Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 24.
The scale used to be 0 to 10, so restaurants written about
before 2012 may have only had their ratings adjusted by formula and
not by hand (hence all the 2s, 5s, 8s, etc.)
The scale works as follows:
An asymmetrical 0 to 24 scale may not be intuitive, I
realize.
But as a rule of thumb: a double-digit score means I liked it, while a
single-digit score… less so.
Also, as you might expect, scores from many years ago may not be very
reliable, so do check the dates.
Name |
Cuisine |
Address |
Last update |
Score | |
Cora's | Breakfast/lunch | Dresden Row btw Spring Garden/Sackville, Halifax, NS | 2004-09-13 | 14 |
This is part of a Montreal-based chain with some interesting items on the
menu. I got chocolate brioche French toast with sliced bananas and crème
anglais... not a knockout, but interesting enough to be memorable. |
G.G. Gelati | Dessert (gelato) | Corydon btw Hugo/Cockburn, Winnipeg, MB | 2003-08-23 | 14 |
Not the selection of Vancouver's Casa Gelato, but that place is a landmark.
This is just a place with excellent gelato. Which is more than enough. |
Danforth Pizza House | Pizza | Danforth near Dewhurst, Toronto | 2012-06-15 | 12 |
Like Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn, this is a little shop run by a brusque, ancient man who certainly takes his time making the pizzas: 80 minutes for mine. Unlike the pizzas from Di Fara, the results here are not mind-blowing works of art. But the one I got was still very good, and if I lived in the neighborhood I'd go here all the time — especially since my pizza, enough to feed two pretty hungry people, cost all of $8 Canadian. I guess you could say that in being very good but not pantheon-level, and in being very cheap but making you wait for ages, this pizza house is a lot like the Canadian medical system. |
Nadège Patisserie | Bakery | local chain, Toronto | 2012-06-14 | 12 |
Elizabeth went into raptures over the fig and goat cheese croissant sandwich she got here. I got two non-crescent-shaped croissants — a square with rhubarb, and a figure-eight with chocolate and pistachio paste. They were fine but not revelatory. |
Mother India | Indian | Queen near Landsdowne, Toronto | 2012-06-22 | 11 |
This is a roti house, meaning that it offers pretty standard Indian fare (decent, but certainly no Shalimar) wrapped up in flatbread rather than being served with rice. "Medium" is quite spicy, so go with "mild" if you're used to "medium" meaning "not completely bland." |
the Planet Bakery | Cafe | Water btw Simcoe/Hunter, Peterborough, ON | 2012-06-17 | 11 |
This is a very downscale, Mexican-inflected cafe with a small selection of baked goods up front. I got a breakfast burrito, and though the wait was interminable (as has been the case pretty much everywhere in Canada) when the food finally did arrive it was pretty darn tasty. |
Bonfire Bistro | Pizza | Corydon & Waterloo, Winnipeg, MB | 2003-08-21 | 11 |
More ultra-thin pizzas from a wood-fired stove... which are okay. A bit too
much emphasis on being froufrou and exotic and not enough emphasis on being
tasty. Salad and desserts were good. |
Fude | Eclectic | Osborne & River, Winnipeg, MB | 2002-08-25 | 11 |
This place is basically a Canadian version of Judie's in Amherst, right down
to the multicolored pasta swamped in vegetables and sauce... though that wasn't
actually all that terrific. Bridget's warm artichoke dip thingie was quite
excellent, however, and even the bitter strawberry lemonade (which you have to
mix yourself) grew on me after a while. |
Life of Pie | Bakery | Bank near Sunnyside, Ottawa | 2012-06-19 | 10 |
Here we got a scone and a couple of cookies. They were fine — not really memorable either way. |
Di Rienzo | Italian deli | Beech near Champagne, Ottawa | 2012-06-18 | 8 |
This market has a sandwich counter, but despite the online raves, I didn't see anything too special about the sandwich I got. It was cheap, the guy running the shop was very nice, and it certainly wasn't bad at all, but I don't really see what the fuss is about. (Note: only a couple of vegetarian options.) |
Il Mercato | Italian | Spring Garden & Brenton, Halifax, NS | 2004-09-11 | 8 |
Okay mid-range Italian place. |
Baked Expectations | Dessert | Osborne & Wardlaw, Winnipeg, MB | 2003-08-23 | 8 |
This place was packed solid at quarter after eleven at night: Peggers love
their dessert, I guess. They must be getting something different from what
we got the first time I went there. I had a slice of peanut butter cheesecake
that tasted bizarrely sharp and sorta fruity; Bridget got a cookie torte that
was better by virtue of not tasting like much of anything but whipped cream.
Later (as in, two years later) I had a slice of German chocolate cheesecake
that was much better. |
Basil's | Eclectic | Osborne & Stradbrook, Winnipeg, MB | 2003-08-19 | 8 |
Had a non-awful ultra-thin-crust pizza here while trying not to be creeped
out by the Hitler mermaid hanging above our table. |
Big John's Bar and Grill | Bar and grill | Highway 71, Sioux Narrows, ON | 2002-08-24 | 8 |
Sioux Narrows is apparently a vacation town, with lakefront cottages and
houseboats and so forth. Not many eateries, however. At this one I got some
radioactive-looking raspberry lemonade (undoubtedly from a powder) plus soggy
bruschetta plus the quesadillas. What are quesadillas like in central Canada?
