Renata "nyanyanyan" R.'s Profile

So, I've bought cheese, groceries, had coffee and food at this place regularly. It's a few steps from my office.

I absolutely love it. I love everything about it.

If you are buying a cheese selection, just tell them what do you like, and what's your budget, they will try to keep UNDER your budget. That's so nice! The results are always amazing, I want to buy cheese there every day.

I have ordered the beet salad, which is beautiful and delicious, and their pizza is incredible, thin crust, house made tomato sauce. I've seen, but never ordered, the cheese and charcuterie board, and it looks so beautiful, I have to go there just for that.

All the orders come with their own bread selection, olive oil, nodini cheese and ask for the house hot sauce!  

If you have any questions about the menu, ask Andrea, the manager, he's super friendly and will love to talk to you about the food they make. There's someone who loves their job and is very dedicated to their customers.

Alimento also offers samples of their food in the grocery so you can taste before you buy (or... you can be easily convinced to buy everything because everything tastes SO GOOD), and that's how I decided I'm totally buying their olive oil - BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME.

Seriously. I love this place. These italian dudes, they know their stuff. I give them all my money.

This is the most overrated restaurant I've been in Toronto. Born in an Italian family, with an Italian nonna who was a second-generation baker, I feel I can say: no, this is not Italian food done right, I am so sorry.

The good things: the service is impeccable. The restaurant may be packed, but they will treat you like the only customer, like someone very special, like if you were the only person there. A sommelier will recommend you wines, the servers will explain every detail on how the dishes were prepared, it's really amazing how they are trained and attentive. Incredible.

Then I ordered an appetizer, the cheese board. 19 dollars for tiny little pieces of cheese, paired with preserves. I was asked if I wanted bread. Sure, yes, I wanted bread! But you have to PAY EXTRA 4.50 for a bread basket. Wait, what? Ok, I can do that. The bread came, it was... just regular bread. Nothing magical. Simple bread, 4.50. Ridiculous.

Wait, it becomes worse. It's an italian restaurant. I expect bread and olive oil. I asked for olive oil, a staple of italian cuisine. I was informed they would call the SOMMELIER to offer me, for 5 dollars, the extra olive oil. Is that some kind of joke??????  No thanks, I just wanted to soak my bread in olive oil.

My main course was a fish. It was the saddest fish plate I've ever ordered. For 36 bucks I expected some fancy presentation, sides, something special. It was just a fish fillet, with aromatic olives and olive oil (the very expensive olive oil I mentioned before). No sides. Not even some rice or salad. Nothing at all. A SINGLE FISH FILLET.

My husband ordered smart and had the pizza, which is HUGE and DELICIOUS. If you ever go there, order the pizza. Totally worth the price an can be shared! It's al taglio, the size of a 17 inch notebook, thin crust, homemade sauce, everything you expected and much more. I had some, was delighted! Also, water buffalo meatballs with WATER BUFFALO MOZZARELLA, you WANT THAT.

Dessert was much better! Their Tiramisu is SPECTACULAR, I could eat that forever, and my husband ordered the affogatto with some delicious gelato from outer space. I'm not a fan of gelato, but that was really incredible. I loved the dessert!

Overall, I was very disappointed with the mains, which is the most important part of a meal. I saw people ordering pasta and they were basically a few pieces of pasta. They also need to work on presentation. People like food porn.

I wouldn't come back to spend 200 bucks in a place that doesn't refill my bread basket and doesn't offer me olive oil, then charges me almost 40 bucks for a sad fish fillet. They need desperately to work on their menu. For THE REAL ITALIAN VIBE, please refer to Alimento, a few blocks away. They do it right. The place is always full of italians for some reason. The guys know their stuff. Buca? Meh.

I called them on a Friday night and they weren't very friendly, asked me where I found them (and I mentioned Yelp) but decided to take my appointment anyway. I left work earlier and took a cab to the address listed above, and when I arrived there, to my surprise, the place was boarded and there was a note "We moved, call us for new address".

Now, how uncool is that? I tried calling, nobody answered. Their neighbours didn't know where they moved to. If they moved recently, they should have told me they had a new address. Terrible un-service! I was so disappointed!

I don't really know how to review this. I had a great restorative class there. The teacher was really awesome and I'd give him more than five stars if I could. Helpful, friendly, skilled, calm and had an incredible soothing voice.

But here lies the problem: I arrived there and there wasn't anybody at the Front Desk, and I waited a while for somebody to arrive. Then I was told the changeroom was *inside* the yoga studio, so I had to wait at the Front Desk for the other class to end to be able to change.

When I was finally led to the "changeroom", I realized it was just part of the tiny studio separated by a curtain, a cubicle made of curtains inside the room, where you leave your belongings and change. Didn't feel comfortable at all.

The class was good enough for me to almost forget about the cubicle-changer, but then, again, I decided to go to the washroom... and there was no water. No water in the toilet, no water in the faucet.

