Review: Tigris

22 November 2012

After that unpleasant experience at Borkonyha, I needed a re-affirmation of my commitment to Hungarian cuisine and restaurants for my last meal — and on Thanksgiving to boot. So I chose somewhere that has all the accolades: Tigris.

I had no booking, but there was a spare, un-made table for 3 that they happily put me into. I had offered to eat quickly, but they said: “no, you are our guest for the evening, you enjoy yourself.” Now this is top-class hospitality, and my faith in Hungarian restaurants returned in a flash.

I immediately relaxed, even though they turned away several walk-in parties. I felt a little guilty, but they told me to relax… 🙂

I began my dining experience this evening just as a very large group came in. Apparently this place, well-regarded in Michelin guide, does attract lots of foreign groups. But it does not detract from the service, as they seem to be used to it. This cozy little place that is reminiscent to a family trattoria is just perfect for this evening.

After an amuse bouche of local cream cheese with apples (yummy!), the starter for my Thanksgiving dinner was the humble garlic soup. This creamy version, cooked with almonds and a late splash of red cabbage, really hit the spot on a cool evening. Now as a garlic addict I could have used a stronger garlic presence, but this was pretty good.

It worked with a nice Hungarian white they recommended. Mind you it was not the most expensive on the menu, but it worked well with this dish. I strongly recommend Hungarian whites as they are often too under-rated.

For my main I switched to a red they also recommended, one that accompanies my feast to the button. This beauty presented itself soon, a wonderful variation on mangalica. Now this was tons better than the variation I had for lunch…

In this version, there was two very juicy pieces of loin, cooked perfectly — pink inside. The mangalica is such a sweet meat you really gotta eat it like that. And as an extra treat, there’s also two pieces of cheek. Now this was just heaven, melting in my mouth. The cauliflower, one of my very favourite vegetables, worked very well with the pork. The picture really, really doesn’t do this justice!

I was more than happy at this point, and I enjoyed a very nice glass of Tokaji to rest before my dessert arrives. I usually skip the sweet stuff, but one dish really caught my eye. It was the goat cheesecake with walnut ice cream. Wow…

This was pure heaven, the goat cheese unapologetically strong, tempered by the nuanced walnut ice cream. This was just fabulous!

After a nice pálinka to close the dining experience, I must say Tigris has totally restored my faith in Hungarian restaurants. The food fantastic, the service fantastic. It’s become my favourite restaurant in Budapest! Just look at some of the other dishes on their menu! I need to eat 3 or 4 more meals here to take it all in!

A must!

Tigris
Mérleg 10,
Budapest, Magyarország

Review: Borkonyha

Budapest,
22 November 2012

I had woken up surprisingly rested and at an okay time…am I gonna beat jetlag for once? No way, this is just a one-day reprise I think. I may as well enjoy it. Plus, it’s Thanksgiving back home in the US. I may substitute the local goose specialties for all the turkey people collapsing over across the ocean.

I was still rather happy after last night’s excellent meal at Carni di Hall. This time for lunch I chose to go to Borkonya (“Winekitchen”), a place I missed last time due to, well, intemperate drinking… It’s across the street from Dió, where I had a good meal a few months ago. This place has gotten many good mentions, so I was looking very much forward to this meal.

I arrived as it was opening and they put me down at an okay table. Service seemed okay at the beginning…but…I had asked for a recommended white, and they immediately went to the priciest item (4x the price of other wines). I gave it a go, and it was nothing spectacular. In fact, it was pretty boring. I would have sent it back, but my starter had just arrived, so…

My meal began with rabbit backstrap with cauliflower cream. I’m sorry, this was a disaster. The rabbit was fine but bland. The cauliflower cream was missing something, and it was strewn with annoying flakes of bread that just ruined the texture of the cream. Not a good start…

I was not sure what chef was thinking here, but it’s possibly one of those cases of someone working on the line in a famous place with an über-creative chef-de-cuisine, and thinks they can do as well on their own… I’m starting to think the New York Times was hoodwinked when they were here, or the lunch back-of-house crew is just not up to scratch… Either way, this was not going good.

So when I tried to order a specific red wine that was mid-priced, he told me it was not available — and again directed me to the most expensive (by far) item. I shook my head and they told me they had a similar item to what I was looking at, and they brought it. It was drinkable, but I didn’t realise how much they were gonna charge me for this glass until I kept looking through the winelist and saw the per-bottle price of this wine.

