Ki Modern Japanese & Bar

The newest addition to the Shangri-la hotel is Ki, a Japanese fusion restaurant located on the second floor. Before coming here, all I knew was that there was another restaurant in Toronto and that this was a high end restaurant.

First impressions was that this was a large restaurant with expensive decor and an open layout. Offering small plates as well as mains; classical Japanese as well as fusion dishes, this restaurant seems to be having an identity crisis.


Seafood salad with spicy sauce. The sauce and the seaweed was served in a fried wonton cup. Presentation aside, the fish was fishy tasting, an indication that they were not using very fresh fish.


Tuna toro.


spider roll. A good roll, available at most sushi restaurants.


Kiwi tuna and the shrimp rice roll. The kiwi tuna had good visual appeal, but I did not really find the kiwi adding any flavor to the roll. The shrimp rice roll was reminiscent of a Vietnamese salad roll, but without any dipping sauce, the rice roll was a little dry.



Grilled Veal Chop with marinated king mushroom. By far the best dish on the menu. Shiso did no really add to this dish. The veal was cooked to a perfect medium rare. Juice and tender.



Creamy Miso Chowder with assorted seafood. Good balance between the cream and miso.



grilled shrimp and scallop skewer with mango sauce. Grilled just right. Sauce adds a sweetness which I found unnecessary as the seafood itself was quite flavorful already.



Grilled pork belly. This is more Chinese than Japanese. The pork pieces were too think making the dish too heavy. Thinner slices might have had a better effect.


Japanese Style Ceviche with sake, saba and amaebi. IMO the saba was too fishy to go into this dish. It overpowers the sweetness of the shrimp.


In conclusion,

• Liked the decor, the veal and the chowder.
• Did not like the pricing and many of the fusion dishes. Too much fluff that did not add to the flavor.
• This place may have been better marketed as a western restaurant than as a Japanese restaurant, as the better dishes all had little Japanese influences.
• Too overpriced to be worth a revisit. With Market just next door offering a $29 3 course lunch that is hard to beat, no wonder this place is so quite during lunch hour.
  

My version of guu seafood pizza

The last time I was at Guu with Garlic, I tried their scallop pizza and found the taste inspiring. Instead of a tomato based sauce, this used a Japanese Mayo instead. The pizza uses a regular crust but the creamier mayo and cheese combination was what I fell in love with.



My version of this pizza dawned on me the other night as I was making dinner. This takes literally less than 10 minutes to assemble and 5 minutes to cook.

Ingredients:

• Trader Joe's Naan Masala
• Japaneese Mayo
• Sharp cheddar cheese
• Fresh ground pepper
  
• Seafood of your choice. I used some small squid pieces, but any other seafood will do.

Grate the cheese finely , for the 2 pieces of naan I used about 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar and a little more to sprinkle on top. Add in about 3 tablespoons of mayo, and some fresh ground pepper and mix well. Add more mayo if needed. You just need enough to bind everything together.

Spread a thin layer of the mayo cheese mixture on the naan, add your seafood, and then finish with a sprinkle of cheese.

Put it into the toaster oven on the broil feature until seafood is cooked and cheese melted, around 5 minutes.

A meal in 15 minutes!! I like using the Naan masala a the stronger flavor holds up to the sharp chedder while adding its own favor to the dish.

This is a fool proof recipe that I will defintitely use again. You can also try other types of cheeses, but nothing too heavy as that would overpower all the seafood. I love how versatile the japanese mayo and cheese base works with all sorts of ingredients.

Thank you Guu for this meal!!

Malaysian good eats

What can I say but that I love all Malaysian food. This is just a small selection of the food choices and if I could eat 24/7 I would.

The foods below include roti, prawn mee, cham, laksa, dry curry.

There is nothing that is comparable here...

If I ever find some authentic recipes I would definitely try it. I would love it if anyone can share some recipes with me.

