#FoodPornFriday - Our anniversary staycation at The Grove Hotel

Today's #FoodPornFriday I flashback to our Wedding Anniversary back in May. Often we go out of town for our anniversary but this year we decided to stay local for various family reasons and to save some money. We decided on Kingsville for our staycation.

Normally when we go to Kingsville we stay at Jack's Gastropub. More accurately, we stay at INN31, upstairs at Jacks. This wasn't an option this time, but my wife found The Grove Hotel just down the street and we decided to check it out. 

The Grove Hotel is a historic building in Kingsville (it's from 1854) that was recently renovated. A big part of that renovation was adding The Grove Brew House to the side of the existing hotel. The Brew House is a high-end brewpub serving a wide variety of beers, booze, and food. 

My wife managed to get us the Brewmaster Suite, which was an awesome room. Besides being huge, with a nice big sized bed, lots of tables (great for gaming on), it also had one of the coolest features I've ever experienced in a hotel room: a door leading into the brewpub with a private balcony. That's right we had our own private access to the pub, with a cool balcony that was also wide enough to fit some games on. 

We had a lot of beers on that patio and played quite a few games of Azul. It was awesome to be able to sit out there, go back into the room for a bit, use the washroom and go back out. We were even able to bring some drinks back into the room at the end of the night.

About those drinks. Grove currently has 7 beers in their Brewmaster Series, which you can get any time. These include a Blood Orange Hefeweizen, a Lager, Four Ales (Cream, Brown, IPA and APA) and a Stout. They also have seasonal beers they call One Hit Wonders. Right now there are four, including a Sour, a Marzen, an Altbier and a Porter. Of all the beers I tried the Clubhouse Stout, George The Ghost Hefeweizen and the Chocolate Salted Caramel Porter were the best. The fact they are actually a brewery also means that you can get any of their great beers to go. Though we did learn that they often run out of growlers so the One Hit Wonders may not be available for takeout. 

The Grove Brew House also serves food. One night we took advantage of their late night menu and had some flatbread pizza that was rather good. It had chorizo on it, and that's never a bad thing. At some point we plan on going back and getting a full meal, it's just that there are so many amazing places to eat in Kingsville. 

Now the bad news: it's not cheap. Flights of beer cost more here than anywhere else in Kingsville. The Brewmaster Suite was over $200 a night. The flatbread pizza was $18. Now those aren't crazy prices and you get what you pay for, but it's more than we pay to stay and drink down the street at Jack's. 

Overall, we were impressed with both the hotel and the brewpub portion of the new upgraded Grove. I know the shots of our private balcony I shared on social media during the stay were very popular and I know at least one person who called to try to book a wedding reception. It is a rather cool place to stay. 

#SushiSaturday We finally got to try The Dragonfly Sushi Bar

Between having to work afternoon shift and things like getting the kids out to Camp Cedarwin I haven't been free Friday nights. This means I haven't had a chance to do a #FoodPornFriday post for some time. I feel bad about this. So today I present a special #SushiSaturday post featuring some of the most appealing sushi ever.

The Dragonfly Sushi Bar opened up in Windsor quite a while ago. It's a small place located at 1567 Ottawa Street and is very easy to miss if you don't know it's there.

I remember a lot of buzz when it opened. I kept hearing that this was the place to go. That the chef (Shane Cushing) was the best in the city and one of the best sushi chefs in Canada. It seems everyone else heard this too as my wife and I were never able to get in. It doesn't help that they have very limited hours and are very small. Now I realize all I had to do was call ahead and get reservations, but that would require more pre-planning that we usually have when deciding to eat out.

Back on May 25th my wife and I found ourselves kid free and looking for somewhere to eat. I wanted to try somewhere new and headed towards India Paradise, a new Indian place on Ottawa street. On the drive there we passed Dragonfly and I noted that they were open. When we got to India Paradise it looked like they were closed (more about that if I ever post about India Paradise) so we headed back to Dragonfly and actually managed to get in and get a seat.

I'm so glad we got in that day. Dragonfly serves the freshest fish I've ever eaten. The tuna was like butter. It melted in your mouth. I'm not a fan of sashimi (the actual raw fish that many people think all sushi is), but my wife is. She insisted I try her tuna and OMG it was so good. Everything was excellent. We ordered a mix of rolls both ones from the menu and daily specials. I also got a Panko Pork Slider that was also a daily special. That Pork Slider is one of the most delicious things I've ever put in my mouth.