Now I am just fuming, and no matter how good the main course is going to be, this is not going to be a good meal. This one service just destroyed years of me praising Central/East European service staff. This one still thinks the foreigner can be ripped off. Absolutely angry.

My main course was a variation of the amazing mangalica. What could have been an amazing dish was basically down to poor execution. It looked nice and could have been something very special, but…

The bottom layer was a black pudding that was nice. Now how can anyone screw up black pudding… The middle was a nice tongue, but I thought it was seasoned a bit poorly. And finally, the top Schnitzel layer was just dreadful, with the worst breading there. For a pork as flavourful as mangalica they should have gone katsu rather than Schnitzel. This may as well be any darn pork.

Again, I don’t know whether this is just poor execution and back-up service staff due to it being Thursday lunch, but it’s nevertheless unacceptable and ruins the reputation of a restaurant that could have been good. I for one will never step foot into this place again, as it brings back bad memories of dealing with waiters that try to rip you off. This is 2012, we can’t go backwards.

Avoid! Kerülje!

Borkonyha
Sas utca 3
Budapest, Magyarország

 

 

Review: Carne di Hall

Budapest,
21 November 2012

First of all, I apologise for the lack of updating. Due to various technical problems I’ve not been able to log into this account for a few days. Now that’s fixed (thanks to some good people on WordPress, esp Kathryn), I can catch up.

I had a rough trip over to London from Newark. Traffic was a nightmare, took over 2 hours to drive there. In addition, I was somehow willing to torture myself with a radio marathon of Christmas songs…harbinger of a bad trip?

A bad flight with a dodgy piece of chicken (processed drumstick but the bone still there?)…what has happened to Virgin Atlantic over the last 2 years? This was disgusting. And by the time I got to London, I was feeling ill and burning up. Shit… And all the day’s plans scuppered as I slumped over in my airport hotel room… Lost a chance to dine with a good friend at The Shed in London. Next time, hopefully…

I was still not great when I got to Budapest the next day, and realised I should take it a little easy. Despite being assigned a non-smoking room in a non-smoking hotel, this place in Pest was not as advertised…ugh… But I decided to take the walk late that night to across the Danube to try Carne di Hall, which has many good reviews. But in the meantime, Budapest — already a stunningly beautiful city — is just mesmirising at night…

The walk in the chilly evening was just what I needed. Carne di Hall is an unpretentious restaurant with lots of cute porcine motifs in its decor — just what most people who are food-centric like! And this place was not to disappoint!

First of all, the service at this place was professional, friendly, courteous and informed — which is a treat alongside the good food. I began with the fish taster starter, and it was a choice combination. The tartar from local trout was fantastic and fresh, opposed by the intense and creamy pike-perch. But the star was the local baby catfish, fried up (a bonus, they tell me). Fantastic flavour combination, I must say…what a great start!

I do apologise for the rather dark photos again…my aversion to using flash indoors does it again. But rest assured it tastes better than my photos show! I was really enjoying this meal with some fine local wines. Please do enjoy Hungarian wines, both whites and reds. They are totally underrated but awesome!

My main course is a tribute to the porcine nature of this restaurant, trotters done “pékné” style. I was really looking forward to this treatment of the humble trotter, and it was indeed worth the wait!

These two pieces of grilled trotters were melt-in-your-mouth level, as good as the trotter I have at the amazing Hakata Tonton. The potatoes with onions and bacon (!!) was an extra treat, and I just devoured the contents of the plate with much gusto!

I was in 7th heaven, and again goes with what I’ve said in previous reviews of food in Budapest (especiall this from Klassz), it’s nearly impossible to have a bad meal in this amazing food city! I highly suggest everyone make a trip here to try the food! I was too stuffed but ended the night with a much needed pálinka…

In the meantime I had been chatting with some Finnish tourists sitting at the next table and by the time they headed out (I declined joining them for drinks after due to being utterly knackered), they had become devotees of the pálinka! So I have done my job!

I strolled back across the Lánchíd (Chain Bridge) and enjoyed the beauty of Budapest at night some more. This is such a romantic town, it’s almost sad to be walking across this gorgeous bridge over the Danube alone. So after a brief detour (that I mentioned on Twitter), I headed back to the room for some much needed rest…

Oh, Budapest, I missed you…

Carne di Hall
Bem rakpart 20
Budapest, Magyarország

 

Review: Longman & Eagle

Chicago,
9 November 2012

As I hinted in my previous entry about my days in Chicago, I did have one very good meal at the tail end of the trip. Last time I was in the Windy City, as I was trekking out to O’Hare during a horribly hot summer day, I stopped at the much-raved gastropub Longman & Eagle and had a wonderful brunch before flying out. This time, I chose to go there for my last dinner in town before heading home.

