My first visit to Woodlot was back in 2011, before I started blogging about every meal, for a friend’s birthday. At the time she was vegetarian and I loved how accommodating Woodlot’s menu was. The majority of starters, pastas and sides were vegetarian and a whole separate menu was available with mains. This year for the same friend’s birthday, I suggested we re-visit Woodlot with her boyfriend.

Atmosphere: Our group of 3 was seated in the dining area on the second floor with dark wood tables and an exposed brick wall. We were closer to the back wall, but tables near the front had a perfect view into the open kitchen. Warmth and tantalizing aromas rose from the wood oven, making me hungrier by the second. Mixes with the dim and intimate lighting, the mood was relaxed and comfortable.

Service: While I found our server a little curt, he was professional, patient and we were trying. Instead of focusing on the menu, we chatted and he checked on us a few times before we were ready to order. Our cocktails arrived quickly and dishes were also served at a steady pace.

Food: A basket of freshly baked sourdough bread was served to the table and quickly devoured. Made in-house daily, the bread was fluffy, flavourful and had a great crust. Woodlot offers loaves for purchase at the restaurant/bakery daily after 3pm.

For starters, we split the Wood Fired Spiced Aubergine and Mozzarella Empanadas and Ember Grilled Hen-o-the-Woods Mushrooms. With the soft and chewy mushrooms, the wild rice offered a nice contrast in texture. The dish had strong natural, woodsy, flavours. Served on a wood board, the pair of empanadas came with pickled turnips and a kefir cream. Even without meat, the empanada filling was savoury and rich. The pastry itself was flakey and crunchy.

My friend shared the Roast Glazed King Oyster Mushrooms with her boyfriend and we all split the an order of buttery Gnocchi, that melted in your mouth. For my main, I chose the Crispy Seared Rainbow Trout, which was lightly seasoned and cooked beautifully, to a blush. Adding more substance to the dish were three balls of swiss chard wrapped around a mixture of barley, walnut and apple. With all this, we also ordered two sides, Warm Kale Salad and Seared Rapini. I loved the kale salad, that was generously topped with malt pickled shallots. Each bite was sweet, sour and hearty.

There was still dessert. I was sold on the Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with raspberry and toasted marshmallow (my weakness) while my friends wanted to try the Sticky Toffee and Ginger cake. Our only solution was to order both. I didn’t love my choice. I did like the tart raspberry flavour with the sweet chocolate, but the marshmallow was dense. With each bite, I couldn’t be helped but be reminded of Viva Puffs cookies. The Sticky Toffee and Ginger cake was incredibly moist and very sweet. Between the two, this was the stronger plate.

Cozy and intimate, Woodlot serves up elevated comfort dishes with fresh, local ingredients.

With the weather cooling down and fall just around the corner, I am craving hearty soups. With perfect timing, the 7th annual Soupalicious Toronto festival will be held on Sunday September the 28th from noon to 3pm. Over 30 Toronto chefs, restaurants and food groups will be gathering at the Artscape Wychwood Barn to showcase their best soup recipes.

The event is presented by the Plant a Grow, Grow a Row program that encourages communities to plant, grow and donate fresh vegetables back to their community. I love how the event promotes contributing to your community. Ingredient donations from local Ontario producers are provided to the soup makers and will be featured in all of their creations. The event is also zero waste and will only be using compost-able utensils and napkins.

Some of the mouth watering soups that I’m looking forward to slurping include:

• Mushroom Soup from Aria Ristorante
• Cheddar and Ale Soup with Pretzel Croutons from Cheesewerks 
• Portuguese Caldo Verde from No. 7 Hot Sauce
• Mock Turtle Soup from Southern Accent

Advance tickets are now on sale at http://www.soupalicious.ca/ for $15, which includes entry and 10 free soup tastings. Additional tastings are $1.50 each at the door. Tickets will be $22 at the door, so buying ahead of time is a great deal. Family pass, student, senior and child discounted ticket prices are also available.

Opened in May, Yamchops is a new vegetarian butcher located in the heart of Little Italy. I was intrigued by their seemingly paradoxical title, but the concept is sound. Yamchops offers a variety of plant based protein alternatives with prepared foods, meals, fresh pressed juice and lots of gourmet vegetarian food products.

Disclaimer: All drinks and dishes were provided free of charge by the restaurant. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine.

