Showing posts with label momo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label momo. Show all posts

Garleek Kitchen (Toronto)

Posted on Sunday, June 30, 2019 by
Garleek Kitchen momos

If you like intimate family run restaurants, Garleek Kitchen will definitely provide that cozy experience. The dining room consists of less than ten tables, and on a weekday visit, the entire operations was run by a single person - quite a feat to be host, waiter, and chef. To keep things simple, their menu is displayed on a television and cutlery & key condiments are found on the table.

Meanwhile, most of the time, the proprietor is in the kitchen, making everything to order including the momos. These dumplings are the delicious pouches I remember most from past Tibetan meals. With the option to steam, pan fry, or deep fry the dumplings, we tried them two ways – pan-fried and steamed.   

The chicken pan-fried momos ($8.99) definitely hit the spot. The toasted crust adding a nice contrast compared to the soft top of the dumpling. While the nub in the middle of the dough was a bit too thick, the white meat chicken filling was juicy and savoury. So good the spicy dipping sauces weren’t even required.


They were needed for the steam vegetables momo ($7.99). While the chunky chili sauce added heat and extra flavour, the dumplings could still use more salt. Nevertheless, the filling consisted of an interesting combination of vegetables, which Garleek should consider leaving some less cooked (everything was rather soft) so the texture will vary.


Nepalese chicken chow mein ($8.50) is made from thin chewy noodles cooked on a hot flattop so it develops a crust on some strands. Like Cantonese chow mein, there are the crispy and soft bits within the plate, but Garleek’s is less oily and isn’t topped with sauce allowing the noodles to remain crunchy. I loved the aromatic wok hay of the dish, but the chicken needs less time on the grill as it was overdone and dry.

Garleek Kitchen chicken chow mein Toronto

Despite running with only one person, Garleek provides attentive service. Along with the noodles, the chef brought out a chilled bottle of hot sauce and warned that it was “crazy spicy” – heed the warning but you’ll want to try some anyways. He also checked on us at regular intervals and was around when something was required. This warm intimate experience is what makes dining at small proprietors a great event.


Overall mark - 7 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 1500 Queen Street West

 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:

Garleek Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


CLOSED: The Kolkata Club (Mississauga)

Posted on Monday, May 21, 2018 by
Picture courtesy of Parv
Hement Bhagwani, the restauranteur who created the Amaya chain and Indian Street Food, recently opened a place that’s very different from his last two ventures: The Kolkata Club, a restaurant that’s influenced by the social clubs established during the British Raj period in India. Most clubs were exclusively for British officers and their families; while they would hire Indian citizens to work at the clubs, the workers weren’t allowed to eat in the dining room.
Then in 1907 the Calcutta Club opened, the first social club whose membership policy didn’t restrict based on race. Hence, when Hement started the Mississauga restaurant, he chose to pay homage to the more lenient Calcutta Club. When the British left India, the 'clubs' remained and was returned to the people, despite there still being an element of exclusivity. Today, the affluent are favoured. Luckily, dining at The Kolkata Club, in Mississauga, doesn’t require years on a wait list, a vast family fortune, or an impressive surname.


Kolkata’s menu is inspired by the choices found in India, often reinterpreted for the British palette, with their own twist. It also includes Asian options gleamed from India’s neighbours such as momos, dumplings popular in Tibet cuisine, filled with vegetables ($11.50) or chicken ($13.50). With the chicken ones sold out by 7:45pm, we stuck with the vegetable version. I was worried they’d be bland against the thick chewy dough, but the garlic vegetable medley was flavourful enough and works as a lighter starter. Served with gravy and chili sauce on a sizzling plate, generally found at chop suey restaurants, the momos developed a crispy crust and stayed hot.


Catering to British taste buds does mean dishes don’t incorporate a lot of spice. While my friend warned the Bengali chingri prawns ($18.50) would likely be spicy, the use of green chilis was subdued with the main flavours being the curry and a hit of something tangy. Personally, I would have liked this to be spicier - if only I stopped the waiter from taking away the chili sauce accompanying the momos, it’d be perfect! Yet, if curries could be refreshing, this dish fits the bill.


