Second.

A while ago I had the chance to explore a new restaurant called Earls. I particularly went to the branch in Mapleview Mall in Burlington.

If you plan on going on a Saturday night, I strongly recommend you make a reservation or go earlier than usual as it was quite a long wait (about 1 hour - 1.5 hours). The atmosphere is very similar to that of Joey's - dark and loud. It's a nice place to go for a date or a girls' night out. Dress-code-wise, it would be nice to dress up a little nicer than usual as most people do seem to go for special occasions. The menu for Earls can be found HERE.

I chose the 7 oz. angus beef top sirloin with fries (medium-rare). A little tough but juicy.


TIP: I always order medium-rare and they usually make it right. Cooked just right on the outside and pink on the inside. On the other hand, my sister usually orders medium-well and most of the time they burn the outside which usually leads to a complaint. So, if you don't mind your steak being a little bloody, go for the medium-rare, it won't disappoint =)

I can't really comment on the other menus as I didn't get a chance to taste them properly. But, this is one of their burgers - very filling not a bad taste.



Then, because it was my sister's birthday we asked if there was anything special and our server brought us the smaller dessert menu.

The New York style cheese-cake with blueberry (on the house).



It was delicious - blueberries tasted very fresh and the cheesecake didn't have such a strong taste of cream cheese that you can find in the cheesecake in places like Second Cup. In my opinion, both taste great - really just depends on personal preference as to whether you like the stronger taste of cream cheese or not.

First.

My first post will be dedicated to a very dear friend of mine who inspired me to really get this blog going. She is also the one who introduced this restaurant to me. It is called Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill located in Bayview Village. For those who do not know where this is. It is a mall right by Bayview Station in Toronto. Based on my visit, this area seemed to radiate somewhat of an upper-class vibe.

The restaurant itself was very nice with a relaxing atmosphere.
We were seated near the entrance.


On to the food. The menu can be found HERE.
My friend and I went during lunch so THIS was what we had to choose from.

According to my friend, they usually give bread to munch on but, for some reason they didn't give it to us...

Either way, we decided to order the smoked chicken fusilli and the margherita pizza.


The margherita pizza.

As you can see from the picture the pizza was quite thin, kind of like the New York-style pizza. The bread was slightly salty which balanced well with the clean taste of the toppings. Definitely worth trying for those who prefer non-greasy, clean-tasting pizza.


The smoked chicken fusilli.

Other than the wild mushrooms which I personally dislike, the pasta was also very clean-tasting. There wasn't much sauce which could potentially make the pasta very dry. However, I felt the pasta was also cooked very well so that it wasn't too soft and it held just enough moisture so that it would not go dry due to the lack of sauce.

After the main meal, we moved over to Pusateri's.
A description of the store can be found HERE.
If you move far into the corner, there is a bakery filled with mini cakes and other delicacies. My friend and I chose to try the red velvet cheesecake and another type of mini cake, the name of which I have forgotten.


Can't exactly remember the name of the cake but the top is raspberry jelly and the cake part was pistachio flavoured. The outer layer is a little hard with extremely soft bread on the inside. Although this cake was amazing I personally enjoyed the red velvet cake better =P

Tip: I find that any type of cake (especially cheesecake) goes really well with black coffee. The coffee at Pusateri's was also very flavourful - slightly more sweet than the regular black coffee you can find at Starbucks or Tim Hortons.