Longman & Eagle does not take bookings, so I made my way there early as it is über-popular, and it is a Friday night. I was staying at O’Hare and it’s a bit of a hike back towards town, but it was worth it. Made it there at the brink of 5pm and enjoyed a cocktail while checking out the menu.

As the place was not quite crazy yet at this early hour, I decided to go one dish at a time and see where it goes. I had all night anyway, but wanted to head back early. Nevertheless, I started to feast slowly… The first dish was the venison pâté, which was extremely tasty and a great start. Not too rough nor soft, it worked well as a snack with drinks. A very generous brick!

A very nice start. I had been trying out some of the cocktails…yeah, I know, I’m breaking my own new rule already. Tonight’s gonna be a tough test for myself, to see if I can keep this under control. Making it worse I was also doing some tasting of bourbons and ryes neat… This place has an amazing selection of ryes, bourbons, whiskys, whiskeys, etc…it’s worth a trip just for drinks! It’s easy, it’s near Logan Square station…

The key is to pace, and I managed that pretty well in this dark and increasingly busy pub. My second dish was the crispy pig’s tail. This cute dish, with the shredded meat fried in a roll, was delicious. The pig’s tail was delicate and flavourful, but the package made it a little more special. Usually I am not a fan of meat being fried up in a wrap, but this worked really good.

My next dish was the lamb tartare with quail egg. Now this missed a bit for me, as the meat was not distinct enough, like they wanted to quell its taste. With the egg disconnected from the meat, moving it to top of the meat easily caused some loss. I think this dish needs a little re-think, to be honest.

My fourth dish, as I was getting full (alongside the bar), was the buffalo sweetbread. I wanted to compare it to Recette in NYC, where I remember me and Simon Majumdar had several helpings of the excellent snack. Unfortunately, the ones here was a bit on the skimpy side, and was falling apart a little. NYC 1 – Chicago 0 on this one, sorry.

I was starting to get a little disapponted with 2 less-than-expected dishes in a row, so I decided to call it a night on savouries. I saw a wonderful dessert, which they at first said they ran out of…thank goodness that wasn’t the case. This is the full description:

“Terrine of Heirloom Madagascan Chocolate Ganache, Salted Peanuts, Espresso, Translucent Caramel, Brown Butter Chestnut Financier, Chestnut Maple Coulis, Salted Peanut Brittle”

Now what can I saw…wow. This was fantastic. The combination of flavours was absolutely mesmirising, although rich but not in conflict. This came close to being the very best dessert I have ever had… Readers may know I am not a big fan of desserts usually, so when I say this was hands down the best dish of the night, that’s saying something.

I had a few more drinks and the place was now totally hopping. I didn’t want to hold up the seat, so I stood as I finished two awesome glasses of iced coffee from the tap (what a great bloody idea!!!). I needed the strength to get myself back to O’Hare.

To be honest, this was a hit-and-miss night, but it’s always interesting. Longman & Eagle to me is clearly the best place for a serious food experience in Chicago (that doesn’t involve a chemistry lab) that I have enjoyed. I’m harsh on the dishes that missed because my standards for this place now is so ridiculously high. But heavily recommended for drinks and food, and just the scene. A cool place. I can’t wait to come back next time!

Longman & Eagle
2657 North Kedzie Avenue
Chicago, IL

Oh Chicago… [mini-reviews of Grand Duke’s, The Berghoff, and IPO]

I had continued with my very weird trip, arriving into Chicago on Election Day. Toronto was rather disastrous, and the negative effects of the trip continued. Though I felt a corner had been somewhat turned, I continue to worry whether a major setback will befall me before I make it home in the weekend. This is how little confidence I have in my own situation at this point…

Due to rather odd circumstances that I won’t get into here, I had the problem of switching hotels each and every night in Chicago. A mess to say the least. My first evening put me in a rather “roach motel-y” place near Midway Airport. When I had made my trip plans I had forgotten that a certain person’s hometown is Chicago and when he does win the election he’d be downtown. So that explains the 1-night exile…

Plus, it gave me the chance to go to one of the very few Lithuanian restaurants still around, Grand Duke’s, for dinner and to watch the elections. It turned out to be not so good of a night… The beer flowed all night, and I consumed maybe 6-7 litres of very good Švyturys beer… I had ordered two starters, with very mixed results. The smoked pigs ears were very good, although hard to eat with a spoon (!!); the garlic bread was disastrous. The service was very shaky to say the least… Friendly, but shaky. And of course they never warned me the kitchen was shutting down, and I had no food when they were closing down. Shit.

