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City Hollywood Cafe – Toronto, Ontario

We took a red-eye flight out to Toronto for a quick trip. When we got there, we quickly picked up our rental can and checked into our hotel room. From there, we took a quick hot shower and went out looking for breakfast as it was only about 9am. We found a place where my cousin took us to a few years back called City Hollywood Cafe located behind Pacific Mall – 太古 on Steeles and Kennedy in Markham, Ontario.

We sat down, and I quickly ordered a cup of Milk Tea – 奶茶 as I was craving a cup – with condensed milk. It was quite strong of a tea and that’s the way I like it. When I got home, I actually made my own version of milk tea, and it’s just as good!

Since I was a tad jet lagged and really sleepy as we didn’t really get sleep from the night before, I opted out for something smaller. I ordered the French Toast – 西多士 I really like Chinese/Hong Kong style French Toast because they usually use Chinese “square bread” which usually is sweeter than your typical sliced bread. The egg batter is always thick and delicious – and the sheer amount of oil they use to make their French toast makes for a crispy breakfast

The breakfast set meals are always fun to order. They normally come with tons of stuff at a really good price – at only $4.99! This meal was also ordered with milk tea, and the set meal was for Cutlet Pork Chop with Egg. This particular meal came with toast, eggs, and of course a deep fried pork cutlet ontop of macaroni’s in soup.

Overall, I really enjoyed the few times I’ve been to City Hollywood Cafe and I’m sure I’ll be back again for any meal during the day! The food has always been really good, and nothing beats their prices and hours.

City Hollywood Cafe in Markham

4372 Steeles Ave E
Markham, ON M1V4S5
(905) 305-8877

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Big Smoke Burger – Toronto, Ontario

We went for a walk into downtown Toronto this one afternoon during one of our short visits to Scarborough, Ontario. It was near lunchtime, and wanted something to eat before their downtown lunch rush. We stepped into Big Smoke Burger and it was a cute little burger shop. Right away, we noticed a lot of types of burgers, where we ordered our meal.

I tried the Crazy Burger which was a giant burger that consists of jalapeno havarti cheese, fresh-crisp coleslaw, chipotle mayo, bbq sauce, hot peppers & lettuce. The combination of the spice and the cooling (from the coleslaw) is really nice! It’s a larger burger with great flavours and it’s one of the best burgers I’ve had.

We also ordered a combo – for a drink and a side of onion rings with the Big Smoke Burger, and this burger has horseradish mayo, caramelized onions, smoked cheddar, tomato & lettuce. The horseradish mayo sounds innocent but after eating about half the burger the heat level of the horseradish really kicks in and clears your sinuses! I can’t say there was too much of a “smokiness” to the burger, but it was a wonderful tasting burger on it’s own. I’m suspecting the horseradish mayo numbed all my senses before I could really savour the smokiness of the smoke cheddar.

Big Smoke Burger is a great burger place to go to! They source out great Canadian ingredients that are fresh and they take pride in the quality of their ingredients and product they will present to you. Your burger and meal may take a little longer to wait for, but it’s definitely worth the wait as it wasn’t sitting there waiting for you to order it – made to order burgers, what more do you need?!

Big Smoke Burger – Downtown Toronto

573 King St W
Toronto, ON
(416) 596-6660

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Chateau Deli – Fairmont Lake Louise

Lake Louise is one of my favourite places to visit in any season! When I go in the winter time, my favourite thing to do is grab a hot chocolate with marshmallows from Chateau Deli and just walk around or look at the frozen lake. This year, I went for the Ice Magic Festival which I’ve always wanted to go see. It’s really neat watching talented people make an actual sculpture from blocks of ice.

The deli is almost a cafeteria styled place such that you take/order what you want and then pay at the end. There is a small seating area for you to enjoy your purchased goods, but during special occasions, it’s a little challenging to find a table to sit at and enjoy.

This time, like all others, we ordered our Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows and I never get whipped cream as it’s a little too much dairy for me. The hot chocolate here is really delicious and it’s not like any other location for hot chocolate. Chateau Deli is on my top 5 list for hot chocolate, so be sure to try it out when you’re there!

As this was my lunch, I’ve ordered a soup and sandwich combo, so the sandwich I choose was actually a Smoked Salmon Bagel with cream cheese, red onions and capers.

The soup with the combo, we enjoyed the soup of the day, which was as Cream of Mushroom Soup and it was really good. It actually tasted a lot like the homemade cream of mushroom soups I make! Of course, theirs seems to have something special in there, but it’s comparable. I must say, I like their soup more than mine as I only make cream of mushroom soup once a year.

The last thing we enjoyed for this lunch is a big bowl of Beef Chili which was really hearty filled with lots of ground beef and beans. The flavours was magnificent, and something I would get again if it was available.

Everything is always delicious from Chateau Deli, so no matter what meal or snack, be sure to stop by for something – big or small. The flavours are always really good no matter what you order, and be sure to order your food in a combo as it’s much more economical if you’re having more than just a drink!

