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Starving Artist: where waffles take the place of bread!
 With summer on its way, I was reminded that there's something I wanted to share with you all from last summer: Mark and I decided to check out Starving Artist, an awesome place on Lansdowne known for using waffles in place of bread products.

Yes, you heard me right: You can get some great classic dishes and sandwiches here where they put their own twist on them: waffles in place of bread products!

We had the Waffle Benny (two poached eggs, two mini potato waffles, caramelized bacon, hollandaise sauce) and the Monte Cristo (roasted ham and mozzarella sandwiched in between French toast waffles). Both were served with a bed of greens and a fruit salad but you also have the choice of getting the bed of greens with baked beans or potato salad instead of fruit salad if you wish.

Oh, and of course they have dessert waffles served on a "waffle boat" too - we split a S'mores waffle (graham crumb waffle, roasted marshmallow fluff, chocolate chips & chocolate sauce).

They have a cute little patio area, so we sat outside and enjoyed the nice sunny weather. We recommend you all pick a nice day this summer and make your way over there at least once. It's tasty and affordable, and what's not to love about changing up bread for waffles once in a while?!

See mouth-watering pictures below!

Yours in food,
Posted by Tasting Toronto at 2:50 PM ::7 comments Labels: breakfast, brunch, dessert, sandwiches, Stacey Fowler, Starving Artist, waffles


Need a culinary weekend getaway that's still close to Toronto? Try Hockley Valley Resort
 Hockley Valley Resort is a resort one hour from Toronto (near Orangeville). We had the good fortune of touring the resort, eating at one of its three restaurants, and meeting their General Manager John Paul Adamo via the folks at Pilot PMR who gave us and a few other bloggers a lift (thank you!)

Upon walking into the resort, there is very much a family feeling about the place, which is likely because it's a family-owned business (it was first purchased by John Paul's father and, at the time, it needed a lot of work). Mark and I found it to be both sophisticated and stylish without being pretentious.
Here's a quick rundown on the resort's three restaurants Babbo, Tavola, Restaurant 85 as well as the wine cellar's "table for two" and their Farmer's Market:

For those who want to do more than just eat while at Hockley, (weirdos!) there is skiing and snowshoeing in the winter, and in the summer they have a great saltwater pool and a golf course. There is also a year-round spa.

In case you are curious about exactly what we ate at Tavola, here's the full menu - can I just add that the Tawse Gewurtztraminer was TO DIE FOR?! We were served different wines with each meal from Ontario and Italy and the Gewurtz was, as usual, my favourite. Favourite dish was the cod wrapped in prosciutto, hands down. Also really appreciated the neat idea to candy celery and put it in a dessert - very unique and actually worked quite well in terms of flavour!
Executive Chef: Rabii Jaouhari
Restaurant Chef: Daniel Mezzolo
First Course:
Served in Kitchen
House-cured & Imported Cheese & Salumi
Second Course:
Crispy asparagus, parmigiano foam, truffle oil
2008 Viewpoint Estate Winery, Arneis, VQA Lake Erie North Shore, ON
Third Course:
Scampi Bagna Cauda
Slow poached in olive oil & thyme
2010 Tawse, Gewurztraminer, Quarry Road VQA Niagara, ON
Fourth Course:
Filled with 3 years aged parmigiano cream, Pingue speck
2007 Le Clos Jordanne, Oaked Chardonnay, Jordan Station, ON
Fifth Course:
Fiddlehead Risotto
Braised fresh house sausage
2008 Foreign Affair, Sauvignon Blanc, VQA Niagara Peninsula, ON
Sixth Course:
Pingue prosciutto wrapped, quenelle of rapini & garlic, braised shallots, carrot cream,
2007 Brovia, Barbera D’Alba DOC, Italy
Seventh Course:
Suckling Pig
Rosemary roasted apples, Dijon mustard sauce
1994 Antica Sleva Di Meana, Pinot Nero, Scambia, Allerona, Italy
Eighth Course:
Melon granita, semifreddo, fizzy, limoncello foam, candied celery
2004 Daniel Lenko, Select Harvest Vidal, VQA Niagara, ON
Ninth Course:
Pistachio crème brulee + raspberry, apricot, orange house made truffle + orange vanilla marscapone cake with raspberry & strawberry sauce
Also have to give a big shoutout to Hockley Honey for the amazing creamed white organic unpasteurized wildflower honey (try saying that five times fast!) they gave us. Delicious!

Posted by Tasting Toronto at 4:10 PM ::6 comments Labels: Babbo, Farmer's Market, Hockley Valley, Hockley Valley Resort, Italian, Mono, Ontario, Orangeville, Pilot PMR, Pingue, restaurant, Restaurant 85, Stacey Fowler, Tavola, weekend getaway, wine


World's largest ice cream cake

On May 10, 2011 at Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto entered the record books as host to the world's largest ice cream cake. Guinness World Records was on hand to officially weigh it in at 10,130.35 kilograms. That's over 10 tons or over 22,000 pounds.

A forklift and 22 workers from Dairy Queen assembled the ginormous treat with a vanilla ice cream core, 90 kilos of sponge cake, and 136 kilos of icing and crushed Oreos.

The record was previously held by an 8,000 kilogram cake from Beijing, 5 years ago. Dairy Queen hosted the event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its ice cream cakes. Posted by: Mark Rodas
Posted by Tasting Toronto at 12:54 PM ::7 comments Labels: biggest, cake, Dairy Queen, DQ, Guinness, Oreo, Oreos, record, Toronto, world record, World's largest ice cream cake, Yonge-Dundas Square


Our Markets Media magazine article

Check out our restaurant review for Bay Street types featured in the New York based, Markets Media magazine.

1) Ame
2) Sen5es
3) Le Select Bistro
4) The Esplanade Bier Markt
5) Bardi’s Steakhouse
6) Smoke’s Poutinerie
7) Burrito Boyz

View pdf: MM Mag - Tasting Toronto



Le Select Bistro

posted by: Mark Rodas
Posted by Tasting Toronto at 1:44 PM ::8 comments Labels: Ame, article, Bardi's, Bier Markt, Burrito Boyz, Le Select Bistro, magazine, Mark Rodas, Markets Media, restaurant review, sen5es, senses, Smoke's Poutinerie Search Tasting Toronto We mapped it!

View Tasting Toronto in a larger map Tasting Toronto Tweets

 Some Restaurants We've Been To Together:

3 Brewers

Astoria (common name - Chester & Danforth one)

Auberge du Pommier

Bangkok Garden


Beerfest (Event)

Biff's Bistro

Bistro and Bakery Thuet


Bombay Palace

Burrito Boys




China Buffet King


Cluck, Grunt & Low

Daily Sushi

Dangerous Dan's Diner

Debu Saha's Biryani House

Drake Hotel

Edward Levesque's Kitchen


Food and Wine Show (Event)



Gibson's (Chicago)


Giordano's (Chicago)

Hot House Cafe

Indian Hut

Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar

Jersey Giant

Joe Badali's

La Maquette

Le Papillon


Luminato Closing Ceremonies (Event)




Mongolian Grill

Moto (Chicago)

Mr. Greenjeans


Nijo Sushi

North 44

Osgoode Hall




Pickle Barrel


Pizzeria Libretto

Prego Della Piazza

Quinn's Irish Pub & Steakhouse

Richmond Rogue


Rosewater Supper Club

Sandwich Box


Shanghai Cowgirl


Spotted Dick, The

Spring Rolls



Taste of the Danforth (Event)

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