So as the elections were winding down, they closed. I had to cab it back to the hotel, find somewhere that still had food (not easy). So as I laughed at many of the election results (I had already tweeted that Obama had a clear path to victory weeks ago, I didn’t believe the media hype of serious late competitiveness), I was dying of hunger and had litres of beer destroying my stomach.

I had almost as bad of a night as Mitt and Paul thanks to that…

The next day I recovered enough to make my way to my 2nd hotel. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I had also caught a cold…aside from the stomach issues. I was now next to the river and that evening (snacked a little at lunch only) went to Bavette’s (which was the previous blog entry, so go read that). Went and tried to rest back at hotel but had a horrible sleep…

The next day I switched hotels again to the centre of The Loop but stopped at the venerable Berghoff for lunch beforehand. Bad move. They shifted a few of the good stuff off the menu and it was pretty lame for lunch… The beer was okay, but the sausage trio was disastrous. It’s worse than 3 different ballpark franks dumped on a plate with a mountain of artichoke salad. Awful, awful, awful. What a bad start… I should have known to avoid the tourist trap…

I checked into the 3rd hotel in 3 days in Chicago and tried to relax a little, still feeling rather ropey from the beer-acid attack and the now-somewhat-better cold. Tried to rest, but didn’t manage too well.

I met a good friend of mine for dinner that evening, but things ran rather late and we didn’t manage to make plans until many of the places in Chicago were not seating new customers…I had forgotten how early things shut down in Chicago mid-week. So we ended up at IPO — which has seen many, many mixed reviews. Someone’s opinion I trust had panned it, and I was concerned but we had little choice.

First of all, it was so close to the hotel lobby lounge that it seemed like an extention of it. That’s never good for quality of dining experience. The service started already shaky as the server didn’t seem to want to explain anything in the esoteric menu. We ended up sharing the scallops to start… Well, the excessive use of coffee and hazlenut made this taste like a real bad Starbucks experience. The scallops (2) were fine themselves, but everything else on the plate HAD TO GO. Who came up with this? You wouldn’t even do this when desperate in Kitchen Arena if secret ingredients forced something odd… What a bad start…

And of course when the plate was brought out, no description of it from the runner nor the server. I had to call the server over as he couldn’t be bothered. Ridiculous. Then the main course of sturgeon came for me. The food wasn’t bad here, as the flavours matched a bit more here. But frankly, it was nothing special and neither was my friend’s salmon. The side of asparagus was burnt to shrivels at points… And again, no description of the complex dishes by the server, I had to call him over to ask a few questions.

This is just crap service that made the food worse than it really was. I was livid, but just took a deep breath. After another questionable dish, the “Mexican inspired” dessert that made little sense, before we even managed to ask for coffee, the bill came — unasked.

This is when people walk out of restaurants and give a small tip. Ridiculous. Thank goodness good company kept the evening from being ruined…

Now the last full day I had all my plans messed up due to other problems that crept up and I had shifted to O’Hare. I ended up having a great last dinner in the one place I knew that would be good, and that shall be in a forthcoming review…

Needless to say, I got home in a few pieces, feeling just awful. This trip had been so trying and caused me endless grief, and I am still cleaning up the damage from it. I don’t know how much I have really recovered from all that happened, but I have a week before I hit the road again, so I have little choice…

Review: Bavette’s Bar and Boeuf

Chicago,
7 November 2012

I was a bit under the weather on my 2nd day in Chicago following a trying few days (but which ended wonderfully) in Toronto. Sniffling and knackered, I was not looking for food that was gonna be a production. So feeling like a good steak, I was looking around online and found something new and interesting: Bavette’s. Made a late booking for this very busy place and headed there at almost 10pm — a ridiculously late time to eat dinner mid-week in Chicago…

To say this place reminds you of a speak-easy is an understatement. One online review even joked that “if Instagram were a steakhouse”… It was noisy, busy, and extremely dark inside (so sorry, no pictures); I could barely read my menu. You can tell the service is still a little chaotic, but it worked out okay. It was still very busy at this very late hour in Chicago, which is a good sign.