Everything we had was excellent. Ridiculously fresh and well made. I'm not sure how to get across just how special this was. Let's put it this way, I didn't think food could taste this fresh. I've eaten a lot of food. I had a definition of amazing fresh food in my head based on that experience and Dragonfly caused me to raise that bar, to redefine my idea of fresh sushi.

With all that said, this has got to be my favourite sushi place in the city now, right? Surprisingly no. It's up there, way up there, but there were some things that I wasn't a big fan of. The sashimi is amazing, but it's still not the kind of thing I want for a meal. Added to that almost every single roll had shrimp in it, most of it cooked shrimp. I'm not really a shrimp fan and when I do eat it I like it chilled. Now I could tell that it was amazing and perfectly prepared but it wasn't a taste for me. Like when I have a great IPA, I can tell it's a good IPA but I'm still not a fan of IPAs.

Now I'm certain that this is the perfect taste for someone, probably lots of people. You honestly can't get better ingredients or better-prepared sushi anywhere in the city. If you dig shrimp and lots of sesame and crispily fried root vegetables and edge seared eel you are going to love Dragonfly. If you like sushi at all you owe it to yourself to try Dragonfly at least once. For us it's going to be a now and then sushi place. I'm certain sometime in the future my wife or I will get a sushi craving and say: let's go back to The Dragonfly Sushi Bar and when we do I don't expect to be at all disapointed. I just hope they have panko pork sliders as a special that day. 

The VIP treatment at Paramount Fine Foods

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the grand opening and ribbon cutting of Paramount Fine Foods new Windsor location. They had found my blog on facebook and were cool enough to send me an invite. I mean an actual physical invite, that showed up in a VIP box along with some rose shaped, pink coloured, Baklava. It was a nice touch. 

Paramount Middle Eastern Cuisine is a new Lebanese Restaraunt that opened up at the Windsor South SmartCenters outdoor mall at 3184 Dougal, unit A5. The "WalMart Plaza on Dougal" to most locals. What I didn't know before attending this event is that this is Paramount's 60th location. Yes, 60.  Paramount began as one Middle Eastern Restaurant in Mississauga and has spread quickly and is now one of the fastest growing chains in Canada, 

The first thing we noticed when we entered Paramount was a kids' play area off to the right. It's a walled-in floor to ceiling thing that you usually only see at places like McDonald's. I don't think I've ever seen one of these anywhere that wasn't fast food or something built around play areas like Chucky Cheese. It seemed a bit odd to me but also pretty cool. It also made me wish we had brought the kids.

My wife and I were offered a choice of either having a table to ourselves off to the side and ordering off the menu or joining the grand opening celebrations, which featured ala carte items constantly flowing from the kitchen to the floor on platters by the wait staff. A third option was also offered and it's what we took: both. We found a seat in the midst of their other invited guests and browsed the menu while trying some amazing appetizers and juice. Of these, I strongly recommend the Cheese Manakeesh and the Cocktail Juice.

I was very pleased to see that the Paramount menu was not the same menu you seem to find at every Lebanese place in the city. Yes, it has all of the usual stuff: the huge family platters, the shawarma wraps, the Shish-Tawook, tabbouleh etc. But you will also find Saj Wraps, the Manakeesh I already mentioned, Arayess (stuffed Kafta), and even burgers and wood-fired Pizza. It's also worth noting they serve breakfast which includes Lebanese specialties like Fatteh as well as fried eggs or an omelet.

My wife decided on the Tabliya Saj Chicken Shawarma and I went with the Sujuk or Spicy Sausage. Paramount tossed in a Mezza Plate (Moutabbal, Tabbouleh & Hummus) and some fresh hot bread, to go with our meals. My Sujuk was very good. The sausage was very well cooked and was hot without being too spicy. I got it with rice which was also good. I was impressed, but it didn't hold a candle to my wife's Saj wrap. That Saj wrap was the highlight of the meal for both of us. It was so good. My plans for our next trip are to combine our two meals. They offer a Sujuk Sausage Saj wrap as well and that's what I plan on trying on our next visit.

While eating, we were constantly offered various samples of other items off the menu and I have to admit I didn't try anything I didn't like. Everything looked great and tasted great. There was so much food floating around that night it was kind of magical. Both my wife and I ate well and probably ate too much. Then they insisted we have dessert.

