Joey Burnaby

HOURS: 

Sun to Wed 11am to midnight

Thu 11am to 1am

Fri & Sat 11am to 2am

Ambiance: Clean and modern with a choice between two seating areas.

The Bar:  TV’s, alcoholic beverages, more lively, lots of shouting.

Dining Area:  More relaxed, conversational, and comfortable.

Deciding which area to sit in, depends on your mood and if there is a game or fight going on.  

Seating/Wait time: Plenty of seats

Dress Code: Casual

Crowd: Everybody

Meal: 

Lunch Rotisserie Chicken

Fries and Coleslaw

$19.00

Personal Remarks:  

My default meal at Joey’s is always the Ahi Tuna Burger.  My friend said I was predictable and boring, always eating the Ahi Tuna Burger.  So, to prove to him that I am capable of trying different items I ordered the Rotisserie Chicken.

I don’t normally order chicken at restaurants because they cook the chickens dry.   I hate dry chicken and it usually ends with me hating my meal. 

My favourite part to eat of the chicken is the skin.  It is not healthy but it is so tasty. 

Despite having a great workout in the morning, the temptation was just too great.  My mind was made up on the chicken, and the chicken was what I was going to eat.

When the chicken came out it looked better than I imaged and it was a full dish.  My initial thought was if this is the lunch portion, then dinner portion must be huge!

The sides were tasty; the fries lost its crunch quickly but the coleslaw was good.  I would recommend you substitute the fries for a salad instead.   

Chicken was juicy and not dry.  It wasn't overcooked either and the skin was amazing.  This is an awesome guy dish and a great protein lunch.

Taste and overall experience was great.  However, the price tag of $19 is a little bit much for lunch.  It’s a great “I got a raise today” or “I think I deserve it” meal.

Maybe pack your lunch for 4 days then come here on the Friday to try the chicken!

Value: 2/5 Overall: 4/5

The Reef (Commercial)

Hours
Monday to Friday          11:00 a.m. ~ til late
Saturday & Sunday       10:00 a.m. ~ til late

Awesome Halloween Decorations!

Ambiance: Very cool, they decorated like a Caribbean shack.  Really gets you in the mood as you walk right through the doors.  

Seating/Wait time: Reservations recommended.

Dress Code: Casual

Crowd: Everybody
Meal: 

Complementary Scones

Plantain Chips

$6.00

 Ackee and Saltfish

$17.00

Personal Remarks:  

Plantain Chips are so good! I recommended this as a share plate.  The best part was the mayo sauce.  The mayo is a tangy and spicy.  It is a wonderful complement to the crunchy plantain chips.  We had six people at the table and one order was great to share between everyone.

I was so excited to try the fish.  When it came out, the presentation could have been better.  It looked pretty messy. 

The fish was cooked well plus it was boneless.  But that doesn't mean you should not watch out for it. 

My favorite part of the dish was not the fish.  It was actually the coleslaw.  My friends and I were all complementing the coleslaw because it was a side that a lot of us had.

The rice was okay.  But after adding a bit of their house made sauce in that red jar.  The rice went from blah to amazing.  Their house made sauce is really spicy, so a little goes a long way.

There are so many items on the menu that I want to try.  I am already looking forward to my next visit.  The next time I definitely intend to try the Jerk Chicken.

Value: 5/5 Overall: 4/5

Kalvin's Szechuan Restaurant 松林居

Hours: 

Mon - Tue: 11AM - 2:30PM & 5PM - 9:30PM 
Wed: Closed 
Thu - Sun: 11AM - 2:30PM & 5PM - 9:30PM

Ambiance: Like a western restaurant diner, old large tables and chairs.  Not pretty.

Seating/Wait time: Not that many seats, could get busy at times.

Dress Code: Casual

Crowd: Everybody

Meal: 

Beef Noodle Soup

Personal Remarks:  

Didn't enjoy the slow service, but I did enjoy the food.

Not the place to go when you have a 1 hour lunch break.

This is one of the more expensive restaurants in the neighborhood of the Victoria Drive area.    From the exterior it doesn't look like a place that could cost you more than $5.00 for a decent meal.  However, this is a $10-$15 per entree place.

