We planned to visit both pavilions (Kinkakuji and Ginkaku-ji) on this day but rain changed our plans significantly. We didn't get to see the Ginkaku-ji (silver pavilion) as it started raining really hard after we left Kinkakuji so we ended up relaxing at the mall.

Sun, Dec 22, 2013 (Day #13)

I woke up a lot earlier than the time that I had set on my alarm. However, my boyfriend was still sleeping and I didn't want to disturb him. So instead of doing nothing around the hotel room; I decided to go across the street to eat at Yayoiken again. It's so great that they serve meals 24/7; love it!!

Yayoiken (lunch)

It's open 24-hours a day.

Plastic models of the food outside of the restaurant.

pork cutlet meal set.

Yayoiken has multiple locations throughout Japan, and is a great place for a quick meal. It's a restaurant chain where customers select their meals and pay using a machine. The prices are amazingly affordable and the food actually tastes really good. My fried pork cutlet meal was ¥900 and came with thick cutlets, white rice, miso soup, tofu, and hot tea. There is also a rice cooker at the front, so customers have unlimited access to rice.

Backpacking and staying in hostels was never an option for us. We knew from the start that we were unable to do that as we have never done it before, and that I couldn't fit everything in one mid-sized backpack (haha). Therefore, we opted to stay in only hotels throughout our 3 weeks in Japan ranging from 3 to 4.5 stars. It was rather expensive as we moved around a lot from city to city (a total of 10 different cities), so luckily there were a few affordable lunch options available.

I went back to our hotel after eating, and got ready to explore Kyoto.

Kinkakuji

Map of the Kinkakuji grounds.

The entrance fee for each person is ¥400.

Doesn't the scenery surrounding the Kinkakuji look magnificent?

Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) is a gold-leaf covered Zen temple in Kyoto, and is one of the more popular tourist attractions in the city. The three-story structure stands in the water and one can see its golden reflection in the water. 

Address: 1 Kinkakuji-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Hours: 9 am to 5 pm (daily)

 Fee: ¥400 (each person).
Transit: Take the Kyoto City Bus #101 or 205 to the Kinkaku-ji Michi bus stop.

It started raining quite hard when we left Kinkakuji, so we decided to head back to Kyoto Station to have an early dinner. The rain really dampened our plans to visit the district of Gion and see Geisha, and eat dinner in the area. I was rather sad about this as I was looking forward to checking it out.

Porta Mall [udon] (dinner)

Porta Mall is an underground mall located beneath Kyoto Station. There are plenty of shops, cafes and restaurants inside of the mall.

Udon restaurant (unknown English name) inside of Porta Mall.

Shrimp tempura udon (¥848).

Cold udon set (¥839).

This was the first time that I have tried cold udon, and I am not a fan. I actually ordered it by accident as I thought it was fried chicken (hot) udon but it wasn't. I didn't like the udon noodles so I just ate the fried chicken as at least that was warm. I don't often waste that much food, but I really couldn't swallow the (very) cold udon noodles.

Lotteria (dinner)

As I didn't eat my entire dinner at the previous restaurant; we stopped at the Lotteria inside of the mall. Lotteria is a fast-food chain in Japan and has hundreds of franchises in East Asia.

Cheeseburger combo (¥550).

Vie de France

Last treat for the night was two baked goods from Vie de France. They were near closing so the selection was quite limited.

Twist stick cinnamon (¥137) and chorizo sausage with tartar sauce & cheese (¥168).

The Oasis Rooftop Patio is the name of the patio belonging to Wayne Gretzky's Toronto. They have recently undergone renovations earlier in the year, but it's now open for business. I believe that the patio is only open from May to October. The patio has a 200 person capacity so it's a rather spacious space upstairs. The decor is summery with a fountain and comfortable furniture. Dress code is casual, and it's a nice place to sit down for a drink during the hot summer months.

Oasis Rooftop Patio has a small menu offering the typical bar food such as burgers, chicken wings, fries, salad, and a few more items. As for price-wise, it's on par with the surrounding patios in the Entertainment District.

The Southwest Chicken Quesadilla ($14) - seasoned chicken, corn, tomato, cheddar, mozzarella, Monterey Jack cheese with chipotle, BBQ sauce, salsa and sour cream, was disappointing. This dish fell particularly flat as the chicken inside of the quesadilla tasted rather bland.

The shrimp tacos ($15) - Mexican spice marinated grilled jumbo shrimp, flour tortillas, jalapeno mayo, crisp lettuce, avocado salsa, and cilantro, was a lot smaller than I expected. The shrimp was small but plump with a spicy flavor.

I don't think people really go up to Oasis Rooftop Patio for the food, but more so for the lively atmosphere and alcoholic drinks. Their bar menu consists of signature cocktails, bottled beer, draught beer, wine, classic drinks like martini, cosmopolitan, and margarita, and frozen cocktails.

