Dining Out: An Early Birthday Dinner at Bâton Rouge

When my dad texted me asking where I'd want to have dinner for my birthday, I originally told him The Keg, which has been my go-to for many years. But he said we always go to The Keg and should try something else. So I decided to go with Bâton Rouge, which I figured was the most similar in menu to The Keg and close enough in location (coincidentally, it's right across the street from The Keg).

Cauliflower wings with General Tao sauce, green onions, and sesame seeds
Crispy Brussels sprouts with Mike's Hot Honey, sesame and tahini vinaigrette, and maple candied pecans
Mixed greens salad with croutons, chopped egg, and green goddess vinaigrette
Prime rib with au jus, garlic mashed potatoes, and seasonal vegetables
Choco-espresso cream pie

The appetizers were good, especially the Brussels sprouts (which I highly recommend), but everything else was… okay-to-decent. Maybe because I'm actively comparing the food here to The Keg, but the prime rib just doesn't compete. Both my mom and I ordered it, and it looks like we somehow both got the ugly end pieces. We're used to prime rib being sliced from the centre, with a nice pinkish-red surface, but this looked almost unappetizing. Still, the inside was medium rare and the flavour was good, which is what counts, I guess. Unfortunately, the meat was way chewier with way more tendon than what we're used to from The Keg. Our cuts were also supposed to be 12 oz., but they seemed much smaller here, maybe closer to 8 or 9 oz. (For context, I usually can't finish both the meat and mashed potatoes at The Keg, but I polished off everything on my plate here.) I thought it was just the prime rib that was a flop, but my dad had gotten the ribs (which is really what Bâton Rouge is famous for), and he said that they were on the drier side and tough to eat. He didn't even bother finishing them.

All in all, our mains were disappointing.

For dessert, I decided on the choco-espresso cream pie for the table to share, and while I thought it tasted decent enough, it looked really, really sad — just small and kind of warped, and not fresh at all (we could see the crack lines in the cream along the edges). Both of my parents commented that it was definitely an older pie and that they could taste that it was sprayed with syrup to keep it from tasting stale. Again, disappointing. So, conclusion: For these prices (it was about $80 per person after tax and tip), go to The Keg instead. 

Bâton Rouge

230 Commerce Valley Dr. E., Unit 7

Thornhill, ON L3T 7Y3

(226) 240-8349

Dining Out: Spicy Tteokbokki, Black Pepper Fried Chicken, and Soy Garlic Fried Chicken at Bb.q Chicken

Craving Korean fried chicken, Minji, Daniel, and I met up for an early dinner at bb.q Chicken.

Spicy tteokbokki
Black pepper boneless fried chicken
Soy garlic boneless fried chicken

I don't eat Korean fried chicken that often anymore, but I gotta say, bb.q Chicken is still my favourite and my go-to after all these years. Their slogan is "best of the best quality chicken" (yes, that's what the "bb.q" stands for) and while I don't know if they're the BEST OF THE BEST, they are extremely consistent. Their menu has a big variety of chicken types and flavours, appetizers, and sides, but still manages to be well-curated. Aside from the ultra-spicy selections, I've yet to try a chicken flavour I didn't like, whether dry, sauced, or topped. (Every iteration of their tteokbokki is also amazing. I have yet to be disappointed.) And the best part? Their boneless option is always dark meat, so it's NEVER DRY (!!!). And that in itself will always bring me back here instead of other KFC restaurants.

bb.q Chicken

8110 Birchmount Rd., Unit 1 and 2

Markham, ON L6G 0E3

(905) 305-8110

Dining Out: Thanksgiving Dinner 2025 at Swiss Chalet

As per our original Thanksgiving tradition, my mom and I went for dinner at Swiss Chalet:

Thanksgiving Feast: Half rotisserie chicken with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a dinner roll
Obviously, we partook in the Thanksgiving Feast — it's basically their rotisserie chicken dinner with stuffing and cranberry sauce — which they offer twice a year, at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough dark meat for both of us to get double-leg dinners, so we got one quarter chicken dinner and one half chicken dinner and split the white meat. (A quarter chicken is never enough for either of us.) We normally don't like white meat because it's usually dry AF, but it was shockingly good today — tender and juicy — maybe because the turnover was so high that there wasn't time for chickens to get dry on the spit. This combo also comes with your choice of pie for dessert, but we obviously got the pumpkin pie because they only offer it during Thanksgiving. (Pumpkin pie isn't one of my favourite pies, not even a Top 5, but because of its rarity, I have to get it when it's offered.)

