Day 3 in Toronto was meant to be a chill day, where we do more sightseeing and shopping around downtown.
We opted for the hotel breakfast again this morning, our last buffet of the trip. Eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, yogurt, and a banana.
After breakfast, we made the trek over to Nathan Phillips Square. It's where the iconic Toronto sign resides with City Hall just behind.
We popped into Eaton Centre which is right next door to do a bit of shopping. Since Ontario has 13% sales tax, I wouldn't buy anything that we could find back home.
On our way to lunch, we exited the mall at the Yonge-Dundas intersection. Since I've been here last, they've opened up a Shake Shack!
As tempting as Shake Shack could be, we had lunch at Moon Palace, a Chinese restaurant that specializes in dim sum and Cantonese dishes.
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We ordered quite a bit, starting with the deep fried crab balls and black truffle pork and shrimp dumplings. The black truffle was not too overpowering; it was a nice twist on the classic sui mai. The crab balls weren't really memorable but they came with a side of sweet chili sauce.
The supreme shrimp rice noodle roll was nicely done. Very silky with snappy shrimp. The crispy egg noodles with whole lobster and mushrooms in supreme broth was the highlight dish. It was clean, crispy, and beautifully presented.
These dumplings looked very similar to har gao, but had lobster meat, shrimp, and asparagus. Very good.
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We could've done without the pan fried chicken and shrimp dumplings only because we were really full at this point. These were hefty and meaty guys. But funny enough, the stomach always has room for dessert. These deep fried egg yolk sesame balls were a favourite around the table. It had a crispy mochi-like shell that encased a creamy lava filling.
A mandatory stop at MUJI next door. Their pens are popular but don't sleep on their yuzu candy.
We kept walking down Dundas, stopping in Marshalls & IKEA for a quick browse. Our last stop was Hitotoki Bakery, a Japanese bakery that specializes in tarts and milk bread.
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We got the creme brulee almond tart ($6.50) which featured a flan like pudding on top of a frangipane blueberry base. I was really excited to try this but I thought it was just okay. It was not too sweet, but it was bland in a sense. The croissant pastry looked liked it had a lot of layers but it wasn't super flaky. I also think it was misleading to call it a creme brulee tart when there was no burnt sugar shell.
We rested at the hotel for a bit before going out for dinner later that night. It was only supposed to be a 15 minute walk but we ended up being hit by a giant rainstorm. I did have an umbrella on me but even that wasn't enough to combat the heavy downpour. We ended up seeking shelter under a canopy and waited 20 minutes for the rain to die down.
Eventually it calmed down enough to walk the rest of the way, but we arrived at To-Ne Sushi soaking wet. The restaurant was half full and seemed like a cozy neighbourhood spot. They have an extensive menu that you order from via QR code.
Our first appetizer was the soft shell crab ($14.00), breaded and deep fried with ponzu sauce. These were fried nicely. Crispy but still tender.
We also love getting ikayaki ($13.00) whenever it's on a menu. This is grilled squid with teriyaki sauce. There was decent char flavour but the squid was a bit dry and chewy.
For rolls, we got the salmon lover's roll ($15.00) and the sunshine roll ($12.00). The salmon lover's roll had salmon roe, scallion, torched salmon, with spicy salmon and avocado. The sunshine roll was a California roll with torched salmon and special sauce. Because both rolls were topped with torched salmon, they ended up tasting pretty similar to each other.
Our final dish was the chicken teriyaki bento ($24.00). It came with miso soup, rice, salad, tempura, California roll, and chicken teriyaki. We loved the salad and tempura but were let down by the chicken teriyaki. A bit dry and tough. Chicken thighs would've been a better choice than chicken breast.
After we finished dinner, we ended up taking an Uber back to the hotel, not wanting to become trapped by another squall. It was a good thing we did.
- CT
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