RATINGS:

South St. Burger Co is a fast-food chain brought to you by the people behind New York Fries. There are a few locations scattered throughout the GTA and uptown including Toronto, Mississauga, Markham, and a few other cities. Based on the information on their website; they tout themselves as a gourmet burger joint serving burgers with fresh ingredients, no additives or preservatives, and the beef is grilled to order.

I ordered their 6 oz burger combo ($10.95) which included a regular fries and soft drink. They have a few condiments (cheese, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, ginger glazed pineapple) that you can add to your burger for an additional $1 each. I opted to add a slice of cheese for $1 to my beef burger. Unfortunately, I fail to see how their burgers are gourmet, but I have to say that the beef used is fresher than other fast-food chains. Additionally, the beef was tender and seasoned well. The one thing lacking was their presentation, as my burger wasn't presented that neatly. The fries were crispy and weren't overly salty. Actually, the fries are the exact ones that are served at the New York Fries fry stands found in malls or movie theaters.

One of the standouts of the is probably the assortment of toppings that are available for customers. These condiments include garlic wasabi, ketchup, curry mayo, gourmet dill pickle relish, hot pepper relish, jalapeno sour cream, Dijon mustard, and etc. ...

 My brother also got the solo 6 oz hamburger ($6.75) with no additional toppings. He liked the burger beef, but unfortunately his burger bun was cold so it wasn't too appealing.

Lastly, the staff at this particular location were fast, and friendly. Overall, South St. Burger Co is a good alternative if you're sick of the usual fast-food joints in the GTA. It's appealing that they do grill their burgers when it's ordered instead of cooking pre-cook meats. I was also  looking at their menu, and their The True North burger looked appetizing (double cheddar, extra bacon, maple syrup infused onions, and signature sauce), so it's something that I'd definitely try.

RATINGS:

Golden Griddle is a chain of casual family restaurants with multiple locations throughout Ontario. It was on a rare occasions that I woke up earlier than I usually do, and went to dine in at Golden Griddle during breakfast hours. I usually eat at home before work, or get my food to go to eat it in the car (I am a passenger so I am not driving and eating at the same time *smiles*). The Golden Griddle that I went to is located on Carlton St & Church St, and it's open 24 hours a day. The restaurant was relatively large inside, and the decor was minimalist with multiple tables. Golden Griddle's menu is rather extensive, and prices range from $5 to $15 per dish. 

I opted for their french toast with sausages ($7.29). The dish consisted of two thick sliced of french toast, and three sausages. In regards to the presentation; there's really none as it's just placed on a white plate with no concern of aesthetics. The french toast was edible and decent, but it's nothing to write home about. Golden Griddle pretty much offers home style breakfasts, so don't be expecting anything more or fancy if you eat here.

The Egg Benedict with thick cut peameal "style" bacon ($9.49) was served with home fries. However, for an additional $1, you can substitute it with sweet potato fries.They do give you a lot of home fries, but they were kind of dry in texture.

As for service; our waitress wasn't personable, but she was quick to seat us, took our orders, and the food arrived in a timely manner. This particular breakfast trip was a quick one. We ate in a matter of under 40 minutes, and paid the bill.

I was recently contacted by Turo (Formerly RelayRides), a peer-to-peer car rentals service based in the USA where owners can rent out their vehicles to other people. It's a good service if you want to rent out your car (to make some extra money), or need a car rental to get to places. The company even provide rentals from the airport. They asked if I was interested in participating in their "Road Trip Essentials" campaign; which was to create a post about my must-haves for road trips. I thought that it would be fun to create a list since I love going traveling when it's nice out. The following is a list of items that I must always bring on any trips.

Iphone5S: I cannot leave on any road trips or long trips without my iPhone 5S. My phone has everything that I need – at least technologically-wise. I use my iPhone 5S as a phone, video recorder, music player, camera, Google maps, and surf the internet. I always download maps onto my phone before I go on my trips, so that it doesn't require internet access to load them.

Crossbody bag: For short-term road trips; I like to use my crossbody bag. It’s small enough to bring everywhere, yet large enough to fit my essentials (wallet, keys, pen, hand sanitizer, etc ...)

Snacks: Before any road trips; I usually head out to the nearest grocery store to grab some snacks. Snacks that I'd bring along for my road trips include chips, cookies, and candies. I prefer to bring the smaller snack-sized rather than the larger ones to save space in the car or luggage.

Coffee: I usually don't need any caffeine unless I am functioning on less than 8 hours of sleep. However, when I do want a cup ... I have the Starbucks app on my phone, and I can
conveniently pay with my gold card on my app. However, if it's a hot day then a cool frappuccino is always nice. The app also allows me to make purchases even without wifi; as I don’t always have data everywhere.