Roti Canai with curry sauce


Prawn Mee


Curry chicken mee


Dry chicken curry mee


Milk tea with glass jelly - very refreshing!



Durian.. yummy!

Dragon I - One Utama

Dragon I is a chain store in Kuala Lumpur specializing in fresh noodles and dumplings. We came to the restaurant at one utama on a Friday afternoon and found it to be pretty full. There are two chefs making dumplings in the front window.

We ordered the braised fish la mien (fresh hand pulled noodles), the seafood sweet and sour la mien, mapo tofu rice, pork rice, the dumplings, fried tofu, and onion pancake.

braised fish la mien

seafood sweet and sour la mien

Pan fried onion pancake.

Fried tofu

Seafood crispy noodle

For lunch, the noodles ranged from rm14-28 which is mid pricing for lunch here.

The dumpling skin is thin, but the dipping had too much msg. The noodle dishes had fresh noodle, but the noodle was a little too thin, so it did not have much bite to it. I liked the deep fried tofu as the skin was thin and crispy and not oily.

In general food came quickly and was consistent. Service was not as efficient as we had to flag down people to refill our drinks. This is however, a general trend at most local restaurants.

Gyo-o restaurant

This is another restaurant from the gyoza king chain. located at continental centre in Richmond, this cozy restaurant was surprizngly full for a weekday night. Unlike a few of the other restaurants from the same chain, they have a much longer menu encompassing all japaneese food styles, from oden, to ramen, sushi, gyoza, don, udon and sushi. The wall decor and paintings gave the restaurant a vibrant yet welcoming feel.

We ordered a clam ramen, gyoza and a squid and fish egg rice. The plum sauce on the gyoza gave it more depth although the gyoza skin was a little thicker than the one at gyoza king. The ramen uses small clams to give the broth a light and fresh flavor. Their rice bowls are very large. The mayo sweetness and the saltiness of the fish eggs complements each other. Good value given its price.

Gyoza

Clam Ramen

Fish Egg rice.

What I liked : good location, nice decor, nice selection of rice dishes.

What I did not like: the menu was a little too big, sacrificing quality for quantity. The gyoza was not up to the gyoza king standard.

Mistral restaurant

Mistral on broadway

As a special treat we decided to come here around Christmas time for some nice and heavy French fare.

Our sitting was at 7:45 on a Friday and the restaurant was packed when we arrived. We were printout seated and given the menu to peruse. we decided on 3 appetizers and 2 mains.
Escargot , chantrelle mushroom salad, large charcuterie plate.

large charcuterie plate

Chantrelle mushroom salad

Escargot

We like that the appetizers were served swiftly. Although they were very busy, the server was attentive enough to refill.our water and bread for the first round quickly. I loved that there was a diverse selection on the charcuterie plate. My favorite being the duck pate and the bison prosciutto.

Braised rabbit

Seafood stew.

Of the 2 mains, the rabbit was the winner. There was more depth to the dish whereas the seafood stew was just overpowered by the heaviness of the cream.

The winner for the night was the pear tart. Fresh crispy pastry with thinly sliced pears and caramel sauce and a side of vanilla ice cream.

I loved the attentive service and intimate setting, but IMO some of the dishes were not that unique. Given the price point there are other french restaurants in the area that offer better quality and value. I do like this restaurant but there are other options that win over it.

Homemade Moussaka

Moussaka, a combination of the recipe from Michael Smith, plus the bechamel sauce from Ricardo.

I can't take any credit for this as it was made by my bf. Although a little heavy on the cinnamon, the dish was full of depth and had a little spicy kick to it. The bechamel sauce, (which I made) used sharp goat Gorgonzola as well as some fresh mozzarella. The goat Gorgonzola had enough sharpness to replace the Parmesan that the recipe asked for.

The addition of mushrooms to the top layer of the dish also helped to make this a very substantial main.

We paired it with a quinoa, squash and zucchini salad and some spagettini. Both sides were great with this dish.