I decided that we need to try more of the restaurants around our house. There are a whole bunch of (apparently) awesome restaurants within walking distance yet we ordered DOMINOS one lazy night?? WHY?? Anyway so now I’m making an effort to try some of the places close by. We live in a bit of a Vietnamese area so there are dozens and dozens of pho restaurants all within a couple blocks. Mui Ngo Gai has a 91% rating on Urbanspoon and pho sounded great to soothe my cold a couple weeks ago, so we walked there for dinner.

Our pho feast! Scott ordered the rare beef pho, and I ordered the rare beef and well done beef pho, because I hate ordering the same thing as anyone else, yet wasn’t in the mood for tripe or beef balls. It came with the usual plate of fresh veggies and herbs. We also got some crispy spring rolls to share.

My pho was delicious!!! It burned my face off though. Entirely my fault… I added 1 spoonful of the chili oil, decided it wasn’t spicy enough then added 3 more??!!! I am dumb. I also added fish sauce and more hot sauce. Ha. It did the trick of clearing my stuffed nose and soothing my soul though.

The spring rolls were also nice. Crunchy and tasty with a nice sauce.

I would definitely eat here again, but maybe only 1-2 spoonfuls of chili oil!! PS they also sell bubble tea.

Mui Ngo Gai Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

What to do when you need to kill an hour in the West End? RAMEN! I’ve heard Kintaro gets mega busy but we were there right after opening and were able to sit right away. We had to eat at the counter, but to be honest I always enjoy watching cooks work.

Scott ordered the shoyu ramen with rich broth and lean BBQ pork. He liked it, but didn’t consider it life changing.

I ordered the cheese ramen because of my “everything is better with cheese” motto. But…. it was weird. You can only get the cheese ramen with light broth, but I chose fatty pork. They do not skimp on the cheese. There is a ton of shredded cheese plus a big chunk as well. It made the ramen super heavy and filling. I really really really enjoy cheese but this ramen wasn’t great. I think if I went back I would order something more classic.

Kintaro Ramen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

One last Toronto restaurant post. Rhum Corner is a rum bar right across the street from The Black Hoof. We stopped in for a few pre-dinner drinks because it seemed a little too early to have dinner.

They have dozens of different types of rum, and also incredible service. The bar guy was super helpful and friendly. I had a delicious dark & stormy (spiced rum, ginger beer, lime) and a really nice lime(?) daiquiri. Scott had a glass of straight rum and a wray & ting. I liked my drinks better than his drinks, haha.

Definitely a cool place.

Rhum Corner Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Scott and I split the five spice pork belly banh mi and kimchi fries. The sandwich was nice, I thought the bread was great and the meat was tasty. Nothing too spectacular though. The fries were OK. Too much mayo in my opinion. And maybe too much kimchi too. Maybe I just don’t love kimchi enough to appreciate the dish though.

Banh Mi Boys Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Chinotto Sanpellegrino. Slightly bitter, interesting taste. It drove me crazy because it reminded me of something but I couldn’t place it.

Margherita D.O.P. I guess we felt like a classic pizza? The pizzas only take 90 seconds to cook in their crazy hot oven. I’d seen some reviews saying that their pizzas were soggy in the middle but ours were cooked through. I love thin crust pizza.

House-made sausage pizza with caramelized onion, mozzarella and chili oil. This is a white pizza… no tomato sauce. It was delicious, I liked the sausage a lot. PS Scott confuses me, one second he says he doesn’t like sausage, next second he’s ordering a sausage pizza. Haha.

Pizzeria Libretto Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Um just let me say OMG YUM. Best meal I’ve had in a long time.

Winnie recommended this restaurant to us in Toronto. She said it was like a tapas place where you can try all sorts of weird things like tongue and bone marrow. Sounded awesome to me, and it totally lived up to my expectations.

It’s a small restaurant, so we had to sit at the bar, but that was cool because then we could watch them cook. Those last two pictures are the entire kitchen! They cook everything on a regular kitchen stove! Also the poor guy in front of us just did dishes in the worlds tiniest dishwasher the entire time. I wonder how long he has to do that job before he gets to move up the ranks?!

I had mulled wine and Scott had a fruity beer.

We started with two pork carnitas tacos. They might look like just regular tacos but these were probably the best tacos I’ve ever had. The pork was plentiful and tender, the guacamole was extra creamy and flavourful, and the tortillas were super soft. You could also put some crunchy pork skin on it for some crunch and some lime and hot sauce. The flavours were strong and worked well together. Really really delicious.

Next we had the bone marrow. It was very oily and rich, but also amazing. It came with a salse verde type of thing, salt, and bread. They combined together beautifully. I had been wanting to try bone marrow for a long time so I’m glad I finally got to try it!

Then we had tongue on brioche. There was a mountain of shaved tongue, brioche, pickled celery, some type of mayo sauce, and a mustard seed(?) sauce. The tongue was tender and salty and good. It reminded us of corned beef or pastrami. I don’t think I would have realized it was tongue if no one told me. The mustard sauce was awesome and again the flavours worked perfectly together. We devoured this whole dish in no time.

Even though we were already pretty full I decided we should still order the dessert. I am SO GLAD we did because that was like the best dessert of all time. We were dying from how delicious it was. It was a warm butter tart with raisins, topped with pistachio-maple ice cream, stout jam, and crunchy pretzel streusel. PERFECTION. The pastry was buttery and flaky and tart filling was sweet with pops of sour from the raisins (and I usually hate raisins!). The contrast of warm butter tart and cold ice cream was also pleasing. Finally the pretzel topping added crunch and saltiness to the dish. Please send me about 100 more of these!!!

Anyway if you can’t tell, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS RESTAURANT. Everything tasted well thought out and balanced. ~Flavour profiles~ are their speciality, in my opinion. Also it cost a lot less than some of the fancy meals we’ve been to, and I enjoyed it fifty times more. Check it out soon!!

The Black Hoof Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato