Opening Soon

There hasn't been a lot of restaurant news to talk about recently, although that's not too surprising in this economic climate. Even The Record seems to be recycling their reviews -- every time they have a new reviewer the same spots are revisited. However, there are a few new openings that we're looking forward to sampling in the near future.

Oliver & Bonacini Cafe Grill - This is a full service restaurant opening up in the recently renovated Conestoga Mall. If you've been to the mall recently, you've probably noticed the "job fair" hiring and publicity that the restaurant has been receiving. I'm a big fan of their more upscale places (Canoe, Jump, Biff's) in Toronto and hope that this more casual oriented franchise will give us a nice alternative to food court "dining" at the mall. The menu seems to be full of classic dishes that should appeal more to the mainstream, yet the compositions seem very well thought out. Michael Bonacini was also one of my favourite chefs to watch on Food Network's Cook Like a Chef so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they will be offering at this level of dining. I'm told they will be opening shortly, sometime in November.

The Bauer Kitchen - Located in the newly constructed Bauer Lofts in Uptown Waterloo, this Charcoal Group restaurant is opening on the heels of their successful Wildcraft restaurant. I don't know a lot about this place, but have heard that it will be slightly more upscale than Wildcraft. This is definitely on our list to try out soon after it opens in December. We'll try to put up a post about it as soon as we can.

Vincenzo's - While not really a restaurant, the specialty food retailer is also moving to the Bauer Lofts. Their Belmont Village place was really bursting at the seams, so it's about time they expanded.

Waterloo Town Square - First, Cora's is moving in and may already be open by the time you read this. Nothing too fancy, just good breakfasts with a large helping of fresh fruit. I'm not sure there is enough room for them and Angie's so close together, and unfortunately I think I know who is going to lose out. Secondly, Moxie's is also coming soon to Waterloo Town Square. I can't say I'm really excited about the food here, but the chain is known for their good looking decor and strict dress code for their servers ;) They will be opening in the current Scotiabank location overlooking the public square, but it probably won't be well into 2010 since Scotia will have to move out (to a King St. frontage location) first.

So even though there hasn't been a lot to post about, hopefully that will be changing in the near future!

Baby Martini

It has been quite awhile since our last review, but never fear, dear reader, we are still alive and dining. A couple of months ago Baby Martini joined the family which put our restaurant outings briefly on hold. We will be training her in the art of fine cuisine as soon as possible as to avoid reviewing places like Chuck E Cheese and East Side Mario's. Look for some more reviews coming in the next few days!

Another journey....

We decide to go to Europe and use up all our vacation days this year. To us, as usual, "to-eat" list is just equally important as the "to-visit" list. After doing lots of reading (the official sites, menus, forums and reviews), all of sudden, the fine dining places in this area don't seem THAT expensive any more. We'll see if this becomes an incentive for us to dine out more after the trip.

Long vacation

It has been a LONG~ time since the blog was last updated.
So…where have I been? Starting back in March, I was planning our trip to Asia. The research on places to visit (and you bet, restaurants to dine for) occupied most of my after work hours. The results? We got to see the stunning cherry blossom, with the beautiful historical buildings in Kyoto as its backdrop. (Not to mention all the good food we sampled along the way)
I have to admit that it took me much longer than I expected to resume the restaurant review. But here I am with a good appetite and a curious heart. I am ready to go on the culinary journey again.

Index of Restaurant Reviews

20 King
All About Crepes
Almadina Egyptian
Asie
Art Bar
The Bauer Kitchen
Ben Thanh Viet-Thai
Benjamin's Restaurant & Inn
Bianco Nero
Boa Nova Rodizio Grill House
Boston Pizza
Cameron Chinese Seafood
Charlie's Lunchbox
China Legend
Cora's Breakfast and Lunch
del Dente

Ellison's Bistro
Empress of India
Fireside Deli & Family Restaurant
Hannah's Bella Bistro
Hashimoto
Hiro Sushi
Home Garden
Janet Lynn's Bistro
Johnny Fresco
The Keg Steakhouse & Bar
King Crab Oyster Bar
King St. Trio
Kitchen Wok
Korean BBQ
Kristoria
Langdon Hall
Luce
Loire Casual Gourmet

Lotus Tea House
Maharaha Palace
Matter of Taste
MacDonald's
Milestone's
Montana's
Nice Meeting You
Nick & Nat's Uptown 21
Niko Niko Roll & Sushi
North 44
Oscar's
Red Lobster
Rundles Restaurant
Rushes
Sabletine
Sassafraz
Shandiz Persian
Sole Restaurant and Wine Bar
The Other Brother's
Truffles @ Four Seasons Hotel Toronto
Uptown Waterloo Cheap Lunch Roundup - The Savoury, Fratello, Vincenzo's, Angie's Kitchen, Valu-Mart, Harmony Lunch, Huether Hotel, Quiznos
Uptown Waterloo Cheap Lunch Roundup (II) - Gourmet Pizza (Waterloo Town Square), All About Crepes (Waterloo Town Square), Uptown Cafe (Marsland Centre)
Thai Sun
Verses
Village Creperie
Wok Wagon Express
Wildcraft
Yamato
Ye's Sushi Japanese Restaurant
Zen Garden