This place could use some updates and renovations.  The decor is not welcoming at all and is not a place to bring someone for a first date.  This is a place to go with your friends when you want to fill your stomach.

If you don't judge the food based on the appearance of the restaurant and decor.  This restaurant is very tasty.  The broth is very flavourful and there was plenty of noodles.  The meal was very filling.

Beef - It was flavourful and did not break apart too easily.  It was a little too hard in terms of texture but it wasn't so hard that you would have trouble grinding the meat with your teeth.

Noodles - thick noodles, very tasty.

Brooth - Very flavourful, not oily. 

We had a table of three people and we had a 1 hour lunch break.  It took a while for the server to take our order.   Also, the food took a long time to come out.  None of us could finish our food in time.  We all had half of our meal left that we had to pack to go.  At the time there were only 3 other tables in the restaurant with no more than 3 people at each table.  

Evaluating this restaurant based on taste and value it definitely rates well in my books.  The promptness does need to improve.  Very hard to get back to work on time if the food takes so long to come out.  Or, I would recommend you come when you are not restricted by time.  

Value: 4/5 Overall: 4/5

Urban Fare

Ambiance: It's just the front area of the super market

Seating/Wait time: Surprisingly quite a bit of seating.

Dress Code: Casual

Crowd: Everybody

Meal: 

Prosciutto Melon

Personal Remarks:  

Tip! - Ask for your sandwich to be toasted.  It will taste better.

I was in Downtown alone.  Making a bank deposit across the street.  I Did not have lunch yet and I did not want to eat at a sit down restaurant alone.  I looked across the street and saw Urban Fare.  So, I decided on the spot that I would try what they had to offer.

For those that don't know, Urban Fare is a really posh/expensive grocery store.  They also serve hot food and ready to eat food.  

I was able to buy the sandwich and a drink for under $10.00.  For a quick meal in the area and you are in a hurry to get back to work.  This is the place to go.

The sandwich tasted as good as it looked!

The container they use, it is not recommended that you bring this back to the office to eat.  It will get soggy.  You should eat this at the seating area they have.  Otherwise, you will not have an enjoyable sandwich experience.

Value: 4/5 Overall: 3/5

Enoteca Cotto Pizzeria

Hours of Operation

Monday – Thursday 11:30am – 9:30pm
Friday 11:30am – 10:30pm
Saturday 11:00am – 10:30pm
Sunday 11:00am – 9:30pm

Ambiance: Casual/Family

Seating/Wait time: Plenty of seating, not very busy

Dress Code: Casual

Crowd: Everybody

Meal:

Complimentary Bread Dip

Calimari Fritto

Crispy fried squid, marinated roma tomato, salsa verde

$11.00

Pizza Salmone

Cold smoked steelhead salmon, fonduta, crispy capers, 63° egg, chives, hollandaise sauce

$16.00

Pizza Polpetti

Crushed Cotto meatballs, ricotta cheese, grana padano, spinach, tomato sauce, basil

$15.00

Personal Remarks:

This is my second time here.  Last time we ordered the "Pizza Prociutto e Uova".  It was forgetful, so this time it was time to try something different.  We had 3 people and we came here for brunch.  Their brunch menu is quite ingenious, the toppings for the pizzas were ingredients that you would normally eat during brunch.

Their complimentary bread dip was very tasty and we kept trying to guess what it was made of.  We were not able to figure out what it was made of because we finished it so fast.

Ordering 2 pizza's to share between one guy and two girls was too much.  We ordered too much food.  If you have three, an appetizer plus one pizza is enough for brunch.

The dough and crust is the thin crust style.  They try to keep things authentic here.  The taste of the crust is great at first but as the meal went on the dough became difficult to eat.  It became chewy and you had to give it a few extra bites and pull.  We do not eat slow either, it just seemed like the food got cold very quick.  Other than that the taste of the pizza toppings was decent.  The distribution of the toppings could have been more generous. 

While we were pulling the salmon pizza apart, there were a couple of occasions that we noticed not every slice got salmon.  So, some slices were just the sauce underneath and dough.

The Calamari was not spectacular for $11.00.  You could do without it. 

The Polpetti was not great or memorable.  I would tell you to order something else.  The salmon was good an unique that it is worth a recommendation.

Value: 4/5 Overall: 3/5