The Fox and Fiddle is a pub located right in the heart of downtown Toronto, next to the main campus of the University of Toronto.  For this reason, you’ll see a lot of students in there socializing and that gives the overall atmosphere of the place one of local Toronto.  If you want to experience Toronto as the city’s residents do, then this is most definitely one of the places that you want to visit.

Basic Details

Location: 280 Bloor Street West

Contact Information: E-mail (info@bloorfox.com) and Phone (416-966-4369)

Highlights

- There are an amazing 22 different varieties of beer on tap at the Fox and Fiddle

- On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the pub hosts Karaoke events

- The Fox and Fiddle is right next to hotel accommodations

- There is high speed Internet access available for free inside the Fox and Fiddle

Noteworthy Items

Every Monday evening Fox and Fiddle has 1/2 price wings night.  This allows you to nab twice as many wings for the same price and during the same time bottles of beer are on sale for $3.  You can eat the same and save some money or you can gorge yourself!  The choice is ultimately yours.

On Sunday evenings, the Fox and Fiddle hosts free Pool games in their pub and you get a chance to use the tables they normally have without a cost attached.  All domestic bottles of beer are $3 at the same time so you can enjoy a nice evening of beer and pool before the start of the work week.

Menu

The menu at Fox and Fiddle is similar to the menu you’d get at any pub, which can be a good thing (if you just want to grab a burger and watch the game) or a bad thing (if you’re looking for a long sit down dining experience), depending on who you are and what you want.

Fox and Fiddle offers various pub appetizers (like chicken wings), salads, burgers, sandwiches and other pub items such as fish and chips that do not fit into any of the previous categories.  The quality of the food is above average and the price is reasonable (you can get a good meal for under $10, or a really good meal for under $20), which is something unexpected for a restaurant that mainly caters to students.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

One of the excellent things about living in the City of Toronto (and visiting it, for that matter) is the fact that the cultural diversity lends itself quite easily to choice in cuisine.

The fact of the matter is that when you eat in Toronto, you have a choice of different authentic cuisine types not available in many other cities and one of those types is Indian food.  While there are many excellent Indian restaurants in Toronto, one that definitely stands out is Siddhartha.

Basic Information

Siddhartha is located in two places in the city: Coxwell/Gerard and King/Bathurst.  Both of these locations provide the same excellent service, but the first location is in the heart of Little India, making the whole excursion a cultural experience.

Both restaurants are open 11:30 AM to 10:30 PM, with prices that rarely exceed $15.00.  For the most part, the restaurant is a buffet in an all-you-can-eat style, although there are special orders that you can place if you’d like something not normally on the buffet menu.

Menu

The buffet is the signature part of Siddhartha and here are some choice selections from the buffet menu:

Nan: Indian bread that often takes the place of rice in a meal, prepared fresh and tasty at regular intervals throughout the day.

Butter Chicken: Perhaps one of the more famous aspects of Indian cuisine, butter chicken is one of the signature dishes of Siddhartha.  The butter chicken at Siddhartha is absolutely delicious!

Aloo Gobi: An exceptionally tasty vegetarian dish that combines potatoes and other vegetables with Indian spices added into the mix.  Aloo Gobi is just one of many different vegetarian dishes that you can eat when you dine at Siddhartha.

A full buffet menu can be found here, while a full overall menu of what you can order can be found here.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Pancakes are most definitely wonderful things.  Whenever I have a bit of extra time in the morning I love making them just because getting the chance to sit down and devour them is so amazing.

Whether you take your pancakes plain or with syrup and butter however, you can start the day off right with a Free Pancake Breakfast courtesy of the City of Toronto!

Starting at 8:30 in the morning on May 26th, the City of Toronto will be holding the 19th Annual Pancake Breakfast.  It started off as an event to promote the use of environmentally friendly means to get to work, but it has since become much more than that.  They maintain the event on a Monday however in order to allow people to start their work week off in a fun way, but tourists are invited as well!