Pumpkin pie

Luckily, our Thanksgiving experience at Swiss Chalet today was significantly better than the last one, which was three years ago. That experience was so bad that we had actually boycotted going to Swiss Chalet for Thanksgiving since then. But we figured it's been three years, so we decided to give it another go, except at our usual location this time. And I will not deviate from this location again, because this Thanksgiving experience compared to that one was like night and day. Today, we got seated within five minutes (we got there at 5:30PM in attempt to beat the rush), we got our regular server (she has literally worked there since I was a teenager, so she always recognizes us — aside from being really nice, she is also scary efficient and frankly, all servers should learn from her), our food came to the table within 10 minutes, and best of all, the food was GREAT. Fresh, piping hot, and DELICIOUS. This is what I expect from Swiss Chalet. Thanksgiving boycott, officially over.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!

Swiss Chalet

Markville Mall

5070 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 4M9

(905) 305-1809

New York City Summer 2025 Travel Log: Day 3 — Lox Bagel at Tompkins Square Bagels

A little breakfast at Tompkins Square Bagels before leaving for the airport:

Lox and cream cheese bagel

Did you think I'd leave NYC without having a lox bagel? (The answer is no. Always no. I'm a proud Canadian, but New York bagels beat Montreal bagels every time. Yes, I said it. Sorry, not sorry.)

Fair warning, though — Tompkins Square Bagels is one of the most popular bagel chains in NYC, so there is ALWAYS a line-up, especially on the weekend. The location we went to on the Upper East Side consistently had a line-up for all the days we were there, from morning to close. When we got there for breakfast on this Sunday morning around 9:30AM, there were 50 orders ahead of us. Still, the bagels are so fucking good, it's totally worth the wait.

Tompkins Square Bagels

1159 3rd Ave.

New York, NY 10065

(212) 203-4862

Dining Out: The LOCAL Burger with Onion Rings at LOCAL Public Eatery

So, ahead of the Taking Back Sunday/Coheed and Cambria show at Budweiser Stage, Chelsea, Braden, and I decided to have an early dinner as close to the venue as possible, which meant picking a restaurant in Liberty Village. But we didn't want to go anywhere too expensive or too fancy, and eating with Chelsea also means that we had to pick a spot that has gluten-free options. So after some research, we decided on LOCAL Public Eatery:

The LOCAL Burger

Both Braden and I got the LOCAL Burger — two grilled beef patties, melted American cheese, caramelized onions, tomato, lettuce, and secret house sauce. After a few bites, we both agreed: it was surprisingly better than many other highly-rated burger joints — and LOCAL isn't even technically a burger restaurant. The patties were juicy, well-seasoned, and perfectly cooked with great crusting; the veg was fresh and crisp; the bun was bouncy with a good chew and kept its integrity well; and the "secret house sauce" (which tastes like a combo of ketchup, mustard, and mayo) added a nice sweet-tart kick. And instead of fries, I paired my burger with what turned out to be the most exquisitely crispy, perfectly golden, delightfully giant onion rings, served with a creamy, zesty, garlicky aioli dip. 

Suffice it to say, it made for the perfect pre-concert meal. 

LOCAL Public Eatery

Liberty Market Building

171 E Liberty St., Unit 100

Toronto, ON M6K 3P6

(416) 901-8351

Dining Out: Breakfast Sampler at IHOP

We are finally in Newark to see Jin on his RUNSEOKJIN_TOUR.EP tour! Not gonna lie, we did have a somewhat rough start to this trip with a nearly two-hour delay to our flight. We wanted to have a nice dinner at Fornos of Spain (we had dreams of paella) and then make a trip to Target to do some American snack shopping, but that plan was quickly kiboshed after we arrived in Newark at 9:00PM instead of 7:00PM. (We did manage to go to Target, though. Bless them for having late hours.) So after last night's super-late dinner of Sonic cheeseburgers (it was our first time having Sonic because it's not available in Canada, and it's actually quite good — but definitely not worth paying $55 USD through Uber Eats to deliver to our hotel), we decided to get brunch at IHOP this morning because it's down the street from Prudential Center and we needed to be there for 1:30PM for VIP check-in.

