John "The Bear" F.'s Profile

We stopped at this little diner-type restaurant last night on the way home from some errands in Mississauga.

The parking lot was full but it seemed to be overflow from the Muddy Duck next door, as the place was empty.

I must say, for diner style food, they are very good.  Interior is a bit worn and nothing too fancy, but comfortable.  The server was very friendly and very helpful.  Beef barley soup was delicious.  A chicken souvlaki plate was very generous, including a large Greek salad with lots of feta, and a container of properly thick tzatziki.  The chicken was a tad dry, but tasty and well flavoured.  Ribs were tender and good.

They usually have some very good buys here and this is my personal favourite of the many fruit stands on the Bloor West strip.  But since there are about five or six within a few blocks, you can easily walk from one to another to compare.  These folks do carry more organic stuff than the others, and I notice that some of their root vegetables are covered with dirt - a good sign to me, as it indicates minimal "processing."

This is the kind of little place that you need to check every once in a while to see if they have something interesting.  It's not big and the perpetual 50-70% off sigh seems a bit misleading.  But they do carry a large variety of linens at some very nice prices - they seem to be especially good for table linens

Very pleasant and cheap Korean food.  Bulgogi and spicy squid were both very good.  Fast and friendly service.

As other reviewers mentioned, this location is way too small to have much of any selection.  Okay, of course, if you can find what you want but if not you should go to the big one on St. Clair west of Keele instead.  Service is very nice, however.

The Junction location of No Frills is much better, primarily due to wider aisles and plenty of free parking.  Go there instead.

This is a review of the dinner menu, as opposed to the buffet.   We stopped here on a pit of a lark - wanted to get out of the house and picked the neighbourhood, then an eating place close to where we wanted to park.

Decor is a bit seedy and some of the decoration look like they may have been left over from a previous restaurant of a different ethnicity (Spanish?) .  Don't let this put you off.  Food and service were great.  Helpful and considerate waiter - he even helped my put my coat on.  A split appetizer order of tandoori chicken was tender and nicely presented.  Main dishes of madras chicken and lamb vindaloo were also excellent and the lamb was buttery tender.    Pistachio kulfi was a nice ending and generously flavoured with cardamom - we'll return to sample the buffet.

While the transit system in my former hometown of Chicago had lots of troubles, I think it was much better than the TTC.   It is an embarassment for Toronto that such a small amount of rapid transit mileage exists here in such a large city.  The 2020 initiative is not re-assuring, as it is unlikely all that much will be added by then.  Fares are way too high and should be modestly zoned - I would suggest that there be four:  Toronto/York/East York, North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke.   The web site is almost worthless and does not provide easy access to regional transit sites like those of Peel and York.  The airport is not served by rapid transit which is really idiotic and poor planning.  There are insufficient park-and-ride facilities and they cost too much - they should be free in order to encourage use of mass transit for at least partial trips.  When I briefly visited Toronto in 1983, you could eat off the subway floor but nowadays it seems no cleaner than Chicago's.  The only good point for the trains is that the schedules are relatively frequent.  Expansion projects are also poorly planned - why should rapid transit service to northeastern Scarborough take precedence over an airport connection?  Why didn't they spend the extra money to install crossing barriers on St. Clair so the new streetcar route could have been made a rapid transit line?  Why did they idiotically design the Scarborough line using a different gauge and car size?

And why doesn't McGuinty give a shit?

It is ridiculous to call Toronto a green city until a thorough overall and subsidization of the TTC takes place.

Politicians here keep wanting to punish people for using cars, but that is stupid - you have to fix rapid transit and make it affordable, extensive and reliable BEFORE narrowing streets, slowing traffic, etc.  Anyone who cannot see that is an imbecile.

Was here today for a celebration lunch and ordered from their Winterlicious prix fixe menu - a three-course bargain at $15.  

The decor is a bit dark but pleasantly cozy.  The dark gold colour scheme and the decorations invoke California more than Greece and it is devoiid of Greek tschotshckes, for the most part.

My partner and I both ordered dolmades as an appetizer.  They were filled with ground beef instead of lamb, but the seasoning was delicious and they came with tomato sauce as well as a container of tzatziki.  Pita was presented hot and toasted to a nice slight char.  We both had a grouper main dish which presented a nice sized piece of very fresh tasting fish on a bed of mashed potatoes and veggies (the cauliflower was pleasantly crisp) in a wine-calamata sauce.  It was delicious.  Both creme brulee and honey balls were good desserts, though the former was a tad more interesting.   The waitress/owner was friendly and obliging - removing excess dishes promptly but not rushing our large group.

I am withholding a higher rating pending regular visits and sampling the regular menu, but overall this was very good Greek food.

This chain has several branches in Toronto but I picked this one due to easy parking.  Their stuff is a step up from IKEA, with a more contemporary and cutting edge appearance than the Brick.  I purchased two bookshelves for my bedroom, both of which were quite nice and attractive - they were steel and glass.

Service was very friendly and helpful without being too hovering.  You do have assemble case goods yourself but the instruction and assembly on my two pieces were very easy.  While I was not in the market for a glass dining table (II have one), they have a nice selection at good prices.

As usual, stay away from anything sold at higher prices if made mostly of fibreboard.