For dessert, they brought out the Paramount Special. Layers of fresh strawberry and mango juice with mixed fruits, topped with fresh strawberry, kiwi, pineapple almonds, crushed pistachio, ashta cream and honey, This thing was amazing but neither of us had the room to finish it which was a bit of a shame.

In addition to the food, it was quite the party. As well as live music and many people doing the meet and greet thing, they also gave people a chance to try to bake some bread and I even got to learn how to shave some chicken shawarma. I have to like any place that trusts me with a sharp knife.

The night wrapped up with a series of speeches and presentations. Most of these about the Paramount chain and brand and lots of congratulations for opening their 60th location. There was one part of this that I think needs to be shared. One of the things Paramount is about is giving back to the community and while we were there they put their money where their mission statement is and presented a $10,000 cheque to the Windsor Cancer Center Foundation.

It's awesome to see places like Paramount who are so generous and willing to give back to the community they are part of. Especially when giving to a community they have just joined. All of this made for a very pleasant and memorable night. One my wife and I won't forget anytime soon. I realize that the entire point of the thing was to make an impression and it worked.

Windsor has its fair share of Lebanese restaurants but I honestly think Paramount sticks out. Both in the quality of food and service and their dedication to giving back to the local community. I fully plan on heading back, next time with the whole family. Though I'm going to leave the shawarma shaving to them. 

#SadNewsSaturday - Sad news about Capri Pizza

Yes it's Saturday morning. No this isn't a #FoodPornFriday post. I'm a bad blogger. I spent the last few Friday's at work on afternoons. Last night I had a Friday night off. I probably should have used that to blog. Instead, I got a take-out Panzerotti from Windsor Pizza, tried out some of my Motor Craft Ales Members Club beers and played a ton of Destiny 2. So sorry, I didn't write about food last night.

To make up with it, I'm here with #SadNewsSaturday. I don't expect this to actually be a thing. Actually, I really hope it doesn't become a thing. I don't want to have enough sad news to be able to post every Saturday. Hopefully, this will be the one and only #SadNewsSaturday. 

Last week I learned the very sad news that the original Capri Pizza location on Dougal has closed the restaurant side. You can no longer head there to eat in and drink a pitcher of MacLean's Amber Ale. You can't go there for Panzerotti Wednesday where you could get buy one and get one free. Now the only way to get Carpi in Windsor is to either pick it up or get it delivered. 

This bums me out as I really enjoyed eating in at Capri. Besides the obvious advantage of fresh hot Windsor Style Pizza (and draft beer), the atmosphere in there was great. One wall was covered with classic Windsor Pictures. There were articles on the wall going back to when Capri first opened. The place had history. 

I was really hoping to make it there one more time before they closed but it just wasn't meant to be. Goodbye, eat in at Capri. I will miss you.

#FoodPornFriday - Wizards of Walkerville Boardgame Bistro and Bar

The reason you didn't see a #FoodPornFriday post last weekend was the fact that it was the annual Extra Life weekend. This is a charity gaming event that I help run and organize every year as part of the Windsor Gaming Resource. It was a very successful weekend. The awesome gamers of Windsor Ontario raised $3390 U.S. for the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals.

This week I feature one of the amazing local businesses that were part of our Extra Life event this year: The newly opened Wizards of Walkerville Boardgame Bistro and Bar. Over the course of the Extra Life weekend, my wife and I stopped in many times to see how things were going and ate there for both breakfast and lunch. 

Wizards of Walkerville (Wizards from now on) is located at the corner of Hall and Ottawa.  Currently, it's more of a restaurant/cafe that happens to have an amazing selection of board games to play. That will be changing when they get the basement gaming area open. As it stands it's still awesome mainly due to how damn good the food is. This is seriously good food. This includes the coffee which is some kind of special blend (sorry not a coffee snob, so I don't remember what's special about it, I just know it's good). The fact that they also have games to play is just a very cool added bonus.

As far as the games go they have a fantastic range of games. There's all of the classics: Clue, Monopoly, Connect Four etc. Along with those they have a really good selection of party and family games. For the hardcore gamers, you can even find amazing hobby strategy games like Scyth and Terraforming Mars. I challenge any tabletop gamer to go in there and not find something that fits their taste.

Back to the food. For breakfast Saturday morning I tried the Ol' Fashion French Toast. That's the main pic up there. This is pumpkin spice blend french toast, with toasty pecan coating. It came with a cardamon maple "Ol' Fashion inspired" maple syrup blend. It was some of the best French Toast I've had. There was the option to get bacon but I somehow missed that on the menu. 

