As named, they are not at Richmond Station (no such subway station in Toronto) but they are located conveniently to Richmond St and Yonge St; close to Eaton’s with few green Ps around.

Richmond Station’s chef, Carl Heinrich, won the most recent season of Top Chef Canada at age 27 and used his winning prize to open this restaurant. (read more about him from The Globe and Mail)

For starters, we had the following to share as a group…


In general, ALL of them were scrumptious! I love amazing appetizers.
EGGPLANT CAPONATA 9 – grilled baguette, goat cheese, pine nuts
POLENTA FRIES 8 – bomba mayonnaise, marinara
LOBSTER COCKTAIL 13 – tempura lobster, iceberg, cocktail sauce, lemon aioli, celery
ROASTED BEETS 12 – maple vinaigrette, goat cheese, arugula, pickled shallots, hazelnuts

BEEF TARTARE 13 – hickory sticks, haricot salad, fried egg
This dish was the best! I would come back for it!

For main….

MUSHROOM RAVIOLI – braised swiss chard, caper vinaigrette, parsnip chips

COQ AU VIN – pommes puree, pearl onions, bacon, mushrooms

STN. BURGER – aged cheddar, beet chutney, rosemary fries, radish salad
This was supposed to be one of their signatures but it didn’t amaze us all that much.

We also had the following for main but I didn’t get a chance to take photos of them.

BREAD CRUSTED WHITEFISH- lobster, cauliflower chowder, parsley, celery
WILD BOAR 2 WAYS - brussel spouts, grilled eggplant, shallot rings, bbq sauce
SLOW COOKED HALIBUT - clam & lobster chowder, fingerling potatoes, parsley

For desserts…

SEASONAL FRUIT & SORBET – apple, celery, lemon-ginger granite, meringue
This was specially crafted by the chef as I don’t like chocolate and am avoiding nuts in my dessert. The sorbet was refreshing but I find it a bit too sour.

STATION S’MORES – graham, cranberries, smoked marshmallow, hazelnut

Verdict: Amazing food! Service was rather slow but that’s probably because we had such a huge party but really friendly and accommodating. We were placed in a corner and secluded area where we can chit-chat loudly and enjoy our meal. I think the $65pp was worthy with all the food we got. Oh and I forgot to mention that the prix-fix menu came with a glass of Canapes and Bubbly. Their starters are definitely the reason to return! I would come back to order just all of their starters.

RICHMOND STATION
1 Richmond St W
Toronto, ON M5H 3W4
http://www.richmondstation.ca/

The restaurant is actually quite hidden, I couldn’t find it at first because when I got to their address at 24 Wellsley St, I only saw a grocery store. So apparently Nejibee is right behind it near a street called Phipps St. instead.

I came here for lunch to find it rather  empty with only 1 table seated. The friendly waitress seated me at the teppanyaki bar table with a lunch menu. Before arriving, I already had an idea of what to get but to my surprise, it was only a shortened lunch menu that nothing appealed to me. I kindly asked the waitress if I can get the okonomiyaki and a yakitori instead. I believed both were on the dinner menu and the chef was fine to make that order. thanks!

Apparently my okonomiyaki came with a salad and soup. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the salad one bit..the dressing was off, not the typical vinaigrette maybe just some olive oil? The lettuce were really hard too..not crunchy at all.

My chicken yakitori then arrived! It was just grilled with sprinkled sea salt to my preference than terriyaki sauce. Quite salty but delicious. Unfortunately, the last piece on the skewer was not fully cooked. eeks!

Lastly, my okonomiyaki ($12.50).  Surprisingly, it came with udon at the bottom, I’ve never had that in my okonomiyaki before; it was really filling.

I saw the chef make this from beginning till end as I sat at the teppanyaki table (quite greasy sitting there I would say!)… I really didn’t think it looked any good while he was cooking it but I’m glad it looked amazing at it’s completion! The egg definitely made it look a lot better! I also saw what brand of udon he used and I’ve bought that brand in a grocery before and it’s not the best. If they had used a different type of udon, I think the okonomiyaki udon would have been a lot better; the one used was skinnier and not chewy. There were slices of fatty pork at the bottom as well, however, not very evenly distributed since I couldn’t find a piece of pork anymore as I eat towards the other side of the plate.

Overall, friendly customer service. Relatively spacious place and big windows. I was told that their liquor license is not yet ready. Hopefully they’ll get more license once that’s settle. I would say there’s a lot of room for improvement  but it’s only been a couple of weeks since their grand opening.


Nejibee Izakaya
24 Wellesley St Toronto
Toronto, ON M4Y 1G7
(647) 748-2882
www.nejibee.ca

It’s a small cozy place with quite a number of students (around University of Toronto) and people who work around the area. Upon looking at the menu, they have a variety of chirashis! They also have omakase for $35.

I ordered the basic chirashi combo for $8.99. The other chirashis range from $10-$20, depending on the quality and variety of fish. One of them that had uni was $18! Maybe I’ll try that on a hungrier day.

My chirashi combo came with a soup and salad… normal. My chirashi don came right after. I won’t say they are the best quality of sashimis as there were some tendons in my sashimi as pictured below. The rice was decent, can’t complain. You get what you pay for I guess.

