While Oakville isn’t my usual neighbourhood, with my parents in East Mississauga, the suburb’s always been just a block away (literally). When I was invited to check out one of Oakville’s top rated restaurants, I was happy to drive just a little farther for lunch before hanging out with my parents for the afternoon. Maro’s Bistro was located in downtown Oakville with a menu full of classic Middle Eastern dishes and Maro’s own unique creations.

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

Atmosphere: Stephen and I visited Maro’s on a Sunday around 11am. Plenty of parking was available behind the restaurant. When we walked in, only one other table was taken so we had our pick of seats. Sunlight streamed into the restaurant from the large storefront windows, so of course we opted for a table close to them. The service was friendly and relaxed. I really liked the natural wood tables and the open kitchen.

Food: To start, I couldn’t resist a cup of Turkish Coffee. Spiced with herbs, the coffee was fragrant and velvety smooth. I’d highly recommend giving it a try regardless of how you feel about regular coffee.. As we sipped on our mugs, a platter of dips (the Meza Plate) arrived with spiced pita bread. The four dips were hummus, baba ganoush, tahini maraina and roasted eggplant. Of the four my favourite was the hummus, which was creamy, garlicky and perfectly seasoned. Compared to that, the baba ganoush was much milder in flavour. I also really enjoyed the roasted eggplant that was charred goodness.

Onto our entrees. Stephen ordered one of Maro’s Signatures, the Lunch in Beirut, sauteed onions and peppers with beef marinated in Middle Eastern spices on a bed of hummus. The plate also had a side of pickled beets and fresh cucumber slices. I was waffling between the salad options and our server recommended I try The Veggie Tower, grilled seasonal vegetables on a bed of Moroccan couscous with chickpeas and hummus. To go along with all the vegetables, I added a side of Tandoori Grilled Chicken Breast. The portions were massive. After munching on dips and pita, there was no chance that Stephen and I would be able to finish our mains. We ended up taking away half of each platter. Along with our mains, a bottle of garlic sauce was brought over that we promptly poured over each plate. That sauce was liquid gold.

Both the meat dishes were well seasoned and had a lot of flavour. The chicken was tender and had tasty crispy bits. Stephen found the texture of the beef a bit grainy. My Veggie Tower had roasted peppers, carrots, onions and zucchini, all coated with the couscous. The vegetables were still firm and was mildly seasoned. A few chunks of avocado was included, but I could’ve done without them as they were not ripe.

Our meal ended on a sweet note with a lovely cup of Persian Tea.

As I’ve mentioned previously, my family loves AYCE Japanese with Yang’s being our usual choice. When I was home for the holidays this year, we decided to try a new location with great reviews. K&B Sushi took over the space previously occupied by Crazy Sushi in the AMC complex at Winston Churchill and the QEW. They have a teppanyaki room in addition to AYCE dinner and lunch menus.

Atmosphere: The decor is very modern and clean, light wood and dark leather materials are used with a ceiling full of white pendant light. There are a lot of tables for large groups and booths have high partitions, giving them a private feel. During that lunch hour, most of the patrons were families and many had small children.

Service: K&B is one of the AYCE restaurants who utilize an Ipad ordering system. The app was very easy to use. All of the menu items are pictured, categorized and had a description. You simply go through the menu and press “+” to set the number of orders of each item. Once you’re set, there’s a button to call the server, who will come and sends the order to the kitchen. The whole process was really efficient and I found all of our items arrived with no mistakes. It was hard to get a server’s attention though. Outside of placing an order or serving a dish, no one really came by. The app did allow you to call for service. Also, adding anything to the order must be done through the app, it’s not possible to just verbally tell your server.

Food: In addition to the usual Japanese rolls, nigiri, noodles and appetizers, K&B offers a select number of Chinese dishes as well such as a sweet and sour soup and shrimp dumplings. My dad doesn’t eat raw fish so we always order a lot of cooked items from the kitchen as well as rolls and nigiri. The galbi and teriyaki were well cooked, not tough and the tempura were lightly battered. I really liked the sweet and sour soup, one of my weaknesses at any restaurant. As for the shrimp dumplings, I don’t think they were made fresh but they were decent. The katsu’s were also thin, very tender, and had a nice crispy breading. A unique menu item was the unagi pancake, which was bbq eel topping a small korean pancake covered in katsu sauce, pretty good.

The sushi assortment at lunch is one of the widest I’ve seen in Mississauga with saba and mackerel offered. Each piece had a nice thick slice of fish and the right amount of rice. Similarly, their rolls were also heavy on the filling and light on rice, the best kind of roll. Ice cream selection is standard with green tea, red bean, mango, vanilla and chocolate. Soft drinks and hot tea are also included. K&B Sushi might be our new go to AYCE restaurant if the quality and service remains consistent.