The other item I tried, for lunch on Sunday, just before the Extra Life event ended at 3pm, was the Par-Cheesy with a side of Italian Wedding Soup. The Par-Cheesy is their grilled cheese. The thing with this is that the cheese blend changes each week. Mine was a mix of mozzarella, provolone, and asiago (If I remember correctly). This was really good, but not quite as good as that french toast. That's it over there on the left.

Overall I think Wizards is awesome. I'm looking forward to when the gaming area opens up and when the Bar part of their name becomes a reality. In addition to being a cool place to play and learn new games, they have really good food. I strongly suggest checking them out. 

#FoodPornFriday - sometimes there's nothing better than traditional bacon and eggs

I post a wide variety of #foodporn on here. Quite a bit of it people would consider fancy. It's not the stuff mom used to cook. I've noticed a big trend here in Windsor of more gourmet foods showing up everywhere. Words like Aoili, Bechamel, Carcuterie, and Quenelle show up on more menus every day. This isn't a bad thing, in no way. But sometimes you just want something "normal".

To me, there's nothing more simple and basic and normal, than Bacon and Eggs. This is comfort food at it's finest as long as it's cooked right. That's the kicker though. Pretty much any place that opens before 10am serves meat, eggs, and potato, but so few actually get it right.

For those few weeks, I was living back at my parent's place taking care of my dad we made a new daily habit. That was going to Pete's Place. Personally, I like my eggs "over medium" which to me means flipped over, yolks still liquid and all whites cooked through without being overcooked and having crispy bits. I like my bacon a bit under crisp, you can bend it but eventually, it will break. I like my potatoes with a bit a seasoning salt. Pete (yes the owner and cook of Pete's place is named Pete) nails this every time. 

As an added bonus, it's cheap. Really cheap if you get there before 11am. A plate of bacon and eggs before 11am is under $5. That's unheard of nowadays. I will fully admit it's not the fanciest place. It's pretty much the Wikipedia page image for a greasy spoon and they don't even take debit. It's exactly the kind of place you expect to find a great plate of eggs.

You can check out Pete's for yourself at 381 Wyandotte St. East. Right across from the big park in front of Water World near The Barn. 

#FoodPornFriday featuring my all time favourite comfort food: Hot Hamburger.

I love sushi. I love a flavorful steak. I love bacon wrapped panko encrusted chicken stuff with ricotta and spinach. Sometimes though I just want something traditional. But, sometimes I want some good old fashioned comfort food. So this #FoodPornFriday I'm sharing this pic of my favorite comfort food: Hot Hamburger.

I love a good Hot Hamburger. To me, a good Hot Hamburger has to be a freshly made beef patty and has to come with mashed potatoes, never fries. The rest can be changed up. A side of veg? Sure. Chicken gravy instead of beef gravy? Sure I'll try that. Swap that white bread for biscuits? No wait, the bread should be white bread. I guess I'm a bit pickier than I thought.

I'm guessing many Windsorites can guess in an instant where this particular Hot Hamburger came from. If the placemat menu doesn't give it away the wood table should. The Lumberjack has been a Windsor staple since 1980. I remember going there when it first opened and it was much, much smaller than it is now (and so was I). My biggest memory of that trip was the heaping mound of mashed potatoes my meal came with. I remember being reminded of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I don't remember what meal I got with that huge mound of potatoes but I'm willing to bet good money it was a Hot Hamburger.

#FoodPornFriday featuring breakfast poutine from TOAST

#FoodPornFriday is back. At least this week since I'm off work. I'm hoping to try to keep it up in 2017. I'm aiming for every week but will be happy with myself if I get something up at least once a month.

My wife has a new favourite breakfast place here in Windsor: TOAST. This year there was one thing my wife asked that we make sure to do during the holiday time off for work: go to TOAST for breakfast. She got some money from an Aunt and that's what she wanted to spend it on.

TOAST is located at 653 Erie St. East. Right across the street from Spago. They only serve breakfast and lunch and are open from 7am to 3pm every day of the week. 

What you see pictured above is the amazing Breakfast Poutine. Potatoes covered in beef gravy, scallions, chunks of bacon and cheese curds, topped with two eggs cooked to your liking (over medium for me). This was fantastic. I was a bit leery of beef gravy with eggs, it just didn't sound right but man it all went together really well. I hate to say it but this beats out the breakfast poutine at both Twisted Apron and The St. Joachim Diner. 