CommunityWalk.com - Kitchener Waterloo and Area Restaurants

I finally finish marking all the restaurants I have reviewed (so far) on communitywalk.com (or Google Map). That is such a painstaking process. The "search by address" function is only available for US addresses; I had to manually find the whereabout of each restaurant. Also, it crashes my Safari (the application window will suddenly disappear in the middle of loading pages). If you are also a Mac user, please use either Firefox, Camino or IE for Mac.
I still need to explore more on the site and see what features it offers. But here it is, please feel free to share my excitement (one day, I'll flag all over the place on the tri-city map with my restaurant reviews!)

Kitchener Waterloo and Area Restaurants
http://www.communitywalk.com/map/288

All dressed down and no place to go

"Every once a while", we will go through this - not in the mood for cooking, nor going to nice/formal restaurants (all dressed up and stuff), nor having OK yet overpriced food, nor waiting in a long line, nor driving far.... that is what happened to us on Friday evening. Eventually we went through the yellowpages restaurant section.
"Should we go to xxx?" "Neh, we just went recently."
"How about yyy?" "That's in Cambridge."
"xyx?" "Food is just ok."
"How about zzz? food is good." "Don't feel like dressing up tonight."
"Steak?" "Not in the mood for that."
The time was ticking away during the discussion. Eventually we realized that it was way passed 8 PM and we were so hungry. We ended up going to...McDonald's for toasted deli sandwiches. (We got coupons a while ago, 2 can dine deli sandwich combo for $9.99).

To uplift our spirits, we wanted to have some nice desserts. so here we went again...
(Skip the discussion) We didn't get any dessert after all.

P.S. I found some funky icons on this site, http://www.clicksmilies.com. These two are under the "Fools House" selection.

Angel and devil. Knight and his horse.

Jamiroquai - c u @ Kool Haus!

Jamiroquai is my favorite music group. Today I went to Jamiroquai's website. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw "USA and Canada tour dates" as the latest news...they...are...coming to Toronto. Jamiroquai is going to perform @ Kool Haus! J was laughing when I got up and did some mambo jumbo dance. (More precisely speaking, just bouncing around out of control)
On their official website, it said that more detailed ticket info would be posted soon. I couldn't wait, so I Googled Kool Haus and tried to buy tickets from TicketMaster... no available yet. *sigh* I can't wait! Last time they did a gig in Toronto was July 16, 1999 @ Molson Amphitheater. I missed it; back then I wasn't a fan of theirs yet. I finally had chance to listen to their album "Traveling Without Moving" in year 2000, since then I have been addicted to their music.

Man! what a great year. I get to go to The Herbaliser's concert (June 30) and Jamiroquai's concert (Oct. 28).

Waterloo Busker Carnival August 24-28, 2005

Every year I always look forward to the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival and the Busker Carnival but it seems I might miss both this year. I was in Las Vegas during the Jazz Festival (July 7-10, 2005). The Busker Carnival started this Thursday but I couldn't go. I catch a cold that I even needed to call in sick :(. I was hoping that IF I felt better today, and IF the weather was nice, I would be able to go. In reality it rains a lot today, and I still cough like crazy. So I am stuck at home... stupid cold... stupid rain.

Why is this blog called "Sapphire Martini"?

It didn't take me long to come out w/ my nickname - I like to have "Martini" made of Bombay "Sapphire". That's right! This blog is all about food. (Maybe a bit of everything else...depending on my mood.)

At first I was really reluctant to start this. Come on! Who wants to read a restaurant review in which the critic can only use words like "this chicken thingy", or "a chocolate and raspberry square in berry juice" (note: the correct description should be "chocolate raspberry terrine, raspberry coulis")?

On the other hand, food has been such an important element in my life. Back when I was a poor full-time student, I could save up every penny in order to spend on CDs and GOOD meals. The expense proportion hasn't changed much even after I started working. Prior to each trip, I'll get so excited at...doing restaurant search. When I stay home doing nothing, I like to watch Food Network programs, collect recipes or read restaurant reviews on the internet and drool in front of my monitor. There is no doubt about my passion in food.

So... why not? Great dining experience is just pure sensational. I'll just express how I FEEL about the food/restaurants and leave all the analysis, precise terminology and proper references to the pros.