Eating With Gordon

I was given the opportunity by Loblaws to attend a cooking class event (on Sunday morning) being hosted at the Maple Leaf Garden Loblaws location. The theme was on Eat Nake with a focus on cooking and eating simple fresh ingredients from nature.

Had the pleasure of Chef Matthew Kennedy teaching us how to make a simple salad with dressing from scratch using simple ingredients with egg omelet on the side. Everything was free to attend with random customers dropping in for the cooking class.

Overall, it was fun and entertaining cooking session. Thank you Loblaws for the invite!

Food Photos:

cooking class on the first floor

my final creation dish

the lecture for cooking

The hero pose - Chef Matthew Kennedy

Hanging Garden of spices

preparing the food for the cooking class

departing gift: tomato, carrot, lettuce seeds to grow

Very similar to my wall spice garden - looks pretty good

live lettuce wall

Outside Loblaws!

Name & Location: Loblaws 60 Carlton (former Maple Leaf Garden)

Disclaimer: This post isn't sponsored. However, my Instagram videos for the Eat Nake event are sponsored.

For this valentine day, my SO and I decided on visiting Ikea to try out their Valentine's Day dinner. With no babysitter, this event was more of a family dinner (as usual). I would have love to do a three star Michelin restaurant but got to sacrifice certain lifestyles & expectations once you have children.

I remembered the past with trying to bring the children to high-end restaurant for a meal. It turned out that they couldn't behave too well ...

Reviewer: Eating With Gordon
Visit Date: Feb 2017
Food Rating: 4/5
Service Rating: 4/5

Atmosphere:
Ikea Canada (North York location) was featuring a romantic evening on February 14 with live music band and three-course meal. The price was about $40 per couple. There was an Ikea employee trying to sell the Valentine Day tickets near the entrance of the food court area (2nd floor). Once we bought our ticket, they provided us the appetizer plates and led us down to a separate area (still in the food court but covered with a curtain). The tables tops were all decorated with red cloth and a live band was set up near the windows. They filled the whole food court area with romantic music. Many thanks to Steve's Quartet for live entertainment.

Service:
The Ikea staff were very well coordinated and helpful. I was very surprised at how greatly run the operation was for Ikea. I switched up the orders as well for the entree. The staff provided our children an extra departing gift as well :)

Food:
Honestly, I wasn't expecting wonderful tasting food at Ikea. I have seen many of their food court items made from frozen/packages. For appetizers, they provide seafood bites with a plate of salad. I wasn't too impressed with this dish with the bread feeling a little soggy (probably from all that sitting). The entrees took some time to order with the staff. You were given a choice of either steak, salmon parcels or spinach & cheese cannelloni.

We decided to get steak and salmon. I got the baked salmon package with the lentils and greens entree. This was a simple dish but packed with many flavours. The fish was well seasoned with a small kick within the parchment paper. The flavours were intensified within with the vegs and beans. My SO really liked the steak entree. There were a lot of mash potatoes topped with mushroom cream gravy and roasted asparatus.

Lastly, dessert was a simple strawberry shortcake with surprise present (gummy hearts)! Beverages were included and they offered coffee, tea or fountain drink from the dispensing station.

Overall, I loved my main entree and the service was fantastic (especially by Ikea standards). The live music was a bonus for the evening. Have to thank the band and Ikea staff for organizing a pleasant dining experience.

Food Photos:

Salmon baked parchment entree

Steak Entree

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Fresh Strawberry shortcake

Departing Gift for Dessert (Gummy Hearts)

Non Food Photos:

Name:	Ikea Canada (North York)
Price Range:	$$
Cuisine:	Mainstream
Address:	15 Provost Dr, North York ON
Phone:	18668664532
Menu URL:
Website:	m.ikea.com/ca/en/stores/north_york/
Hours:	Sunday 12–8PM Monday 10–9PM Tuesday 10–9PM Wednesday 10–9PM Thursday 10–9PM Friday 10–9PM Saturday 9–9PM
Map:

Lohas Cafe is back! I recently stumbled across Lohas on Instagram feeds. With a larger lunch opening for today, I was free for outdoor lunch. I grab a foodie colleague and off we went!

Reviewer: Eating With Gordon
Visit Date: February 2017
Food Rating: 4/5
Service Rating: 3/5

Atmosphere:
The shop is a lot smaller than their previous location at First Markham Place. The decor and size add to the coziness and comfort (there's seating for roughly ~6 tables, 24 people). You can find this restaurant at the top level of the inner plaza circle. There are additional parking spots available within the underground structure.

Service:
The boss was friendly as before. He took our menus quickly without issues.

Food:
Their menu has downsized, for example, there are fewer milk tea flavors and their pricing has increased. In the past, there used to be a lunch combo deal for meal with drinks.

