Toronto Food & Drink

The final chapter of our Canadian adventure………..

Two breweries were within walking distance and we definitely hit the jackpot with the first one. Yep, pretty much in the heart of the city.

This was a beer and brewery dreamed up in the spring of 1998 by three friends on a canoe trip in Ontario’s beautiful heartland. They live by the motto: Do one thing really, really well. What does that mean? They have 1 option, 1 beer, a pilsner – well kind of. You could ask for filtered or unfiltered. :) 

We needed a break from walking downtown Toronto and came upon this place and discovered they had a tour within the hour.

What a great tour. Before starting, you were handed their beer in a green bottle then started walking. They used only four ingredients, and the pilsner had a golden hue with aromatics of fresh baked bread and saaz hops. Yep – copied that straight from their website. The palate was dry with a refreshing clean and crisp taste.

Something a little different on this tour, we were given a small handful of the barley (far left jar above) and tasted it – not bad. Next is water, then dried hops. This guy was good. He said just enough for most on the tour to try the hops, warning us it was bitter. I didn’t bite. Adrienne did.

Definitely needed a swig of the finished product after that.

The tour guide had us in stitches most of the tour – he was a talker. He should be doing stand-up comedy! We both talked about this during the remainder of our stay in Toronto – definitely a highlight.

The other brewery was nice – much bigger, located along the waterfront, much more into the social family marketing, the warehouse atmosphere and sports.

It was a nice way to spend an afternoon. Add in a pretzel and life was good.

Let’s talk food. Three of our eating establishments were within walking distance. First up a lunch spot. Toronto has one of the largest Chinatowns in the Americas.

Mother’s Dumplings was one of the highest rated spots for dumplings – yeah!

Add in a few other dishes and you had one of our typical meals while in Shanghai.

One cool thing……………8 dumplings come with each order versus the normal 6, score!

One of our first evening meals was at Pearl Diver. Yes, it was quite chilly.

We started with a dozen oysters.

Add in some spicey pan-fried edamame, tossed with garlic, chili and sea salt.

………along with Pearly clam chowder and kimchi fried rice.

Filled in the cracks with Sticky Toffee Pudding – O.M.G! Didn’t look like much when it came to the table, but Wow! It was absolutely delicious! We were scraping every last morsel from the plate.

Earlier in the week we kept seeing The Keg Steakhouse + Bar restaurant and walked past several in Toronto. Googled it and discovered the company was founded in 1971 in British Columbia. Today it operates in nine provinces and five American states.

The Keg is well known for buying up historic properties, refurbishing them and turning them into restaurants. Nice. We tried the parmesan poppers and tuna tartare. The tuna was the star.

We had eaten soooooooo much, I wanted a salad – a wedge salad. It was delicious. Accompanying our meal (no surprise) Sangria.

We had just enough room to share a dessert: chocolate & caramel ice cream pie – which was humongous! That’s not a trick of photo-shopping.

Our last evening we saved for Bar Isabel – a tapas bar & restaurant. We had to grab an Uber to get there.

Be warned, the lighting inside the restaurant was odd and all of my photos have a red tint. What every meal should start with……….

We had assumed that Sangria would be available but alas it was not. This was an excellent substitute – more than one for each of us arrived throughout the meal.

Being a Tapas joint, we ordered a few items during the duration so that everything did not arrive at once. First up: patatas bravas (cubed potatoes) and shredded Brussel sprouts – they are there somewhere under all of the toppings. 

No Spanish meal is complete without olives. Sprinkled with a bit of smoked paprika – delicious.

The star of the meal……………grilled octopus. You could order a full octopus, half octopus order or a quarter. We got the quarter. It was very tasty.

We thought it was going to be the star……………..

Until this arrived. O.M.G. this was absolutely delicious. It was another dessert that didn’t look ‘exciting’ when it arrived, but we were scraping every last morsel from the plate.

So ended our last evening in Toronto.

Another place that I can check-off of my bucket list.

Ginny