Although I was dying to try the beef tongue, one of my favourite things in the world, I figured it’ll be too much with a 24oz-bone-in steak… So I just ordered the bone in rib steak (hold the bernaise), topped with rather overpriced roasted garlic, and a side of broccoli. I noticed that the prices in this place has gone up significantly than the menu that’s floating around…that’s a bit of a minus.

The steak arrived in a good time, and cooked well. It seemed smaller than something that’s called 24 ounces tho…I noticed this at nearby Kinzie Chophouse also when I was there half a year ago…a 24oz cut in Chicago is much smaller than a 24oz cut in the East Coast. Huh? But true.

The steak was flavourful, using their special salt. The skimpy amount of garlic was nice, but again overpriced for a few tiny pieces. The broccoli was the entire stem, which was also roasted. I am one of the few that likes to eat broccoli stems, so I enjoyed it. Overall it was a good steak dinner set-up.

I was talked into a goldbrick sundae with single malt ice cream, but it was disappointing. They said it was not overwhelming, and that’s an understatement. I don’t taste anything at all. It was just a simple sunday…boring. At least the tokaji was a generous pour.

I felt not excited but satisfied. The steak itself was done well, but just wasn’t enough to make this place a destination — just like Kinzie a block away. Still looking for that elusive awesome Chicago steakhouse or chophouse…

Bavette’s Bar and Boeuf
218 W Kinzie
Chicago, Illinois

Oh Canada…

I’ve not been back to Toronto for about 1.5 years, probably the longest I’ve been away from this pearl by the lake for nearly a decade. Many of my contacts have gone, and the city has become so utterly expensive — exacerbated by the near parity of USD:CAD. It’s so utterly pricey to hang out in Toronto these days, and the food is just way overpriced. However, I’ve always had good meals here.

The trip unfortunately did not start well, from several meltdown-esque days where my stress level boiled over. The first meal I had at Swish by Han was a bad omen, the drinking that followed it was even worse… This was one of the worst drinking sessions I’ve ever had in Toronto, and I’ve had many, many insane evenings here that’s left me incapacitated over the years…

The following day was pretty much zonked from me both nursing the hangover (which was not as bad as I thought it would be from the crazy volume of drink that went into me) and the realisation that was from the blog entry of the day. The night was capped by a rather poor but pricey take-away meal from Lai Wah Heen: bland pork chop, bland razor clams, bland everything. It’s like they just forgot to season. Very disappointed, and horrific prices.

In the meantime, though I feel I have come over a major barrier in my “healing” I still feel incredible sadness. And there has been times, at least once a day, that I just fall apart… It is not easy when your mind wanders into the past…

The next morning I had another poor experience in one of the places that has never failed me in Toronto: Babur (see review here). I was saddened, as it was one of the Indian restaurants in North America that I kept as a back-up. Now I can’t even rely on this place…

My last meal in Toronto was at another place that I’ve never had a bad meal: Canoe. A dear friend had invited me to dinner for a belated birthday meal, and it saved the trip. Not just the wonderful company the entire evening, but also from the fabulous food. I don’t like writing reviews when I am with good company. But I have to say, Canoe does NOT disappoint. It has never, it still doesn’t.

Aside from the amazing view, Canoe boasts some of the best food in Canada. My meal began with a beautiful dish called Clover Roads Duck “Tongue to Tail” — which featured a lot of the duck in a dazzling array of quacky goodness… As a duck lover, this was awesome… (picture has been fixed — brightened…)

Then my main, the sturgeon, was fabulous. And of course, when I didn’t fancy any of the desserts, they gave me a berry selection as something off-the-menu. That was wonderful, just shows how good a restaurant can really be. This place reaffirmed my faith in the food of Toronto after so many fails during this short trip. And of course, thank you to my dear friend Alan for making this evening so memorable. He is a true friend.

And of course, off to Chicago. Thank goodness for Porter Air and flying from the Island instead of Pearson… How will my path to “healing” continue in a city that has given me some of my biggest meltdowns in history…

Review: Babur

Toronto,
5 November 2012

I’ve always bemoaned the lack of good Indian restaurants in the US. However, during my frequent trips to Toronto, I’ve always found a little place in the centre of town to be very safe and sound. So on this Monday morning, aside from other good choices, I decided to pop into this place, Babur.

I was surprised that there were a few tables already full and it was not midday yet. I guess a few others had skipped breakfast. But I’ve never had a bad meal here over the years, so I was pretty relaxed. A glass of pinot gris came and I began ordering…but several items were not available. Worried? Not really.