I missed their popcorn chicken rice for a long time. Fortunately, it was still on the menu ($9) and decided to order it. The dish was exactly the same as before but with the addition of the tea egg. The chicken was crispy on the outside and juicy inside. The rice was even better with the meat sauce topping on top. For the sides, the pickled hot lettuce with steam vegetables were ideal pairing for this dish.

Overall, this new location was far from work; however, I would definitely venture this far for the Taiwanese food.

Food Photos:

Popular Popcorn chicken!

Non-Food Photos:

Menu

Name:	Lohas Cafe
Price Range:	$$
Cuisine:	Taiwanese Food & Bubble Tea
Address:	28 South Unionville. Unit 1035 Markham
Phone:	9056046586
Menu URL:
Website:
Hours:	Sunday 12PM-11PM Monday 12PM-11PM Tuesday 12PM-11PM Wednesday 12PM-11PM Thursday 12PM-11PM Friday 12PM-11PM Saturday 12PM-11PM
Map:

For this lunch adventure, I had suggested to team that they recommend a new restaurant to try for our meals. One suggested this Rawlicious restaurant and we all mostly agreed (even though the reviews on Yelp said it was pricey and not filling). Despite the reviews online, we were going for lunch!

Reviewer: Eating With Gordon
Visit Date: February 2017
Food Rating: 3.5/5
Service Rating: 3/5

Atmosphere:
To our initial confusion, the Rawlicious Markham is not located within Unionville but farther east. The area looked similar to Unionville. The restaurant was actually very spacious and quiet. There were a lot of wood themes going on with the flooring and tables.

Service:
We had a young female server who was very attentive to our needs. She had a good memory and recalled what we all ordered (at the start). However, the memory got worst when she gave the incorrect plates to the customers ...

Food:
This restaurant specialized in serving raw vegan food with the goal of providing healthy dining experience. There were a couple of these restaurants across Ontario. For this lunch experience, I got the entree (that was most filling), Pad Thai ($15), while my colleagues got the Bolognese and Caesar Wrap.

I had also ordered a spring roll appetizer ($6) which is finely sliced vegs with fresh herbs wrapped in rice paper and served with tangy Thai dipping sauce.

Overall, I felt rob with the spring roll dish. The pad thai was mostly noodle with a lot of sauce supporting the flavours. Having spent about $20+ dollars for lunch, I was past the threshold of hungry but ended up snacking back in the office.

If you are very keen on eating healthy, this place is definitely for you. I could proudly claim that I ate healthy to SO for lunch but probably get disciplined for spending too much...

Food Photos:

Bolognese noodles

Pad Thai!

My simple spring roll with thai sauce ...

Non-Food Photos:

Empty but cozy

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Menu 1

Menu 2

Name:	Rawlicious Markham
Price Range:	$$
Cuisine:
Address:	116 Main St N, Markham, ON L3P 1Y1
Phone:	(905) 554-4729
Menu URL:
Website:	http://rawlicious.ca/canada/locations/markham/
Hours:	Sunday 10AM–8PM Monday 10AM–8PM Tuesday 10AM–8PM Wednesday 10AM–8PM Thursday 10AM–8PM Friday 10AM–9PM Saturday 10AM–9PM
Map:

I had found this new restaurant in the area from the trending Instagram posts for this area. I was curious and decided to check it out when available. Brought my children for this awesome food lunch adventure!

Reviewer: Eating With Gordon
Visit Date: January 2017
Food Rating: 4/5
Service Rating: 2.5/5

Atmosphere:
This new cafe was located at a base of a small office building across from the Monte Carlo Inn. It was full with people for this weekend lunch service. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table! This HK style cafe decor was very simple with wooden tables and seats composed of booth and chairs.

Service:
The servers were nice and supported English and Cantonese. It was unfortunate that the server misunderstood my order and gave me a different dish. This place offered free wifi (password equals phone number).

Food:
For the lunch menu, there were roughly 17 items to choose from. From initial observations, the steam rice with shrimp in basket was very popular and my kid wanted rice ... I wanted Guilin noodles and instead got the Shanghai Hainanese Chicken with noodles and white chicken soup. Wasn't horribly upset and accepted the dish since we were hungry. Surprisingly, this dish was good and tasty. The noodles were simple similar instant noodles. For the soup, the colour was very white and intense with the chicken flavor.

For the steam rice with egg sauce and butterfly tiger shrimp, the lotus leaves gave the steam rice another level of flavor.  The dish didn't look too complex but had subtle balances of multiple flavours.

Overall, I was very impressed with the meals and would definitely come back to try out the other dishes.

Food Photos:




Non Food Photos:

Name:	The 6 Cafe & Restaurant
Price Range:	$$
Cuisine:
Address:	8920 Woodbine Ave, Markham, ON L3R 9W9
Phone:	(905) 604-7800
Menu URL:
Website:
Hours:	Sunday 11AM–11PM Monday 11AM–11PM Tuesday 11AM–11PM Wednesday 11AM–11PM Thursday 11AM–11PM Friday 11AM–11PM Saturday 11AM–11PM
Map: