Friday Night Anrky

Babaz

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Location:

1050 Islington Avenue

Toronto, ON M8Z 4R6

(416) 232-0700

www.babaz.ca

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Thai Chef Cuisine

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Location:

233 Roncesvalles Avenue

Toronto, ON M6R 2L6

(416) 915-0095

Thai Chef Cuisine

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Toronto Blue Jays 4 vs Kansas City Royals 0

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:52:00 +0000

Sweet Flour Bake Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:51:00 +0000

Location:

2352 Bloor Street W

Toronto, ON M6S 1P3

(416) 763-2253

sweetflour.ca

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Phil's Original BBQ

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:14:00 +0000

Location:
838 College Street

Toronto, ON M6H 1A2

(416) 532-8161

www.philsoriginalbbq.com

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Top 10 Album of 2005

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 00:29:00 +0000

tis the season to look back and reflect, here are my top 10 albums of 2005

-1- Morcheeba ~ Antidote
-2- Goldfrapp ~ Supernature
-3- Esthero ~ Wikked Lil Grrrls
-4- Garbage ~ Bleed Like Me
-5- Conjure One ~ Extraordinary Ways
-6- Hooverphonic ~ No More Sweet Music
-7- Nine Inch Nails ~ With Teeth
-8- Röyksopp ~ The Understanding
-9- Afro Celt Sound System ~ Volume 5: Anatomic
-10- Brazillian girls ~ Brazillian Girls

Honerable mentions to outstanding albums I discovered in 2005, but were not released in 2005

Feist ~ Let It Die
Airlock ~ Symptomatic
The Killers ~ Hot Fuss
Sia ~ Colour The Small One
Artefact ~ One of a Kind
VAST ~ Visual Audio Sensory Theater
Emiliana Torrini ~ Merman

Conjure One ~ Extraordinary Ways

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 00:32:00 +0000

Official Band Website: www.conjureone.com
Release Date: August 30, 2005
Track List:

Endless Dream (Featuring Poe) 4:30
Face The Music (Featuring Tiff Lacey) 4:35
Pilgrimage (Instrumental) 6:48
One Word (Featuring Poe) 4:40
I Believe 6:07
Beyond Being (Instrumental) 7:07
Extraordinary Ways (Featuring Poe) 4:40
Dying Light (Featuring Joanna Stevens) 6:45
Forever (Featuring Chemda) 4:46
Into The Escape (Instrumental) 4:15

Total Playing Time: 54:13

Conjure One is the solo project of Rhys Fulber in addition to working Delerium/Front Line Assemby/Intermix/Synaesthesia/Noise Unit, just to name a few. After Rhys stopped working on Front Line Assemby in early 1997 there was rumours of a Rhys Fulber solo project in the spirit of Delerium's Karma, but some of the other projects disrupted completion, it was finally released in September 2002 and became the self titled album 'Conjure One', a quality album featuring vocals from Poe, Chemda and Sinead O'Connor on the hit single 'Tears From The Moon'.

At first glance I thought "If it works, don't mess with it", Conjure One seemingly picks up from where it last left off and continues with various expansive ambient masterpieces that are arranged and produced with brilliance. Since the works of Rhys Fulber and with sometimes partner Bill Leeb are my favourite ambient producers, I certainly didn't mind one bit to get another well-crafted complete album. Poe and Chemda return and join vocals from incomers Tiff Lacey and Joanna Stevens, all with the usual superb quality of vocal brilliance and diversity I've come to expect. I'm happy to hear more from Poe I adore her voice and style, she is currently in legal limbo with her current label which is keeping her from releasing new material and touring. The real surprise on this album is the exemplary song 'I Believe', the only song from Conjure One featuring the voice of Rhys Fulber.

