Donburi

It was a night to meet up with friends we haven't seen in a while.  It took forever to decide on which new place to try in the York Region because theres always so many new places that pop open, and then close unexpectedly and then re-open with another new restaurant.  The choice for the night was Donburi.  Another comfort food type restaurant since donburi is usually some sort of protein over rice.

Donburi offers several different types of donburi, and has some udon offerings too if you aren't feeling for much rice.  They also have several appetizers on the menu too.  In the end we ordered, the ikayaki, and chicken karaage to share.  Individually we ordered the chicken katsu don, unagi don, grilled chicken don, pork katsu udon and the beef short rib don.  Please excuse the blurry pictures.  I was in a rush to take pictures because everyone was hungry and wanted to dig into dinner.

Ikayaki

Chicken Karaage

Unagi Don

Chicken Katsu Don 

Beef Short Rib Don

Grilled Chicken Don

Pork Katsu Don

All of the dishes were done pretty well, considering I actually didn't have much of high expectations when I walked in and noticed all the servers were Mandarin speaking.  But I guess it can't be that hard to screw up meat over steamed rice.  For the price that you pay, the quantity of food you get is pretty good.  I probably ate half my chicken katsu (shared the rest with others), and ate 1/3 of the rice and was full.

I just noticed the hours of operation for Donburi.  They close super late!  Great for late night dinners.

Donburi
505 Highway 7 E. Unit 93-95
Markham, ON
L3T 7T1
905-597-6505

http://donburi.ca

Hours: Monday - Thursday 11am - Midnight
            Friday 11am - 2am
            Saturday 8am - 2am
            Sunday 8am - Midnight

Fresh Burger

I was reading reviews about Fresh Burger and what really caught my eye/interest was the fact that one reviewer said that this place is better than The Burgers Priest.  Now this is one big claim.  So I knew I had to try Fresh Burger.  I wanted to go during Christmas, but they were closed during the Christmas holidays.  So we waited until 2 weeks ago to go.  Actually it was a friend who suggested to go, because of his black hole of a stomach, he wanted a second dinner.

Fresh burger is small with few options available.  They offer two types of burger patties, Fresh burger (sirloin) and Prime (USDA Prime).  All burgers served as cheese burgers.  We didn't ask, but I'm sure you can request no cheese if you don't like cheese. We arrived at 8:30pm, and were told they only had the 5 Prime patties left.  The prime burger was VERY good, a no frills burger.  Exactly how a burger should be.  Sizing wise, larger than The Burgers Priest.  The meat patty, cooked to a perfect medium, had a crunchy crust from the flat top grill, juicy and moist.  The meat didn't have to be cooked well done because they grind their own meat.  The bun was soft but enough to hold up to the large burger patty.  My friends were saying, it's just missing the portobello mushroom cap.  I disagree.  I prefer it without.

Prime Burger

Their poutine can be passed on.  They call it a poutine but cheese curds were not used, it looked more like mozzarella chunks.  I guess they really should be called disco fries.

Poutine

I'm so excited that there's a good burger place in York Region now!!!

Fresh Burger
9206 Leslie St, Unit#4
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 2N8
905-597-7224

Hours: Monday - Saturday 11am - 9pm
            Sunday Closed

http://www.fresh-burger.com

Rose and Sons

I'm always on the look out for good breakfast/brunch places.  And now that I've decided that in order to be able to fit in some running time, I have to wake up at 7am on either Saturday or Sunday.  Perfect for trying new places for my favourite meal of the day!

The hubby had a request for a heavier meal, even though it was brunch, and I wanted a normal brunch meal.  We arrived at Rose and Sons at the perfect time, at 11am.  We were seated right away.  The people that arrived after us had to wait.  One thing to note, there isn't much seating there, and what they do have of seating is mostly communal.  So if you're not comfortable with communal seating, then you don't need to come here, although you would be missing out on some delicious food.  I ordered the all day breakfast which came with 3 eggs, bacon, schmaltz hash (I just found out schmaltz = chicken fat), and toast (the bread was made in house!  Soooooo good!).  The bacon was thick sliced, which made it seem like I wasn't actually eating bacon because it was melt in your mouth, flavour was also very good.  I wonder if they smoke it themselves.  The schmaltz hash was seasoned well, but a little too greasy for my liking, and it needed to be crispier.

All Day Breakfast

Hubby was contemplating between the duck confit or the fried chicken, and couldn't make up his mind.  So we consulted with our waitress and she said her favourite is the duck confit, so duck confit it was!  The duck confit dish, to our surprise, arrived as a whole duck leg topped with an egg, hollandaise sauce, potato hash, and an arugula and walnut salad.  Never seen a duck leg for breakfast/brunch.  The duck confit was melt in your mouth good!  I think thats the theme for the restaurant, melt in your mouth good!

Duck Confit

As we were leaving, our waitress told us that they have a BBQ smoke house right behind them which serves BBQ brunch!  So I guess they most likely smoke the bacon themselves.  Name of the restaurant is Big Crow.  Thats next on my hit list!

Rose and Sons
176 Dupont St.
Toronto, ON
M5R 2E6

647-748-3287

Hours:  Monday - Friday 9am till the joint closes
             Saturday - Sunday 9am - 3pm, 5pm till the joint closes

http://roseandsons.ca