In addition to amazing breakfast TOAST has an amazing selection of coffee, espresso and lattes. Which is probably a given due to their location in Little Italy. My wife has said that their cappuccino is the best in the city. TOAST is still pretty new, they just opened in August 2016. If you haven't had a chance to check them out I strongly recommend heading in some time. 

You've got to get to Motor Burger on a Tuesday and try a Mozza'rati

This intriguing beauty is a Mozza'rati. A new 'burger' only available at Motor Burger and only available on Tuesdays.  Even on a Tuesday they are in limited supply and it may be worth contacting them to make sure they have some left before you go (though if you do go and they don't have any Mozza'rotti left there's tons of other awesome burgers to choose from, so it wouldn't really be much of a loss). Yesterday I finally got a chance to try one of these beauties for myself. 

So what exactly is it? It's an all beef burger with pepperoni wrapped in mozzarella cheese wrapped in pizza dough and baked. Served in a sea of tangy tomato sauce. 

It's just as good as it sounds. This burger combines two of my favourite things; Motor's amazing burgers and pizza. It's like someone read my mind and told them to make this just for me. The meat patty was perfectly cooked and spiced. The pepperoni wasn't too spicy. The sauce was a good tangy sweet. I guess the only thing I would have changed was to add more cheese and that shouldn't surprise anyone :D

Along with the Mozza'rati I feel the need to mention Motor Craft Ales. This local brewery is part of Motor Burger and includes a significant number of beers. Way more than I remember them serving last time we were there. Many are available to go as well as with your meal. Overall it feels like they stepped it up a notch. We tried four different beers while we were there and they were all excellent and each very distinct. 

A special mention goes out to the BMW 2.0 which is by far the best beer I've had from Motor Craft Ales and one of the best beers I've had from a Windsor brewery. The BMW is a Dunkelweizen, 7.4% ABV, 23.5 IBU. I found it very easy to drink, with a great balance of sweet fruit tastes and hoppy bitterness. It has some notes of banana and apple, but you couldn't really taste any booziness despite the high ABV. It went great with the Mozza'rati.

Toothsome is the coolest place I've ever eaten

Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen is part of City Walk Orlando just outside the gates of the Universal Orlando theme parks. It's also the coolest place I've ever eaten. 

Just look at that picture at the top. Isn't that sweet looking? What you can't see from this picture are the gears and wind turbines spinning and the steam coming out of the top. Toothsome (sorry I'm not typing that full name more than once) is a steampunk themed restaurant, gift shop, chocolatiere and malt shop.

The inside of the place is just as amazing as the outside. It's full of very cool steampunk decor, awesome knickknacks, themed candies, chocolates and staff all dressed in steampunk cosplay. Most of the bottom floor is the gift store and malt shop. The various shakes are so good that the wait time to get one can easily be over an hour. The gift store is filled with a huge assortment of candies and chocolates all with the steampunk theme. In addition they have a cool selection of steampunk themed household decorations. 

The back half of the first floor and the entire second floor is a huge restaurant that has to seat at least 200 people if not closer to 500. Everything sticks to the steampunk theme. There are even giant 3D video walls that make the place look even bigger on the inside by showing the rest of the Emporium at work. With automatons whizzing about and crates of chocolate being made to be shipped out and consumed. There are copper pipes everywhere. Everything is metallic and shiny. The theme is everywhere and the detail is wondrous.

The most amazing part of all of this is that the food was just as good as the decor and theme. Nearly every dish is made with chocolate. They even have a fantastic chocolate stout (named Too Chocolate Stout) that is brewed exclusively for Toothsome. This was the 2nd best chocolate beer I've ever had, beat only by BNL from Flying Monkeys (which you can never get again, sadly). Our meal at Toothsome was the best meal of our entire trip to Orlando, by far.

The menus themselves are beautiful leather bound books that contain a good variety of items. Most of the menu was signature sandwiches and burgers but there were also larger entrees. The appetizer list alone is enough to get anyone drooling. 

Before we even finished reading the menu they brought us a loaf of this incredible chocolate bread with our drinks. This alone set the tone for the meal. It was so good! Chocolaty but still savory. Not in any way a dessert. I could have probably sat there and just had chocolate stout and chocolate bread all night.

