Food Yum's & Yuck's Caught Up...

hello all...been far too long a time! hope everyone had a great summer.

so, i'm going to try to remember all the Yum's & Yuck's We've eaten at recently 'cause that's one of the GREAT things that Wifey & i share...the LOVE OF FOOD! yay :-)

first up: today - ARTISANO BAKERY - 865 York Mills

the YUM: coffee...Wifey definitely loved their coffee...a little strong for my liking but tasty

the YUCK: the gross, over-buttered panini sandwiches...Wifey had a Turkey/Bacon/Provolone and i had the Chicken/Feta/Veggie...neither tasted good to Us:

way too much butter for the panini press, far too little feta cheese in my sammie and just overall gross taste to both sammies...yuck

so, lol, clean-up dude comes sailing by to shake the hand of, what he thought, was some kind of important business-like moron only to find out he had it completely wrong! i like it when people make an ass out of themselves...provides me with my daily laugh. same dude comes by our table, gives me the stunned dear-in-the-headlights look when he sees We didn't eat our sandwiches and i told him they did not taste good. total laugh guffaw!

Wifey and i attempt dessert after that disaster but, again, sadly missed the mark with the huge, delicious-looking-but-far-too-dry-dense Carrot Cake.

ok, We've had enough...time to go.

next: GEORGY PORGY'S - 1448 Lawrence Ave E.

the YUM: so far, EVERYTHING but definitely the mussels served in a tangy marinara/garlic sauce with fresh bread on the side...my/Our only complaint: not enough bread! lol

their bloody caesars are mighty tasty too.

the YUCK: nothing, so far

addendum: tried to go there tonight for my mussels dish but there was some major Liberal partying going on...darn...but, no fear...we headed off to another fav place...see below

BIGMAN'S - 1528 Bayview Ave.

the YUM: almost everything...like the Ceasar Salad above...i swear the croutons are made with calabrese bread or something...the salad is a creamy, crunchy delicious dish...We had a medium mushroom/ham/half-pineapple pizza - their pizzas are always great...thin crust, not too much sauce, fresh thin toppings...i only caution that it's not the greatest leftover pizza...ya gotta eat it fresh

the YUCK: nothing really so far but i did have lamb chops there one day and they were very VERY dry and unflavoured

ok...time for night night

later :-)

um, oops...

seems i forgot i had this blog...i've been neglectful to my readers (if i have any)...but, yeah...

i'll be back soon with more foodies loves/hates...it's summer ya know...not so much to blog

muah ;-)

um...i

today's yuck...ROSEMARY & THYME

***sorry, no photo***

location: 2798 Victoria Park Avenue, North York

So now we've gone to this little hole-in-the-wall for a second time...whole different story this time around.

Different server for sure - not the young friendly spirited girlie we had last time. This one is completely rough around the edges...and I do mean rough. It took her way too long to come by after we were seated to even ask what we may have wanted to drink...that never even happened. She was far too busy talking up other customers on their way out the door, going back and forth repeatedly getting them more stuff, getting her purse to give them stuff out of it and this went on for a good 10 minutes longer to the already far too long of time we were left waiting.

Finally after almost 25 minutes, still not asking what we wanted to drink, she asked if we were ready to order. The table had not been cleaned properly so I asked her to clean that again but she still didn't bother to ask for our drink order. Another 15 or 20 minutes later, she finally returned to see if we were ready to order. We ordered, including drinks. Our drinks were brought to us and slammed on the table. My soup was also shoved across the table so hard, it spilled out of the bowl.

At this point, I was wondering what we had done to piss her off having only walked through the door with friendly smiles and with high hopes of repeating another positive eating experience. That was not what was happening. Then our meals came...another downer episode.

The turkey sandwich was mediocre at best with stale white bread but at least the turkey and onion rings tasted good.

The burger with gravy was good by feedback from our son.

The liver dinner I had was also mediocre. Liver overcooked, veggies overcooked and tasteless, onions too large and not sauteed enough and mashed potatoes definitely leftover from previous day(s) with gravy slopped on them to cover the taste.

This was far from what we had experienced on our first visit. To add insult, the portable debit machine was slammed across the table at me. Even my $4.00 tip was too much for this bad service. I'm still wondering what her problem was. Had I had a pen, a suitable note would have been left for her shoddy behaviour with us. Not sure if this place is worth going back to.

This experience has prompted me to open a new blog as a restaurant food critic.

#1 yuck - Honey's Beestro

located: 1601 Birchmount Rd., Scarborough (@ Ellesemere)

Part of a trio of yuck's - fair to mention that the Pizza Hut and the Burger King at the same corners were awful in their own rite...this place has, in short, shitty food, shitty service, shitty staff...shitty all around.

having just moved into the neighborhood down the road in June, we continued our eatery adventures and thought it looked interesting to try out. BIG MISTAKE!

This is how it all went:

Wifey and I walk in. server/waitress greets us with a mixed look of confusion or...wtf? "OMG two fucking lesbians just walked in!!!!!" Rather than seating us with the rest of the folks, she directly pushes us into the back bar area where NO ONE was sitting. Was this an act of kindness so we could have more privacy? I highly doubt it...rather more the fact she didn't know what else to do with the two of us and clearly had issues with our orientation with all the gufawed looks and nervous tension around us. Needless to say, this area we were forced to sit in was loud, raucous and noisy as hell with out of control staff, VERY loud voices and unprofessional staff bantering...yes, in front of us, the customers.

We look at each other to see if we should bother staying...well, we were STARVING and decided to stay despite our gut instincts.

Looking over the menu, we decided on an appetizer mix of deep fried veggie mix (apparently, no longer on the menu). BIG MISTAKE again. "Tossed" onto our table...or imagine this...the plate miraculously somehow slid across to us like a well-thrown frisbee, the only comment I can make is that we would have probably eaten less dripping oil if we had dipped the veggies into the Exxon oil spill ourselves (the oil spill being big news still at that time).

Almost as greasy but not quite was my wifey's Fish & Chips dinner. I had high hopes for my stuffed 'meat' dish, fortunately no longer within my memory (also no longer on their menu). Yet, after merely 2 bites, I could no longer eat it nor the day(s) old mashed potatoes floating in a greasy gravy.

During all of this awful eating experience, the staff continued to be extremely loud and acting like a family of buffoons in the jungle...none of which was amusing to us nor do I doubt would have been to any other customers. Add to this that the waitress practically ignored us, didn't come by to see if all was ok, didn't see if we needed anything else...only came by when we asked her for the bill, clearly noting that neither of us enjoyed our food by the fact we left 3/4 of it on our plates. No questions, no discount offered...nothing but an air of 'let's get you both the fuck out of here'. Gladly. I don't clearly remember but I don't think we left a tip or if we did, it would have been very minimal. To date, we still have the need to make barfing noises when we pass by.