Toyama

*Restaurant is closed*

All-you-can-eat Sushi. Aiya. I knew we were asking for it. More often than not, this type of Japanese cuisine (if you can even call it that) is an exercise in disappointment. Just look at places such as Kawawa, Sui Sha Ya and Kisha Poppo. Definitely quantity over quality. To be fair, there are some acceptable places such as Ninkazu and Tomokazu. It was not our intention to go for AYCE sushi after Monday night softball. Our original plan was to try out Kingyo's latest venture - Suika. I did my due diligence and made sure it was open on Monday nights. Yet, as we pulled up to the place on Broadway, it was *gasp* closed! Turns out of all the Mondays, we had to pick the one they were closed for a "staff meeting". WTF? So as a backup plan, we headed to Toyama for their late night AYCE. Hey, how bad can it be? They do claim to be "Vancouver's best sushi" in all their ads on the Beat 94.5. If you are snickering right now, I don't blame you. When one hear such claims, it is almost an invitation for ridicule.

At the very least, everything started off fine as we got rock star parking right in front of the place along Seymour. To top it all off, it was free too! The restaurant is not very big and the seating is a bit tight. But that is to be expected with a Downtown location. As mentioned, we made it for their late night AYCE for $13.95. For $1.00 more per person, we could've have sashimi included (limit to 6 pcs per person). That is a pretty reasonable price tag for that addition. We didn't end up getting it and instead started with the Nigiri. With this, we could still get a taste of their raw fish. For once, the rice to fish ratio was good. Mind you, there was very little fish too. The slices were razor thin. If we could rate the different fish (salmon, tai and tuna) as one, the consensus was "okay". Nothing particularly wrong while nothing particularly memorable as well. The rice itself was on the drier side and a bit too vinegary.

We also got a variety of Maki Sushi including BC Roll, California Roll, Yam Tempura Roll, Unagi Roll, Tuna Roll and Oshinko. If we had to group them into one again, the best way to describe these rolls would be "typical Japanese fast food sushi". That is not a criticism per se; rather than an observation. Not horrible while not great either. It filled our tummies. Interestingly, there were several options for Motoyaki including oyster, fish and scallop. We went for the oyster and scallop; but they put it all on one plate. With everything looking the same, it was a guessing game as to what we would be eating. Now, the scallops and oysters were okay; however, as you can clearly see, the motoyaki was not really all that broiled. Thus, it was essentially a lukewarm mayo-concoction that was not all that appealing. On the topic of unappealing, the Gyozas were very inconsistent. As you can clearly see, they were all fried up in the same pan or flattop; yet each one had a different texture. These premade gyozas were actually alright with a decent pork & veggie filling. However, some had dumpling skin that was tougher than shoe leather which rendered them inedible. Then surprisingly, some were perfectly cooked.

Hands down, Beef Short Ribs are Bear's favourite food. So it is not a stretch for him to eat a whole serving by himself. Hence, we marked down 25 pieces on the checklist. What you see in the picture is how much we got. Rather than 25, we received 8. Um, how does 25 become 8??? Yes, I do realize that some AYCE joints do the same trick, namely Fish on Rice. C'mon. Honestly. Look at the gyoza. We ordered 10, we got 10. So obviously they can count. So what's the deal on the short ribs? If you don't want to give people what they asked for, why offer it? I mean, they have this "no wasting" policy already. What's the harm? I truly think that this tactic is unethical. Oh, and as for the short ribs, they were chewy and too salty. And for our second order, we wrote down 50 and got 16. So obviously, the count by 8's with the ribs. Must be some kinda foreign math.

Now here is where the thought of Kawawa slowly creeps into the meal. The Yam Fries were not like any yam fries we've ever had. These things were cut up into little slivers and then flash fried I would assume. But these came out more limp than someone who ran out of Viagra. Oil-logged and showing no cooking technique whatsoever, this was terrible. Oh it gets worse! The Croquettes were a complete surprise to us all. Normally, it is filled with potato or pumpkin or something like that, especially when they are fried up in the way they appear in the picture. What was really inside was some dense, sweet mochi. Okay, there is a mochi croquette out there; but it doesn't look like this. Then it only gets worse with beef jerky masquerading as Beef Teriyaki. The thinly-sliced meat was so overcooked and dry, it began taking on properties of Jimmy's Beef Jerky. Factor in the powerful sweet and salty sauce, it was actually more of a beef jerky than anything. Moving along to the Chicken Karaage, it didn't get much better. They were overfried which made the meat hard and a bit greasy tasting. The skin was no longer crispy; rather, it was dried out and was not pleasant to eat. At the very least, there was enough seasoning.