Our family started the meal with pork belly sliders with chocolate coated bacon as an appetizer and that, again, had us saying we had to come back. I also ordered some French Onion Soup that turned out to be better than the soup from Windsor's own Ye Olde Steak House (man I miss that place). For a main I got a Croque-Monsieur, my wife got the Forest Mushroom Pizza, my mother in law tried the Chicken Bercy and the kids got some pasta with red sauce I can't remember the name of. We were also treated to a Rice Krispies Shake. Everything was fantastic and I'm not just saying that because Universal Orlando picked up the bill. Seriously, this was damn fine food. 

At some point during your meal at Toothsome you can expect to meet Professor Doctor Penelope Tibeaux-Tinker Toothsome with her robot Jacques. The pair that, at least as far as the theme and story of the place goes, opened the Chocolate Emporium. Jacques was one of the most well done automaton cosplays I've ever seen, complete with remotely broadcast slightly robotic voice. The pair explained the story behind Toothsome and stopped for photo ops with the kids. In addition to this personal touch, the service overall was top notch. The staff were jumping out of their pants to help us and take care of our every need. To be honest this was true of every place we checked out in Universal Orlando.

One thing that I think is well worth noting: because Toothsome is part of the Orlando City Walk and not actually located inside one of the Universal theme parks, you don't need a park entry ticket to eat there. It's open to the public and anyone can just walk up and check the place out. You can check out the gift shop, order a shake or sit down to a fantastic meal. Though if you are going for a meal reservations are very strongly recommended. 

For me, the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen (okay, I typed it out twice, happy now?) was the highlight of our family trip to Orlando. The entire trip was great but my favourite part was checking this place out the first day and eating dinner there the next. If you are ever in the area you really have to check this place out. Unless maybe you don't like chocolate. But who doesn't like chocolate?

P.S. Even if you don't like chocolate or have some form of chocolate allergy (I am so sorry for you) there are plenty of things on the menu that don't actually have chocolate in them. Like this Rice Krispies Shake:

#FoodPornFriday Breakfast Poutine from the St. Joachim Diner

My wife and I have been meaning to try the St. Joachim Diner for a couple years now. It was featured on You Gotta Eat Here and I've heard nothing but good things. The problem is that it's not really close to home. St. Joachim is about an hour drive for us. That's a long way to go just for food. 

What finally changed that is that I learned that there is an outdoor farmers market in Belle River on Sundays. The same day as the farmer's market at the Riverside Sportsman's club. Now if I start out from my house and head out to Tecumseh, I'm about half way to Belle River. Then if I continue on to Belle River, it's really not all that far to St. Joachim. Sounds like a good way to spend a Sunday morning eh?

Well that's exactly what we did last weekend and it was awesome. Got some great cheese, baked goods and vegetables at the farmers market and found out exactly why the St. Joachim Diner has the reputation it does. 

The place looks like it's right out of the 70s. The outside looks, well, lets just say I wouldn't stop there if it hadn't been strongly recommended. But man the food is good! The portions are huge. The menu has a great selection of items. They were great with the kids and have a great kids menu.

That huge picture up there is their version of Breakfast Poutine, which was only $9.50 for that huge plate of food. That is a plate of fresh cut home fries topped with bacon, ham, sausage, tomatoes, green onions, montreal style cheese curds, and a poached egg, all smothered in hollandaise.

The real shining piece of the dish was those fresh cut home fries. They were amazing. They reminded me of the Irish Nachos from The Kildare House (which they may or may not still serve, but I used to love). I strongly suggest whatever you order for breakfast you get something with those fries. The rest of it was amazing as well, but the fries made the dish.

My wife got the Fish Taco which really wasn't a taco, but rather a Naan wrap. She noted that it was amazing and one of the best things she's eaten. Ever. That after our great food filled trip to London last weekend.

We went for breakfast but will be heading back for dinner at some point. I really want to try the burgers that got them on You Gotta Eat Here. Especially The County Road Pizza, which is a Burger not a pizza. Here, just read this description: 7oz. burger with panko fried mozzarella, sauteed pepperoni, bacon and tomato sauce on a fresh baked bun, served with breaded mushrooms and creamy dill dip. 

Seriously if you haven't checked this place out yet and you are in Windsor Essex you need to fix that or you are doing yourself a disservice. I expect to be back many times. I expect that our 'farmer's market tour of essex county ending at the St. Joachim Diner' will become a regular Summer Sunday outing for us.