Chateau Deli

111 Lake Louise Drive
Lake Louise, AB
(403) 522-3511

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Regency Palace – Calgary, Alberta

Dim Sum has been a difficult task to find a good place in Calgary – considering factors like price, location, parking, taste, etc. I had my hopes high as we came for dim sum at Regency Palace since we attended a wedding here and the food was absolutely amazing. Thinking that the food and service was good – we finally came for dim sum.

One of the neat things about Regency Palace is the fact they have stations where you can get food, so you’re not limited to what’s being pushed out on carts only. They have a whole buffet area in one corner or the restaurant, as well as a noodle stand and a flat top grill area. We got some Pan Fried Rice Crepes from the flat grill station near the centre of the restaurant. These are really good and you’re able to pick the sauces you want to dip these crepes in!

As it was Chinese New Year weekend when we went, and even though I’ve been trying to make lo bak gao, we still ordered some anyway. The plate came with 2 pieces of lo bak gao and 1 piece of tara cake. The Lo Bak Gao wasn’t too daikon tasting and was really quite firm. There wasn’t a lot of ingredients in their lo bak gao either, but it was pan fried really nicely!

Then, we ordered some Steamed Rice Noodle Roll with BBQ Pork from one of the carts that went by. This wasn’t bad actually! They had quite a bit of filling and the texture was really good too. The BBQ pork was really good, but I think it would’ve been nicer to have more filling!

From the buffet dim sum area, we picked up some Chicken Feet which wasn’t bad. The skin came right off the bones and packed of flavour. It was quite fresh and really good actually!

Our last item we ate for this dim sum lunch was some Spareribs and even though it looks kind of pale, it was really good. The pieces they use was mostly the ones with the single big bones, instead of the softer bones which made it a pleasant eating experience. The sauce and flavour was all really good – very comparable with other good dim sum locations.

Overall, it was a very decent dim sum place to eat. I love the space as it was really large and the fact it has other options for food for those customers who don’t want to just eat dim sum. As well, the use of the buffet is a smart and convenient idea, as sometimes the carts run out of food by the time it gets to you. So, I really like the location, the options and the prices and food was alright.

Regency Palace – Calgary Chinatown

328 Centre St S
Calgary, AB
(403) 777-2288

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Karma Fine Indian Cuisine – Calgary, Alberta

When the weather is cold outside, and after being what seems to be stuck at home, spice is always something I crave. Whether it’s Thai curry, Indian Curry, Szechuan spices or whatever, I need the heat of the spice! This time, I went for Indian Curry not too far from home off 130th Ave Southeast to Karma Fine Indian Cuisine. The location of Karma is just off Deerfoot Trail and 130th Eastbound – and you turn in towards Canadian Tire and Superstore.

I was going to enjoy a nice hot cup of Chai Tea, but opted out for something a tad different. I had a glass of Mango Lassi which is a very common Indian and Pakistani drink which is yoghurt based (lassi). Basically it’s made of pureed mango, yoghurt and water – and depending on how much water/ice they put it would depend on how thick it is. Sometimes, some places have it so thick that you suck so hard to only get a little drop. The consistency here was really good, as it was thinner than a milkshake, but definitely thicker of a drink. One thing I like about this drink from Karma is the fact they don’t use ice! It never separated which is something I like about my drinks!

This visit to Indian food, I really wanted to try different things, and so, instead of the usual suspect of coconut rice, this time, we got Saffron Rice which looked like a bowl of Christmas rice! It was beautiful! It didn’t have as much flavour on it’s own like coconut rice, but it was very fragrant!

Staying on the different track, I wanted to have lamb with my curry, so we ordered a Lamb Boona which they described as a Karma special made with traditional curry cooked with herbs and spices. This sounded like a wonderful choice as it’s like their “house special” and to me, those are always good! The lamb was really tender, and there were quite a few pieces of lamb in the curry too! We got the curry in mild and you definitely get the kick, but it’s a tender kick.

Now, for the twist on my naan, we normally get the garlic naan (which is fantastic from Karma), we got Keema Nan which is made with white flour bread stuffed with mildly spiced round beef. We normally don’t get the stuffed ones, but since I went to England and tried Indian Edge with their stuffed naan, I had to get it again (at least some version of it!). This was delicious and I would definitely get keema nan again, or other meat stuffed into my nan! Keema naan is just stuffed with some sort of “seasoned ground/minced meat” and varies from location to location, as Keema just means “minced meat”

Then, for my favourite dish of curry for the evening, we ordered a plate of Prawn Korma which obviously had prawns in it, but cooked in a mild curry enriched with cream, nuts and spices.

My overall experience here at Karma was a VERY positive experience, and I have no problems returning or bringing friends & family here who like eating Indian curries! I’m sure when my sister and brother-in-law come and visit me, I’ll take them here for dinner! I’m sure they’ll love it – but it’s definitely not as good as the curry where they are…

Karma Fine Indian Cuisine

4600 130 Ave SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 257-4977