The instrumental songs 'Beyond Being', 'Pilgrimage' and 'Into The Escape' are exceptional. Don't get me wrong, I like lyrics and I love female vocalists, but I also love deep, rolling, ambient songs that make you find your own meaning and interpretations. Much in the same way the song 'Dying Light' featuring the vocals of Joanna Stevens isn't in english, I find this can help you focus on the tone and raw emotion to guide you to a meaning on your on terms. The single weak point on this album features the vocals of Tiff Lacey, she has a solid voice and the music is very good, but the lyrics just turned me off a little on the song 'Face The Music'.

I Initially rated Extraordinary Ways a mere , I thought it was okay and I certainly didn't mind more of the music I love, but the lack of originality bothered me a little, and then listened a little more deliberately without distractions and found I had only scratched the surface. The quality of the song compositions is quite a step up from the debut album and is more comparable to Delerium's Karma(A personal all-time favourite of mine, ).

Best Tracks (in no particular order):

Beyond Being
Extraordinary Ways
One Word
Forever
I Believe
Endless Dream

Worst Track:

Face The Music

Rating (out of 5 stars):

Site Design

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Big thanks to Chris Taylor for the banner graphic for the new site design...

Goldfrapp ~ Supernature

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 02:30:00 +0000

Official Band Website: Goldfrapp.co.uk
Release Date: August 23, 2005
Track List:

Ooh La La 3:24
Lovely 2 C U 3:25
Ride A White Horse 4:41
U Never Know 3:27
Let It Take You 4:29
Fly Me 4:26
Slide In 4:17
Koko 3:23
Satin Chic 3:28
Time Out From The World 4:47
Number One 3:25

Total Playing Time: 43:18

Goldfrapp are Alison Goldfrapp - vocalist, composer, and keyboardist with Will Gregory - keyboardist, composer, string and brass arranger. Alison first came on to the music scene while studying in university, she provided vocals for tracks on electronic duo Orbital's Snivilisation in 1994, as well as Tricky's 1995 exceptional debut Maxinquaye. Her name also appeared on Add N to X's Avant Hard in 1999 too, before Alison moving on to a solo career. While working on material a demo was passed on to composer Will Gregory. Keen to collaborate they formed Goldfrapp and recorded their debut in the Wiltshire countryside in late 1999, releasing it as Felt Mountain fall of 2000. The bulk of 2001 was spent touring, Alison and Will retired to a studio for much of 2002 in a studio in Bath. The completed result was the outstanding album Black Cherry that appeared in the spring of 2003. Black Cherry was a monumental success and they have continued to build on it with Supernature.

This album continues the disco, glam-rock and ambient influences of the previous albums, the songs are masterfully mixed with Alison's tremendous vocal talent and blazing electronic orchestration. The debut single 'Ooh La La' and 'Lovely 2 C U' are grand synthesized masterpieces that should be played loud or not at all. My personal favourite is 'U Never know', it's the pinnacle integration of Alison's voice and the intricate arrangements of Will. Despite the fact I'm not much a fan of 80's music, I can't help but notice and enjoy all the little 80's synthesizer elements smattered throughout this album.

I use the term 'Worst tracks' very loosely because I can only find small faults in this entire album, 'Koko' suffers from limited lyrics and 'Time Out From The World' just rubs me the wrong way when I've just listened to one of the high energy, high impact songs.

I'm hopeful this album does really well so their will be pressure for them to tour over on this side of the ocean, I've listened to some bootlegs and talked with a few who have seen them live and they sound like they can really put on a show.

