Shiso clam vongolé Pasta @Shiso Tree Cafe JTown Review

Shiso Tree Menu

please click here for my review about the restaurant and Smoked Salmon a la Red Wine pasta

Shiso Tree is a Japanese-Italian Fusion restaurant. It is famous for their Italian pastas with a mix of Japanese culture. Before I talk about this dish, I want to mention about how much I like this restaurant, the atmosphere is very casual yet elegant, there is a mix of Japanese in its simple interior design. Every time I go, there is Jazz music playing softly in the background.

Impressions:

• Great atmosphere for chatting and hanging out
• service is good
• great pasta, great salad
• skip the soup

When the weather starts to warm up, I find myself longing to come to Shiso Tree @ JTown. It seems to be a very Spring/Summery place to visit with its Japanese/modern decorations and natural lighting and "light food". For this particular visit, I had ordered Shiso Clam Vongolé Pasta from their Wafu Pasta selection.

Shiso Tree complimentary salad

Salad:

With every Pasta set, they provide Garlic Toast and a Wafu Salad. As I mentioned in my previous Shiso tree post, The Wafu salad dressing, it is one of the best tasting salad dressings I have ever tried in a Japanese restaurant. If you visit this place, you cannot miss it. I'm not an expert in salad dressings, so based on my limited understanding and trusty taste buds I would say it tastes like  a clam/mussel soup base combined with soy sauce and sesame oil).

Shiso clam vongolé – white wine, olive oil, garlic, bacon, tomato, fresh Manila clams & shiso

Pasta:

Now, for the dish, Since I always get Smoked Salmon a la Red Wine pasta, I decided to try something new... I mean... life is about trying new things and having different experiences, no? I decided to give the Shiso clam vongolé a try. It consists of White Wine, Olive Oil, Garlic, Bacon, Tomato, Fresh Manila clams and Shiso. This pasta was from their Wafu pasta category. (Wafu can be translated to touch of Japanese)

The price was $15, I think it was because of the amount of clams they had. I mentioned that their prices may be startling at first, but when you finish your meal you will be happy you decided to eat here. This dish added Shiso shavings, I think they taste a bit like lemon/lime leaves. But... to be honest, other than the unique herbiness of Shiso and clams, I found it troublesome to distinguish this dish from the Smoked Salmon a la Red Wine Pasta. They seem to taste very similar. It was still good... but I was looking forward to something different.

This was a well made dish, but I think it would be better if they could make the different pastas taste more different so each dish can preserve its uniqueness. I will continue to visit this place and try their new dishes in hopes of finding something that tastes really different yet as delicious!

the soup we decided to pay extra for

Soup:

I did not enjoy the soup, it was very average. I was thinking it would be something that would "wow" me, but it was none other than an ordinary tomato, beef- soup based beef brisket vegetable soup. The taste was very ordinary, I was quite disappointed. The presentation was interesting, but the soup was very average.

Verdict:

The Pasta and atmosphere are what attracts me to this restaurant, I really love their salad. However, I do not recommend you paying extra to try their soup, it is not worth it.

address: 3160 Steeles Ave E #1, Markham, ON L3R
score: 8.5/10

website: http://www.blogto.com/restaurants/shiso-tree-cafe-markham

Joey's at Eaton Centre restaurant review

photo credits: www.torontoeatoncentre.com 

I have heard countless reviews about this restaurant, at Places at Don Mills. People like to come here to celebrate birthdays, reunions or simply just to come here to drink and chillax. A few months ago I ran into their other restaurant at Eaton Centre, decided to give this place a try.

Before I go into my review about this place, here's a little checklist as to what I think:

• great atmosphere
• service is ok (I'll talk more about it in my review below)
• food is good
• quite pricey

menu

I was quite disappointed in their lack of selection in their menu. 

service: some waitresses were very friendly while others were... trying to be friendly. I find the setting very odd, I can tell they were trying very hard to make this place a very friendly, casual environment, but it seemed to be very forced.

lobster sandwich

the first thing which came was the lobster sandwich. This was very delicious but also was a very small portion. I was shocked when the waitress/server settled it on our table. I thought the wrong food item came because it was so small... looked like a starter more than an entree. I have to comment it was really good and tasty, the fries were also good... but... seriously... too expensive.

Florentine ravioli

The Florentine Ravioli was served with seared scallops and prosciutto. The Ravioli's were filled with Artichokes and spinach with a tomato salad. This dish was a bit bigger and it was also very tasty. Good thing we have ordered this or we would probably be starving.