A monstrous helping of breakfast from The Early Bird

Had some amazing food this weekend in London, Ontario. A big thanks goes out to all the people who gave me some great suggestions on places to eat with a family of four with young kids. This is the first of a few #FoodPorn pics I'll be sharing from the trip.

This was our Saturday morning breakfast from a great small place downtown called The Early Bird.

This monstrosity is the Pancake Stacker. A half stack order. Yes I said the "half stack"! I can't even imagine how much food would be in a full stack. This could have fed out entire family of four. It consists of pancakes stacked and layered with smoked bacon, peameal bacon, potato hash and topped with a fried egg. All smothered in maple syrup.

Brew, a great addition to the Windsor craft beer scene

Last weekend my wife and I were blessed with a kid free Friday night. These are few and far between for us so we did our best to make the most of it.

We started off the night with a couple of beers at the Walkerville Brewery where I tried their new Amber beer (rather good, I used to love Ambers and this is a good example of the style). From there we walked over to The Twisted Apron for an amazing dinner. 

After our dinner, the waitress (going above and beyond) asked what our evening plans were and after we answered non-committally suggested we check out Brew, a new(ish) brew pub that opened up just east of downtown. I had heard about Brew before and had been meaning to check the place out for some time, so that became the plan.

Brew was pretty easy to find. It's a big grey building with the letters B R E W in the windows, just east of the Casino at 635 University East. There was parking at the church next door and across the street in an empty lot. While it's not in the best part of town I don't think it's anything anyone would need to worry about.

The actual tap room wasn't very big at all. I would estimate maybe 12 seats at the bar, four or so tall tables spread around the room, and four round tables, one in front of each window. The place can probably only really fit about eight 4-5 person parties, more if people are willing to stand. 

We were lucky in the fact that, just as we were coming in a group was leaving so we were able to get one of the tables. We were handed an appetizing menu that was mostly gourmet style flat bread pizzas and pretzels. As we were coming form The Twisted Apron we weren't looking for food. I will say that seeing what other people were eating, the food looked and smelled great. Putting the menu aside we got to what we came for: The Beer! 

At the time we were there Brew only had three taps. This looks like it's the standard as you could clearly see the three brewing vats from the tap room. I have to assume that they always have three taps. Based on their facebook page it looks like Brew rotates these taps constantly.

While there my wife and I tried two beers. 

The first was their Chocolate Stout. As I'm sure you can guess, that's the darker beer pictured above. 

It was okay. Not great but in no way bad. I think as far as Chocolate Stouts go I'm a bit spoiled by amazing brews like Flying Monkey's BNL. 

The second beer left a much better impression on me and is the reason I will be going back to Brew again. It was their Sour Wheat.

My wife loves sour beers, especially Lambics. The problem with sours is that they are very hard to find. I don't think they are very popular. So just finding one is an achievement in itself. I think it's awesome that there's a sour brewed right here in Windsor. It also helps that it was a really good, very easy to drink sour. It wasn't overpowering at all and was pleasant enough that I had to order a 2nd one before we moved on to enjoy the rest of our night.

So overall I do recommend you check out Brew. It's a great addition to the local Windsor beer scene. I think it's amazing to see how much the Windsor craft beer scene has grown. I'm loving it. My only caveat is that you may want to call ahead or be prepared to wait for a table as there isn't a lot of room in their tap room.

I'm totally craving sushi

Like many people in Windsor right now I'm laid off. The FCA Windsor Assembly plant is down for re-tooling and due to that many people are out of work right now. It's not just people that work at the plant, it's all the people working at the feeder plants as well (that's the boat I'm in).

Due to this lay off we've had to cut back on the eating out and 'premium' food. This means lots of lunch meat, peanut butter, wraps and KD. All of this has hit me hard today with a huge sushi craving.

I could totally go for some Hikari Japanese Restaurant. This is a higher end Sushi place downtown on Victoria that's in a restored manor. 

They recently just updated their menu and seem to have tried to go for even more high end food. There's a bunch of interesting looking tapas dishes, some flat breads and quite a few non-sushi items.

Hikari isn't cheap but the food is very good. The atmosphere is excellent and I find it's a great 'date place.' It's the sushi restaurant of choice for us to celebrate special occasions.

Or maybe I want some The Sushi California, just down the street, still downtown, on University.