Best Tracks (in no particular order):

Worst Track:

Time Out From The World
Koko

Rating (out of 5 stars):

All You Can Eat Extravaganza

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:59:00 +0000

Sushi Hut

Address: 3636 Steeles Avenue East - Markham, ON
Phone: (905) 513-9889
Cuisine: Japanese

This is the place our group was trying to go to a few weeks ago. It's a little hole in the wall, only 14 tables, but what it lacks in décor it makes up for in value. It's a great place to take a group of 6 or under, any more than that and it might be hard to fit into the place, especially without a reservation. Sushi Hut is not an open buffet style 'all you can eat' joint, you have a paper menu with all your options and you fill it out for the table, with the amount of how many of what items you wish. Then they will serve the items to your table in what seems a random order, it makes for an interesting experience to have constant waves of plates to taste. They have a very impressive list of items to choose from: sushi, sashimi, teriyaki, noodles, tempura, stir-fry, teppanyaki, hand rolls, salads and deserts. The sashimi/sushi list is a little small compared to the average sushi bar selection, and tuna is noticeable absent, but it's still a better selection and freshness than open buffet 'all you can eat' restaurants.

Food:
We started off with some green tea and miso soup, but quickly moved on to some salmon sashimi, california rolls and cucumber maki. The salmon was cut exactly as I prefer and was melt in your mouth. Next we moved onto some stir-fry vegetables, shrimp tempura and was quickly followed by a couple of speciality rolls. The 'Red Dragon' was my particular favourite, salmon wrapped rice, cucumber and avocado, wrapped around a shrimp tempura. It was simple marvellous, the mix of tastes in addition to the warm crunchiness of the tempura is something I'm going to have to have again soon. We also had some chicken teriyaki, which was quite excellent and ordered another plate quickly. I also really like a beef rib dish they had, it was cut into thin slices perpendicular to the bone, and it would make an enjoyable appitizer. There were only a couple of selections for desert, ice-cream (green-tea, mango and another) deep fried banana and ice-cream pancake, which seems like a poor translation of a dessert crêpe. Everybody ordered an 'ice-cream pancake' and Wanda and Chris split a 'deep fried banana', they looked and smelled good but I was unable to sample them.

My only complaint is there isn’t a better description of what you can order from, it would certainly save us from pestering the waiter for descriptions of many items. Not to mention the language barrier you might encounter, hampering an accurate explanation, such was our case in ordering desert, we couldn't quite make out one of the choices of ice-cream (Chris ordered it anyway, but were still unsure what flavour it actually was...).

Service:
Our server was pretty decent, he was patient with us and tried he best to explain any questions we had. Food and drinks came at regular intervals so you were rarely left waiting.

Value:
The cost per adult is $19.99 including drinks, and it may seem steep, but it's really an uncommonly good bargain; the variety, quality and creativity of the food is exceptional. Do keep in mind the restrictions: you can order as much as you want, but eat what you order (or be charged full price for all leftovers), a 90 minute seating limit and 10% for gratuity is automatically charged. I have no complaints with any of these restrictions, they are all reasonable, balanced and in no way put off your dining experience. If you were alone or just with just one other person, only then i would worry about ordering some of the more obscure items on the menu and not be able to finish it.

Nine Inch Nails ~ With Teeth

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 18:00:00 +0000

Release Date: May 3, 2005
Official Web: nin.com
Track List:

All the Love in the World 5:14
You Know What You Are 3:41
The Collector 3:07
The Hand That Feeds 3:31
Love is Not Enough 3:41
Every Day is Exactly the Same 4:54
With Teeth 5:37
Only 4:22
Getting Smaller 3:35
Sunspots 4:02
The Line Begins to Blur 3:44
Beside You in Time 5:24
Right Where it Belongs 5:04

Total Playing Time: 55:56

Trent Reznor in all his angst is back on the scene again with his 4th full release "With Teeth". I always look forward to his work, his music is an intelligent mix industrial guitars, raw emotion and voice that you can't ignore. I tend to need a long time to digest his new offerings, they tend to be so complex most times, it takes days and weeks of play time in different moods to fish out all the subtleties he includes. His last album, the double disc opus "The Fragile" was so much music, it took me months and seeing them in concert to truly get the flavour of that album. I'm hoping I have listened to it enough to give you a real impression, it has had to fight for play time with all the other good music that has been released in the last few weeks.

