I love free things, especially when I am on a self-imposed spending freeze. I ate leftovers from mom birthday dinner for lunch.
But in exciting PATH news, there is free iced coffee today between 12 and 5 at Tim Hortons -
http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/menu/icedcoffee.html. Angus got into the iced coffee on the way up north last weekend - I tried it and it was sort of weird and too creamy for me. While I love most things fatty, I don't love cream. But because it was free iced coffee day, and very nice and sunny, I trekked down to Bay and Richmond to get myself a tiny iced coffee. The line was very manageable, and I asked for mine to be made with milk instead of cream. The result wasn't bad, but I did not stir mine and ended up with an insanely sweet last few sips.
THE VERDICT: PATH for being free. Order it with milk and stir. PAt on a regular day, as it is still pretty cheap.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Toronto "A la Cart" - Take One
This edition of Path Lunch Reviews takes us above ground.
Because I have deadline-related issues and am only capable of getting work done when it ABSOLUTELY MUST BE DONE, I spent Monday of the long weekend at work. 8 pm rolled around, and I experienced the frustration of being downtown on a holiday with none of my usual evening standbys open.
But then I remembered that the launch of Toronto's new non-hot dog food carts was taking place this very Victoria day! I had high hopes that my dinner would be saved by the biryani cart at the east side of Nathan Phillips Square. I've been irrationally excited about the launch of the new food carts, though somewhat confused by their geographic distribution (famed food write Naomi Duguid shares my confusion - and has some other problems with the "A la Cart" program as well: http://www.thestar.com/article/634699). For one thing, I love eating outside (though it violates a main tenet of PATH eating), and the $5 price tag appeals to me, as loyal path lunch reviews readers will know I have some problems following a lunch budget. Also, there is so much good street food to be had in the world, yet somehow our only options in Toronto thus far have been hot-dog after hot-dog shaped food. I hate hot-dogs. Here was our big chance....
Sadly, my first non-hot dog food cart meal in Toronto was a serious disappointment.* It may have been that I arrived at the very end of the day, as the owner of the shiny new cart with the flashy "A la Cart" logo was wrapping up shop, or it may have been that there were some opening day wrinkles to iron out. In any case, my only choice was biryani with rice (various websites had promised me "biryani and salsa karahi, served with pita, chapati, naan or rice") . What I got was a couple of pieces of pretty bland chicken in some cold and very greasy rice, with none of the minted yogurt I had also read about with great anticipation. I'm not a huge rice fan to begin with, but this was pretty gross. Nonetheless, I was hungry, and scarfed a fair bit of it down. Ten minutes later, I was not feeling great.
I'm holding off on posting a rating for the Nathan Phillip's Square east food cart - I'm hoping my crappy dinner was an anomaly, and that the food cart located closest to my office pulls it together so that I can fulfill my romantic street food fantasies without disappointment. We'll see. I'm going to give my stomach a break and check out the Nathan Phillip's Square west food cart later this week - review to follow.
* I frequently eat outside at Wednesday's summer market in Nathan Phillips Square, enjoying the roast corn, sweet potatoes, and peameal bacon sandwiches. I'm not sure why these perfectly awesome food stands don't count as "food carts", nor do I understand why they can't set up permanent shop in the downtown core for the summer. Especially given how happy it would make me. Clearly there are some "rules" or "laws" out there about mobile versus more permanently stationed food stands. Someone should explain them to me.
EDIT: It appears I misread the description for this stand in The Star - apparently Biryani IS a rice based dish. I thought it was meat that I could eat with naan or chapati. While I don't like rice, I do like bread. Anyway, my meal was still gross. The biryani did not look anything like these nice looking Biryani(s) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biryani
Because I have deadline-related issues and am only capable of getting work done when it ABSOLUTELY MUST BE DONE, I spent Monday of the long weekend at work. 8 pm rolled around, and I experienced the frustration of being downtown on a holiday with none of my usual evening standbys open.
But then I remembered that the launch of Toronto's new non-hot dog food carts was taking place this very Victoria day! I had high hopes that my dinner would be saved by the biryani cart at the east side of Nathan Phillips Square. I've been irrationally excited about the launch of the new food carts, though somewhat confused by their geographic distribution (famed food write Naomi Duguid shares my confusion - and has some other problems with the "A la Cart" program as well: http://www.thestar.com/article/634699). For one thing, I love eating outside (though it violates a main tenet of PATH eating), and the $5 price tag appeals to me, as loyal path lunch reviews readers will know I have some problems following a lunch budget. Also, there is so much good street food to be had in the world, yet somehow our only options in Toronto thus far have been hot-dog after hot-dog shaped food. I hate hot-dogs. Here was our big chance....