Travel-size toiletries kit: This kit carries my beauty essentials (all travel-sized) BB cream, chap stick, sunscreen, deodorant, antibacterial wipes, oil sheets, and concealer. I just need to bring my essentials to stay fresh, and not my entire make-up collection cause I don’t think it’s necessary.

Flip flops: I love heels, but they really don’t cut it when you’re walking a lot. I usually wear flip flops on trips where it requires a long period of walking or hiking. I recently got a pair from Tommy Hilfiger, and I love them. I was able to walk 10 hours each day (for 3 days straight) around Disneyworld and downtown Orlando without my feet hurting. A pair of comfortable shoes is a must for any road trips!

Sunscreen: This is a must for me, as I burn easily in the hot sun.

Hand sanitizer: If it's a long trip then I'd bring along a full-sized one. However, on short trips or camping; I like to bring the travel sized one as that would last me about a week. Hand sanitizer is useful when  I do not have access to a washroom or soap/water. The brand that I use often would be Purell as I find them to be quite effective, and the scents are not bad. 

Zip-loc bags: I like bringing along a few zip loc bags on my road trips. They are very useful for storing things, and pretty versatile. I can fill the bags with snacks, supplies, garbage like wrappers and gum. Additionally, the zipper seals it up easily, so nothing drops out.

Bar Isabel is a popular restaurant known for their Spanish-influenced tapas dishes. Its location on College and Ossington is easily accessible, and there's a paid parking lot nearby (where Metro and Shoppers are located). I called about 2.5 weeks earlier to secure a reservation for three people for a Saturday. The hostess informed me that their small table might not be comfortable for three, and that they'll need the table back by 8:15 pm. I ended up accepting the 6:30 pm reservation slot as I wanted to try out the restaurant.

The decor is supposed to resemble a Spanish tavern with its wood panels and decorative yet mismatched floor tiles. The atmosphere itself is very lively around 7:30 pm and onwards. I am not too fond of the red lighting that emits throughout the establishment but it's not overly distracting.

I got the sparkling water bottle ($6) for the table, and two coke for the bf and I ($6 for 2 glasses). My friend ended up getting an alcoholic beverage which is not pictured as he was drinking it while I took this picture.

 

To start off the night, we got a bowl of bread ($4) to share, and that came with olive oil and butter. I believe that it was sourdough bread and sadly it was not warm. 

Originally, we got one order of 6 oysters, but ordered another 6 as we really liked the first batch. We ordered a total of 12 oysters ($32), and each was exceptionally tasty and fresh. Each batch arrived on a bed of ice with two condiments and lemon slices.

The 1/2 grilled octopus ($34) was enjoyable, and more than enough for the three of us. Surprisingly, the octopus and its suction cups weren't chewy at all. It was rather tender and had a nice charred taste to it. The dish was also served with greens and roasted potatoes. There's a whole octopus for $59 for those with larger parties, or if you really love octopus.

The spicy fried squid, crispy tongue & kale ($8) was another dish that I enjoyed a lot. The outside texture of the fried squid was flavorful and slightly crispy. The lemon adds an extra zest to the dish, but it's not absolutely needed.

The roast bone marrow ($11) was rich! It's very well expected that portions at tapas-based restaurants tend to be a tad smaller. So it wasn't surprising that this dish came with only two pieces of bone marrow. However, one piece of bone barely had any bone marrow in it which was disappointing. Also, try not to overload on the chimicurri sauce as it has a strong flavor to it.

The spicy pork anticuchos (5 pc) ($12) are essentially long skewers of pork. The meat on the sticks were tender with a good hint of spiciness.

The last dish of the night was the Albacore tuna tiradito, Asian pear, celery, jalapeno & fried rosemary ($14). Personally, I thought that it was a decent dish, but not a personal favorite of mine. The tuna was sliced fairly thin and quickly fell apart when I attempted to divide and scoop everything onto my plate.

Bar Isabel doesn't assign one server per table; I believe that they do work as a team. Our table of three was served by about 2-3 different servers throughout the entire dinner. They were knowledgeable of the menu, and our initial server provided some recommendations. Although the service was not exceptional; it was still rather good as our servers were polite, and quick to take away our finished dishes. Overall, the casual Bar Isabel is a good place for Spanish inspired dishes. Our bill for three came out to be around $188 (including tax and tip); so that's roughly $63 per person. It was not the cheapest tapas, but all of us left feeling full which is always good. To sum it up, their menu offers a variety of Spanish tapas dishes, drink menu is impressive (according to my friend who does drink), and the service was good. 

About: Spoon & Fork is an AYCE that serves Chinese, Japanese, and Thai dishes. I believe they have four locations serving Japanese Thai; Vaughan, Queensway, Oakville and Mississauga. They do have other restaurants under the Spoon & Fork name but they serve either only Japanese (à la carte) or Thai Vietnamese (AYCE). This review is based on the Vaughan location which is located in the large Colossus Plaza. There is ample parking in the plaza, and the decor of the restaurant is modern and upscale.