I was very interested to see how this album would differ since Trent has had a fairly public recovery of alcohol and substance abuse. I hate to say it but, fresh, raw emotion makes the best music. Surprisingly not all of his songs are as dark and lonely as the bulk of his previous work, some songs I would almost say he sounds happy, like in "All the Love in the World", it starts slow and asks "Why do you get all the love in the world?", but then builds into an acceptance, without changing the question. The first single "The Hand That Feeds" is exactly what you would expect from nin, it's become a quick favorite of mine, it has a strong tempo and direct lyrics, I expect lots or airplay and clubplay. Trent is a master producer and mixer, he knows how to expand songs from good to great, like the piano accompaniment he added to "Right Where It Belongs", he pushes things further by addings some cheering crowds later in the song to really bring the point of the song home, it just makes the song so haunting and memorable.

Trent has also decided to do something very cool and different with "The Hand that Feeds", he exported the raw file into Garageband format, you can download and remix as you would like (System Requirements: G4 or better, 512 ram 1GB+ recommended, GarageBand 2.0 or better). I've already spent a few hours playing around with it and I love seeing how the song is built. As much as I love music, I really don't know much about how to make it, and seeing a song like this it really makes me wish I did. I hope more artists follow his lead and open some of their songs up a little and allow the common folk to play around with it a little, I think it will really inspire many people to create their own works.

** If you'll notice I have made 3 songs in each of my reviews avilable for streaming. Enjoy! **

Best Tracks (in no particular order):

The Hand That Feeds
Only
Every Day is Exactly the Same
Right Where it Belongs
Sunspots

Worst Track:

With Teeth

Rating (out of 5 stars):

Excellent Italian Food At A Snobby Mall

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sat, 16 Apr 2005 03:59:00 +0000

Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill

Address: Bayview Village Shopping Centre ~ 2901 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario
Phone: (416) 590-130
Web: www.oliverbonacini.com
Type: Italian

I've only seen this restaurant in passing, it is located in Bayview Village Mall, which is mainly upscale stores, so I may have wrote it off as a little too snooty and expensive for most of our outings. It's a very busy and popular spot, and I do not recommend this place as a quiet place to eat, the kitchen is wide open and there is a lot of tables.

Food:
Tonight we started our evening with a shared "Prosciutto Plate with summer pear, toasted walnuts and argula ($9.95)". I'm not a huge fan of prosciutto, but I tried a little of it all combined and it was delectable.

I ordered the "Smoked Chicken with fusilli, mixed mushrooms, garden peas and extra virgin olive oil ($14.95)" for my main dish. I loved this dish, it was the right mix of flavours and not too oily. I really hoped it had more mushrooms, they were few and far between.

I finished my meal off with a Blood Orange and Raspberry Sorbet with shortbread stick ($5.50). The blood orange flavour was the special sorbet of the evening and was delightful mixed with the raspberry. I wish I could have had the shortbread, it looked very tasty as well. They also had a good selection of other cakes, tarts, ice cream and pies to choose from.

Service:
Our service tonight was excellent, our server Stephen, was friendly, efficient and helpful. He got a very decent tip from us. I hope the rest of the staff is even close to his proficiency.

Value:
The cost of the meal was actually a little better than I expected, there is a good range of items to choose from so even if you don't want to spend a bundle you can get some quality food. Most of the main dishes are in the $11.95 to $23.95 area. The portion size of our meals were okay, but don't expect an overflowing plate of food. For me my dish was perfectly sized for how much I should eat.

I should note, on the menu there is an added surcharge for shared appetizers and entrées, but I don't recall if we were charged extra for our shared Prosciutto Plate. I really find that kind of a nickel and dime kind of way to inflate a bill.

