ottawa foodies

A while back someone mentioned to me that they wouldn't mind hearing about some of the places I've eaten at here in Toronto. To make things more interesting for you all, I'll try to keep it to places I have pictures from. ;)

First up: popular vegetarian restaurant and juice bar, Fresh by Juice for Life. One location isn't far from where we live and is walkable in good weather (the one on Bloor; you can see the list of locations on their website: www.juiceforlife.com )

Delicious food and awesome sweet potato fries!

Here's my smoothie from Fresh: the 'Antioxidant' which contains pomegranate, blueberry and banana.

Next up: The sadness that is the search for Toronto's best Montreal-style bagel. This one came from St. Urbain in the St. Lawrence Market (www.stlawrencemarket.com/).

Sadly, even though it's from a bakery that claims to do things the way the real St. Urbain in Montreal does, the bagel wasn't quite right. It was undercooked and didn't have that wood oven taste to it, even though they claim the bagels do come from a wood oven. Also, you don't get the bagels pipping hot like you do at the real St Urbain (or at the Ottawa Bagel Shop for that matter).

We're going to try some Jewish bakeries next.

Red bean bun from Kim Moon Bakery downtown (Dundas near Spadina). Do note that this photo was taken of the last bun, which we ate three days after they were purchased. So they were a touch stale at this point, but still delicious. Fresh from their bakery they were awesome.

From my husband's cellphone camera: Mexican spiced fish at By the Way Cafe (Bloor in the Annex).

My thoughts on this place are this: weekend brunch, awesome! Weekday dinner, meh. There are so many other places to try, I'd skip here. The fish was under seasoned, the rice over lemony. The dish I had was orzo with gorgonzola and butternut squash. I'd might as well have been eating just gorgonzola.

So yeah, if you're in the Annex in TO try this place for brunch, not dinner! ;)

Last one for today, also a cellphone camera shot: Linux Caffe. I think the geeks around here will appreciate this one. ;)

Linux Caffe is an indie cafe located on Harbord Street, just off Grace (so not far from either Koreatown or The Annex). It does indeed cater to geeks, with free Ubuntu CDs and Tux memorabilia kicking around. But they also have tasty baked goods, great coffee, and friendly staff. Oh, and free wireless. So even the non geeks have something to go there for. ;)

I'm a recent import from the Annex, and I miss it a lot. In fact, I used to live around the corner from the Fresh you mentioned above. Great fries. Since you appear to be in the Annex area, you might be interested in the Boulevard Cafe. It's a Peruvian restaurant on Harbord Street with lots of tasty seafood and grilled meat dishes. One of my favourites in the area.

boulevardcafe.sites.toronto.com

Other Annex picks:
Victory Cafe (Palmerston, one block south of Bloor)- tasty local brews, a great patio, once voted as Toronto's best burger in Now Magazine.

Joon's Kitchen (Just west of Palmerston on Bloor)- spicy Korean chicken, like Kwon's in Ottawa

Mittomi Sushi (699 Bloor in Koreatown) - If you like sushi, walk straight past those popular places like Sushi and Bloor and New Generation and head on over to Mittomi. While it lacks ambiance, Mittomi's sushi is freshier and cheaper than those other places.

Future's Bakery (Opposite By the Way Cafe) - A great chicken parm sandwich and T.O.'s best deal for student breakfast. Flash your student ID and evry breakfast item on the menu is $3.50. That includes things like eggs benny!

Thanks for the recommendations, Downtown Diner! I actually live near Dupont and Ossington, so the Annex is walkable in good weather (takes about 20 minutes to get there).

We've been to Future Bakery and both love it. Fantastic place for cheap food for sure. I understand why it's so popular with the UofT crowd!

@ Downtown Diner: Thanks for the advice on sushi. I'm moving from Ottawa to the Annex in three days or so, and I think it's just a great spot.

Candice and Tedj: You're welcome. You have lot's of great foodie adventures ahead both inside and outside of the Annex.

While I'm at it, I really miss the hara kebab and the murgh (chicken) biriyani at Nataraj. (Bloor and Brunswick)
www.nataraj.ca/menu.html

And I'm dying to try Cluck, Grunt and Low, a BBQ joint that opened up after I left. (Corner of Walmer and Bloor)
www.cluck.ca/

I could go on and on....:-)