Luckily, we had an order of pulao ($15.95) and plain naan ($3.25) to soak up every drop of the sauce from the murg methid Dhabe wala ($15.50), which was aromatic, flavourful, and rich without being heavy. The menu describes the dish as being ‘country’ chicken, likely due to it incorporating large pieces of bone-in dark meat. In my books, this is the best cut for braised chicken – the bone adds flavour and keeps the meat moist – and I’ve always been partial to dark meat instead of white.  Needless to say, we finished this dish with gusto.

Picture courtesy of Parv
The chicken curry went well with the forest mushroom, truffle, and morel pulao ($15.95). While I couldn’t taste any truffle or morel, there was plenty of white mushrooms incorporated into the rice and when the bits of fried onion seeped into curry, they added another depth to the sauce.

Picture courtesy of Parv
While dining at The Kolkata Club during their first month operating, the kitchen was dealing with growing pains. Aside from the lack of chicken momos, the British Raj influenced steak roast was also unavailable. Nonetheless, both dishes require prepping ahead of time, hence stock outs are somewhat understandable. However, when the kitchen was too busy to make chai, an after-dinner drink that’s synonymous with Indian cuisine, it was a bit odd. Surely, even if the tea had to be steeped ahead of time and reheated later, it’s better than not serving it at all.
A hot aromatic drink would have gone well with the saffron mango cheesecake ($8.50), a contrast against the cool light dessert with a pronounced tropical mango taste. I did enjoy the generous sprinkling of saffron over top, its umami essence adding an interesting element to the cake.


These surprising twists are even evident in their cocktails. The aam panna mojito ($12.50) is described as the tangiest cocktail on the list. While still sweet, the drink is refreshing from the aam panna (or green mango drink) and well muddled mint. A hit of chaat masala gives the cocktail an almost savoury finish.

The Kolkata Club feels different compared to traditional Indian restaurants. Like the pictured social clubs along the restaurant walls, customers tend to come in larger groups and many dressed to impress. Dinner was a well-paced leisurely affair, lasting well over two hours for the three-course event. In the days where reservations come with two-hour seating limits, this laissez-faire attitude is a welcomed reminder of the good old days.  
Overall mark - 7 out of 10
Disclaimer: The above meal was complimentary. Rest assured, as noted in my mission statement, I will always provide an honest opinion.
How To Find Them
 Location: Mississauga, Canada
 Address: 488 Eglinton Avenue West


 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:


Yakitori Kintori (Toronto)

Posted on Sunday, March 30, 2014 by
Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 668 Bloor Street West (2nd floor)
Website: http://yakitorikintori.com/
Type of Meal: Dinner


The newest addition to the Guu/Kinton/Ja Bistro empire, Yakatori Kintori has a similar set-up to its sister restaurants. A clean yet warm environment, efficient use of seating space and an open concept kitchen so diners can watch as chefs make skewer after skewer over hot grills.


Unfortunately, also like Guu, no reservations are taken after 5pm so if you want to eat at a normal hour be prepared to wait. Luckily, there are many bars in the surrounding K-Town area that helped us kill the 40 minute wait. Surprisingly, for a place that offers a limited menu, tables turned over slower than expected; our meal lasted for over one and a half hours.

We couldn’t visit without trying their yakatori, which are essentially grilled skewers holding various ingredients. In most instances, the menu offers a choice between teriyaki sauce or salt as the flavouring agent. We relied on the expertise of our waiter to choose the best one.

The meat and vegetable combinations were ones I enjoyed most as there was a bit more contrast in terms of flavors and textures. The enoki bacon ($2.5) is a nice take on the izakaya dish I generally like (except in Yakitori Kintori’s case wrapped with bacon rather than beef) and was a decent combination of well cooked bacon and crunchy mushrooms. The jalapeno nikuzume ($3.50) was a bit bland since the heat of the ribs and seeds of the pepper were removed so it tasted more like bell peppers. But, the smoky pepper with some ground chicken was still respectable… but would have benefited for a thicker sauce or something else mixed into the ground chicken.