Service was quite bad, as I mentioned earlier, they "tried" to be friendly, food took a really long time to come too. So we were absolutely starving.

I do not think I would be visiting this place very often, and I realized that I must do my research before deciding what to order. I wished they also had a better selection as well. I do not understand how they can make Sushi, Ravioli, and steak in the same place and be good at each one (thus this was why I choose these 2 dishes). I would also much appreciate it if their waitresses were more sincere as well.

website: http://www.joeyrestaurants.com/

Chili's Restaurant Review

Chili's was one of the restaurants I have always wanted to try because of it's attractive cute huge chili that is present at every restaurant. To sum up, the food was great, the prices were very reasonable but the service was so-so, could have done better in my opinion.

Ever since I was young, I have learned that Mexican food just contained of Salsa, Jalapenos, Tacos, cheese sauce and corn chips. Mexican cuisine was monotonous and always tasted the same, with no variations or anything creative. I did enjoy Mexican food once in a while, but it didn't create any mood of fascination. However, after visiting Chili's I realized there was more... MUCH more to Mexican cuisine, and not only was I satisfied, I was extremely impressed by the selection and fusions they offered. 

Appetizer which came with our combo: Texas Fries 

The prices were extremely reasonable. They had offered a 2 can dine for $20, which included 1 appetizer and 2 entrees of choice. As we were a party of three we thought, there was no way this ONE combo could fill our stomachs so we got an extra appetizer/entree as well. BUT to our astonishment  when the food arrived we were proven wrong. The portions were huge, what we thought we ordered was almost 50% more. 

Entree #1 for our combo: 6oz steak

After the appetitizer came, we were already excited for the rest of our meal to arrive. The entrees were delicious, we asked for medium cooked for our steak and they did exactly like that, the portion was huge! The vegetables were also lightly seasoned, making it more tasty, we all agreed that the steak tasted a little Brazilian mixed with Mexican style, it was very tasty.

entree #2 for our combo: baby back ribs 1/2 rack

The baby back ribs tasted very good, before coming to this restaurant, and the reason I decided to come was because I read a review that their baby back ribs were delicious, so my curiosity struck and I had to order one to try. It was very tasty, and the portion was large, there were a total of 10-12 ribs, so it was more than enough for each of us to try some. We chose "original" as the sauce, which turned out to be none other than Barbecue flavoured sauce. The meat was very tender and juicy, we were so impressed.

the extra entree/appetizer we ordered: chicken Quesadilla

As I said earlier, we thought a 2 person portion was not enough for us, so we ordered one of the recommendations: a Chicken Quesadilla. The Quesadilla was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside but this was not the reason why we were so facinated by the dish. The chicken meat inside was so smooth and tender (I literally thought it was just cheese inside) and juicy. It was just so well cooked!

I plan to visit Chili's again (and again) in the future. However despite visiting this place on a Saturday, the restaurant could be much fuller and crowed because of the quality of food they share, I think they would be able to attract much more customers if they could improve on their service by asking waitresses to put on a friendlier persona. 

The rating I would give for them is 4.5/5 (lost 0.5 for not very good service.

Shiso Tree Cafe @ JTown review

Smoked Salmon à la Créme Vodka - Vodka based cream sauce with Smoked salmon & fresh dill. Garnished with ikura (salmon roe) & caviar.

I am hardly a fan of Fusion Cuisine as the food is usually combined in all the wrong areas, however after visiting Shiso Tree Cafe & JTown in Toronto, I was impressed. Shiso Tree Cafe is a Japanese restaurant which combines Italian and Japanese cuisine.

I tried the Smoked Salmon a la Red Wine pasta entree. It was part of the Cream and Rosè Sauce pasta category. Though the price might be startling at first ($12), I can guarantee you being full after the meal. The serving sizes are quite big.

The pasta entrees also come with a piece of very crispy, toasted garlic bread and salad.

The wafu salad dressing, it is one of the best tasting salad dressings I have ever tried in a Japanese restaurant. I'm not an expert in salad dressings, so based on my limited understanding and trusty taste buds I   would say it tastes like somewhat a clam/mussel soup base combined with soy sauce and sesame oil).

The pasta was very tasteful, the sauce was light yet very flavourful, there was a lot of smoked salmon. The iKura (Salmon Roe) and Caviar were there but a little too less, they felt like "decorations" more than being part of the actual dish. The pasta was very well prepared, not too soft and not too hard, just right. I was very impressed. The whole pasta entree was very well put together.

I was also very surprised as to how full I can be from eating something that seems to have such a small serving size.

I would give Shiso Tree Cafe a rating of 4.5/5.