Olive ~ Trickle

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 18:00:00 +0000

Release Date: May 30, 2000
Offical Web: Olive
Fan Web: OliveMusic.net
Track List:

Love Affair 3:57
Trickle 4:55
I'm Not In Love 4:40
Smile 4:22
All You Ever Needed 4:25
Indulge Me 4:09
Speak To Me 4:06
Liberty 4:16
Push 4:44
Trust You 3:48
Creature of Comfort 4:05
Beyond the Fray 4:19
Take My Hand 4:11

Total Playing Time: 55:57

I know this seems a little past it's prime, but it's such an influential album, it encompasses many elements I keep looking for in music: a stunning female voice, a multi layered "full" sound with electronic components with a masterful use of strings and complimentary instruments.

This British act formed in 1995 and was originally composed of vocalist Ruth-Ann, keyboard/instrumentalist Tim Kellett and programmer Robin Taylor-Firth. It has some moderate success with their first album "Extra Virgin" in the UK. But there was some turmoil within the trio and Robin departed the band in October 1997 before work on "Trickle" was underway. After the album was complete there we're even more problems after their label, RCA Records thought the album was far too different and dropped them. They got a lucky break when the song "I'm not in love", a cover of the hit from 10cc was included on the soundtrack for the movie "The Next Best thing" and Madonna picked them up on her label Maverick Records. For the most part all their success has been in the UK, so it's not surprising if you've never heard of them before.

The sound on “Trickle” is a mix of trip-hop, a little drum and bass and a hint of traditional electronica elements. I really dig this kind of mix, they compliment each other and it really makes the album pop out from others that are solely in a single category. Ruth-Ann’s voice combined with the lyrics, is the real star on this album, they keep me coming back over and over again. Ruth-Ann’s voice is a soft, warm and emotive influence that consumes me in an affectionate embrace. I find myself caught up in songs like “Liberty”, “Push” and “Creature of Comfort” they are brilliantly mixed and really capture what I would consider the “Olive” essence. There are so few weak spots in this album, I find it nearly consistent right through the journey it takes me on.

The band have stopped collaborating together at this time, Tim is focusing on songwriting for other artists so that he can spend more time with his family. Ruth-Ann completed work on her first solo album to be released sometime this year, when it comes out, a review of it will certainly show up here.

Best Tracks (in no particular order):

Push
Creature of comfort
Smile
I'm not in Love
Liberty

Rating (out of 5 stars):

I Seafood. Do You Seafood?

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 03:59:00 +0000

Buffet City

Address: 3160 Steeles Avenue East, Markham, Ontario
Phone: (905) 474-9899
Type: Chinese/Japanese/Canadian Buffet

This was not the place we were trying going to go to tonight, we had a little mix up in communication when we were coordinating ourselves and it got confused with another "all you can eat" place down the road. We (Wanda, Chris and myself) hadn't really noticed this until after we were already seated and our drinks had arrived, then my other friend Rich called asking where the hell we're we. I do want to go to the other "all you can eat" place and I'm sure we'll get around to it shortly.

I've been to Buffet City before, but it looks like they have made some minor changes in the layout and the options on the buffet. It's a fairly typical oriental type buffet you see around here, it directly compares to the Mandarin but with a little less decor. When it comes down to it really, wants most important in a buffet is the selection of food.

Food:
Since it's Friday they have all the expensive stuff out and the full range of item to choose from, particularly they have a huge amount of seafood, they had 3 different shrimps, 2 dishes with mussels, 2 items of real crab, salt and pepper lobster tails and sushi bar with 3 types of sashimi, 4 types of sushi, and a half dozen different rolls to choose from. And then there is all the regular items you'd find on a buffet!

I had I good mix of all the Japanese items since that was what I was mostly looking forward to tonight. It was pretty average for an open buffet with Japanese food, okay but it makes you with for the real thing. I really wouldn't recommend going here just for the Japanese food because it's really just average stuff. I also had at least a half-dozen legs of real crab, they were okay and better than the fake stuff but I prefer my crab nice and hot. I also tried the salt and pepper crab as well but found it too messy to deal with. The taste of the food was very average, there was nothing I had that stood out. I really liked their dessert selection, fresh fruit, cakes, tarts chocolate dipped strawberries and just to name a few of the goodies. I was also happy to have 2 non ice cream choices to enjoy in addition to the dozen or so other flavours in the freezer.

