Nicole "Niki" C.'s Profile

I wanted to really love this place - and the concept is perfect! Who doesn't want to drop off their kids for someone else to take care of while you get pampered and swooned into a feeling bliss that normally only a good (whole) bottle of wine after the kid has finally screamed himself to sleep would bring? Seriously the whole concept reminds me of my desperate desire to be a lady of leisure without accepting that in order to do that my boobs would have to be MUCH bigger.

So a friend and I bought a WagJag for a body scrub with massage and a facial that would last 60min (including child care) for $59 ($145 value). Off the bat the process was not smooth. I tried booking the appointment which apparently for these coupons only the manager could do, so two calls later, four days from my original call - I finally had an appointment for two. Upon arrival I took a quick peek at the baby sitting room which is the size of a larger bathroom that is filled with some toys. Nothing really special there, and if they were to close the door it would be really tight for the kids. Instead, they let our kids have free reign of the toy room and reception area - which pretty much meant we could hear every single scream, bang, and squeal all through our "relaxing" treatments. But whatever, at least I could tell the kid was having a good time.

The treatments itself I can say were ho hum - the scrub wasn't with any kind of product that I could feel or smell, just with some sort of scratchy glove and the massage was non-existent. In fact, the massage reminded me of the kind of "massage" that a guy gives you when really all he wants to do is get into your pants - you know the one: "hey baby...wanna massage?" *squeeze squeeze....tired...sex?*

The facial was by far the best part, but that's because I actually felt like some product was being used.

The appointment capped out before the hour (with 10 min of it being setup) leaving me all kinds of not entirely relaxed but amused that the kids had managed to tear a few cords from the wall.

All in all the appointment was okay because the kid had such a good time - but would I go and pay for that? No. I know that you have to take it with a grain of salt that you're not always going to get THE BEST treatment when you buy through a group site, but you at least want to have the customer coming back for more right? The only way I'd do that again is if someone bought it for me - and that would only be so I can watch the kid smash toys against their glass shelves again.

I was kinda on the fence about checking this place out because I heard a few bad things from people about their customer service, but I figured I'd check them out anyway. Maybe it was because I was direct and to the point, because I knew what I was doing, because I had a screaming fussy toddler in tow, or because I have boobs, but I was approached really quickly by the shop owner.

I came in dragging my hubs because it was time to buy some bike helmets and he was sulking because he felt wearing one would ruin his rep of being a bad ass on his newly acquired hybrid with attached panniers (yes that's sarcasm). The owner let us all try on a variety of helmets until we found one that suited and fit us as well as let us check out the baby bike seats. We ended up picking up 3 helmets and a Copilot seat (cheapest on the Danforth by $40 including install by the way) and were out of there quickly with no fuss.

Upon returning to the shop to have the seat installed, they asked me to come back an hour later - which I did, to discover that my bike hadn't been touched. The owner took one look at me and my tapping foot and installed it in about 10 minutes (why did you need an hour). To make up for it they also did a few adjustments that I had asked for without charging me.

On a leisurely afternoon lunch date with two lovely ladies, we thought we would hit up C'est What for a bite. I've been on this low carb kick lately but decided to take a break on my lifestyle change provided the fare was worth it.

I have to say that my "Club What" was totally worth it - mostly because of the delicious little side of some sort of spicy mayo thing that I pretty much ate with a spoon - don't you judge me, it's hard not eating bread! My friend got a pulled pork sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries that she had to smack my hand away from, and my other friend had some sort of great looking bean burger.

All in all for the grand total of $40 for a late lunch in the market I'd check it out again!

Most people do Easter with turkey and stuffing and all those fixins - what do we do? That's right: Chinese Dim Sum! After reading many reviews I figured we'd try Happy Jade since my grandmother is slowly becoming an agoraphob in her old age and dragging her down to Mississauga China Town wasn't an option.

We hit HJ around 11am because I heard there was some sort of morning rush (starting promptly at 11:30am it was a zoo) and were seated promptly although it took asking 3 servers to finally get a high chair.

Next time in retrospect we'll ask for a table by the wall so that when the kid plays with chopsticks (read: makes giant stabbing motions in the air) he won't skewer the person behind us which he did about 6 times.  The food though was pretty fresh and plentiful - once they figured out that we actually knew a thing or two about dim sum (and that the kid was shoving har gow into his trap faster than they could put it on our table) the food was flowing. They even had a few things that I haven't seen passed around at the other dim sum restaurants I've been to recently.

All in all for 4 people and a hungry toddler the bill came out to just under $50 which is pretty good considering how much we ate. Check this place out - and if you see a shumai go whizzing over your head - not gonna lie, that's probably my kid practicing his chopstick ninja moves.

I've always walked past Sophia's going - dem are bras my Granny would wear.  Let's face it, no matter who you are, if you wear a bra, ultimately you want to look like a Victoria Secret model in it. Tits to the chin, sprouting angel wings, Gisele Bündchen style. Its true and you know it. Anything less is a bra you bought out of desperation at Walmart.

Anyway I was waiting for a bike tune up and went in just to see if a new bra may perk me up. Pun intended. After having a kid, you need something nice and sturdy to hold up those taataas. I was directed to a girl in the back who I immediately told "Nude, lift and separate, not too expensive!" and she pulled several bras which were great looking, the perfect fit, and in my price range.

