After a wonderful dinner experience at Toca, I was very excited to be invited to the launch of their new Italian Saturday Brunch buffet. Even more so after seeing the menu, which included Canadian lobster tails, oysters, crab legs, cheeses from their cheese cave and smoked salmon. Also, bottomless mimosas and bellinis. Yes yes and so much yes.

Disclaimer: All food and drinks reviewed below were provided complimentary. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine.

Priced at $64 per adult Saturday brunch was served from 12pm-2pm at Toca, the main restaurant inside the Ritz-Carlton Toronto hotel. Buffet stations were set up in the centre of the dining area and around the entrance. There were tables of charcuterie, cheese and crackers, desserts, a salad bar, cooked breakfast fare (i.e. eggs benedict and ricotta pancakes) and pasta but the main attraction was definitely the East Coast Seafood Bar.

Sitting on a bed of crushed ice were freshly shucked east coast oysters, lobster tail halves, plump shrimp, crab legs and an assortment of accoutrements. Needless to say, Stephen knew where to find me for the rest of the morning. Oysters were the first to disappear and the kitchen had a hard time keeping them stocked. There was no short supply of lobster tails or crab legs, which were fresh, tender and flavourful.

Of the cooked offerings, my favourites were the pasta and ricotta pancakes. The eggs benedict had a perfect poached egg but the english muffin was a touch hardened, difficult to keep warm in a buffet situation. Both the charcuterie and cheese platters had nice opposing selections (a soft cheese, a hard cheese) and I finished my meal with a decadent creme brulee.

Overall, the Saturday Brunch buffet at Toca was an indulgent treat. The seafood bar was one of the best I’ve seen in the city in terms of quality and selection and there was a wide assortment of other stations to make the entire meal a worthwhile outing.

Located in First Markham Place, Kaka All You Can Eat is currently one of the most popular restaurants uptown. Attracting diners with their high quality sushi and huge selection of cooked dishes, reservations are highly sought after. When the restaurant first opened, I tried to book a table on a Friday night for a group of 10, two weeks in advance and had no luck. Since then, Kaka remains a hotspot, filled to capacity even on weeknights until well past dinnertime. I did get a chance to stop by recently to check out their newest menu items with Sweven Media.

Disclaimer: All food and drinks reviewed below were provided complimentary. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine.

One of the main reasons for Kaka’s popularity is the number of premium items on their AYCE menu that includes pressed and torched sushi. The quality of sashimi was also excellent. Each fish was fresh and sweet, with a firm but tender texture. Orders were placed via an iPad system and confirmed by the server. Both kitchen and sushi items arrived quickly and our table soon filled up with small plates and bowls. The majority of cooked items had a default order quantity of 1 portion, which meant being able to order 1 takoyaki ball, 1 piece of tempura and 1 piece of kalbi.

Kaka is always refining their menu and introducing new seasonal items. Launched in late July, new menu items included a selection of 3 poke bowls, 2 tacos, an Udon Carbonara, Chicken Meatball Skewers and 2 creamy desserts. My favourite poke bowl was the Citrus Soy Poke that had salmon, nori, sesame, avocado, cilantro, green onions and tempura bits. The poke was well seasoned and the two bite portion size was perfect. The Chicken Meatball Skewer was tender, juicy and had a crispy exterior. Between the fish and shrimp taco, my preference was for the fish as the batter on the shrimp was a bit heavy and overwhelming. Of all the new items, the Bacon and Mushroom Carbonara Udon was my favourite with chewy noodles in a rich and creamy sauce.

Some other menu items, which aren’t usually found at AYCE restaurants, I really enjoyed were the Spring Egg, Ox Tongue Skewer, Baked Oyster with Cheese and Blow Torched Beef Tataki Rolls. The spring egg was a poached egg served in a light bonito broth that had a perfect runny yolk. I would eat one daily if I could. Of course, the blowtorched sushi was also very tasty. The Salmon with Jalapeno and Spicy Mayo was my favourite piece.

After feasting for a couple of hours, there was still dessert. Reading through the choices, which was far more extensive than just ice cream, I wanted to try everything. Dinner had been really filling though. Luckily, Kaka had thought of this dilemma on their customer’s behalf and serves all of their desserts in shot glasses, a bite-size portion, allowing diners to eat more than just one. I ended up trying the creme brulee, chocolate mousse (x2), lychee panna cotta, and a scoop of green tea ice cream. All sorts of diets were put on hold that night.