I started with a nice order of lamb seekh kabob. The lamb chops (for main) was not available today so opted for this. Done as good as any place in London, I enjoyed this little treat. Simple but nice.

Then my main came, and it worried me. This was the Goan prawn curry… First of all, there was a generous amount of very meaty prawns. However, the sauce was…well…ugh…I don’t know what to say. The coconut aspects good, but there were noticeable “tinned” and “off the shelf” ingredients that made this taste like something made by Heinz… But sadly, it was actually not bad…but it kept tasting like a mixture of coconut juice and ketchup…

I was honestly not thrilled, even though it was pretty good. The prawns were meaty and nice. However, this was not the Babur I know from previous experiences. I was a little saddened. I could have been at the aforementioned Korean Grill House across the street and had a wonderful meal. But instead, this tasted more like a not-so-there Indian restaurant in NYC…really disappointed.

A rather unfortunate last lunch in Toronto…

Babur
273 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Review: Swish by Han

Toronto,
3 November 2012

Those of you following me on Twitter know that I have been in a relatively undamaged area through the devastation of Sandy, but I went into the City on Friday and it was very unpleasant. First of all, going back to my former home, the place I’ve lived the longest since I was in grade school, it was sad to see people having to walk 26 floors up to somewhere that has no water nor plumbing due to the power outage. And more infuriating, the lights are on just a few steps away across 39th Street, where the power never went out. You can see the lights across the street from my darkened lobby…

Can you imagine looking at those lights from the darkness for days, like it’s taunting you?

It was a roundabout journey to get to Newark Airport, where I made my way eventually to Toronto in a pre-planned trip that almost didn’t happen. I wanted to stay and help in some way, but I figured I will just get in the way at this point…and I had personal damage I needed to sort out… So I made my way north to Toronto.

I hadn’t eaten all day, nursing a bad hangover. But I decided for an early dinner to drop by the well-reviewed Korean restaurant Swish by Han. I had heard good things, and was looking forward to it. I adore Korean food.

First of all, I need to apologise, there are no pictures with this review. The restaurant was so dark there was no way pictures would have come out. And you know my aversion to using flash in a dark restaurant… So you’ll just need to trust my words.

I didn’t have a booking; although it was not 6pm yet, from the first minute I felt I was not wanted there and they wanted me out of there sooner than later. The mood felt somewhat uncomfortable, especially with one of the servers, which I will explain later.

I ordered the house version of a Negroni, which wasn’t bad, though missing the bitterness and strength of most Negronis. But nicely needed. However, when I was putting my food order in, I had attempted to order the galbi BBQ…yes, attempted. The server tried incredibly hard to talk me out of it, despite me saying I was very hungry having not eaten since yesterday. It’s clear that they didn’t want me to sit there too long especially with the BBQ set-up. I was so put-off at that point I almost walked out of the restaurant. What was the server thinking I have no idea…

As she really, really did NOT want me to order the BBQ, I ended up ordering two starters. The first that came was the 48hr braised beef shank. This wasn’t bad, the shank being thinly sliced over a green salad. To be honest the salad was better. Also, having these bloody metal chopsticks is a nightmare for those of us that are not very good with these things…especially with thinly-sliced meat. A so-so start…

The second starter that I ordered was the dumplings stuffed with shrimp and so forth. It wasn’t bad again, though several of them were soaking in oil. I would have preferred a nice steamed mandu, but it wasn’t on the menu. And the bourbon I ordered must have been the SMALLEST portion I have ever been served in a restaurant…

I should have left at this point, but I figured, let’s make the best of it. I ordered two more starters to finish the meal. The next was the so-called “bi bim bap” rolls, much like an egg roll sliced with ingredients as in a bibimbap. However, it was off-balanced, and parts of the inside were not cooked through. I tasted raw dough… The next was the pork bun, which wasn’t bad, but again off-balanced. The pork was nice but bland, and the sauce too strong and cut the niceness of the pork out.

By now, after another cocktail, I was just not that happy. I was thinking of ordering one of their well-reviewed desserts, but another server basically just asked if I wanted coffee — not even asking about dessert. It really showed they wanted me out the door. So I took a double espresso and left.

It was disheartening that a restaurant would treat a diner like this, just because he was dining by himself without a booking. If I knew it would be like this, I would have left without eating and gone to one of my other Toronto staples. The food was interesting enough, but could have been better executed. I should have gone to my usual Toronto outpost, the Korean Grill House…

Swish by Han
38 Wellington Street East
Toronto, Ontario, Canada