Villa Restaurant

When it’s nice out, you just got to sit on a patio! So, me and my family tried a new restaurant (for us), called Villa, on Bloor Street West. It had been recommended by Marni Wasserman, and she knows her food, and what we are after on a menu!

They have a great little patio right out front of their restaurant, and they even took a reservation for us on a Saturday night – that is very, very rare it seems for restaurants in Toronto! The servers were very understanding when we talked to them about my sister’s nut allergy, and even cut our bread and poured our olive oil separately just to make sure there was no cross contamination. We were off to a great start!

We started off with a bruschetta that came with the chopped tomatoes in a small bowl to place on our gluten-free multigrain buns on our own. I don’t even like tomatoes, but I did like the dish a lot – there was the perfect amount of garlic and onions and just the right amount of fresh basil and a light dressing.

My dad ordered a Mill Street Organic beer, which is his favourite! And, even though my sister is holding the bottle in the picture on this post, don’t worry, she didn’t drink any of it!

Now for the main course – we ordered 3 pizzas and a pasta. You can choose one of their pizzas, or make a custom one with 3 different crusts (regular, spelt or brown-rice gluten-free) and at least what seemed to be 40 different toppings. My mom ordered a gluten-free crust with roasted tomatoes, zucchini and hot peppers (no cheese) and they had no problem making it crispy and she really liked it! My sister ordered a very different type of pizza (from what I’ve ever seen!) – she ordered a spelt crust, roasted sweet potato pizza, but made a couple substitutions from their menu. The final pizza she ordered had roasted sweet potato, caramelized onions, spinach, chevre and roasted red peppers and green onions, and she really loved it. Her favourite part was the sweet potato (she asked me to add that into this review). My dad ordered a spicy pasta with brown rice, gluten free pasta. I tried a few pieces and loved it, the flavour from the jalapeno peppers was amazing. Now, it took me only moments to build my custom pizza. It started with a spelt crust with tomato sauce and chevre with grilled red onions, wild mushrooms, arugula, roasted garlic, and wait for it…sliced avocado! That’s right, sliced avocado! I myself had never had avocado on pizza before, but as soon as I bit into that crispy crust pizza, I knew that I would be ordering it next time we go there. It’s like when I bit into the pizza that a grenade of flavour was in my mouth, and when it exploded with the fresh avocado, I was very happy!

I hope you all try Villa Restaurant too, because it’s a great spot for Italian food. Everyone in the family can be happy no matter what your eating habits are. My one request for them – please try and use more organic ingredients. It’s so easy since they could shop for so much at the farmers’ markets!!

 

My sister & her sweet potato pizza

My Avocado Pizza!

Mill St. Organic Beer

The freshest (cutest) juice you can get!

Master Juicemaker at work!

It’s no secret that a lot of big name brand fruit juices, don’t even really contain fruit by the time they are done packaging them! So avoid them or drink fresh juices. You will see by watching this video I directed and produced, that it’s not all that hard to make your own, my 4 year old brother will prove it how easy it is!

Now just a warning to you all, that the best part of the video comes AFTER the credits, so please watch the whole thing, including the segment called “Good To The Last Drop”.

Happy sipping and don’t forget to drink the real stuff!

WATCH IT NOW: My Brother, The Juicemaker

Pizzeria Libretto Outside on the Danforth

Me and my Special Pizza on the Patio

Loving the Arugula!

Who likes the pizza?

Today when I went to Pizzeria Libretto on the Danforth, I was in for a real treat! Me and my family realized that they have a newly opened patio that we could eat at! We sat outside in the bright spring sunshine and we really enjoyed it. The tables were smooth and clean and the chairs were really comfortable – patio chairs can be kind of uncomfortable and these ones are great!

We all ordered our usuals, except for me – because the waiter told me about the special pizza, which I needed to order as soon as he told me what it was! Do you see my happiness in the picture above with my spelt crust pizza topped with caramelized onions, scrambled eggs, crumbled sausage (really, the primary element of this edible work of art!), cheese, chives and chili oil.

You can read my full reviews about Libretto Osssington from 2009 here and Libretto Danforth here, but what a bonus it is to eat amazing pizza on the Danforth outside on their patio! (also, they have umbrellas to give you shade too)

Simple Bistro

Simple Bistro is a quaint and cozy little space on Mount Pleasant south of Eglinton. I had never been there before and was looking forward to trying another new restaurant. It’s a lot of fun to go out with my great grandfather for lunch on the weekend, but in addition to a nut-safe restaurant that serves local, real food and can do vegan, we also need somewhere that is good for him – serving eggs and bacon, so we were thrilled to find this spot!

Right when we walked in, we could immediately tell that the service was going to be good, since all of the waitresses had smiles of their faces and they talked very kindly to us. That’s a rare find, even though it shouldn’t be! I ordered a peppermint tea to start – so happy when it’s organic! It’s great that they serve hot water in a pot because I like steeping my  own tea at the table. It would be great if they could use loose leaf instead of the tea bag in the future, because it saves so much waste in packaging and tea bags.

I hadn’t had  meat in a very long time and decided to take the plunge and order the Simple Burger. What helped make my decision was that the waitress knew exactly the farmer from where the meat came from, and it came with Kozlik’s mustard on it – always a good sign! It was so juicy, which I think was a sign that it was very fresh. The french fries were absolutely amazing – thin and crispy, although, sadly, while I excused myself from the table for a few minutes to go to the bathroom, my family swiped a whole bunch of them!(By the way, I’m still holding a grudge over that). They serve very, very good housemade ketchup and an aoili of sorts too. I love dipping french fries into different dips, don’t you?