I had the opportunity to visit the store and sample their wares during a recent media event with my friend who is vegetarian (for a second opinion since I’m quite the carnivore). We started with samples of Au Jus, a line of fresh pressed juices. I loved the watermelon juice with a touch of lemon. It had a strong, full flavour and not overly sweet. All of the juices tasted exactly like their name from Pineapple to Salad Days.

The selection of prepared foods at Yamchops range in flavours from Asian to BBQ. In general, I found that none of the food substitutions tried to mimic the meat directly but more in flavour and texture. I liked that you could still taste the natural ingredients in every dish and it wasn’t an unknown soy mixture. We tried many of the offerings including:

• Carrot lox, made with cured organic carrots
• Raw pad thai made of spiralized carrots, zucchini and beets
• Coconut Ba-con
• Tuna-less Tuna made with chickpeas
• No Pork Pulled Pork made with cabbage
• Roasted Pineapple Chutney
• Shawarma “beef”
• Korean BBQ “chicken”

The flavour and seasoning of each dish was authentic and I really loved the tangy and sweet Korean BBQ “chicken”. The No Pork Pulled Pork was like a slaw with a great BBQ sauce and coconut ba-con was a great treat reminding me of coconut candy I had in Maui. I was impressed by the international breadth and creativity of the menu selection at Yamchops. The dishes were truly unique and satisfied this carnivore.

Each dish can be purchased by weight in addition to set lunch boxes. Yamchops is open daily from 11am to 7pm and also takes orders online at https://yamchops.com/collections/all.

Back in university, I ate at Fresh on Spadina quite often and it was a nice change of pace from the pizza and many sushi places in the neighbourhood. When I saw the signs for a new Fresh location at Yonge and Eglinton I was eager to add them to my lunch time repertoire. My first attempt to stop by was a false start. The dining area wasn’t open yet and only take out orders were being taken. I was tempted by the pre-made salad and sandwich selection, which is a nice addition to the neighbourhood after Sandwich Box closed down. After monitoring their twitter feed, I tried again in December after seeing that the sit down space was ready to go.

The food is fresh and although all the ingredients are vegetarian most dishes are quite filling and can be heavy on calories. Some of my favourites from the menu are the buddha bowl and the mushroom onion burger. On this visit, I ordered the Tangled Thai salad with a soup of the day, a bowl of spicy tomato puree with white beans. All of the salad ingredients had different textures of crunchy and crispy, which added layers to each bite. The shredded carrots, beets and jicama really made the salad more interesting to eat for me versus the usual leafy greens. The salad was dressed lightly and topped with crushed peanuts. When the soup arrived, I was surprised at how thick and loaded with beans it was. It’s a heavier soup and filling.

As we were eating, I couldn’t help notice plates of Quinoa Onion rings passing by. We quickly flagged down our server to add a plate to our order and I am so glad we did. The onion right were amazing, not greasy and oh so crispy. I can see why they’re so popular and am joining the fan club.

My part time vegetarian friend has raved about Ethiopian food for years to me. Knowing my love for curries and the general dipping of carbs in sauces she was sure it was a cuisine I’d enjoy.

Atmosphere: We ate at the Ethiopian House on a beautiful summer day and was able to enjoy our meal on their patio. Irwin is a small side street off of Yonge and there was little to no car or foot traffic during our visit. The patio was decorated with large hanging flower baskets and art. I only caught a glimpse of the restaurant interior while settling the bill. There were a limited number of tables and the walls were richly decorated.

Service: Our server was friendly and our food arrived quickly. There was only one course to be brought out so it was low service required meal. It was fairly standard all around.

Food: My friend and I split the Vegetarian Bayaaynatu, which is a small serving of each of the 8 vegetarian dishes on the menu. The dishes come served on a piece of injera, and another side order to eat with. Injera is an Ethiopian flat bread that’s soft and spongy. It has a really interesting texture, not flaky, not dense and were great for soaking up the mains. Traditionally, Ethiopian cuisine is eaten without utensils so that’s the route we took.  Tear off a piece of injera and use it to scoop up or dip in the dishes.

There wasn’t a dish that I didn’t like. Each one was rich and full of spice consisting of lentils, split pea or chickpeas stewed in a sauce. My favourite was the Misir Alicha (split lentil stew in thick mild sauce with seasoning) but honestly everything was good. The dishes varied in terms of heat and the strength of the spices. If it’s your first visit, I recommend getting one of the sample platters (there is an option with the meat dishes) to get a taste of everything.