I wrote up a review of this great place for Eyes On Windsor a couple years back. I loved it then and still really enjoy it now. 

I love the decor and atmosphere at The Sushi California. It just looks cool and authentic there. Much more casual than Hikari. 

The rolls there are huge, I don't think you can find larger rolls in the city. It's the one place we have to remember to order less food every time we go.

Heck I don't even need to eat in. I would be perfectly happy with take out from Niko Sushi. 

Not that there's anything wrong with eating in at Niko but we've found that they do the best take out Sushi in the city. I personally like to drive out to Tecumseh though the food is just as good from the Devonshire Mall. There are more options in Tecumseh.

I can't get enough of the Niko sauce and they have some of my favourite rolls ever. The Rainbow Roll being one both my wife and I love. The kids actually love Niko the best as well as they make great Avocado and Imitation Crab rolls that are not only good but cheap.

That's not to mention Sushi Guru in Walkerville or Tiki Sushi on Erie Street and a half dozen more that I haven't even tried yet. There's also all the All You Can Eat places around the city. Tenko, Tenka, Hoi, Koi. Oh man, there so many great places to get sushi in Windsor!

Okay, maybe writing a blog post about craving sushi when I'm craving sushi wasn't the best idea. Now I'm REALLY CRAVING SUSHI!

Where can you get the best poutine in Windsor?

The title there: "Where can you get the best poutine in Windsor?" is a legitimate question I want an answer to. I really want to know where to get the best poutine in Windsor.

The best I have found so far (and pictured here on this post) comes from Simon's Prime Hamburgers. I hear that Simon's started in Chatham and expanded to Windsor. The one that's downtown has been there for a few years and is a favourite of the 'after bar crowd.' I'll admit I've never tried that location. It's been many years since I've been part of any bar crowd, especially the one that's looking for greasy food after the bar.

A new Simon's opened fairly recently on Tecumseh Rd. East at Central. This is very close to work for me and has since become a favourite lunch stop. At first I stuck to their burgers (which are damn good) but eventually I tried their poutine. I stuck to the traditional poutine the first time and oh man it was good.

The cheese curds squeaked! That was one of the best parts. I think you have to be a certain kind of cheese fan to know that squeaky cheese is one of the best things on this earth. Simon's uses the right kind of curds, squeaky curds.

A few weeks later (yes it had to be weeks, Simon's poutine isn't an every day food, even for a Big Dude like me), upon the recommendation of some co-workers I tried the Cheddar and Bacon Poutine. There's a picture of this beauty at the top of the page. Just look at that.

The Cheddar Bacon Poutine was one of the best tasting things I've ever eaten. It was so good. Simon's regular poutine is good, but this was amazing. This was by far the best poutine I've had in Windsor.

Have you had Simon's Prime Hamburgers poutine? What did you think? Have you had anywhere better? Let me know in the comment section or contact me on social media. If there's something better out there I need to know!

Best breakfast I've had in Windsor in quite some time

Meat Lover's Bowl form Donna Mae's Diner

Yesterday was "Birthday Day." It was the day we celebrated my youngest daughter's birthday along with my wife's birthday. The day started with eating out for breakfast. I personally, wanted to go to Route 42, but my wife wanted to go to Paul's Kitchen and since the day was in her honour she won out.

Now I love Paul's, a lot, but it's small and often very busy. So busy that, most days, there's an extended wait to get a table. Yesterday was one of those days. Our kids, like most, aren't the most patient and I'm not a big fan of waiting in a waiting room with them for anything, so we decided to leave.

On the way to Paul's I noted that Donna Mae's was back at it's old location on Eugenie. We hadn't been to Donna Mae's since my oldest was in a high chair and all I remember is that they didn't have high chairs but had really good oatmeal.Instead of driving half way across the city we decided to give it another try.

I'm so glad we did. The breakfast we had yesterday was not only one of the best looking and tasting breakfasts we've had in some time, it was also very reasonably priced. For the four of us the entire meal, including tip came to under $28. The most expensive item was my meat lovers bowl (pictured above). It had fried cubed potatoes with bacon, sausage and ham on top. This was coated in fresh shredded cheddar and mozzarella and topped with an egg cooked how I wanted. I opted for "over medium" and they were cooked perfectly.

At the end of the meal both my wife and I noted that this was one of the best breakfast's we've  had in some time. I thought it was a pretty great way to start off "Birthday Day".