Breakfast Sampler

Buttermilk pancakes

The last time I was at IHOP was almost exactly a year ago at the Niagara Falls location and that meal was ABYSMAL, so I decided to get breakfast food this time — which is really what IHOP is known for, anyway. Happy to report that the Breakfast Sampler — eggs, bacon, ham, breakfast sausage, hash browns, and buttermilk pancakes — was both delicious and satisfying. (And the hash browns were actually cooked and seasoned properly!) Kinda hard to fuck up breakfast foods, to be honest, but this was exactly what I wanted and what I expect from IHOP. Perfect pre-concert fuel.

IHOP

915 Broad St.

Newark, NJ 07102 USA

(973) 732-2530

Dining Out: Canada Day Dinner at Congee Queen

Celebrated Canada Day proper with a little fam jam this evening at Congee Queen — our go-to restaurant for not only special occasions but national holidays, too!

Thai-style green mango and tiger shrimp salad

General Tao chicken

Fried oysters with belacan sauce

Stir-fried beef and Chinese broccoli

Shrimp dumpling noodle soup

'Cause nothing says "Happy Birthday, Canada!" like a table full of delicious Chinese food. (Eaten at a restaurant, of course. There is no holiday or special occasion that could make my family actually cook at home.) Hope all my fellow Canadians had a lovely Canada Day!

New York City Winter 2025 Travel Log: Shack Stack, Fries, and Strawberry Milkshake from Shake Shack

Shack Stack

The perfect post-concert meal: A Shack Stack with fries from Shake Shack. (And a strawberry milkshake on the side. You know, to help soothe your throat after 2 hours of screaming.) 

Shake Shack (Flatbush-Barclays Center)

170 Flatbush Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11217

(347) 442-7711

New York City Winter 2025 Travel Log: Margherita Pizza, Fried Calamari, and Fried Mozzarella-Stuffed Mushrooms at Patsy's Pizzeria

On this trip to NYC, I really wanted to get some New York-style pizza. Of course, there are hundreds of pizzerias in Brooklyn alone and New Yorkers have very extreme opinions on which one is the best, but I am neither a New Yorker nor a pizza snob, so after nearly four hours of waiting to get J-Hope merch in the cold, we decided to go to the historic Patsy's Pizzeria, which is very conveniently across the street from Barclays Center.

Margherita pizza
Fried calamari with shrimp
Fried mozzarella-stuffed mushrooms

We were quite ambitious and ordered the Margherita pie, the fried calamari, and the fried mozzarella-stuffed mushrooms. My food baby was definitely substantial afterwards, but my god, this lunch was spectacular. Not a crumb was left. (Well, Iris did leave a bit of crust left, but she did her best!) Not sure how Patsy's now ranks among New York pizzerias, but there's a reason why they've been around for nearly 100 years (and has 12 locations across NYC for your pizza-eating pleasure).

Patsy's Pizzeria

450 Dean St.

Brooklyn, NY 11217

(718) 622-2268

Dining Out: Condensed Milk Toast, Deep Fried Peanut Butter French Toast Bites, and Matcha Parfait at Sugar Marmalade

Minji, Daniel, and I wanted to get some late-night dessert and Minji was craving condensed milk toast (pregnancy cravings trump all), but it was also 10:00PM on a Saturday night. So where to go? Sugar Marmalade, of course.

Condensed milk toast

Deep-fried peanut butter French toast bites

Matcha parfait

But one condensed milk toast is never enough, so we also got the deep fried peanut butter french toast and a matcha parfait (you know, for variety). I don't even wanna know how much sugar and cholesterol we consumed tonight, but MY GOD, IT WAS WORTH IT. I hadn't been back to Sugar Marmalade in years and I forgot how good they are for Hong Kong fusion desserts. I'll have to re-visit more often. You know, to make up for the lean years...

Sugar Marmalade

First Markham Place

3235 Highway 7, Unit 19-20

Markham, ON L3R 8P9

(905) 604-8211

Dining Out: Mango Strawberry Mixed Rolled Ice Cream at Roll Me Up

It has been a long time since I've had Thai-style rolled ice cream (probably two decades, honestly), so I was particularly excited to go to Roll Me Up with Chelsea for a late night dessert:

   Mango Strawberry Mixed Rolled Ice Cream

When the server asked me what toppings I wanted, I told him to decide for me, so he chose the matching mango and strawberry popping bobas and this combination was PURE DELIGHT. So, now I must come back ASAP to make up for all the years I didn't have rolled ice cream.

