Yesterday, my friends and I visited two popular food places in Toronto. Hot Star on Yonge St. and The Dessert Kitchen on Harbord St. From the two places, I ended up trying what I (personally) thought were one of the more popular items on their menu.
The first place we hit up was Hot Star, it was small and only seemed to have few patrons either waiting for their food or ordering. However, by the time we got our food it had begun to fill up.
Without looking at the menu, I know I would probably be trying the Hot Cheese Fried Chicken, so I ended up ordering it. I didn’t think it took insanely long to cook, but when it was ready it came in a paper bag placed inside of a thick plastic bag. This made it easier to hold because the chicken was still piping hot.
First few bites were without cheese but not long afterwards, Cheese was abundant and stuffed between the chicken. In my opinion the portion was a decent size since I ended up taking about half of it home. The chicken wasn’t entirely boneless either, because it had a bone at the very bottom.
About a 37min walk later, we found ourselves at The Dessert Kitchen and were ready for an afternoon dessert. I mean, it’s not too early right? We were seated right away and were given menus. There were a lot of desserts I’d have liked to try but there was one that I had my eye on, but since it said seasonal, I wasn’t sure if they’ll have it.
I then asked the waitress sometime before ordering if they had the Ice Stream Ramen available, incase they didn’t have it available. In the end, they did have it and soon afterwards everyone placed their order. Two unique things I liked about the place was their moss wall (great for pictures *wink*) and their fluorescent sign by where we were sitting (another great photo place).
My order was the last to arrive but it was pretty pleasing to look at, and was great for pictures. It was surprisingly hefty when I went to pick it up to shift it a little.
The Ice Stream Ramen were melon balls and geletin noodles (I think?) on a bed of shaved ice, served with some sort of peach sauce. Under the “noodles” were some pieces of mango and mochi. In my opinion the mangoes were a little sour but the shaved ice underneath balanced it out a bit.
The noodles had a different but unique texture to them, and were best left to sit on the shaved ice while you eat the melon. I believe you’re supposed to pour the peach sauce over the noodles, but I also poured a little on the ice.
In the end, both places had really good food, and I’d probably go there again to try either the same thing or something different. I would recommend coming to either of these places at least once. Let me know if you’ve had either one of these before down in the comments!
