Blogsters First ZOMATO MEETUP @ G for Gelato!!

G for Gelato and Espresso Bar

Location: 75 Jarvis Street (Jarvis & Adelaide St. E.)

Access: Along TTC bus route, street parking available

Price: avg. $15 per person

Blogsters' Rating: 4.5/5

Halooo Blogstees!!

We're extremely excited as we're about to tell you about our very first Zomato event!  We felt very blessed and honoured to be invited by Zomato.  The meetup was held at G for Gelato and Espresso Bar.  We were told that it was going to be an interactive evening with gelato making demonstrations and the opportunity of making our own gelato. We didn't know what to expect, who we were going to meet, and how the event was going to be but we were very excited and couldn't wait to meet everybody.

As we can tell by its name, G for Gelato's main focus was on their gelato. They strive to bring customers the tastiest, freshest, and finest gelato in Toronto. Although they keep their menu true to the classics, they aren't afraid to explore new flavours..  In addition to gelato, they also provide gourmet thin crust pizzas, paninis, salads, and much more...

When you step into G for Gelato, the first thing you'll notice is the friendliness of the staff.  They put their best effort into making sure every customer is satisfied and leave with a smile on their face.

Here's a look at their pizza oven standing at the back of the café =)

Fridge filled with variety of drinks - both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

Ice Latte - one of the simplest drinks on the menu, yet it was one of the best ice latte I ever had.  The amount of coffee they put in was just perfect.  Best drink for the hot summer.

We started the night with some Lemonade to freshen up.

Then we had Ceasar and Caprese Salad.  The Caprese was garnished beautifully with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes.  Extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar was drizzled on top for added flavours.

For our entreés, we ordered six pizzas =9  It might seem like a lot, but we finished them all without any problems =D

A closer look at our pizza,

.Pollo al Pesto - pesto sauce, mozzarella, grilled chicken breast, caramelized onions, roasted red pepper, fresh basil

.Funghi - assorted mushrooms, fontina cheese, topped with arugula shaved parmesan, truffle oil

.Calabrese - tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy soppressata, roasted red peppers, black olives

.Prosciutto Contadina - tomato sauce, mushrooms, mozzarella, topped with arugula, prosciutto and shaved parmesan

.Salsiccia - fior di latte, spicy italian sausage, caramelized onions

.Pizza Primavera - tomato sauce, goat cheese, mushroom, diced tomatoes, roasted eggplant

Here are our Gelato tickets.

To purchase gelato, there are three simple and easy steps.

1. Choose Size

2. Pay & Get Tickets

3. Pick your Gelato Flavours & Enjoy!

Yellow Tickets = One Flavour

Green Tickets = Two Flavours

Red Tickets = Three Flavours

G for Gelato offers over 30 different flavours of gelato.  They have the classics and modern flavours (like Kitkat, Nutella, Bueno, etc..).  Depending on the season, they also offer refreshing fruits and vegetables flavours.  All of their ingredients are purchased from local farmers and markets.

As expect, they did a phenomenal job in their gelato - very creamy and smooth.  The flavour was rich, yet not overpowering.  My favourite was the Blueberry Lavender.  The colour was beautiful and the flavours compliment each other very well.

Later that night, we had a competition on making the best gelato.  Iris, myself, and other Zomato users were divided into three teams.  The owner of G for Gelato, Sean, was our judge.

Before making our gelato, the staff gave us some samples to taste so we would have an idea of what flavours compliments each other the best.  There was pistachio, nutella, peanut butter, liquid graham crackers, coconut, and much more...

Here a look at their gelato lab.  Three racks of wet and dry ingredients that we can choose freely to create our very own gelato.

Iris and I have the idea of making a breakfast flavour gelato, which consist of the taste of coffee and pancake.  Here is our ingredient list~*

.espresso

.liquid graham crackers

.maple syrup

.blueberry syrup

.nutella & rice crispy mix

The power mixer is used to mix all the ingredients together before putting them into the ice cream machine.

Two ice cream makers aka "John & Joe".

One of the staff demonstrated how to extract the gelato from the ice cream machine.  It looked easy at first, but when you're actually doing it, it required lots of energy and skills; folding and pushing the gelato in the tub.

After extracting our gelato from the ice cream machine, Iris and myself added blueberry and nutella syrup for more flavour.

When we were satisfied with the additional flavours we can put in, and started swirling to make sure the flavours were blended in well.

Crushed waffle cone is added for some crunchiness and more cookie flavour.  

Here is it!  Blogsters very own gelato - "The Morning After"!!!

There it goes into the freezer for 10 minutes!

The final products of the night...

"The Morning After"
"Blueberry Summer Spritz"
"Nutty Irish Surprise"

WE WON!!! THE MORNING AFTER WON!!! Sean liked our gelato the most as it reminded him of a diner he had been to in LA.  Our gelato was filled with all kinds of flavours.  The two most outstanding flavours were the espresso and pancakes. We wanted this gelato to have the flavours of a breakfast (one that everyone would want in the morning after a hangover).  I guess we did it!  Zomato was very kind and gave us a complimentary voucher. 

Thank you so so much Zomato!!  We can't wait for more exciting adventures with the Zomato team. We look forward to the next meetup!

Love,

Janet xoxo

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ROUND TWO!!! Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Matcha Cafe

Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Matcha Cafe

Location: 596 Bay Street (Bay & Dundas)

Access: Along TTC bus and subway route, street parking available

Price: average $8 per person

Blogsters' Rating: 3.5/5

We're here again! Except this time, we're not here to line up for Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Cheesecake but to check out the new Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Matcha Cafe. As we all love Matcha so much, we must explore this new cafe!