Okay, onto something that was actually quite good. The Tonkatsu was fried up perfectly crisp on the outside while still being moist and tender on the inside. There just enough sauce to flavour the pork chop without drowning it. We ordered this twice since it was pretty good. However, on our second order, we marked down 2 and ended up with the same amount as our first order, which was 1. It appears their abacus was broken. So 1 pork chop is equivalent to 2 pork chops... Sounds like the Government here with the HST. Anyways, another fried item that was half-decent was the Tempura. Consisting mainly of yam and sweet potato, there was this one piece of squash? Not sure what it was. It just looked strange. Whatever, the batter was not too heavy and turned out crispy. Not much more to be said about it.

We had a few more things that were not really worth discussing. They were neither great or terrible. However, the last thing worth mentioning was the Unagi Rice. Milhouse and I both decided to get an order despite it violating the AYCE "maximum benefit" rules. You see, it is a bowl of rice and it fills you up while not being worth all that much. We took a gamble because the last few times we have ordered it in an AYCE setting, it was not too big and had a good rice-to-unagi ratio. When it arrived here, we were really sorry that we even tried. There was a full bowl of rice and a measly piece of unagi. Heck, there wasn't even enough sauce to flavour all of the rice. Serves us right though. We should've never have ordered it. To be fair, they didn't charge us for leaving half of the bowl of rice untouched. If they had, we would've been very P.O.'d. That pretty much summed up everyone's sentiment about the food here. For a place that boasts in their ads that they serve some of Vancouver's best sushi, it cannot be more further from the truth. Again, to be fair, the food is not inedible. But compared to even the local hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant, the food we had was sub-par. Sure, it was in an AYCE format, which could be the reason why it was not that great. Maybe their a la carte is better. Maybe someone can confirm or deny this. All we can say is to avoid the AYCE. There is much better to be had in the GVRD.

The Good:
- AYCE price is reasonable considering its Downtown location
- Heard the service is poor here, not sure why, we got good service

The Bad:
- The food we had in general was pretty poor
- Apparently the kitchen can only count if they feel like it (such as a cheaper item)

Verace Pizzeria

*Restaurant is now closed*

Out of the blue, while in the changing room prior to our hockey game, Apu pipes up about a new Neapolitan pizza joint. Apparently his wife had visited Verace Pizzeria and the feedback was positive. Furthermore, their whole menu was 15% for the month of July. There were several attempts to visit the place; but due to our late games, we never made it out there. I even tried with our softball team; yet we were never really all that close by. It looked pretty grim as the days in July were dwindling. Finally, after our game at Montgomery Park, I made it a point to head over there. “Over there” was right next to the T&T Supermarket near the Stadium Skytrain Stadium. Hence, parking is a little bit scare. Consequently, I volunteered to carpool everyone. Not sure if it was Karma or just plain luck, I got the closest parking spot possible within a stone’s throw to the front door. And about that front door... It’s not very flashy. It can easily be missed, especially located in a roundabout hidden from the main street.

Bear was surprised by the classy decor and the overall style of the restaurant. He didn’t expect an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria in this neighbourhood. Well, I wasn’t. So many great places to eat have opened up shop in the most unsual places (see: Acme Cafe, Campagnolo, 2 Chefs & a Table among others). We decided to share a few things starting with the Burrata complimented by pizza bread and a balasmic reduction. Although I still have fond memories of the Burrata I had at L’Osteria del Forno in San Francisco, the one here was pretty solid. Each piece of Burrata was smooth and buttery. Surprisingly, the pizza bread almost stole the show. It was crispy, chewy, flavourful and worked well with the Burrata. I liked how the balsamic added some acidity and sweetness as well. Of course, no visit to an authentic Neapolitan pizza joint would be complete without trying the Margherita. In this case, we had the Verace Margherita DOP which consists of San Marzano Tomatoes, Buffalo Mozzarella and fresh basil. When it arrived, it sure looked good. Reminded me of the one I had at Nicli Antica. The outer crust was pretty good – chewy and charred (or what they call leoparding). At the centre, it was soft, which is normal; but slightly wet. Not as wet as the one I had at The BiBo; but wetter than the one at Nicli Antica. In terms of flavour, the San Marzano Tomatoes were money. So flavourful from the natural sweetness and acidity, the pizza would’ve succeeded on that alone. Of course the cheese was subtle along with the fresh taste of basil. A solid pizza.