I believe the studio itself needs maintenance. They have a good teacher, but I wouldn't come back with all these issues.

I have bought a 10-class pass at Quad and I am happy - and I usually dislike gyms. I told the staff, on my first class, I haven't spun in YEARS and my experience was mostly riding as a commuter. They were incredibly friendly, I even got some freebies on my first day, lots of help and attention setting up the bike.

I like their teachers and the musical selection is not that bad (well, for spinning classes). The showers could be better, but are good enough for a quick shower after exercise. I like that they rent spinning shoes for $3, I don't have to worry about buying an expensive thing I'd only wear there.

Overall, it's a great place, warm and welcoming staff, good teachers and plenty of classes.

I gave Janina another chance for a facial a couple of months ago and now I am hooked. She is, indeed, my esthetician of choice.  Already came back a couple of times, with good results, and now I signed up for her microdermabrasion sessions.

She needs time to work on your face, and will do it properly if you arrive on time, and don't tell her to hurry (reasonable, huh?). Allow 60-90min for a great, relaxing and renewing work. Winter is TERRIBLE for my skin, it becomes very dehydrated, and I have a few breakouts, it's hard to find a balance, so it's important to me to do facials so I don't look horrible.

Her prices are unbeatable, the only problem is booking  - think about at least two weeks in advance if you want a Saturday.

Ping pong and drinks? Who would guess? I can't play ping pong, sorry, but I had a great time last night and had fun catching balls around the tables. I wasn't even drinking! The appetizers were really good, there was plenty of space for everyone and popchips were a great addition to the snacks, they are SO GOOD and much healthier than your average chips!

Great place, and as a plus, it's just across the street from my office!

It took me a while to be able to book a massage at Body Blitz. They are very busy during the week, although they close at 8pm, they don't book massages later than 6 - meaning, if you work 9-5, it gets really, really hard to enjoy the water circuit - but, I finally managed to do it.

I arrived one hour before my massage and could explore the water circuit. IT IS AMAZING. You pay in advance, and order some overpriced tea or smoothie that will be served while you are relaxing at one of their amazing pools - for me, it was an iced tea served just in time for me to go to the hot green tea tub.

I went alone, and there are, indeed, lots of chit-chat from other women who go in groups, but it didn't affect my relaxing experience. When my therapist called me in I was feeling already much more relaxed, which made her job much easier. She was obviously very experienced, because I was feeling this pain on my shoulders and neck for about a week and it just vanished! Then, she recommended that I spent some extra time in the sauna and a few more minutes in the saltwater pool. Of course I did that!

Great, great experience! The downside, I cannot do that as often as I wanted because it's SO EXPENSIVE (and getting some free time to go early is also not really easy), but I am eager to come back. Loved this place! A solid five star.

I'm still not sure if it's a coffee shop or gift store. Either way, I feel like spending some time there. The food smells, looks and tastes awesome, and portions are BIG. Try an empanada!

Now, let's start a new paragraph for their beverages: as an Argentinian place, they have an amazing coffee with traditional DULCE DE LECHE (if you never had it, go there NOW) and steamed milk, Café Caramelo. Also, Coffee with Condensed Milk. Their hot chocolate is made right: steamed milk with a melted dark  chocolate bar inside. Yeah. At last but not least, tea is Tealish and they do offer toasty almond, my favourite!

They serve some other food (soup, sandwiches) and, well, you can buy hand cream, crayons or a kitchen apron while you drink your coffee. This place is just amazing!

What can I say? I am still astonished by the experience I've just had there - and I needed it.

It's been a while I've been looking for new experiences in food, and La Palette provided me exactly what I was looking for. I shared from the appetizer to the dessert, including the wine with my husband and everything was perfect for the two of us.

We started with the venison tartar, you shouldn't miss it! Delicious! Then, came the main dish: the three-way musk ox - now, this is THE THING, YOU WANT THAT. It's a musk-ox sausage, musk-ox tenderloin and musk-ox ragu served with magic sauce and everything delicious. The tenderloin is SOOO TENDER you can't believe it's not butter (ha).  It's one of those things you have to try before you die. I'm glad I did.

For dessert, we ordered the creme brulée trio. I've had, about eight years ago (yeah, man) an AMAZING CRÈME BRULÉE EXPERIENCE that I'll never forget (for those curious, the place is called Bar D'Hotel, in Rio de Janeiro). Finally, I've had a similar experience! And, I LOVE CRÈME BRULÉE!

Service was impeccable, fast, friendly, perfect. I have no words to describe.

If there's something I don't like there? Although I think the idea of having the kitchen in the middle of the restaurant seems super cool and modern, you end up smelling like food. I don't want that after spending lots of money in a restaurant. The stairs to the washroom are greasy for obvious reasons.

Still, I loved it and plan to come back really soon. I am in love.