Japanese Matcha Cafe is just right next door to Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Cheesecake. You won't miss it as there is always a long queue outside the Cheesecake Shop. We noticed that this time around, they added pylons around the store to control the lineup of customers.

Compared to the neighboring Cheesecake Shop, the Matcha cafe has a much quicker turnaround so there is only around 4-5 customers in the store at a time.  No long queue! WOOHOO!

As its name suggests, the Matcha Cafe serves everything Matcha! Soft Serve ice cream, Slushie, Shaved Ice and their signature Madeleine as well. Unfortunately they didn't have the Slushie on the day we went so we ordered the Matcha Soft Serve, which comes in Green Tea flavour, Vanilla flavour or a Twist of both flavours.  

The Madeleine station is up front and the oven is in the back of the store - a similar set up to the Cheesecake shop.

A Matcha flavored cheesecake is scheduled to come out in August.  So for all you Uncle Tetsu fans out there, be prepared to line up for the new cheesecake! We were lucky because they recently released a new Red Bean Green Tea Madeleine and it was available on the day we went!

Janet ordered a Green Tea Vanilla Twist Soft Serve ice cream in a cone.

The Green Tea Madeleine is again very rich in buttery flavour with a strong Green Tea taste, which balances out the heaviness of the cake.  However, they were quite dense and filling. The Red Bean version is packed with A LOT of Red Bean paste in the middle and it was very sweet compared to the one without Red Bean.

Be sure to check out our post about Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Cheesecake as well! Stay tuned for more! Have fun!

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Con't Adventurous Day in J-Town - SHISO TREE CAFE

Location: 3160 Steeles Avenue East, Unit #1 (Hwy 404 & Steeles Ave.)
Access: along TTC bus route, parking available
Price: Avg $13 - $18
Blogsters' Rating: 3.5/5

Here comes the most important part of the day at J-Town... SHISO TREE CAFE!  We have heard numerous good reviews about this Japanese and Italian fusion restaurant, so we invited some friends and decided to give it a try.

Shiso Tree Cafe has a very warm and comfortable appearance, and the Japanese waitress are very welcoming.  The cafe is filled with small tables for two.  There is also one Tatami room available to accommodate bigger groups (picture on the right).

Their Lunch Menu is very simple and there are only three pages.  However, there are more than enough dishes to choose from and the prices are very affordable.

Their soup of the day was Russian Borscht.  The soup was perfectly flavored with the right amount of tomatoes, beef, and black pepper.  They have also added little pieces of Rotini in the soup for more texture.  The Shiso Tree Salad was not that fresh, but the homemade Wafu dressing made it better.  It had a strong sesame taste, which really opened up our appetite.

Shiso Tree is very famous for their Fresh Cut Fries, and out of the four available choices, we ordered two of them - Nori Fries and Okonomiyaki Fries.

Nori Fries is Tossed with homemade Wafu dressing and Japanese seaweed.  Those of you who is a fan of seaweed will adore the Nori Fries.  The garnish, the smell, and the taste.. it is all SEAWEED!  However, the Wafu dressing made the fries very soggy and mushy.  In addition to that, when the Nori fries started to cool down after 15 to 20 minutes, it had a fishy scent and taste to it.

The Okonomiyaki Fries is the most unique.  It is dressed with homemade steak sauce, Japanese mayo, bonito fish flakes and green onions.  The fries were very crispy.  The combination of the homemade steak sauce and Japanese mayo has a little sour taste and along with the green onions makes this dish very refreshing. The sourness also compensated for the heaviness of the oily deep fried goodness. 

For our main courses, we ordered the Okonomiyaki, Smoked Salmon, Tomato Clams, and Carbonara. They are all are served with spaghetti and came with half a slice of garlic bread.  The garlic breads were thick-cut and toasted very nicely - crunchy outside, and soft inside.  The pastas were cooked al dente,  perfect texture - firm to the bite and not soft.

Okonomiyaki Pasta - sautéed onions, bacon, and garlic, and dressed like an Okonomiyaki style pancake
The Okonomiyaki Pasta is exactly like the Okonomiyaki Fries except that it is served with spaghetti.  There was a generous amount of bacon pieces and bonito flakes in the dish. Overall it tasted very fresh and had a slightly sour aftertaste.

Smoked Salmon - Light cream sauce and dill
The Smoked Salmon Pasta came with a very heavy and rich cream sauce.  It is not light, like how the menu described.  Much like an Alfredo sauce, it is very filling.  However, the Smoked Salmon was a little bit fishy and too salty.

Tomato Clams - Marinara, white wine, and clams
The Tomato Clams Pasta has a sweet and sour taste.  The Marinara sauce was made of tomato, garlic, herbs, and onions.  The clams are much smaller than what we have expected but there was a generous amount of them.  In addition, you can definitely taste the wine in this dish but it is not overpowering at all, and it helps to bring out other flavours.

Carbonara - Bacon, garlic, and white wine

The Carbonara also came with a heavy cream sauce, coated evenly on every strand of the pasta.  There were a good amount of bacon on the dish.  With the Parmesan cheese and freshly grained Black Pepper,  the Carbonara is like Heaven on Earth!

After all, our favourite food at Shiso Tree Cafe was the Okonomiyaki Fries.  The service was slow in general, possibly because they were lacking waitstaff.  We had a little incident with the Carbonara when one of our friends found a tiny strand of sharp metal in the dish.  We believed that the metal piece came from a can and got mixed into the pasta. After we notified the waitress, she apologized and had the chef make us a fresh bowl of pasta. If the metal incident did not happen, we would have given a higher rating. Overall, we enjoyed dining at Shiso Tree cafe, and would recommend it to other friends.

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