As a comparison, we also had a more substantial pizza in the Diavola which was comprised of peppers, cappicola and salami. This particular pizza was naturally more flavourful due to the various meats and sweet peppers. Nice mix of sweetness and some spice from the capicolla. This one was actually less wet in the middle, which we preferred. Moving away from the regular pizzas, we decided to also try the Peppe Calzone. As expected, it was essentially what it represents – a pizza folded over to create a Calzone. So the dough was still the same being chewy slightly charred. There was no shortage of ingredients which may have contributed to it being a little wet as well. To be fair, we cut it apart into 4 sections which is usually the way it was meant to be eaten. So all the juices spilled out. Judes decided to go for the Caprese Sandwich which was almost like our Calzone, except it was not sealed. She liked it. Although, for me, it looked like a lot of dough and indeed she couldn't finish it. In my opinion, I'd stick with the pizzas over ordering a "sandwich". The accompanying Caesar was much like the one we got with the calzone. It was crisp and fresh; however, it was a tad underdressed. The dressing was good, we just didn't get enough of it. After our meal, we were presented with complimentary Hot Chocolate. This was a good hot chocolate. Not sweet at all with dark chocolate richness (and slight bitterness), this was a small little treat.

By now, all of us were on carb overload and I could feel the dough really settling in my stomach. However, that didn't stop some of us from trying some dessert. Bear originally wanted some cheesecake. Too bad it was all sold out. He settled on a scoop of Sorbetto which was refreshing. I got to steal the kiwi fruit from his plate, he didn't want it. In fact, the dessert I settled on sharing with Milhouse, he couldn't have any due to the lemon (which upsets his stomach I think). The Lemoncello Layer Cake was the only thing that stood out on the dessert menu. The description - Lemoncello-soaked lady fingers layered with lemon curd - sounded so good! Well, it was really good. The Lemoncello was very apparent in the ladyfingers which afforded a sweet citrus zing. The fresh lemon curd added another hit of tang which put the whole thing over the top. Where some desserts advertise lemon and the result is flat, this one makes up for all of them. The only thing we would've liked to see was a smoother curd. Some further investigation and we found out their pastry chef had worked for Thomas Haas. Interesting. In fact, the whole meal was quite interesting in itself. The pizza definitely reminded me of Nicli Antica and The BiBo. If I had to rate it, Verace slots in between the 2. That is a compliment, for those keeping track. For a place that has just opened, that is not bad. The only concern I have for them is that some people may not understand the regular pricing. The type of pizza they are serving is not remotely related to Uncle Fatih's around the corner (although I love Uncle Fatih's!), so there is some justification for the higher prices. We ultimately enjoyed our meals and thought we got good value at the discounted price we paid.

The Good:
- Pretty solid wood-oven pizza
- Comfortable digs
- Polite service (not sure what other word to use...)

The Bad:
- A little pricey
- Parking is limited in this area

Vancouver Foodie Tours (Downtown Food Carts)

Last year, I was fortunate enough to be invited to sample both the Granville Foodie Tour and the Richmond Foodie Tour run by Michelle Ng. It is a great concept really. A group of people pay one flat price to be taken to several restaurants sampling their wares. It is a good way to get a taste of everything without having to visit each restaurant individually. Vancouver Foodie Tours is back this year and it does cost more. Last year, it was a measly $10.00 per person because it was sponsored in part by the Downtown Vancouver and Richmond Tourism. Now it costs $60.00 and really, that is still reasonable considering the amount of places visited. This time around, I was invited with other media to experience Vancouver Foodie Tours - World's Best Street Eats Tour edition. With the explosion of food carts in our city, it can get quite confusing what is out there, where it is located and when they are open. The food cart tour is best suited for those unfamiliar to the city and are not interested in doing their own research.

So we met up at the Vancouver Centre Skytrain Station where La Brasserie Street was located. We got to sample half of their Brass Chicken Sandwich. I've had the good fortune to try most of the food carts featured in this tour and one of my favourites was this particular sandwich. I love it when a sandwich gets messy. Much like the pulled pork sandwich from re-up, the chicken sandwich is dripping with gravy which makes the whole thing moist. The buttermilk bun does a good job in keeping things together while the fried onions adds crunch and sweetness. The Butter Tart supplied by Tartine claims to be "World's Best" (not usually part of the tour, we just got to try it). Well, by virtue of not being a dessert person, I'm not the one to either confirm or deny that claim. Personally, I found it a bit too sweet. It was like eating a whole lot of buttery caramel. However, in the end, it was still pretty good, so I'll leave it at that.