Breakfast will be served at Nathan Phillips Square which is right in front of City Hall.  It will go until one in the morning, so even if you don’t have time to stop in for breakfast, you can stop in for a delicious late night snack on your way back home.

Not only will pancakes be served, but there will also be fair-trade coffee created organically, croissants, fruit and the condiments to go along with each food or drink item.  All of the plates and utensils will be fully biodegradable, allowing you to eat to your heart’s content without having to worry about how to dispose of the items afterward.

At the same time as the breakfast is going on, there will be an Open Air Fair for people to take in, where you can meet a number of the more environmentally minded people in the local community.  Overall, it promises to be a fun event.  And hey, getting free stuff is always nice!

Photo Credit: Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Don’t let the casual look on the face of my friend to the left fool you; the Plaza Flamingo establishment is one of the hottest tickets in downtown Toronto.  It’s not exactly a nightclub, a dance hall or a restaurant, but it has elements of all three. 

Rather than forcing you to walk from place to place in order to get the full entertainment that you want your evening to have, the Plaza Flamingo provides it all.  Here’s just a small overview of the different things that you can do and have done when you dine at the Plaza Flamingo.

Dining

Dinner at the Plaza Flamingo is definitely something to be desired and cherished.  Everything that you order is cooked in the Latin American style.  Dishes from all over South America are present on the restaurant menu, here are just some samples to allow you to whet your appetite.

Appetizers: Jumbo shrimp, baked mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat and steamed ocean mussels are just three of the dishes that you can choose from.

Grilled Meats: In this department, two of the highlights are the special Argentinean dish (combination of beef, chicken and sausage) and a fantastic grilled dish featuring both steak and shrimp.

There are also specialty items, seafood sensations, desserts, pastas and cocktails readily available for you to partake of when you dine at the Plaza Flamingo.  Additionally, if lunch is your meal, then you can actually choose to opt for the $7.95 lunch buffet and get a chance to try a bit of everything!

Dancing

Dining is not the only thing that you can do at Plaza Flamingo.  You can also incorporate dancing into your evening, either by actually doing it yourself or by watching others do it.

Plaza Flamingo offers many different dance shows for you to show up for and most of these shows of course feature Flamenco dancing.  One of the most beautiful forms of dancing in the world, it is definitely a sight to behold and you can see it right in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Of course, if just watching isn’t really your thing, why not get up on the dance floor and actually participate?  You and a partner can jive along to music either in a swing or a Latin style depending on the night and if you want to go even further then you can actually get dance lessons at Plaza Flamingo and be involved in one of the shows they give for the people that are eating at the restaurant.  The choice is yours, but all of the choices are extremely fun!

General Information

Plaza Flamingo is located at 423 College Street, which happens to be on College just east of Bathurst. 

The closest subway station is the Spadina subway station on the Bloor subway line.  Getting off at this station requires a walk down Spadina to College and then west on College until you get to 423.

Alternatively, you can get off at the Queen’s Park subway station on the University subway line.  Getting off at this station requires walking west on College until you get to 423 or taking the 506 Streetcar west a few stops.  If you opt for the latter option, make sure you get a transfer inside the station before you leave!

More information regarding Plaza Flamingo can be found by calling (416) 603-8884.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Monsoon is a Japanese restaurant located in Toronto.  However, their menu is a little bit different as it combines the great Oriental cuisine that we’ve all come to know and love with North American influences in order to create a final taste sensation that is wholly unique.

Location

Monsoon is located at 100 Simcoe Street, which places it very close to the intersection of Adelaide Street West and University Avenue (MAP).  It is also just southwest of the Osgoode Subway Station located on the University line at Queen Street West and University Avenue.  If you’re traveling there by subway, simply get off at Osgoode Station, walk west along Queen Street until you get to Simcoe and then walk south on Simcoe until you get to number 100.