Surprisingly good, probably because they're so unlike actual quesadillas as
to count as a different food altogether. These were crispy and cheddary and
full of green onions and really not bad at all. |
Second Street Bakery | Bakery | Second & Park, Kenora, ON | 2002-08-23 | 8 |
You can get sandwiches here, but as you might expect from a bakery,
they're basically two big slabs of bread with a little bit of filling
in the middle. Which is fine, because the bread's quite good. One
oddity is that the sign that lists possible sandwich add-ons includes
"dill," but if you order that you get not the herb but a pickle.
You'd think that if you were going to leave one word out of the phrase
"dill pickle"... oh, and also the pole with the "Second Street Bakery"
sign on it is poorly placed, and that's all I'm going to say about that. |
The Keg | Steakhouse | Pembina & Southwood, Winnipeg, MB | 2001-07-07 | 8 |
I was less than thrilled when I found out we were going to a steakhouse
— and a bit puzzled, since I wasn't the only vegetarian in the group.
But it was pretty much the only thing in the area with space for us, so off
we went. And I was pleasantly surprised: I figured a steakhouse would
concentrate on the steak and let the peripherals slide. But no — the
salad was very good, the bread was just terrific, and the portobello
fajitas... did I mention the bread was good? |
Camros Organic Eatery | Vegan | Hayden near Yonge, Toronto | 2012-06-14 | 7 |
Various stews and salads and things. Decent enough, I guess, but none of the alchemical fusion of flavors that, at Potala in Albany CA, turns "brown rice with millet" into a taste extravangza. At Camros it tastes pretty much how you'd expect "brown rice with millet" to taste. |
Easy Restaurant | Diner | Queen near Roncesvalles, Toronto | 2012-06-23 | 6 |
My breakfast burrito was okay but not the greatest: the black beans were dry (and not refried as stated on the menu) and the cheese was congealed, plus there was no alchemy of flavors. Elizabeth's waffles were dense and doughy. We were quoted a five-to-ten-minute wait and the reality was half an hour. Service was marked by the indifference typical of Toronto. |
Gelato Simply Italian | Gelato | Yonge btw Lola/Manor, Toronto | 2012-06-22 | 6 |
I dunno, I guess the gelato was fine — nothing special, though. I came away with a negative impression of this place since getting here was such a pain in the ass (Toronto is a nightmare to get around) and when we finally arrived, they were out of what I wanted and the service was comically bad. |
Piccolo Grande | Gelato | Murray & Parent, Ottawa | 2012-06-18 | 6 |
Caramel and stracciatella were fine if not especially memorable; chocolate orange was bad, sad to say. |
Fresh | Crunchy | local chain, Toronto | 2012-06-16 | 6 |
Smoothies, tofu scrambles, undercooked rice topped with vegan chili... yep, it's hippie food all right. I did get the southwestern tofu scramble and it was all right, but Elizabeth's veggie burger was basically alfalfa sprouts on health-food bread. |
Fressen | Crunchy | Queen near Denison, Toronto | 2012-06-16 | 5 |
This topped the lists of higher-end vegetarian places in Toronto I saw online, so we decided to give it a try. Appetizers were a bunch of Mediterranean spreads that were basically indistinguishable from the ones at Trader Joe's, except $15 for three little plates. My main course was basically a bowl of tangy guacamole with corn; Lizzie's was a bunch of sliced mushrooms in a slightly bitter broth. Not terrible, but the waitress talked as if she were awestruck by how amazing the food was and really it's not worth much more than a "meh." |
La Cave | Cheesecake | Blowers & Grafton, Halifax, NS | 2004-09-12 | 5 |
The name is appropriate. If sitting hunched in a claustrophobic cave eating
an enh cheesecake is your thing, this might be the place for you. |
Massawa | Ethiopian | Osborne & Stradbrook, Winnipeg, MB | 2003-08-20 | 5 |
I saw one report hailing this as Winnipeg's best restaurant, which is a
frightening prospect. It's passable Ethiopian... probably more impressive
if you haven't had Ethiopian elsewhere, as I imagine is the case for a fair
number of Massawa's guests. But it's distinctly less impressive when served
after a wait of over 90 minutes. This is so much more the rule than the
exception that the menus scold customers in advance for complaining about
the wait. Feh. I've had much better Ethiopian served in a reasonable amount
of time. |
Mrs. D's Chips | Fries | Second S btw Main S/the lake, Kenora, ON | 2001-07-07 | 5 |
Soggy, overly salty rectangles of potato. Nice view, though. |
Earls | Eclectic | chain | 2001-07-04 | 5 |
TGIF, eh? A big loud chamber with funky art and everything from Asian noodles
to personal-sized pizzas to rosemary pan bread, and none of it's particularly
good. |
Lorenzo's | Pizza | Arch near Canterbury, Ottawa | 2012-06-18 | 3 |
I had read that Ottawa pizza was greasy and bready with huge amounts of gloppy cheese (often more cheddar than mozzarella) and with an odd smoked flavor to the sauce. This was all proven correct. I had also read that, at least in the case of Lorenzo's, these qualities made the pizza good. This, not so much. |
Monviso | Italian | Corydon btw Hugo/Daly, Winnipeg, MB | 2003-08-23 | 2 |
Lousy food served at a glacial pace while wasps divebomb the tables. Awful. |