Granted you're going to drop $60+ in this store but that is what you should be paying for a bra that FITS you properly. 68% of women's back problems and 43% of shoulder problems are related to bras that don't fit you properly. I also make up figures 98% of the time but whatever, deal with my rationalities and unwillingness to google. Either way, the saleswoman was lovely, knew her bras, knew her fit, and wasn't about to push an expensive bra on me. At one point I said: "do you have anything..." and she finished "less ugly?" YES PLEASE!

I ended up walking out with my name on the call list for when my bra pick shows up in a few weeks - so no pressure to buy on the spot. Love this place, the boobies are already beggin for another visit!

I was walking along Bloor West with my mom after successfully tiring the kid out at High Park and we wanted to stop somewhere to eat. Since my mom is usually picky AND cheap (killer combo I know) We decided to go into Simply Thai to take advantage of their lunch specials.

My mom got the pad thai lunch special (yawn) which  came with spring roll and pumpkin soup while I had the chicken salad (double yawn - stupid low carb diet).

While admittedly her lunch special was pretty affordably priced with all the fixin's, my salad was a big letdown. Now I know you don't go to a Thai resto and order a salad but I was expecting a little finer fare than iceberg lettuce ends, 4 chunks of chicken and a few slivers of carrot for $8. It wasn't even fitting for a side salad. If you're gonna make me pay $8 I pretty much expect there to be so much salad on my plate that I'll be enticed to hide bits of it underneath my sleeping toddler while my mom isn't looking. She IS my mom you know - she still tries to get me to eat my veggies.

So there are about 4 different indoor playgrounds all in this area and I have to admit that I mostly chose Balls of Fun because of the potential for hilarious Facebook status updates:

"We're playing with BALLS!"
"Kid is face first in BALLS!"
"That other kid just touched my kids balls..."

See? The list can go on and on.

Balls of Fun at first was pretty difficult to find for me and my failing GPS, but once I did, the staff at the front was pretty friendly and got us in fast. Admission was $10 for the both of us. After leaving the kids food in the lunch area (one of the only indoor playgrounds by the way that allow you to bring your own food in - just no nuts), I released him running and screaming his way towards the giant ball pit.

I have to say that the kid had pretty much the best time ever. All the play structures are pretty toddler and parent friendly...though I was tired WAY before he was. At one point I decided to follow the trend of every other parent in the place: I sat down in a giant bean bag chair and just let the kid throw various sized basketballs at me while I stared at nothing in particular.

It was fun for both of us.

So I was just getting out of this diet clinic (trying to lose the last of that damn baby weight) and I was put in that kind of scenario where you walk out of Weight Watches rs and RIGHT NEXT STORE there is a donut store. Well my personal donut store is actually ANY dim sum restaurant. So we headed into Crown Prince, thinking that it seemed popular enough for such a large place.

When you walk in you're a bit taken aback at the fact that this doesn't look like your typical Chinese dim sum place - it has this very cool/odd mix of french decor accompanied by all the servers dressed in quasi-french maid outfits. Think Japanese maid cafe's only not as short skirts (I know, WHY were we there then!?). They also serve their tea out of fancy teapots which I really enjoyed cause I'm a huge tea snob. I was actually really mad at another table across from us which seemed to have a nicer teapot. Jerks.

The dim sum we were served was pretty tasty: har gow, shu mai, steamed pork buns, beef balls, spicy squid, shrimp noodles, and tendon.

Ask me how this came to $60. Ask me.

Seriously I have no clue.

I mean, it was good, but $60 good? I'm going to go with no. No it wasn't. And granted: serves us right for not actually looking at the Saturday morning prices but I blame the surroundings - they distract you with the fancy frilly dresses and then serve you $12 shu mai! (probably not actual cost of the shu mai)

I've been to Ichiban sushi a couple of times now when I'm really craving some Japanese fare and I'm not desperate enough to go to the Loblaws that is literally across the street at lunch. Overall, their food is good - but not great. I'm on a sashimi kick these days and everything is pretty fresh (as fresh as frozen for 6 days and flown overseas can be right?) with the exception of their butterfish which tastes like a fishy ice cube. Like it tastes like essence of fish...in slushy ice cube form. Yes, that's how I'm gonna describe it.

I would actually place this restaurant around a 2.5 star but I'll kick in the extra .5 star for the fact that last time we were in here Kai LITERALLY ruined the place, including pushing the owners son to the floor and throwing edamame beans at the other guests. The waitress didn't even bat an eye!

TASTY! We got a Groupon Now! for this restaurant on Valentines day of all days. We've been there once before but hubs and I have NO idea what to order off an Ethiopian menu - ever - so we went with the recommendation of combo #46 from the waitress.

When it came out you really remember why they're starving in Ethiopia. Seriously I could have eaten 2 of those platters AT LEAST. Why was there only one drum stick on the platter? For me and hubs to fight to the death over it Hunger Games style?

I finally told the waitress that we want an order of the beef tibs. I have heard of these "tibs" things forever, and for some reason we never order them! Turns out "tibs" are cubes of meat. Go figure.

Either way the food is delish!