If you enjoy meat balls, the cheese tsukune ($2.30) may be a good option, given it’s essentially a giant ground chicken meat ball stuffed with a sizeable piece of gooey cheese. Like the jalapeno, it was a bit bland, so an extra drizzle of glaze on top could improve the dish. The momo ($1.90) is a simple skewer of grilled dark chicken meat – nothing amazing but quite tender and always a safe choice.


Lastly, we shared a skewer of the buta bara ($2) or pork belly. It was well rendered so wasn’t too fatty, yet still have enough of the fat that there was a tender gelatinous bite to the pork.


Another skewer, which isn’t part of the yakatori section was the chicken karaage ($6). The deep fried chicken was quite delicious, juicy and tender. Complete with a dish of mayonnaise and ketchup it at least provided patrons with the option to season it to their tastes.


An interesting sounding dish was the yakionigiri ($3) described simply as a charcoal grilled rice ball, with a choice of plum or konbu kelp in the middle. We opted for the plum version which tinted the middle of the rice a lovely pinky hue. In the end, there’s nothing different from what’s described – it was a ball of rice which is lightly grilled. The crispy toasted exterior was a nice contrast against the soft sticky rice but the yakinigiri needed some sort of sauce on it.


One of my favourite dishes of the night was the takowasabi ($4.50) a cold octopus mixture that’s spiked with plenty of wasabi. Unlike the other dishes which were relatively tame, the takowasabi certainly awakens your senses and clears out the sinus. But, more pieces of nori are required as the amount of mixture far outweighs what could be wrapped. I ended up adding some of it to the grilled rice ball (yakionigiri) which also helped calm the blast of wasabi down a bit.


Our table was quite excited when the dekitate tofu ($7) arrived, a fresh tofu that’s made table side. Unfortunately, ours didn’t work out very well and hadn’t set. Our waiter immediately took it back to prepare a new one for us – this time doing it in the kitchen and checking it to make sure it’s done correctly. We were pleasantly surprised with the finished product – piping hot silken tofu that can be seasoned to your heart’s content with the salt, pepper and ponzu they provide. The soy was finely grounded so it’s not as grainy as other tofus and delicately flavoured. Even if you don’t normally like tofu you may enjoy the dish so it’s worth a try.


Our waiter was customer service savvy enough to give us a complementary portion of the tofu & kaisou salad ($7) to tide us over while waiting for the table side tofu dish. The cubes of ponzu jelly tossed throughout really helps awaken what otherwise could be a boring cube of cold tofu with spring mix. This tofu salad certainly held its ground against the ones I’ve had at Bent and Zen.


To finish, our waiter treated us to the beer sorbet ($5) and sake ice cream ($5).  You could certainly taste the alcoholic content in both. Personally, I found that each of the desserts by itself was forgettable and the beer sorbet too bitter - especially since I had just finished a glass of the sweet Kintori white sangria ($7). But mixed together the sorbet and ice cream became a much better dessert with the ice cream sweetening the sorbet and the sorbet adding a nice crunch against the creamy ice cream.


On a side note the sangria was a bit disappointing – really wine with some pear juice in it. When I had read the menu describing it with lychee, orange and pear I was expecting actual wedges of the fruit. Alas, it arrived with only one lonely slice of orange. In my opinion, the sake was a much better option. Our table shared a 10oz portion of the junmai ginjo ($25) and it was a very easy going with hints of fruity sweetness (without being actually sweet).


Kintori is a welcomed addition to the family - a nice alternative to the loud screaming of Guu and as much as I love JaBistro, Kintori is a more wallet friendly. If only they extended the time they take reservations it would be so much better. 
 

 Overall mark - 8 out of 10

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 ____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!



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