Price: A friend and I went there for dinner a couple of weeks ago at their Vaughan location. The prices at Spoon & Fork was rather steep in comparison to the standard uptown AYCE. Dinner prices for Monday to Thursday was $26.99, and Fri to Sunday was $27.99 per person. 

Menu: The menu offers a wide variety of items from appetizers, salad, sashimi, maki/hand rolls, noodles, sushi, curry, and many more. The menu also has clear and colorful pictures of a majority of the dishes.

 Food: I am a fan of both Japanese and Thai food, so this was why Spoon & Fork appealed to me when I first learned of its existence. However, after dining here, I don't think the quality of the food really justify the cost of the weekend buffet. Perhaps it may be worth it if you go with a larger group, so you could try out more food. My dinner alone was a little under $45 (that includes the cost of dessert, tax, and tip) for a Friday night. The food was relatively decent for an AYCE, but there was nothing stand-out to me.

I'll start with the items that I did enjoy though. The crispy texture of the calamari was good, and the spicy fish sauce went well with it. The beef teriyaki arrived in one large piece, and uncut. This was the first time where I have seen it presented that way. Normally, it would either be shredded or in small pieces. However, it wasn't dry and rather flavorful. The bite-sized salmon sushi pizza was a favorite of mine, and each order comes with 3. The pad thai was edible, but unfortunately they covered it in ketchup instead of tamarind sauce. The fish quality was slightly above average and were sliced rather thin. Additionally, the hand roll, maki roll, and sushi were very standard for an AYCE. Normally, I loved chicken but none of the chicken dishes appealed to me as they were dry with little flavor (such as the chicken teriyaki and chicken wings). The rest of the items were rather average.

I was surprised that desserts wasn't included in the cost of the AYCE considering the higher price point. I can understand why they wouldn't include the deep fried desserts, but a bowl of ice-cream was an additional $4 for each flavor. Nonetheless, my friend and I decided to order desserts, as we were short on time to go anywhere else. I got the crème brûlée ($6.50) and my friend got the green tea ice-cream ($4). The portion for the crème brûlée was small, as I finished it in about 3-4 bites.

Service: From what I can recall; the service was good. Our server was welcoming, quick to take our orders, and clear the empty dishes. Additionally, the dishes came out at a reasonable time, and none of our food items were missed.

RATINGS:

Quality of Food: 3.5/5

Service: 4/5

Overall Dining Experience: 3.5/5

Price: $$$

Address: 11 Colossus Dr Vaughan, ON, L4L9J8

 Jangwon Korean Cuisine is a mid-sized restaurant serving traditional Korean food. The restaurant itself is decorated simplistically, and there are some private booths to the side made available for larger groups (who order KBBQ).

Since its opening in early 2013, my boyfriend and I have dined in on many occasions. However, we stopped going to the restaurant starting in January 2014 due to its deteriorating quality. When the restaurant first opened; the food was really tasty, consistent and the prices were very appealing. The prices still remain the same, but unfortunately, the food started tasting more bland and flavorless. This review is based on the latest dining experience that I had back in December.

 One of my favorite appetizers at any Korean restaurants has to be spicy rice cakes. I got an order of the dukbokki ($6.99) and the portion was generous. The dish contained a good ratio of rice cakes to fish cakes, so it could be filling on its own. The texture of the rice cakes was very chewy (good!) but the sauce wasn't as spicy as before.

I used to love this dish from Jangwon Korean Cuisine, but sadly it has changed. The bulgoki dup bap ($5.99) wasn't very flavorful and more chewy this time around.

According to my bf; the soon tofu chigae ($6.99) was lackluster. The soup base wasn't very flavorful or spicy, and there was barely any tofu in the bowl.

Their specialty is grilled meat on the table-tops which is about $15.99 to $17.99 for each (kind of) meat (but that one meat is AYCE). Additionally, I saw a poster advertising all-you-can-eat pork belly + vegetables for $17.99 hanging on the wall. I am not a huge fan of pork belly, so I didn't order their AYCE this time around. Perhaps, the quality for the meat hasn't deteriorated since I saw quite a few people around grilling their meat, and maybe it's for certain items on their regular menu.

Each table is equipped with a bell, so you can ring it and a server would come to your table. The servers are usually pretty quick and attentive at Jangwon Korean Cuisine. They don't really interact with the customers (but this regular occurrences at most Korean places), but they do get their job done efficiently (take orders, refill bachan, drinks, clear plates, etc...) Lastly, it should be forewarned that the ventilation isn't the greatest, so you may exit smelling like BBQ.

RATINGS:

Quality of Food: 3/5

Service: 4/5

Overall Dining Experience: 3/5

Price: $$

Address: 708 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M6 G1L5