Gilead Café
4 Gilead Place
Toronto, ON
647.288.0680
www.gileadcafe.ca
8am - 6pm wkdays, 8am - 4pm wkends
11am - 3pm a la carte menu

Jamie Kennedy's reknown upscale poutine can now be had at his new venture, Gilead Café.  Located near DVP Richmond off-ramp, it is situated in an otherwise unremarkable alley.

I've had JK's decadent poutine once before at the JK Wine Bar, and have fond memories of the crispy fries blanketed with succulent braised lamb and rich gravy. Mmmm ..

The place is spacious and bright; the open kitchen also functions as the kitchen for catering.  The daily menu is written on a black board -- note that the A La Carte menu (including the poutine) ends at 3pm. 

At Gilead Café, the poutine is undoubtly the star attraction.  The day we visited, the daily poutine was a Braised Beef Poutine with Artisan Cheese ($8).  The fries were fried hard and crunchy, keeping their texture and crispness even after ten minutes marinating in gravy at the bottom of bowl. The braised beef was hearty and tender without being stringy, offset with a sprinkle of cilantro.  The cheese, mildly goat-cheesey in flavour by melty rather than crumbly, held its own very well against the meat.  An hour later I could still remember the perfect crispiness if the fries and the richness of the meat and tang of the cheese.  The portion is generous, enough to work as lunch on its own.

We also tried the Roast Beef Sandwich on Whole Wheat Poppyseed with Peppercress, Red Onion Marmalade, and Blue Cheese Dressing ($9).  Served cold, I could only imagine how amazing this may have tasted with fresh sliced warm roast beef.  The beef itself was tender enough, though otherwise unremarkable.  The peppercress actually stood out more to season the sandwich. 

The red onion marmalade reminded me of the sauce used in the glazed bbq pork dim sum buns (not the white steamed buns nor the chinese bakery buns, but the ones with strong shallot/red onion flavouring).  Between the two, they gave the sandwich enough flavour to balance out the bread -- which, while slightly bland on its own, was full of fun and delightful pops from the poppyseeds.

Despite the off-the-beaten-track location and non-dinner hours, I will definitely be back (most likely on weekends) for the occasional indulgence.
 
For further adventures in the world of poutine, BlogTO has also covered Gilead Café, along with Smoke's Poutinerie, in addition to a best-of-TO poutine ranking.

Yogoberri
6070 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
416.512.0488

apparently there's a frozen yogurt craze sweeping across american koreatowns  ..  topped with fresh fruits, numerous chains have been springing up, even in states like utah .. marz covered this a while back, so by all means hop on over for her take as well.

the storefront is super snazzy -- all shiny and brightly lit, i'm not sure how i've managed to completely overlook the place .. a small stairway by the entrance takes you up to the little boutique .. highly modern, vibrantly awash in green and white .. there are seating areas up front near the windows with a view of yonge street, or a cozier hide-out in the back of the cafe ..

the first thing you'll notice is the cake display -- they had a delicious-looking green tea cake, sold either whole or by the slice ($3.49)..

they also had some very inventive flavours, sweet potato cake and butter squash cake -- again, by the slice or whole .. i believe the bakery component is called BnC Bakery Co, and have other locations around toronto ..

now, the main attraction -- green tea flavoured frozen yogurt .. with an option of toppings (medium, w/ 3 toppings, $4.49 i believe?) we opted for raspberry, mango, and strawberry ..

the first thing you would expect, given the "green tea" flavour, is something akin to green tea ice cream -- nope, far far far from it .. it tastes of slightly sour frozen yogurt, nothing more nothing less .. and you're thinking, where's the green tea flavour? what a rip off .. well, as the frozen yogurt gets less cold, and as it melts in your mouth, the green tea flavour begins to come through .. what you get is then that initial sour flavour off the spoon, and it slowly transitions to the sweet yet slightly bitter green tea aroma .. it's definitely an acquired taste, but you'll want to come back for more .. without toppings, i think it's a much more reasonable $3, but i'll have to recheck the menu prices ..

the hours are a bit odd, especially for those looking for a late night visit, but it works great as a palate cleanser after spicy tofu soup :)

King's Noodle Restaurant
296 Spadina Ave
Toronto, ON
416.598.1817

there have been numerous debates on the best wonton noodles on spadina, and the conversation usually points to king's noodle, dumpling house, or goldstone.  relatively busy past 9pm on a thursday night, we figured that the crowd would be a good indicator.

seeming to have taken a cue from asian legend, they have  modernized their interior decor, and there's a general feeling of cleanliness now (as compared to other aging chinatown haunts).

i normally use the wonton noodles ($3.99) as a yardstick to judge a cantonese noodle house.  served with 5-6 wontons, and enough noodles for 4 small bowls, the quantity certainly was not lacking.  the wonton filling was just a little bit on the doughy side, but the flavour was fine. the wrappers, however,  felt closer to dumping wrappers; they weren't the traditional thin, slippery wonton wrappers. the noodles themselves were overcooked or simply weren't fresh; a little bit soft, instead of al dente ~ elastic texture.

the bbq pork and roasted duck noodles ($6.50) came with a reasonable amount of meat, as well as a few stalks of bok choy.  the bbq pork, while passable, had a few end pieces that were dry and stringy. the roast duck would have been great on its own, since it was very light on five-spice and soy sauce seasoning.

the fried doughstick in rice noodle [cantonese: ja leung] ($3.50) came along after we had finished most of our noodles.  it came sitting in a mildly sweet soy sauce (the sauce normally served with rice noodle dished at dimsum), without the traditional peanut and sweet bean sauces for dipping. the doughstick were densely doughy and lacked the crunch and crispiness that normally makes this dish a unique contrast in textures. while plentiful, the apring onions and dried shrimp were very much clumped together.

in the end, King's Noodle Restaurant was all show and no go -- nowhere as good or reliable as Goldstone.