the table.  This broth was just ok.  There was plenty of noodle, egg based I believe, and plenty of fried noodle.  But by the time I got to serving myself a portion of this dish, there was still plenty of noodle, but just one last piece of beef.  Complaints around the table with this dish was that the beef was tough….and tough it was.  

Khao Soi

Gaeng kiew whan is green curry.  The green curry had good flavour, just the right amount of spice, but was to thin consistency wise.  One thing I noticed was that the chicken in this dish, and the skewers had a bit of a rubbery texture.  The texture was similar to how Chinese restaurants do sliced beef, they typically ‘treat’ the beef with something, to soften it.  I wonder if they did that with the chicken here.  

Gaeng Kiew Whan

The pad see eew with beef was my least favorite of the bunch.  The dish is essentially sliced beef (there was a lot of beef), stir fried with vermicelli.  From what I saw and tasted, it wasn’t rice vermicelli, it was mung bean vermicelli.  And when mung bean vermicelli isn’t in a sauce of some sort, it clumps together.  So it wasn’t exactly appetizing looking.  Flavour wise, no basil flavour even though it’s supposed to be cooked in a basil sauce.  It again was heavy on the soy sauce flavour.

Pad See Eew

I have to say first of all, I have never been to Thailand, so I cannot claim that I know Thai food.  But in my own personal opinion I think overall, the food here is lacking something.  In Chinese it would be ‘wok hay’, extra fire?  For Thai food uptown, I would consider this to be better than any other Thai restaurant in Markham/Richmond Hill.  But I still prefer Pai over Jatujak.

Jatujak Thai Street Style Food

1744 Victoria Park Ave.,

Toronto, ON

M1R 1R4

Phone:  (647) 352-1744

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 11:00a - 10:00p