My sister ordered the eggs benedict and substituted the spinach for wild leeks (ramps), which they did happily for her and she loved it. It came with huge side salad and a little bowl of hollandaise sauce (because she asked for it on the side). My cousin and my dad ordered crepes that looked fantastic with wild mushrooms, and I would have normally tried them, but I had eaten SO much at Brickworks Farmers’ Market a few hours earlier (a massive crepe as per usual on Saturday mornings from Clements Crepes AND an impeccable grilled cheese sandwich from Ezra Title of Chez Vous Dining) that I was still bursting! Yes, I did eat two full courses for breakfast, I love the farmers’ market!! My mom was thrilled with her roasted veggie salad and and she loved that there was bee pollen in it. Meanwhile, back at my great-grandfather’s side of the table, he was digging into his french toast (bread was housemade!) with wild blueberry compote and cream. We all held our breath as the waitress served him his meal and put a little plate of bacon on the table, because he is very picky with how his bacon is cooked (he is 98 and allowed to be in my opinion), and he said, “this is cooked perfectly”! And, that’s all you should need to know to try this restaurant. Trust me!

I also was fortunate enough to get to meet the owner, Graham, and he was very nice and brought us desserts that were so rich and creamy, which included a s’mores sundae made of chocolate mousse with a chocolate ganache centre, 3 housemade marshmallows on top, and housemade graham cracker crust on the bottom. I really appreciated the plating arrangement of each dessert in a mason jar, which was very cool. I cannot wait to go back again, especially when I’m not so full so I can try more of their menu. Overall, it’s a great neighbourhood spot for brunch and I will return to try their dinner. I hope you all go and try it and can experience the wonderful feeling of knowing the people there are real and so is their food.

Look how happy my great grandfather is at Simple!

Rhubarb Dessert!

Salad with Bee Pollen

One of the best burgers I’ve eaten

100 mile Eggs benedict with salad & wild leeks

Smores in a mason jar!

Bunners Bakeshop in the Junction

So here’s the thing – I haven’t been to Bunners on Dundas in a while (sometimes it takes me a long time to actually write a review), and to get some details, I went to their website. Now I have a problem – I have no way of getting there right now, and I really want their cinnamon buns and butter tarts that look so gooey and delicious on their home page, which seem to be new since I was there last!

Bunners is an incredible vegan and gluten-free bakery in Toronto that everyone loves. We’ve even served their baked goods to people who don’t like vegan food, and they’ve loved it! The Creamies were the biggest hit, and I would recommend ordering them smaller for a party since they are normally gigantic! If you are after gluten free bread, their loaves are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside – it makes really good toast with sunbutter!

They can make soy-free icing on their cupcakes upon request, if that’s something you are concerned about! I just love all kinds of cupcakes. Some people eat the icing first, some people eat the cake first, but I like to eat the icing and cake in each bite!

It’s hard to recommend what you should get (check out their menu), because anything we’ve purchased and eaten from their display counter has been excellent. If you celebrate Chanukah they can make excellent donuts for you, and if you celebrate Easter, their Easter Cream Eggs are the sweetest and the best easter eggs I’ve ever had (I’ll celebrate anything for their desserts!).

The people who work there are very nice, and although they don’t guarantee that they are nut-free, they don’t use nuts.

It’s a perfect place to walk to for dessert after lunch at The Beet down the street!

The Beet

The Beet isn’t the fanciest restaurant in Toronto, but it has a nice atmosphere with a cafe-ish look. On their website it says the following:

The Beet was created to promote health for our customers as well as our planet. This is why we prepare all of our dishes with certified organic ingredients.

In an effort to reduce “food miles” and encourage a close relationship between the consumer and the farmers who produce our food, we use locally grown grains, dairy, meats and produce whenever possible. Our recipes are continuously adjusted to reflect what is in season and locally available.

Because of our deep commitment to the environment, The Beet was constructed using recycled and sustainable materials, from flooring to cabinetry.

Isn’t that amazing?

My favourite dish to get at The Beet, is the Huevos Rancheros which is two baked eggs with raw Quebec cheddar, sweet potato mash, and is topped with sour cream and avocado on a Canadian corn tortilla. My little brother had the vegan mac and cheese special, and they even gave him organic ketchup (so many restaurants don’t do that, so I especially appreciate that they do). My sister had a humungous smoothie and fruit and she got to have a Wild Blueberry Tonica Kombucha as a treat and was very happy too!

The service was excellent and the waitress was very, very nice, and thankfully was quick since my little brother was being very impatient when we were there. Luckily, my sister shared her Kombucha with him, so he stopped complaining for a bit!

Don’t get me started about normal kids menus at restaurants. They are usually filled with chicken fingers, macaroni, plain pizza and caesar salad plus pop, juice and some gross dessert. At The Beet, they have a kiddie menu, but it’s filled with fresh, real, organic, good food. They get an A+ for that!

The greatest thing about the Beet is that they serve everything from vegan, gluten-free to burgers and fries! How can everyone not be happy here? Another good thing, right after finishing your meal, you can take a stroll right down the street to Bunners Bakeshop (which is my next review – stay tuned) for a yummy dessert!