Sadly, my first non-hot dog food cart meal in Toronto was a serious disappointment.* It may have been that I arrived at the very end of the day, as the owner of the shiny new cart with the flashy "A la Cart" logo was wrapping up shop, or it may have been that there were some opening day wrinkles to iron out. In any case, my only choice was biryani with rice (various websites had promised me "biryani and salsa karahi, served with pita, chapati, naan or rice") . What I got was a couple of pieces of pretty bland chicken in some cold and very greasy rice, with none of the minted yogurt I had also read about with great anticipation. I'm not a huge rice fan to begin with, but this was pretty gross. Nonetheless, I was hungry, and scarfed a fair bit of it down. Ten minutes later, I was not feeling great.
I'm holding off on posting a rating for the Nathan Phillip's Square east food cart - I'm hoping my crappy dinner was an anomaly, and that the food cart located closest to my office pulls it together so that I can fulfill my romantic street food fantasies without disappointment. We'll see. I'm going to give my stomach a break and check out the Nathan Phillip's Square west food cart later this week - review to follow.
* I frequently eat outside at Wednesday's summer market in Nathan Phillips Square, enjoying the roast corn, sweet potatoes, and peameal bacon sandwiches. I'm not sure why these perfectly awesome food stands don't count as "food carts", nor do I understand why they can't set up permanent shop in the downtown core for the summer. Especially given how happy it would make me. Clearly there are some "rules" or "laws" out there about mobile versus more permanently stationed food stands. Someone should explain them to me.
EDIT: It appears I misread the description for this stand in The Star - apparently Biryani IS a rice based dish. I thought it was meat that I could eat with naan or chapati. While I don't like rice, I do like bread. Anyway, my meal was still gross. The biryani did not look anything like these nice looking Biryani(s) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biryani
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Thai Island (Exchange and TD)
The number 32 at Thai Island, a chicken, springroll and noodle number, is a standby for some of us. It's flavourful and filling, and a nice break from sandwiches. Once in a while the meat is a bit iffy (unidentified hard bits often require the two finger rescue from your mouth) but that's part of the fun.
However the real excitment involves one of the more hostile environments for PATH lunch counter transactions.
The staff (one woman at the Exchange court in particular) have a few things they get a real kick out of:
However the real excitment involves one of the more hostile environments for PATH lunch counter transactions.
The staff (one woman at the Exchange court in particular) have a few things they get a real kick out of:
- Giving you your lunch in a bag to go when you asked for it on a tray.
- Sulking when you then ask for it on a tray.
- Keeping a stack of popular beverages next to the cash registers so they get nice and warm.
- Ignoring "sauce on the side" requests (they are frequent as the alternative is about 200 mls of thai sugar sauce on your food. They keep a stack of pre-filled sauce containers for sauce on the side requests).
- Generalized customer-focussed hostility.
Number 3 is the one I hate the most. The fridge is maybe 40 inches from the cash register. They can't be saving that much time. What's the point of a fridge if you return beverages to room temperature before their sale?
I used to quietly fume about this. Now I ask for a diet coke from the fridge. I am secretly hoping that they refuse at some point so I can freak out.
Never a dull moment at TI.
OVERALL RATING: PAT
(the relative value of the meal gets it a third full letter)
Friday, May 1, 2009
A tale of two Mr. Subs
Often in the world of PATH lunches, we are often just looking for something that is fast, and not gross. Mr. Sub in the Exchange Tower court (one of my favourite courts) is fast and clean. They do a tremendous amount of counter wiping. Things were very tough for them during the sliced meat "troubles". Often I felt like the only customer. But they pulled through.
The staff are very cheery, although I was once rebuked for not using the cookie tongs. Generally they are pleasant.
I only get the tuna sub (I've not seen sharkwater) and the meatball sub. I'm sure both are terrible for you but they are fast, filling and won't break the bank. It's my go-to bring back to the desk lunch.
The First Canadian Place Mr. Sub is closer to my desk, but I avoid it because the staff is not as friendly and the tuna tastes "different". Also, it is in one of my least favourite courts. The FCP court should be among the best, with the abundance of natural light, but somehow the noise, the decor and the food offerings conspire to make it kind of dead and downmarket. Basement courts in the Exchange Tower, Commerce Court, TD, and now even Royal Plaza are much preferred by this reviewer.
Also, the FCP court invariably has birds in it. If I wanted indoor birds, I'd go to the Metro Zoo and visit one of those geo-domes. Speaking of the Zoo, it's a real shame about that monorail.
OVERALL RANKING: PAT out of PATH (Exchange Tower)
OVERALL RANKING: PA out of PATH (FCP)
The staff are very cheery, although I was once rebuked for not using the cookie tongs. Generally they are pleasant.