Alright place to go to for a quick lunch. Decent affordable price and portion! A number of lunch specials to choose from. You can try out their other chirashi and hopefully the quality is better than mine!

TOKYO SUSHI HOUSE
33 St Joseph St
Toronto, ON M5S 3A6
http://www.tokyosushi1.com/

I went on a Friday lunch and it was rather empty. It’s probably due to the location.

Upon arrival, I previewed their menu online and wanted to try their Ji-ma-ji ($6), homemade peanut tofu.
However, they didn’t offer it for lunch but the waitress kindly served it to me anyways. The tofu was rather different than a normal soft tofu. This was  not soft at all, but rather stinky. The texture is similar to raw dough and I couldn’t taste any peanuts at all. It’s interesting to try it out at least.

My  Otoko-Aji “Ryoji” came next.
For the original Ryoji, it is with rich and flavourful pork bone broth, topped with pork belly Chashu, bean sprout, scallion, kikurage mushroom BUT with the “aji“, it came with a seasoned boiled egg and 3 extra slices of Chashu…for $2 more.

- Pork belly was tender, very generous pieces.
- Soup was alright. I thought it was quite thick in stock. I like it lighter like Sansotei’s.
- Noodles were the thin yellow type. It was just okay. Nothing really to comment about. I overheard another waitress asking other customers of how they would like their noodles but they didn’t ask me that. I guess you can decide the “chewiness” of your ramen?

I usually like some shichimi sauce to go with my ramen and when I asked for it, the waitress gave me Spicy Miso on the side. It’s some spicy sauce with minced beef. I was thinking it was nice of her to give me this when I had only asked for shichimi spice. However, when the bill came, it looks like she charged me this spicy miso for $1.50! What! She didn’t tell me that! Anyways, I paid for it without commenting anything. I guess she misunderstood me when I was explaining this spicy spice to her.

Overall, Ryoji didn’t exceed my expectations at all. It’s probably near the bottom of my ramen shops list to go to. Not sure how the other izakaya food are like…those may be better. Let me know what your experience was like.

Ryoji Ramen & Izakaya
690-692 College St
Toronto, ON M6G1C1
(416) 533-8083
https://www.facebook.com/RyojiofCanadaInc

As it was early October, we were welcomed by all these autumn/Halloween related themes in each hotel. Aria’s main entrance/lobby looked like so, image below, with ginormous colourful leaves hanging from the ceiling and pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns around. J’adore!

Within Aria, there’s also a colourfully decorated Spanish tapas restaurant called Julian Serrano. We came here conveniently on our last night as we had to catch our Cirque du Soleil show at 7pm.

The friendly waiter guided us through the menu and explained to us that it’s tapas style where we all share the plates. He suggested to have 2-3 dishes per customer so we excitedly went ahead and selected the following…

Rabo de Toro | oxtail | iberian pork | creamy mashed potatoes ($14)
- delicious!! recommend it!

Fried Calamari| fried calamari | alioli sauce ($14)
- nothing too outstanding but I liked the alioli sauce.

Black Rice | fresh calamari | lobster meat | sofrito | squid ink ($12)
- HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! Get it! Black rice sounds bad but it’s just squid ink mixed within. This dish was probably one of our top favourites! The calamari was cooked just right, not too chewy. I savored every bite!

Imported spanish “Pata Negra” ham | the most delicious ham in the world | garlic tomato sauce ($38)
- I’m a charcuterie fan…any cured meat will get my attention! This was also superb! I have to say that their sauce made it that much better!

Creamy Risotto | wild mushroom | aged manchego cheese ($10)
- Sorry that the picture, it didn’t turn out too great. We started eating it before we realized we forgot pictures. I find that Risotto is never the most attractive thing on a plate but despite the looks, it was scrumptious that we had to order seconds for this!

Beef and cheese* | prime tenderloin | cheese | honey | walnuts ($17)
- Also one of our favourites. The tenderloin was so soft and tender with melted cheese. mmmm. But after Picasso‘s dinner, it was hard to compare. 

Montado de Lomo* | marinated pork loin | manchego cheese | sliced tomato | fresh lettuce ($12)
- This was alright. Porkloin was tender and they just add cheese to everything!! which we loved!

Lobster Saffron | half lobster tail | saffron oil | iberian pork | creamy potatoes | asparagus ($14)
- The lobster saffron was alright. I’m not a fan of a lot of spices for my lobster cause it takes their freshness away. But I did like the creamy potatoes at the bottom. Basically, I’ve had better lobsters.

Overall, I loved my experience at Julian Serrano! Great service and splendid food! We informed the waiter that we have a show to catch and he made sure that our orders would come in a timely manner which he did. Each dish was eloquently crafted to it’s best. Probably one of my favourite and best tapas meals I’ve had. I would say it’s comparable to Susur Lee in Toronto except this is a Spanish fusion.  Plates that I highly recommend, Black Rice, Risotto, Oxtail and Cured Meat. Oh, I want to go to Vegas now!

Julian Serrano @ Aria (CityCenter)
3730 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 590-8520
http://www.arialasvegas.com/dining/restaurants/julian-serrano