Photo Diary: February 2015

My tassimo is my bff in the mornings

Happy to have spent Valentines with this one :)

Skating at Nathan Phillips Square

Went skiing in Tremblant for a weekend!

Love seeing the sunrise on my way to work

Love these cute messages on the Yogi teabags

Got eyelash extensions for the first time - love them

Lake Ontario is so pretty like this

I'm going to be a CPA, CA!

Beavertails :9

I have officially jumped on the iPhone train (and started a fitness phase)

So many hearts this month :)

Life is Better

Don't forget,

xo

Café Boulud

Café Boulud has been on my list of places to visit for a while now, and I am so happy I finally got a chance to go! Located in the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville, it is really easy to find and is on the upper floor above dbar.

We started off with bread and these savoury petit fours. We weren't too sure what they were but it tasted like a hybrid between mashed potatoes and cauliflower with a ketchup-tabasco sauce on top. It was good!

All four of us opted for the Digby Scallops for our appetizer. The scallops were seared with brown butter to have a hazelnut crust, and it was paired with celeriac gremolata foam. It was a really interesting texture, but the scallops were to die for. I could eat 10 of these and still want more!

For my main, I ordered the Pink Salmon on top of a bed of smoked spelt and brussels sprouts in a mushroom broth. The salmon was cooked well and it flaked off easily. The spelt paired really well with the broth. The broth had sort of an Asian influence, which I enjoyed.

The only one at the table that didn't get the salmon got the Cumbrae Beef “Pot au Feu” with bone marrow, carrots, turnips, and potato. I had a piece of the meat and it was good - one of those 'fall off the bone' types of meats that was really tender. Yum!

For dessert, two of us ordered the Tropical Fruit Sundae with coconut ice cream, roasted pineapple, and passion fruit coulis. I didn't taste this but they said it was really good and refreshing. They really enjoyed the passion fruit sauce!

The other two of us ordered the Pear Chocolate Gateau, which was a chocolate square bar with three layers: a fudge layer for the base, poached pear filing, and a chocolate mousse on the top. On the side was another slice of pear, a scoop of hazelnut gelato and a sprinkle of hazelnuts. Oh my goodness, I hope I described it well enough because it was amazing. I would go back and order just this dessert because it was so good!! I know chocolate is my weakness but this was actually really good and I highly recommend this.

Unfortunately, my phone died right before dessert came :( as you can tell from the quality of my photos since I had to use snapchat to take them haha. But I really enjoyed my meal here at Cafe Boulud. The service was great and they explained all our dishes to us when it came. The atmosphere of the restaurant was posh but not overly sophisticated to make normal people (like me) feel out of place. While some people have a luxury of eating at these types of restaurants on the daily, I think that Cafe Boulud would be a great place for a birthday or any other type of celebratory dinner. I would come back in a heartbeat, and I can't say that about a lot of places.

M Square Coffee

I visited M Square (@msquarecoffeeco) back when it just opened. I saw articles on BlogTO about it and I decided to mission over there (a 15 minute walk from my office!!! That is a mission haha) to see how it was for myself.

It was empty when I got there (Yay! I did not meet rush hour) but mainly it was because I got lost lol I had to really walk around to find it. But once you see it, it's obvious. I loved the seating area and the open concept of the windows.

I ordered a Vanilla Soy Latte, my go-to now when I am feeling something more creamy as opposed to my americano.

If M Square wasn't so far, I would definitely visit more often. But if I am ever in this area, I would make my way down to the Path to get my fix here.

Bikkuri Japanese Restaurant

Sushi!!!! I can't have a month go by without having a post about sushi :)

I came here on a Thursday night and it was dead. I think for the hour and a half I was there, there was only one other table. Weird because it's not like Bikkuri is a small space. There are so many tables...just weird. Anyways!

We started off with salad and miso soup.

Spicy Salmon Roll and Salmon Sashimi

Spicy Salmon Roll, Salmon Sushi, and a Salmon handroll

Tuna handroll

Can you kind of tell that we love salmon?

If I had to summarize my experience here in one word, that one word would be 'meh'. It was good but nothing stood out. The proportion of rice to fish on the nigiri wasn't ideal (too much rice), but the spicy salmon was good. I'm not sure I would return for a full meal, but it is convenient since it is just a couple minutes away from my work so we'll see :)

Ruelo Patisserie

I'll just start off the post by being honest. I only came to Ruelo because there was a Groupon for high tea, and I think everyone else that was there that day was there for the same reason.

There is a smaller Ruelo location in Times Square on Highway 7 in Richmond Hill and I have been to that one. I've always ordered my birthday cakes from there, but I have never been to this location before.

Here is our three-tiered high tea set.

The bottom layer was for the savoury pastries that included Italian prosciutto wrapped grilled pepper, mini shrimp salad sandwich served on a crispy crouton, mini Atlantic smoked salmon sandwich on a scone and daily quiche.

The middle tier contained two chocolate croissants and scones with Devon cream and Kusmi jam.

The top tier were the sweet desserts,which included macarons (raspberry and coffee), crème brûlée, and a mini cheesecake.

It also came with a choice of tea or coffee. My mom chose tea, while I opted for coffee. We both enjoyed our meals to the extent that we could. The bottom tier was our favourite! The scones were very hard and thus, hard to eat. And the crème brûlée was undercooked... I was not very pleased. Also the service was horrendous. I don't know why they bother having so many tables if there is no one out front anyways. Either way, although I had a decent time here, it was not due to Ruelo (more because I was just chatting with my mom) and I will definitely not be returning to this place for high tea, even if it is cheap.