I had the pleasure of attending a media tasting at Blue Lagoon Seafood Master about two weeks ago. Blue Lagoon Seafood Master served traditional Chinese cuisine, including seafood, BBQ, and also daily dim sum. The restaurant was large, inviting, and customers were greeted with tanks of fresh lobsters and crabs at the entrance. I have been here on several occasions for dinner, as it's closed by to our place in Mississauga. However, we have always ordered from their seafood menu, so this was my first time trying their dim sum. I have never had dim sum for dinner, so this was also an interesting first-time experience.

Both of the cartoon dim sums were egg yolk buns containing a generous amount of egg yolk inside. The buns were a good combination of savory and salty. The novelty of the buns was that you need to poke a hole with your chopsticks, and then squeeze the bun for the egg yolk to squirt out. They are definitely a great photo-op for social media, but remember to do it fast, as the egg yolk hardens. Blue Lagoon Seafood Master will have a limited supply per day, so go early to ensure that you get to try some.

In addition to the new items, we also got to taste an array of dim sum dishes. Blue Lagoon Seafood Master has quite an extensive selection of dim sum like har gow, siu mai, steamed scallop dumpling with dried minced pork, steamed chicken feet with house sauce, steamed veterinarian dumpling, and more. It was definitely a great dim sum feast!!

Blue Lagoon Seafood Master also offers happy hour pricing, which is $3 for any size before 11 am. Regular prices are S - $2.60, M - $3.60, L - $4.60, and XL - $5.50. Overall, I found the portions to be pretty generous, and they definitely do not skimped out on the fillings for the dumplings, and buns. Dim sum is available everyday from 9 am to 4 pm.

Steamed Vegetarian Dumpling

Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumpling (Siu Mai)

Steamed Chicken Feet with House Sauce

Seafood Fried Rice with Garlic

Fried Noodle in Cantonese Style

Deep Fried Sesame Ball

 Overall, I'd say that Blue Lagoon Seafood Master was a solid spot for an upper-scale dim sum experience. Many thanks to Sweven Media for having us, as it was a fun and delicious evening!!

 Located on the corner of King & Portland in the busy King West neighborhood lies Portland Variety. Portland Variety operates as both a cafe, and restaurant; as the 2,400-square-foot restaurant features a standing-room cafe at the front during the day, and at night, it transforms into a cocktail bar/restaurant.

 I had the pleasure of attending a media tasting to welcome back Chef Jo Castrinos to Portland Variety a couple weeks back. He was the original chef of Portland Variety when it first opened in 2014, and he has now returned to helm the kitchen as Executive Chef. The tasting was an intimate gathering with some of my fellow bloggers, and all the dishes that we tried that evening were family-styled.



Watermelon Mojito - dark rum, lime, mint, watermelon



 The menu at Portland Variety featured a fusion of Canadian, French, and Spanish cuisine offering shareable plates for both lunch and dinner. Some of their shareable plates include grilled octopus, fried hen, and braised short ribs.   

 Royal Garden - vodka, lime, basil, cucumber

 

We started the tasting with a selection of Assorted Pintxos.


 

 
The Striped Bass Crudo - citrus, green mango, chive oil, chill, was up next, and it was a favorite among our small group of diners. The bass crudo was well-prepared, and the epitome of freshness. Additionally, the combination of green mango, and chive oil perfectly complemented the briny flavor of the bass.
My spice tolerance is pretty high, so I am capable of tolerating really spicy dishes. Which is why, I enjoyed the Shrimp Pil Pil - chili oil, lemon. The shrimp was super flavorful, and the lemon added a nice contrast to the richness and spiciness of the chili oil.  
I am glad that they kept the Grilled Octopus - smoked tomato, iberico chorizo, fennel pollen, on the menu. The octopus was seared and crispy on the outside, while the interior was tender. It also had a slight smoky flavor, without it tasting unnaturally smoky. 
Lastly, we ended the night off with Beignets - vanilla custard, for dessert. The deep-fried yet airy beignets were lightly dusted with sugar making it a sweet treat. This was a great way to finish off a meal.


Portland Variety is a nice casual place in King West, and perfect for all occasions. They are open for brunch, lunch and dinner. Click here for their hours of operation.

Paramount Fine Foods is a popular Middle Eastern and Mediterranean chain of restaurants with several locations in Ontario. The Paramount Fine Foods Yorkville location opened in early 2015, and is the first full-service halal restaurant in the Yorkville area. The 4,500 square feet location offers a more upscale dining experience with an open concept kitchen. Paramount Fine Foods Yorkville offers an extensive menu of Middle-Eastern dishes, and now they have expanded even more so by adding six new items. 

I had the pleasure of attending a menu tasting, where my guest and I got to try some of the new menu items. Before dinner started, our server took our drink orders. I opted for the Mango/Strawberry Juice - a 50/50 blend of fresh mango and strawberry juices lightly sweetened with sugar, which was refreshing, and not overly sweet. 

 

My friend got the Paramount Special - layers of fresh strawberry and mango juices with mixed fruits, topped with fresh strawberry, kiwi, pineapple, almonds, crushed pistachio, ashta cream and honey. On paper, the drink sounded pretty busy with all of various ingredients, but the concoction of all of the ingredients created a rather delectable drink. 