From there, we took the walk over to the original "interesting" food cart - Japadog. I'm sure most of you know the story of Noriki Tamura, who came to Canada and wanted to start a business. He originally wanted to do a crepe cart; but due to the stringent regulations at the time, he had to settle on hot dogs. Not wanting to just do a regular hot dog cart, he created Japadog - hot dogs with a Japanese flair. We ended up at its original location and had the dog that started it all
- the Terimayo (which I believe is still the best one). Consisting of a beef sausage, teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo, sautéed onions and nori, this makes all the other hot dog stands look boring (however, I'm sure there are those who still prefer a regular hot dog, which Japadog does sell). There is something about slapping teriyaki sauce and sweet mayo onto a hot dog that makes it taste good.

After this we strolled over to where Poke'm used to be located. Now it has been replaced by a Banh Mi cart aptly named Bun Me. The cart reminds me a little of the Nom Nom Truck out of L.A. which was a participant on the Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network. Now we all know that Banh Mi is pretty widely available in Vancouver for roughly $3.00 - $3.75 depending on the store. However, that doesn't really include Downtown Vancouver. Other than a few other places, Bun Me offers up something that is under-represented in the Downtown core. Of course there is a slight premium to be paid, their Banh Mi costs $4.25. Yet, that is still considerably less than many of the other offerings from other food carts in the area. There are only 2 options: Lemongrass Chicken and Tofu. We tried the Lemongrass Chicken Banh Mi today and it included the usual pickled carrots and daikon, hot pepper (if you want), cilantro, mayo, cucumber and their special sauce. I found their bread to be crisp and slightly dense. There was plenty of ingredients packed into the baguette, so in terms of value, it was a winner. As for flavour, I would've liked to see the pickled carrots and daikon to have more acidity and for the chicken to have more lemongrass kick. With those 2 tweaks, I believe that the flavours in this sandwich would sing.

We then headed over to Granville Street where we met up at Kaboom Box. For those who are familiar with Fresh Local Wild, the Kaboom Box replaces it on Granville with roughly the same menu. And about that menu, I remember having concerns about their Po' Boy and other sandwiches crossing the $10.00 threshold. That in itself priced themselves out of the food cart market. I'm happy to report that they have lowered their prices where all of their sandwiches (Po' Boy, Venison and Salmon) are only $8.00 each. We didn't get to sample any of the sandwiches today; rather, we had the Mushroom Poutine. This totally vegetarian dish is comprised of fries, white cheddar cheese curds and mushroom gravy. For me, I liked the gravy. It was just right with a good mushroom flavour. However, the cheese curds were not squeeky and I found them a bit salty. Furthermore, I would've liked the use of a thicker cut and shorter fry. In the end, I felt that half of one of their fabulous sandwiches, in particular the Po' Boy or Salmon, would've been a better representation of their food cart. I'm sure there were cost concerns related to this.

Finally, we ended up kitty-corner to where we started at Nu Greek Street. Incidentally, I had just tried their fabulous pitas the week before. So I was glad to be back. Part of the Kambolis Restaurant Group (which includes C, Raincity Grill and Nu), Nu Greek Street is their first foray into the food cart business. And low and behold, who was helping to man the cart today for our tour, Harry Kambolis himself (Coincidence? I think not...)! We got to sample a smaller version of their Chicken Pita. The star of this thing is the pita itself. It's fresh, soft, slightly charred and I would gladly eat it plain without any complaints. However, with the addition of a fabulous garlicky tzatziki, there are wonderful flavours and textures going on here. This was a great end to a pretty fun time going from food cart to food cart. However, I'm not sure if I would necessarily pay $50.00 for it. I could easily visit all of the aforementioned carts and have a full order of each item for far less than $50.00. Of course I wouldn't get a guided tour with interesting information about each cart. But then again, I'm pretty sure I don't belong to the target market of this tour.

