Oyster Boy
872 Queen Street West
416-534-3432
Brunch for two with all taxes, tip and coffee: $55

Walking along Queen West on a sunny morning heading to Oyster Boy, a car passed us blaring a tune that was predominantly accordion music. We couldn’t really tell if it was a Newfoundland jig or some “welcome to the swamp” zydeco music, but fittingly enough, it set the theme of our brunch visit.

Oyster Boy offers a Maritime Pub Lunch on Saturdays and Sundays with a selection of items that are available all day such as fish and chips ($14.95), fish cakes ($11.95), or chowder of the day ($6.95). They also have lunch-specific specials from noon – 4pm with the likes of little jig’s dinner ($14.95) – aka corned beef and cabbage, and omelettes ($10.50).

Continue reading Sunday Brunch - Oyster Boy »

Martin Grove Fish & Chips
5 Lavington Drive, Etobicoke
416-244-7630
Take-out lunch for two (including soft drinks, no dessert) with all taxes: $19

I don’t usually get a craving for deep-fried food around two in the afternoon. But on this particular day of hardcore holiday shopping and extra calories incinerated while wandering the malls and lugging heavy packages – not to mention plenty of action with my snow shovel early that morning (and not in a good way) – I decided that a late lunch of some hot greasy goodness was a well-earned indulgence.

So off I went to Martin Grove Fish & Chips.

Continue reading Ignoring the Wisdom of Bourdain »

Somethin’s Fishy
213 Augusta Avenue
416-260-7493
Dinner for two, with all taxes and tip: $25

It’s okay for a new restaurant to run out of items. When they first open they’re hemorrhaging money. To the consumer, a new stop for noshing has just opened. For the small business owner, a brutal period of negotiation, money borrowing, and DIY renovation (all of which has taken 2 or 3 times longer than expected) is at an end. And their lifetime of servitude is just beginning. So once they flip the open sign it’s a good idea not to overstock perishable items that they don’t yet have the clientèle to maintain.

Even without the seafood, deep fryer oil will begin to smell fishy after about five pounds of potatoes pass through it at 350 degrees. With the halibut, salmon, cod, haddock, tilapia and shrimp wafting out the door of Somethin’s Fishy, Augusta Avenue begins to hype the chip shop’s name. Why not? The four Portuguese fishmongers on Baldwin already have half the block locked down on some coastal odour.

Continue reading Fish (singular) and Chips »

Xam Yu
339 Spadina Avenue
416-340-8603
Dinner for two, with all taxes, tip and beer: $70

I have just spent the better part of Sunday morning with a friend as he test-drives his dream luxury car at a showroom in Whitby. What am I doing here? It’s hot. I can’t even afford a Vespa. And I’m in Whitby. I envision myself at the seaside with a large, grilled crab and a cold beer. All of a sudden, I’m very hungry, but I know that my shallow pockets will not support my shellfish cravings.

Enter Xam Yu, giving succour to those with expensive tastes and miniscule wallets. My friend knows it well, so he takes me there as a reward for my extreme patience. Located at the northeast corner of Spadina Avenue and Baldwin Street, this gem of a restaurant is already highly respected, as it turns out from the reviews posted inside their doors. Yet, very few of my friends have actually heard of it. Amidst the glut of Chinese restaurants on Spadina, it would be easy to overlook this understated place, but what a mistake that would be.

Continue reading Seafood Extravaganza on a Small Budget »

Torito
276 Augusta Avenue
647-436-5874
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine: $70

Torito is the restaurant most chefs dream of opening. Breaking their backs making coulis for a coolie’s wage, cooks fantasize about owning/running a modest 30-seat restaurant, repeating the mantra “I’m here to get an education, that’s why I’m being paid so little”, while fearing they’ve become just like the whore who tells herself, “my pimp loves me.” This dream is based on the desire to serve unpretentious food made with the best ingredients as a rebellion from the circus of infinite garnishes and needlessly bizarre pairings like red snapper with coffee gellee (I’m not making that up).

Chef-owner Carlos Hernandez has realized this dream. His cozy tapas restaurant Torito has scored with its elegant, honest food and relaxing décor and now it’s bursting at the seams. Hernandez and co-owner Veronica Laudes have doubled their capacity with front and back patios and work the room with the guileless grace that only stakeholders will. They don’t take reservations so we arrived at six. When we left at eight (on a Tuesday), every seat was full.

Continue reading If We Don’t Save Our Pork Fat, the Terrorists Have Won »

The Fish Store
657 College Street
416-533-2822
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip, and soda/juice: $20-$30, depending on the type of fish

I’m not the deep-frying type. I have the occasional craving for fries or onion rings, though generally I limit their consumption to equally greasy pubs. But for a short period of time every spring, there is an item that warrants, nay demands, its fling with oil. I’m talking about soft-shell crabs. Like a summer love, they glide into town with the breeze and stay a mere week or two, taking with them a piece of your heart. Of course, there is nothing to do but wait the long wait until next spring for the familiar lover, er, crustacean, to make its reappearance.

Continue reading Feeling Crabby? »

Oyster Boy
872 Queen Street West
416-534-3432
Dinner for two with wine or beer, plus all taxes and tip: $100

I’ve never been a fan of claiming you know about something because you’ve lived in close proximity to where it became popular. I once worked as a barista in a tourist area where a customer dissed my cappuccino because, “we’re from Seattle, so, you know, we KNOW coffee.” Apparently just by standing in the original Starbucks people are able to absorb absolutely everything there is to know about the beans, the production and the roasting of coffee. The same goes for people who have lived in London, England, and claim an expert-level knowledge of Indian food.

So it makes me feel like a bit of a hypocrite to write a review of a seafood restaurant and pull out the old “I’m from Nova Scotia, so I know seafood” line, but if the cliché fits, you’ve got to wear it. See, we made two visits to Oyster Boy on Queen Street West; one with another Bluenoser who had a similar opinion of the food, and once with some friends from Moscow for whom many of the dishes on the menu were a completely new experience. Seafood appears to be a matter of perspective.

Continue reading Oyster Boy - A Down East Difference »