To start, we were brought two large pieces of pita bread. The pita bread are freshly baked in the stone oven throughout the day, and served hot. It’s complimentary and served to all patrons.

One of the new starters is the mezza plate, which is perfect to be shared between two people. The Hummus, Moutabbal & Tabbouleh ($9.99) - equal portion of our famous hummus, moutabbal, and freshly prepared tabbouleh, was a great start to dinner. My favorite out of the three was the hummus, which had a nice cream texture without being runny.  

 

Did you know that Paramount Fine Foods also has an offshoot food truck? The Yalla Special ($9.99) - fries topped with chicken shawarma, garlic sauce, and tahini sauce, is one of the items available from the truck and is now available on Paramount Fine Foods Yorkville's new menu. This item is like a rendition of poutine (not a poutine though) but with more of a Mediterranean flair. The fries are topped with a generous portion of chicken shawarma, and drizzled with creamy tahini sauce.

 

Tabliyeh Saj Chicken Shawarma ($11.99 - shredded pieces of chicken grilled on a rotating spit wrapped to perfection with our freshly baked thin Saj bread with garlic sauce. Each platter is served Tabliyeh style (on a wooden board) with fries, pickles, turnips, and sauce.

The BBQ Shrimp Plate is the first seafood platter to be added onto Paramount Fine Foods' menu. So naturally, it was the item that I was looking forward the most to try. The BBQ Shrimp Plate ($16.49) - 2 skewers of marinated shrimp served with basmati rice, tomato garlic sauce, pickles, and turnips, arrived with several pieces of plump yet lightly-charred shrimp. I highly recommend getting this dish, as it’s well-priced for the large portion that you get, and was delightfully tasty. 

BBQ Chicken Wings ($7.49) - 3 pieces of whole marinated BBQ wings

Paramount Fine Foods Yorkville continues to offer an extensive choice of fresh, healthy, and high quality halal menu items. It's an ideal place to grab a quick bite at lunch, or have a dinner with family or friends. I stand by my earlier review, and believe that it's a great addition to the thriving cultural district of Yorkville. Paramount Fine Foods is open Sunday to Thurs from 8 am to 11 pm, and Fri and Sat from 8 am to 12 am. 

Address: 1250 Bay St, Toronto,ON, M5R 2B1


Website: http://www.paramountfinefoods.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/paramountfinefoods
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParamountFineFoods

Kinton Ramen is a popular chain of ramen restaurants with five locations in Ontario. They recently opened their fifth location adjacent to Kinka Izakaya on Church St. I was invited to a media tasting earlier last month, and had the chance to try an appetizer and ramen of my choice with a friend. I have been to Kinton Ramen several times before the media tasting, so I was pretty well aware of their food. What I enjoy about Kinton Ramen is their consistency of their food products, and portion sizes. The fifth location of Kinton Ramen features their signature block designs with high table-top and wooden tables. However, in contrast to some of the other locations, this location has large windows that allow natural light to shine into the restaurant.



Kinton Ramen allows the diners to customize their bowl of their ramen to their liking by providing various options. It's great as people do have different preferences and tastes.



Step 1 (broth) - select from pork ramen or chicken ramen
Step 2 (flavour) - choose from original, shoyu, miso, spicy garlic, or extra pork
Step 3 (noodle) - choose from thick or thin
Step 4 (meat) - choose from pork or chicken (additional meat is +$2.50)
Step 5 (additional toppings) - choose from a variety of toppings such as sweet corn, nori, seaweed, scallions, Swiss cheese, and more.

I opted for their Original Pork Ramen ($10.99) - sea salt, bean sprouts, scallions, nori, seasoned egg with corn (+$1) and seaweed (+$1). This is my usual ramen order whenever I eat at Kinton Ramen, as I do like lighter broths. The broth is also rich in collagen, and one can order it light, regular, or rich. Aside from the broth, I believe that the pork belly is also an important component of a bowl of ramen. The pork belly here was slightly blowtorch to give it a nice charred finish. Overall, it was a very satisfying bowl of ramen on the cool evening.



My friend got the Original Chicken Ramen ($11.99) - sea salt, white onions, scallions, nori, seasoned egg with seasoned vegetables (+$3.50) and seaweed (+$1), which she enjoyed. 



Kinton Ramen has a nice selection of hot tapas available like edamame, original karaage, takoyaki, and more. I always get the age gyoza ($3.90) - deep fried pork dumplings with original sweet chili sauce, so this time was no different. Kinton Ramen is actually one of my favorite places for gyoza, and it has to do with the accompanied sweet chili sauce. 

My friend got the takoyaki ($4.50), which contained four deep fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce and mayo. There was a reasonable amount of octopus pieces stuffed into the flour-based batter.



Try a cold tapas like the tako wasabi ($3.90) - marinated octopus with wasabi stem.



Kinton Ramen 5 is a good place to dine, especially if you're looking for a quick dinner. It can get pretty busy during the dinner rush, but I do find the turnover to be rather quick. Kinton Ramen 5 is open Monday to Sunday from 11:30 am - 10:30 pm.

Thank you Stella and Kinton Ramen for the warm hospitality.


Address: 396 Church St, Toronto, ON M5B 2A2