*Note: This was an invited dinner where all food was comped*

On Yuen

So you have 5 bux in your wallet and you're plenty hungry. What are the options? Nachos with mystery cheese sauce at 7-11? Nope, not that, I'm talking about a real meal. There are the usual fast food joints such as McD's, Wendy's, Burger King and so on. So sure, it is possible to get a full meal for that amount of money. Now if we ignore these places, where else can one go? Pizza slices, sandwich shops and something like Kent's Kitchen could do the job as well. And let's not even mention food carts. I dare anyone to get full from any of the new food carts in Vancouver for less than $6.00. A good bet is Chinese food. Generally inexpensive and plentiful, it is one of the best values out there. Sure, it ain't pretty sometimes and generally greasy; but for quantity, it can't be beat. Yet, even with that being said, for $5.00, that is still a tough thing to find even at a Chinese restaurant.

So imagine my curiosity when I heard that On Yuen in Surrey had lunch specials for $4.95. Normally, when it is advertised that there are lunch specials from $4.95, there are usually a token dish while everything else is much more expensive. Not here though. The majority of the lunch specials were indeed $4.95. With all the choices available, I went for the Brisket in Portuguese Sauce on Rice. Now, this was more of a curry sauce than Portuguese. Even with that, a "Portuguese" sauce is actually a Chinese interpretation, so don't expect anything remotely related to Portugal. This was the result of the Portuguese influence on their colony of Macau. Anyways, the curry was actually very flavourful and had a noticeable amount of heat. There was a considerable amount of sauce for the rice on the plate. The brisket itself was not too fatty while being extremely moist.

Ma had the Yeung Chow Fried Rice, which is better known as the BBQ Pork and Shrimp Fried Rice. I found the rice to be too soft. It was probably either not day-old rice or it was too wet to begin with. Hence, it ended up to be a bit clumpy. It was properly seasoned though; yet the shrimp was very bland. Too much cold-water rinsing? It probably washed away all the flavour and they didn't do anything to season it. At the very least, the cold-water rinsing resulted in a desirable texture. When the Chicken in Cream Sauce on Rice arrived, it looked a bit too saucy. However, it was better than it appeared. The sauce itself wasn't exactly creamy. It was more milky-starchy than anything else. However, it had a good flavour with tender slices of chicken and vibrant veggies. With that being said, I would take a HK-style cream chicken rice over this.

Looking over the menu, it was baffling to some that there was no Chicken Chow Mein. In place of that, there was a Broccoli Beef Chow Mein. I've seen this on rice; but rarely on noodles. In the end, I thought it really didn't work. Possibly it was the wrong choice of noodles though. We got the soft noodles and the whole thing ended up to be wet. Maybe it would've fared better with the fried noodles. If we looked at the broccoli and beef independently, it was okay. The beef was sufficiently tender without losing its texture while the broccoli was still crunchy. I wasn't a big fan of the sauce though, it was a bit heavy on the oyster sauce.

Moving along, we also had the Satay Beef with Rice Noodles. The rice noodles were fried up nicely where there was still texture without being clumpy. However, the entire dish was extremely oily including the sauce. The sauce was decently flavourful without being spicy at all. Once again, the beef was properly tenderized without losing its texture. On the same note, the Beef Fried Rice Noodles were equally greasy. That was not surprising though since the only way to keep the rice noodles from sticking to the wok is the use of oil and high heat. Overall, the food was okay. Hey, what can we expect for $5.00 + tax and tip? While we were there, we noticed a diverse crowd getting takeout. Hey, if you can get a meal for $5.00 that doesn't involve a drive-thru, it's a deal.

The Good:
- Cheap lunch specials
- Friendly if not sparse service (it got really busy)
- Food is alright

The Bad:
- Food is alright (there is definitely better; but probably not nearby)

Pho 99 (Schoolhouse)

Normally, I try to be as creative as possible when looking for eats. This is especially true when I'm all by my lonesome. Think of it, I'm already bored due to the fact I have no one to talk to. Why not eat something interesting to make up for it? Well, call it an epic fail this time around. I was scouring the neighbourhood around Maillardville for lunch options, in particular along Austin Road. One after one idea was squashed due to the absence of available parking. What is this? Richmond? Well, I really didn't have time to circle around and around looking for a space since I had to take the car in for servicing shortly after. Thus, I ended up at the new Pho 99 location attached to Zone Bowling right next to Silvercity.