My 1 major complaint of this place is they had nothing but plain napkins, no "moist towelette" were visible or offered. There is a lot of food that needs to be eaten by hand, it really kept me from enjoying more of the crab and shrimp.

Service:
The quality of service was about average for a buffet. I doubt you will ever see an impressive rating on this blog for an open buffet since you do the bulk of the service and because of this, you really need to be exceptional earn more than 10% tip. Our waitress was pretty typical for an oriental buffet, english was far from her second language. We had a funny little moment when Chris ordered his drink, he asked for a rye and ginger, she replied "why and ginger?". She also got a little lax as the evening went on checking our drink levels. I was a little annoyed when I was served the wrong tea, I mean I like Chinese tea but I prefer green tea. She also got a little lax at the end of the meal keeping up with drinks.

Value:
For $17 this place is just simply a great deal. None of the food will knock your socks off, but the variety and selection is just simply unparalleled.

Garbage ~ Bleed Like Me

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 06:00:00 +0000

Release Date: April 12, 2005
Artist Web: Garbage.com
Track List:

Bad Boyfriend 3:45
Run Baby Run 3:57
Right Between The Eyes 3:55
Why Do You Love Me 3:51
Bleed Like Me 3:58
Metal Heart 3:58
Sex Is Not The Enemy 3:04
It's All Over But The Crying 4:40
Boys Wanna Fight 4:15
Why Don't You Come Over 3:23
Happy Home 5:57

Total Playing Time: 44:43

I am a massive Garbage fan and have been since their first album, simply titled "Garbage". I first heard them in dark period in my life after a bad break with my then girlfriend at the time. I remember being sucked in instantly when the noir "Only Happy When It Rains" blasted through the speakers in my car. I’ve been a devoted follower ever since, I have all their releases, most of their singles and been to 4 of their concerts and 1 of those concerts is in my “Top 5“ concerts of all time.

It is really hard to believe, but it's been 4 years since their 3rd album "Beautiful Garbage" was released, which seems like an eternity considering the quality of that release. I applauded them at the time for at least pushing the boundaries, but I found it (and many others) to be disappointing.

“Bleed Like Me” is anything but disappointing. First off it’s back to more traditional Alternative/Rock sound of guitars, drums and bass. Stepped back (but not gone) is the hyper electronic sound that dominated the last 2 albums, as much as I love that sound in “2.0”, “Beautiful Garbage” showed me how wrong and twisted that sound can get. The lyrics are also noticeably sharper and more precise than before, Shirley seems to really have worked hard in this area and come up with some real winners in “Bleed Like Me”, “Happy Home” and “Metal Heart”. I utterly love the guitar sounds they have come up with, they really make this album powerful, especially in songs like “Metal Heart”, “Why Do You Love Me” and “Bad Boyfriend”. The only extremely deficient track on this album has to be “Why Don’t You Come Over” it just comes across as over-mixed and just a little too repetitive, I can’t help but skip past it every time it comes on, maybe that feeling will slip away, because it has in the past , but I’m not so sure this time.

I honestly think they have 5 outstanding singles here they could release and hopefully this album can be as huge a commercial success as it deserves to be. I’m still debating on going to the concert later this month at the Kool Haus. I really would like to see and hear these new rockin’ songs live now, but really don’t care for the venue all that much and the show is sold out so I’m going to be stuck getting tickets from a scalper most likely. If I can find someone to go with, I will without doubt post a review here.

Best Tracks (in no particular order):

Why Do You Love Me
Metal Heart
Sex Is Not The Enemy
Run Baby Run
Bleed Like Me
Bad Boyfriend
It's All Over But The Crying
Happy Home

Worst Track:

Why Don't You Come Over

Rating (out of 5 stars):

Welcome to the First Edition of "Friday Night Anrky"

noreply@blogger.com (Anrky) — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 16:59:00 +0000

I should have started this about 9 years ago when I first started going out every Friday night with friends, I've been to some really interesting places and some silly things I wish I would have recorded, not to mention actually remembering some of the better places we've eaten at.