I only get the tuna sub (I've not seen sharkwater) and the meatball sub. I'm sure both are terrible for you but they are fast, filling and won't break the bank. It's my go-to bring back to the desk lunch.
The First Canadian Place Mr. Sub is closer to my desk, but I avoid it because the staff is not as friendly and the tuna tastes "different". Also, it is in one of my least favourite courts. The FCP court should be among the best, with the abundance of natural light, but somehow the noise, the decor and the food offerings conspire to make it kind of dead and downmarket. Basement courts in the Exchange Tower, Commerce Court, TD, and now even Royal Plaza are much preferred by this reviewer.
Also, the FCP court invariably has birds in it. If I wanted indoor birds, I'd go to the Metro Zoo and visit one of those geo-domes. Speaking of the Zoo, it's a real shame about that monorail.
OVERALL RANKING: PAT out of PATH (Exchange Tower)
OVERALL RANKING: PA out of PATH (FCP)
North of Queen
I've recently spent some time working north of Queen Street, which has opened up a whole new world of PATH lunch options. Not many of them have been good. For one thing, the Eaton Centre food court at the south end of the mall is scary to me and full of teenagers. This is not something you normally encounter in the PATH core. I have mostly avoided it.
For a while I ate almost exclusively at the soup and sandwich place in the Church of the Holy Trinity, which is through the doors on the west side of the mall, just before Sears. This is mostly an unfamiliar place for people who work south of Queen, but it is super cheap and they have great daily specials. I like the spanakopita. After a while I got bored of the soups and started to think they all tasted the same. I wish they made carrot ginger more often.
After my church phase, I started eating at the T-spot in the basement of the Bay pretty much every day. This is the opposite end of the price spectrum - really way too expensive for daily lunches - usually around 14 bucks with tax for an entree and salad. Not that that stopped me.
The salmon is generally pretty good, and the onion tart is amazing but they never make it. I usually go here if I am trying to be "healthy" and get some sort of fish and salad. I'm never blown away, but it's only been not good maybe one or two times. The spinach salads are great. For some reason, the soups are terrible. No idea why, but I was getting soup for a while until I realized I didn't like any of them.
Then we got really busy at work, and we started getting Sandwich Box delivered every day. You can't really go wrong with the Sandwich Box. I liked that I could change my order everyday and avoid getting bored. I like the side salad. I like the bread options. The smoked chicken or turkey or whatever it is is great. The downside is that grilled sandwiches don't really sit that well, so if you can't get to the sandwich right when it gets delivered, it gets very soggy. Someone I work with had to stop with the sandwiches because that grossed her out, so she got a salad everyday, and then got bored with the Sandwich Box. I think it just might be because eating salad everyday for lunch is boring, but I do think they have a great variety of salad ingredients, and I'd venture to say that the quality of ingredients is better than any of the other salad joints.
So that is north of Queen. I'm looking forward to my return to Scotia Plaza, which has a terrible food court but is at least closer to more PATH lunch action.
For a while I ate almost exclusively at the soup and sandwich place in the Church of the Holy Trinity, which is through the doors on the west side of the mall, just before Sears. This is mostly an unfamiliar place for people who work south of Queen, but it is super cheap and they have great daily specials. I like the spanakopita. After a while I got bored of the soups and started to think they all tasted the same. I wish they made carrot ginger more often.
After my church phase, I started eating at the T-spot in the basement of the Bay pretty much every day. This is the opposite end of the price spectrum - really way too expensive for daily lunches - usually around 14 bucks with tax for an entree and salad. Not that that stopped me.
The salmon is generally pretty good, and the onion tart is amazing but they never make it. I usually go here if I am trying to be "healthy" and get some sort of fish and salad. I'm never blown away, but it's only been not good maybe one or two times. The spinach salads are great. For some reason, the soups are terrible. No idea why, but I was getting soup for a while until I realized I didn't like any of them.
Then we got really busy at work, and we started getting Sandwich Box delivered every day. You can't really go wrong with the Sandwich Box. I liked that I could change my order everyday and avoid getting bored. I like the side salad. I like the bread options. The smoked chicken or turkey or whatever it is is great. The downside is that grilled sandwiches don't really sit that well, so if you can't get to the sandwich right when it gets delivered, it gets very soggy. Someone I work with had to stop with the sandwiches because that grossed her out, so she got a salad everyday, and then got bored with the Sandwich Box. I think it just might be because eating salad everyday for lunch is boring, but I do think they have a great variety of salad ingredients, and I'd venture to say that the quality of ingredients is better than any of the other salad joints.
So that is north of Queen. I'm looking forward to my return to Scotia Plaza, which has a terrible food court but is at least closer to more PATH lunch action.
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