Restaurant Reviews

While watching the Food Network recently, I caught a repeat of Opening Soon, a series about what goes on behind the scenes in the months leading up to the opening of a new restaurant. On this episode, Bish was featured, and I watched as owners Stephanie and Maurizio Bertossi painstakingly turned yet another dream into […]

Describe where you got the idea for Do You Read Me?I’ve been dealing with food politics for a long while now and this just seemed like the next logical step. I’ve also been reading Marion Nestle’s book Food Politics and running into a lot of jargon and other amazing information. That’s where some of the […]

There are not a lot of female role models in Metro’s culinary scene, but even if there were, Unni Simensen would rank among the top. The talent behind Scanway Catering, Simensen is proof that success is possible in the fickle restaurant world—provided you have passion for your craft, an innate ability to give your guests […]

If 2005 was the Year of Bad Service then 2006 might very well be the Year of Eating In. Continuing poor service will be just one of several factors leading to a decline in restaurant attendance this year; television chefs and food and equipment availability are also encouraging kitchen divas to be more adventurous and […]

For many people, Christmas is all about dietary over-indulgence. For a few glorious weeks surrounding the holiday, all anyone thinks about is stuffing as much turkey, trifle and Quality Street chocolate as possible into a stomach constricted only by the elastic waistband of their stretchy pants. But then the holiday winds down and the leftovers […]

Two thousand five might well be dubbed The Year of Bad Service. From fine dining to fast food, I encountered servers with attitude ranging from obnoxious to indifferent and novice servers who had no idea about the menu and were unable to answer even the simplest of questions. I’d like to blame the restaurant owners […]

Finding the perfect hangover cure can be a greater challenge than usual around the holiday season. It’s not unusual to wake up on a typical Sunday craving a big hot plate of French fries and bacon, and most of us in Halifax are lucky enough to be within stumbling distance of a diner. But between […]

Grandma Pilsworth lived in a small, narrow two-storey semi-detached house on Concord Avenue—then, the heart of Toronto’s Little Italy. She had lived in the house for the better part of her life and had seen the working class neighbourhood’s ethnic mix change to reflect the federal government’s immigration policy of the day. The street character […]

Jim’s Pizza House has been an institution on the Bedford Highway for as long as I can remember. The long, narrow restaurant perches overlooking the rail tracks and the Bedford Basin. Forget trying to find a parking spot at 5pm, when all the early birds come out to eat. The front half of Jim’s, the […]

It’s funny how things you only do once a year can become routine. When I was growing up, Christmas morning was about stockings and presents and chocolate oranges—and my grandmother’s Christmas morning casserole. I looked forward to the casserole as much as I did all the rest of the proceedings, because we only ate it […]

Sometimes, the best meals turn up in the most unexpected places. Driving along Rocky Lake Road between Bedford and Waverley, in an industrial area, there’s a small, squat building with a flat roof surrounded by a partially paved parking lot. A hand-made sign advertising Clams and Chips is tacked to a telephone pole by the […]