Interior

The interior of Monsoon is one of the coolest experiences that you can get in the city.  The overall restaurant seats 150 people in a subterranean setting with a dark ambiance that is partly the effect of the lighting and partly the effect of the colours used in decoration.  If you want to get an up close and personal tour of the restaurant’s interior, simply visit Monsoon’s website and take a look through their gallery of pictures, conveniently presented to you in slide show format.

Food and Drink

The main reason to go to Monsoon is ultimately the quality of the food that they have.  They have menus for lunch, dinner, corporate events and weddings.  Their lunch menu features such excellent dishes as Asian Salmon Tartar and Indochine Spiced Sirloin Beef, while for dinner you can get entrees like Kobe Beef and Organic Vietnamese Pork Tenderloin.  The menu also has wonderful selections for the vegetarian-minded, with vegetarian dishes such as the Butternut Squash Gnocchi clearly marked on the menu.  Monsoon also offers a large assortment of wines for you to choose from, allowing you to get the perfect wine to go with your meal.

Other Useful Information

Reservations can be booked online through the Monsoon Restaurant Website, with reservations for normal parties and large groups required.  More information on Monsoon Restaurant can be discerned through a visit to their website or alternatively through phoning them at 416-979-7172. 

The Monsoon Restaurant, like the recently blogged about Mink Nightclub in Toronto, is one of Toronto’s happening hotspots.

Photo Credits: Flickr, Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Hot Dog Stands and Meal Trucks are all over the place in downtown Toronto and many of them are around working more than 12 hours during the day.  This ensures that whether you are going to a sporting event, visiting a museum or just taking in some of the sights and sounds of Toronto, you’ll definitely have no problem grabbing something to eat from one of those stands should you choose to do so.  At the University where I am on a frequent basis there’s a hot dog stand on each corner and meal trucks between them!  And there are few places in downtown where you can stand outside on the street without seeing one in your immediate vision (believe me, I’ve tried).

The typical fare on a hot dog stand is usually limited to beef hot dogs, chicken hot dogs, Polish sausages, Italian sausages, German sausages, veggie hot dogs and various drinks from pop to juice with water thrown into the mix as well.  Beef and chicken hot dogs usually go for $2.00 to $2.50; sausages go from $3.00 to $3.50; veggie hot dogs usually go for $2.50 to $3.00 and drinks are around $1.00 to $1.50 depending on what you want.  With many toppings that you can put on your dog and nice thick sausages, you can get a filling meal and a drink for under $5.00 from a hot dog vendor in just a few minutes, which is far better than you could do at any fast food restaurant in the area.

Meal Trucks have more choice in terms of their offerings and will frequently offer both hot dogs and burgers in both meat and veggie formats however you’d like them done.  You can also usually get fries from a meal truck and therefore grab a meal of a burger, fries and a drink for a little bit more than you would spend at a hot dog stand.  Meal trucks are regulated for the city and required to maintain safety and health standards high in order to operate and all of the food is cooked extremely thoroughly as well, meaning that it is all safe to eat.

I’m not necessarily saying that hot dogs and meal trucks represent gourmet cuisine in the City of Toronto, but I would make the point that if you’re in a hurry, they might be better than fast food restaurants.  They’re definitely faster and cheaper however, two things which are usually looked for by someone that is in a hurry to get somewhere else.

Also, perhaps as a testament to the multicultural nature of the City of Toronto, many of the different hot dog stands have actually started carrying products that fit various dietary restrictions.  The best example of this is the fact that the city has a number of different Halal hot dog stands with food that follows Muslim dietary law.

Photo Credits: Flickr, Flickr, Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

You’ll meet people of all kinds at the Mink Nightclub and whether you are looking for a fun night of drinking and dancing or are actually interested in meeting people, the Mink Nightclub is definitely a place where you can make it happen.  They bill themselves are being “The Hottest Nightclub and Lounge in Toronto” and don’t hesitate to snatch an opportunity to call themselves “Very Hot, Very Stylish and Very, Very Sexy!”