When I’m stressed, I eat. This meant that the days leading up to my wedding my appetite was insatiable. My husband-to-be convinced me that dinner at a Chinese buffet the night before was probably not the best idea. The Monday after though, we went and stuffed our faces at Dragon Legend Buffet.

Atmosphere: The building that Dragon Legend took over used to be a Chinese banquet hall so there’s plenty of space and could easily sit a hundred people. The interior decor was as elaborate as the building exterior, filled to the brim with Asian motifs and wall decor. Tables were large and wooden chairs were heavy. The stage area remained and two large screens on each side of the dining hall is now used to show Chinese TV shows. 3 VIP rooms are available for private events although we saw tables set up in the main dining area for groups of more than 20.

The buffet area where are the food was set up had wide aisles and wasn’t crowded. There was lots of room to queue and browse. Each dish had an individual spotlight over it and a description in Chinese and English.

Service: None of the wait staff were unfriendly or rude, but it was clear they were just there to get the job done. This was especially true for anyone manning a food station. I’m sure it’s not easy and some customers probably try to get around the portion limits, but the servers paid little attention to you other than dropping food on your plate and there was no break in conversations between themselves.

At the sashimi station, each visit was limited to 3 pieces of salmon and 2 pieces of octopus. At the Peking Duck station, the limit was two wraps each.

Food: Hands down, this was one of the best buffets I’ve ever been to in terms of selection and quality of the food. At dinner, there was dim sum, a grilled station, salad bar, sashimi, maki, prime rib, Peking duck wraps, hand pulled noodles and a slew of Chinese stir frys.

• Sushi and Sashimi – I was impressed by the quality of the fresh fish, especially the tuna and salmon. There was squid, rolls, seared tuna, tamago and a lot more choices.
  Hand Pulled Noodles – Noodles are hand pulled and the flavour rotates every half an hour (spinach, normal, pulled, shaved), diners can choose between three toppings (ie. BBQ duck or pork) and 3 soup bases. This was one of my favourite stations.
  Prime Rib – Carved to order, the beef was cooked to a medium well, juicy and was tender.
  Grilled – So many choices! You can also order grilled steak on the spot, it’s diced, seasoned, soft and a hidden treasure. There was also squid, red sausage, skewers, pancakes and my favourite, pineapple.
  Peking Duck – A this station, you state if you’d like one or two wraps and the server places them on your plate. They try to make sure each wrap has an equal amount of skin and meat pieces. Hoisin sauce, sliced cucumber and green onion were self serve. This wasn’t the best Peking Duck, but not bad (I ate 3 wraps).
  Salad Bar – In addition to greens, there was wakame salad, kimchi, cold shrimp and mussels.
  Dim Sum – A disappointment, the steamers are left warming for too long and the dumpling wrappers were thick. I would skip this station and save the stomach room.
  Stir Frys – There was a good variety of classic Chinese dishes like Eggplant, Sweet and Sour Chicken and plenty of vegetables. I did find the dishes on the oily side but they were well seasoned and will satisfy the craving for dirty Chinese food.
  Dessert – Dessert was split into two areas, the usual ice cream flavours (including Green Tea and Mango) and a table filled with cakes and pudding. Overall, the cakes were underwhelming, a little dry, while the mousses and puddings fared better.

I’ve now been to Dragon Legend twice, the first with The Hubby’s immediate family and the second time with a bigger group of family. Based on these two visits, I do believe that Dragon Legend has a good selection of food, lots of variety and is an excellent choice for a family gathering (picky or big eaters). You are paying for the quality and selection though at $26.99 per person for dinner Mon-Thu and $31.99 Fri-Sun and Holidays. Personally, I’d rather rather spend that much elsewhere.

Heart Sushi is the latest AYCE Japanese restaurant to open in Mississauga. From the same owners as 168 Sushi, the restaurant is fully equipped with the now standard Ipad ordering system and I had high hopes based on early reviews. My family and I stopped by for Father’s Day lunch this year and it was pretty much chaos.

Atmosphere: Located at Heartland Town Centre, the decor of Heart Sushi is sleek and modern. The furniture is monochromatic with black leather benches, white granite tables and glossy white walls. Pops of colour show up in a cherry blossom mural behind the sushi bar and on the interior of large lamp shades. Being Father’s day, the restaurant was packed. People were waiting for tables inside, outside and just about everywhere. Servers moved at a frantic pace and it didn’t slow down until after the lunch menu ended (at 3:30pm).

