Patio season is here! I’ll be honest, I never really partook in it until I got older. But my mom really wanted to go out on the only day off we both had together, so we went to what I felt was a safe patio area and did some shopping at the Eaton Centre. See if you want to add this patio to your “To-Try” patio list!
My mom and I work opposite days, meaning that if I’m at work, she’s likely on her day off and vice versa. It’s hard to take days off together because we both need to save money, and other factors too. I was coming off from a whole month of picking up extra shifts so I just wanted to rest, but that’s alright. Went to a patio instead.
Now the patio we went to is somewhere I’ve personally been to before, but at the time I ate indoors. This is Chef’s Hall (or Chef’s Assembly Hall), the best way I can describe them is that it’s like a high-end food court? Not the best description but it fits lol.
So most patios around the city are literally on the street or on the sidewalk, both of which I’m a little not comfortable with, honestly. The street because of the dust that passing traffic can kick up, and the sidewalk because there will be people walking past. So it’s a little hard to find patio places without having to go to the rooftop ones (I have a fear of heights).
At Chef’s Hall however, they have a wide-open space away from footpaths where they set up their patio. They’re located in a pretty business-y area but is still close to the Eaton Centre. I’ll put a pin below with their address. One thing to note though, Chef’s Hall isn’t that affordable. Some of their prices are mid-high in range compared to other places around the city.
You will have to complete a short screening questionnaire prior to being seated, it didn’t take a lot of time to do that. There aren’t physical menus, but there’s a QR code on the table where you can see the menus of all the vendors that are open.
A lot of the vendors close for a break between 2 pm-4 pm, so I recommend coming before 2 pm or after 4 pm. There is only one food vendor that is still open between those times (Ramen Isshin) and your wait for the food can be longer than normal, which was the case for us. Luckily I ordered enough food to make up for it, so all good!
They (Chef’s Hall) serve a variety of drinks, but the non-alcoholic drinks are a little limited though. I stuck to water but my mom got this fresh ginger ale thing from Ramen Isshin, it’s got the classic spicy ginger taste and she loved it lol. I personally got the Cold Lemon Shio ramen and ordered the roasted garlic one for my mom. We also shared a plate of Gyoza.
Ramen was great, I really enjoyed the cold ramen on a hot day, but my mom’s ramen had the best soup by far. The gyoza was pretty good too, and the dipping sauce was my mom’s favourite part. The overall cost was about $48, and plus tax and tips it was just about $53.
We then walked to Hudson’s Bay for my mom to check out some stuff, decided against buying anything there and we walked the bridge over to Eaton Centre. After a bit of walking around, I ended up getting some more items from Aritzia since they had a sale going on.
I actually did a small haul from Aritzia a few weeks prior but hadn’t had time to write up the haul yet. But it’s kind of different from this one I swear. So for this haul, I ended up getting two Boyfriend Sweatpants; one in black and one in a light grey. On sale, they were $55 CAD each. I also got a pair of sweat shorts (also in grey) for $35 and a grey T-Shirt that was on sale for $15.
I did end up buying more than I intended (I went in only planning for one pair of sweatpants, and one pair of sweat shorts) but that’s alright. After the haul at Aritzia, we ended up walking around a little bit more before getting a Yuzu Citron Float from Tsujiri before heading home.
I would say it was a successful shopping day, and also a fun outing for both my mom and I. I highly recommend checking out both Tsujiri and Chef’s Hall if you are looking for a place to visit when you’re comfortable, you won’t regret it.