Location

One thing about the Mink Nightclub that people tend to love is the fact that it is located right in the heart of downtown Toronto’s entertainment district.  Its exact location is 150 Pearl Street, with the closest major intersection to that point being Adelaide Street West and University Avenue.  Mink’s location on Pearl Street actually puts it a block and a half west and one block north of the St. Andrew Subway Station, allowing you not only easy access to it through the main transit vein of the city, but also placing it in close proximity to many of the other excellent attractions that the City of Toronto has to offer.

Inside the Mink

The inside of the Mink Nightclub is decorated extremely well, with a sleek and elegant design that is conducive to dancing or simply hanging out with friends.  The nightclub is divided into the main lounge area where most of the action takes place as well as a roof top patio with VIP booths that seat 12 people.  It was actually voted as being the best patio in Toronto by the Toronto Nightclub Awards for each of the last four years.  There is also a heated area within the patio where smoking is allowed.

Weekly Events

There are many weekly events that take place at the Mink Nightclub, with Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays being the three major days of the week when most of the special events happen.  There is also a dress code on both Fridays and Saturdays so if you want to visit on one of those days, you need to make sure you follow it if you want to get into the club.

The Mink is definitely indicative of the entertainment district in Toronto, which features entertainment that can definitely cater to the needs of singles while at the same time remaining elegant and tasteful.  If you enjoy partying on your vacations and want to see what Toronto has to offer in this area, then the Mink Nightclub would definitely be a good place to start.  I’ll be adding a link to the Mink Nightclub in the blogroll so that you’ll always be able to access their main website from The Toronto Traveler.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Shopping in a lot of places in Toronto is much more than just buying things; it is a community experience.  One of the best community experiences you are likely to get anywhere in North America is in the Scarborough Town Centre.  This is a collection of buildings that include government offices at all three levels of government (city, province, country), residential areas and of course the shopping centre that the name usually is referring to.

You can get a lot at Scarborough Town Centre.  Not only are there the larger department stores available for people looking to browse for general items, but there are also specialty electronics and clothing stores, food stores, fast food outlets, movie theatres and many other stores as well.  There’s even a Canadian souvenir shop that you can use to get your share of Canada gear (or Toronto gear!) before your trip in Toronto ends.

Scarborough Town Centre is conveniently located on Borough Drive, close to the intersection of McCowan Road and Progress Avenue.  It also happens to be right next to a TTC station that goes by the same name.  For good prices, great selection and even an easy food respite should you need one, make sure that your next shopping trip in Toronto is to the Scarborough Town Centre.

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Part of the upside to Toronto being such a multi-cultural city is that quite frequently it will have cultural events that will draw people from all over the world.

While it might be a bit of a stretch to call Whiskey Live 2007 a completely cultural event, there are definitely cultural elements to it when you consider that the best made whiskeys in the world all tend to come from similar geographical areas.

Of course, most people don’t really come for the culture, but rather to taste some great whiskey!  And that’s exactly what you get to do at Whiskey Live 2007; you can mingle with some of the most brilliant whiskey makers in the world, learning about the ingredients they use, the methods they follow and the histories of their storied brews.  Of course, samples are readily available so with just one ticket you get access to some of the best brewed whiskey that the world has to offer.

There’s just one caveat; Whiskey Live 2007 is a one day event taking place today at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, so if you happen to be in the neighbourhood and want to check it out, feel free to go ahead.  $95 will get you VIP access, which allows you to stay in the area for the full length of the event from 2PM to 9PM today.  There is also standard access (3-9 PM for $75) and evening access (6-9PM for $40) if the VIP price tag is too steep for you to cover.

More information about this event can be found at http://www.whiskylive.com/canada/toronto-2007/

Post from: The Toronto Traveler