Service: I’ve learned over the years that any “holiday” weekend always translates to long lines at restaurants and reservations are a must. Even armed with a reservation, walking into the restaurant and seeing the crowd of people at the hostess desk, I knew there would be a wait. Our reservation was mostly honoured and we had a table 30 minutes later. Not the best, but better than a walk-in would have been. The server who seated us explained how the Ipad ordering system worked and left us to browse the menu. The app itself is easy to navigate and we placed our first order. After that, the service hit quite a few bumps.

1. The app doesn’t track what items have been delivered and what’s still outstanding
2. There’s no “call for service” option, with busboys madly delivering plates to tables, there were only a couple of servers working the floor who could check on orders and answer any questions
3. While the kitchen items were quick to arrive, items from the sushi bar were painfully slow. I understand they were backed up, but our BBQ eel from the very first order took the entire 2 hour meal to arrive, and only after inquiring 3 times. During the entire lunch, I did not see a single order of BBQ eel nigiri being served at any table around us. Then at the very end of lunch service, we finally received our orders along with all the other tables around us.
4. When we asked if we should re-order missing items or wait, different servers had different answers.

Food: The menu selection at Heart Sushi was standard with some nice additions of Thai (pad thai), Chinese (sweet and sour pork) and Korean (bulgogi) entrees. For lunch, sashimi is not available but there was a wide variety of rolls and sushi items including tobiko and mackerel. I was a little disappointed that they had run out of tiramisu for dessert. As or quality, every dish we ordered was on par or above other AYCE restaurants. I really enjoyed the sweet and sour soup, the grilled pin mackerel was very crispy, the tempura was lightly battered, not oily and all of the raw fish was fresh. The rolls were bite sized with an excellent rice to filling ratio. Note that drinks are not included in the AYCE menu and need to be ordered at an additional charge.

With a lunch buffet menu priced at $16.99 for adults on weekends and $14.99 on weekdays, I was happy with the menu selection, quality of the food and think it’s well priced. With all of the missteps in service though, it will be a hard sell to convince my family for a return visit when they’re already big fans of Yang’s and K&B Sushi.

AYCE Japanese restaurants are a staple in any Toronto neighbourhood. The vast menu of cooked and raw items is able to appease every taste bud. Of the many Japanese restaurants in North York, Sushi One is my go to for an AYCE option.

Atmosphere: While my little brother was visiting during March break, we continued our tradition of over-indulging on sashimi with a visit to Sushi One. Arriving at 7pm on a Monday, the last thing I expected was for the restaurant to be packed. It was a full house. Our timing was terrible and it seemed like every table had just settled into their meal. We decided to wait it out, getting hungrier before an AYCE meal felt like the right course of action. There was one couple before us and we both got our tables at the same time after 20 minutes. The restaurant doesn’t have an area to wait, so the 20 minutes were passed standing between two tables of diners.

Service: Service was fine, not exceptional but got the job done. Our table for two became very crowded very quickly. We had to rearrange and stack plates ourselves throughout the meal. There is a service call button, which we did use a few times to place another order and to get the bill. One thing I really liked about Sushi One is the attention to presentation. Both our orders of sashimi arrived nicely plated.

Food: Dinner price was $21.99 and our bill for two came to $55 after tax and tip. This is equivalent to one of their medium party trays that include 55-66 pieces. The sashimi pieces served for AYCE are always smaller than a la carte but with the addition of grilled items, ice cream and appetizers, the variety of the meal is what I enjoy the most. I was impressed that sweet shrimp and mackerel sashimi were included on the menu as seasonal items. The sweet shrimp was fresh and tasted great. Both items had a limit of 5 pieces per order. Overall, the sashimi was fresh, cut in bite size pieces and the maki was rolled with a thin layer of rice. All of the appetizers we ordered were standard to good; miso soup, wakame salad, edamame and kimchi. The tempura and agedashi tofu were lightly fried and not greasy. The kalbi slices were thick and grilled well. No expectations were shattered, but they were consistently met with some nice surprises.

Sushi One’s lunch AYCE is a great deal at $12.99, an extra dollar for Friday-Sunday. Sashimi is not included but the maki, rolls and sushi selection is on par with dinner. Sushi One also offers great $6.99 lunch bento specials. For dinner, my favourite take out orders are the Chirashi or Gold Sushi dinner set.