I plan to do 2 posts every week, 1 on our Friday nights' food and/or entertainment, and the 2nd on my CD pick of the week. I'll also include a few posts here or there on any other concerts or productions I may happen to run across.

I originally helped the start this little tradition of getting together at the end of every week when I got my own car. I've always lived in the western 'burbs of Toronto and all the good friends I've made have been in the city. For a good year and a half in there I had no transportation and never got to see them much in person. I picked up my shiny new 1996 Mazda MX-3 Precidia on a Friday afternoon in April of 1996 and quickly wanted to pick up some friends and hang out a bit, catch up and of course show off the new car. This quickly caught on as a weekly occurrence. We’ve eaten at all types or restaurants, seen all kinds of movies or shows and drove countless 1000’s of kilometers almost every Friday night since then.

Times have changed things somewhat, I drive a different car, we have all have seen each others’ relationships come and go (and some come again) and seen some friends fall in or out. But it doesn't matter if it's a small group or a big crowd I can't wait for the week to end so I can share, eat, laugh and catch up with my friends.

On to tonight...

Joe Maggiano's

Address: 2450 Sheppard Ave. E, Toronto, Ontario
Phone: (416) 49-STEAK
Web: www.joessteakanditalian.ca
Type: Italian steakhouse(duh!)

This is the second time I've eaten at this particular place, it looks like a chain but it doesn't appear to be yet. The look sort of reminds you of "East Side Mario's" but in my opinion pulls it off with much better taste. It's a family friendly environment and the bar is compleatly closed off to the rest of the restaurant. They have a very decent sized menus with a good variety and a large daily special list. The 3 main areas the menu focuses on are Steak, Seafood and Pasta. They also have a smattering of other areas covered so it's a great place to take a bunch of people, there is sure to be something on the menu for everyone.

Food:
Tonight I had one of the specials, a "Certified Angus Beef" flat iron sirloin steak in a Madagascar Green Peppercorns, Mushroom & Brandy Sauce, served with Sautéed Vegetables & Herb Roasted Potatoes. I was a delight, I really like peppercorn sauces and this one was a cut above the standard ones you see on most regular menus out there. I had a small issue with the spiciness of it, but not because it was bad, just unprepared (I'll get to the rest of that later). I have a few dietary restrictions that play a large factor in my ordering so I really dislike some surprises like that, it can make for a very un-pleasant evening afterwards for me and my friends. They do also have a decent sized desert menu with one glaring omission, they have nothing in the "milk free" category. They have a great selection of banana splits' to Crème Brûlée and such, but nothing like a sorbet. It seems like almost every other steakhouse out there has it on the list but this one.

Service:
I am hard critic of this area especially. I spent over 3 years working in restaurants and I'm a pretty good judge of where the faults lie. Our waitress was absolutely terrible. She was slow and un-observant. When she finally served main course (about 5-10 later than it should). She had not noticed my drink was empty and inquire if I needed another. I didn't notice myself, until I started into my steak and quickly realized I need to refreshment because of the un-expected spiciness. She was within view and had no problem flagging her down, except she did not realized the priority of my request at all, it took at least 5 minutes for a refill to arrive, but it you have a burning mouth 5 minutes is a LONG time. 90% of fault here lies on the server and only 10% of it the restaurant itself, most managers should know to keep a close on a very green server to the business a little longer than ones just new to the restaurant.

Value:
The price of the meal is pretty average to the scale, entrees' are from $13 and up, all depending on how big of a steak you want or how nice the fish of the day is. The portions are decent, not huge but not too small. The real stand out item about this place is the taste, it is really something exceptional compared to all the other chains in and around this category.