Creative? Nope. Food that can be eaten quickly? Yup. As I walked into the spacious restaurant, it was only about 1/3rd full. Yet, they tried to stick me in a corner with no light. That won't do right? I asked for a window seat and everything was back on track. Normally, I order far too much food and this time it was no different. I decided to start with the Roll Combo consisting of one spring roll, one shrimp salad roll and one grilled minced pork roll. I have to say all 3 rolls were pretty average. First, the spring roll was made with a wheat wrapper. Not a big deal if it were good; but it was kinda bland. Then the 2 salad rolls did not have enough lettuce and didn't have any sprouts or basil. Hence it was mostly soft without any crunch. On the other hand, the Pork & Vietnamese Ham Banh Mi was pretty good. The bread was crunchy on the outside while airy and soft on the inside. There was a good amount of meat, pickled carrots along with crunchy cucumber.

As always, I went for the Pho Dac Biet. Similarly to all the other times I've been to the other locations of Pho 99, the portion size is acceptable - neither too little or a lot. I found the meats to be tender while the noodles were al dente. As for the broth, it was sweeter than I would've liked and it had this "daikon" flavour to it. Not sure if they used daikon in the broth; but it surely tasted more like Chinese soup than Vietnamese beef broth. With that being said, it was good in its own ways. It just didn't taste typical of Pho. So there is my boring meal. It was okay and pretty typical of what you get at Pho 99. At the very least, it is a better value than
Phố Hoàng Tung nearby.

The Good:
- Predictable
- Conveniently located from the Silvercity and Zone Bowling crowd
- Okay value

The Bad:
- Food is predictable; yet it is missing some things
- Service could be more attentive

Toulouse Petit

Lineups. I can't stand lineups. I've expressed this sentiment over and over again. Hey, I'm all for good food; but if there is an excessive amount of people waiting for it, I tend to shy away. This is especially true when I have the kids with me. Just imagine their patience level waiting in line to be seated. This is what happened the previous day when I drove by Paseo. No can do, I just kept on driving. So you can see my apprehension about visiting another Seattle favourite - Toulouse Petit. They do take reservations; but not for breakfast. So my only choice was to show up early. That involved waking up, loading up the car and heading into Seattle from Bellevue. It was all worth it though. We got seated right away. By the window no less!

Besides being a great place to grab brunch, another reason we ended up here was the kid-friendliness of the place. As such, there was the usual crayons and coloring paper; yet curiously, there was no kid's menu. Hence, we had to order a regular-sized breakfast for my son. No matter, I was hungry anyways. The Classic Eggs Breakfast consisted of 2 eggs, choice of sausage, ham or bacon, hashbrowns and toast. My son decided on the scrambled eggs and sausage, which incidentally would've been my choices as well. Hey, might as well test the skill of the kitchen with scrambled eggs right? Well, the eggs were nearly perfect. They were folded nicely and fluffy. I would've preferred them just a smidgen less cooked; however, that is nit-picking. The house-made sausage patty was meaty and devoid of fatty chunks. It was not overseasoned where we could still taste the meat. The hashbrowns were the cubed fried variety and were seasoned with with cajun spice.

For myself, I had the Cured Pork Cheek Confit Hash which happened to be featured on Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". Although I didn't make the breakfast happy hour price (which was the theme of that episode), it really didn't matter. I really needed to see for myself if it deserved the fanfare. Consisting of tender pork cheek, parsnips, potato, arugula, asparagus and chilies, this was an interesting hash. I mixed in the perfectly poached eggs and this was a very enjoyable plate of food. The best thing I ever ate? Well no. However, I can't deny that it was something a bit different and tasty. I found the pork cheek in this application to have a similar consistency as stewed beef tongue (which is a good thing btw). There were other flavours at work here other than the salty pork cheek. The bitterness of arugula and the kick from the chilies added a few other angles of flavour.

As for Viv, she decided on the Duck Terrine Benedict. Now when they say terrine, they meant it. Sitting atop the muffin was a thick slice of duck liver terrine with pistachios. And on top of that was 2 perfectly poached eggs and a wonderful Hollandaise. The terrine itself didn't exhibit much "duckiness"; yet it was still very good nonetheless. We thought it would be heavy in an eggs benny and it really wasn't. The main thing is that it was different. In fact, that was one of the highlights of this breakfast. We didn't eat the same ol' thing again, like bacon and eggs. Add into the fact that it was tasty while being in an eclectic environment with solid service, well we can see why Toulouse Petit is so popular. I can't wait to return for their dinner service.

The Good:
- Something a bit different
- Food is executed well (for what we tried)
- Service was attentive

The Bad:
- A bit pricey for breakfast (but was worth it IMO)
- There are no reservations taken at breakfast, prepare to lineup