Roll Me Up

9325 Yonge St., Unit 18

Richmond Hill, ON L4C 0A8

(905) 508-0600

Dining Out: An Early Birthday Dinner at The Keg

My dad insisted on taking me out for a birthday dinner, so along with my mom, we went to The Keg to celebrate tonight:

Iceberg wedge salad with blue cheese

Caesar Brussels sprouts with bacon

Prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and crispy fried onions

Billy Miner Pie

Of course, I got all my favourites: An iceberg wedge salad with blue cheese to start, the Caesar Brussels sprouts to share, and the classic prime rib cooked a perfect medium rare with garlic mashed potatoes as my main. And because this dinner was to celebrate my birthday, our lovely server prepared a slice of Billy Miner Pie (mocha ice cream, chocolate crust, fudge, caramel, and almonds) for dessert on the house, which is one of my favourite things about celebrating birthdays at The Keg. (Billy Miner Pie has been one of my favourite desserts since I was a kid, and it is absolutely crucial to save stomach space for it.) Honestly, after going to The Keg for over three decades, it's still my favourite Canadian chain restaurant. 

The Keg

162 York Blvd.

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3J6

(905) 882-0500

Dining Out: Key Lime Pie, Churro Ice Cream Sandwich, and Salted Caramel Cheesecake from Moxies

I haven't been to Moxies in a long time (no, seriously, it's been at least five years), but Minji really wanted dessert this evening after dinner so we headed to the closest restaurant that served desserts, which just happened to be Moxies.

Key Lime Pie

Churro Ice Cream Sandwich

Salted Caramel Cheesecake

We shared three of their four desserts (they've had the White Chocolate Brownie for ages, so we didn't feel the need to get it), and while I still haven't forgiven them for discontinuing their Sticky Toffee Pudding a few years ago, these were, admittedly, pretty damn delightful. I also don't know a lot of places that serve key lime pie (one of my favourite desserts), either, so they get extra brownie points (no pun intended) for that. Anyway, it never occurred to us that we could go into any restaurant just for dessert. We may have to reconsider how to dine out...

Moxies

159 York Blvd.

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3B4

(905) 764-9500

Dining Out: So-tteok So-tteok, Cheese Corn, "Gangnam Style" Wings Combo, and Padak Fried Chicken at Bb.q Chicken

Starting the long weekend off right with Minji and Daniel at bb.q Chicken:

So-tteok so-tteok

Cheese corn

"Gangnam Style" Wings Combo

Padak fried chicken

BBQ Chicken revamped their menu recently, so when we saw so-tteok so-tteok and cheese corn, we knew we had to get them alongside our fried chicken. Of course, the chicken here never disappoints (today's choices were the "Gangnam Style" wings with fries, which is an ultra-tasty combination of black pepper sauce with garlic and onions, and the Padak fried chicken, a classic crowd-pleaser and my personal favourite), and cheese corn is always a reliable side dish, but this is the first time I tried deep-fried tteok and it's pretty goddamn revolutionary. Easily a must-order here. Now, I'm not going to say it replaces tteokbokki because that would be blasphemous, but if you're in the mood for tteok but want something less saucy, the so-tteok so-tteok here (which is served deconstructed rather than on skewers) is fucking glorious.

bb.q Chicken

8110 Birchmount Rd., Unit 1 and 2

Markham, ON L6G 0E3

(905) 305-8110

Dining Out: Chicken Biscuit Sandwich at IHOP and Shrimp Alfredo at Olive Garden

Since it's Civic Day long weekend, Minji, Daniel, and I decided to make a little trip down to Buffalo to eat and do some American snack shopping. The rule, of course, was to only eat and/or buy things that we don't have in Toronto or Canada in general. We let Minji make the restaurant decisions on this trip, so our first stop was for lunch at IHOP in Niagara Falls:

Chicken Biscuit Sandwich at IHOP

Since we had quite literally ordered pancake breakfasts at work on Friday, both Daniel and I decided to forego the breakfast options and chose the fried chicken biscuit sandwich with hash browns on the inside. The sandwich itself tasted pretty decent — the fried chicken was crispy and juicy on the inside, and the biscuit was nice and fluffy — but the portion was DISMAL (one thing I did NOT EXPECT to complain about at an American restaurant chain is the portion size), the hash browns were barely cooked on the inside, and the white gravy on the side was quite literally cold gelatin (it was the exact texture of cream soup straight out of the can). Along with a Diet Pepsi, this meal cost just over $44 CAD after tax, tip, and a NIAGARA FALLS TOURIST FEE (an absolute fucking scam). This was by far the most disappointing meal with the worst value I have ever had in my entire almost-38 years of life, and I'm not even being dramatic. We had to console ourselves with Killaloe Sunrise Beavertails down the street (which were excellent, and are under $10 each).

Shrimp Alfredo at Olive Garden

We crossed the border and drove to Buffalo to do some shopping at Target and Trader Joe's, and Minji chose Olive Garden for dinner. Some Canadians may not remember, but we actually used to have Olive Garden in Ontario. They all closed down when I was in middle school — which means Minji and Daniel, who are born in the mid-1990s, don't remember the existence of this restaurant chain at all — but my parents used to take us there once a month as our non-Chinese dining out option. I don't remember it being that amazing — and we do have East Side Mario's, which is basically the same thing — but I agreed so that Minji and Daniel could experience Olive Garden for themselves. 

Except we had to wait 30 minutes to get seated, another 15 minutes just to order our food, another 10 minutes to get water, another 15 minutes just to get our salad and breadsticks, and another 30 minutes to get our entrees. This is actually no fault of our server, who was an absolute sweetheart, but just the fact that this Olive Garden was woefully understaffed (she was already waiting on at least 8 tables with no other help and new guests would just keep coming in). The food was actually quite tasty — the unlimited salad (which is EXACTLY THE SAME as East Side Mario's) and bread sticks were decent (I did get two refills of the salad and both Minji and Daniel got second refills of soup because we were waiting so long) — and the shrimp alfredo I ordered was surprisingly delicious (flavourful, creamy, and contained a great amount of shrimp), but it was the fact that we arrived at 7:15PM and didn't leave until 10:00PM that was the issue. And we still had to re-charge the Tesla and drive over two hours to get home.

Should've just gone to the Cheesecake Factory and called it a day.

IHOP

4955 Clifton Hill, 3/F

Niagara Falls, ON L2G 3N5

(905) 371-3396

Olive Garden

2011 Walden Ave.

Cheektowaga, NY 14225

(716) 683-4670

Dining Out: A Reunion Korean BBQ Dinner at Daldongnae

My friend Hannan is in town this weekend and called me up to see if I was free to meet up. I haven't seen him since his wedding in 2019 so, of course, we had to have a reunion dinner. He wanted Asian food so I suggested Korean BBQ and he very enthusiastically agreed (they do not have many Asian food options where he lives). So off to Daldongnae we went:

Beef boneless short rib and beef tenderloin

Beef boneless short rib

Beef tenderloin

Kimchi fried rice with cheese

Seafood pajeon

Since he doesn't eat pork, it was all beef tonight, which was actually a really nice change (I love samgyeopsal, don't get me wrong, but sometimes you just need some short rib), and the kimchi fried rice and seafood pajeon were the perfect accompaniments. It was his first time trying both, and he was absolutely DELIGHTED. (I mean, that's fair.) He's only been to Korean BBQ once before and it was an AYCE place, which basically doesn't count, so I'm so glad I could introduce him to an authentic experience. Only problem now is, he loved it so much that I think he may develop an addiction to K-BBQ.

Daldongnae

135 York Blvd.

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3B4

(905) 707-0683

Dining Out: Father's Day Dinner at Congee Queen

I haven't eaten a lot of Cantonese food since coming back from Hong Kong in March and am now craving it all the time, so when my mom asked where we should take my dad for Father's Day, I suggested Congee Queen:

Diced beef sirloin with chili black pepper in golden bowl

Roasted pork and BBQ pork platter

Fried sea bass in secret sauce

Fried bean curd with mixed vegetables

There's a reason it's our go-to "casual-but-special occasion" restaurant. Honestly, they never disappoint. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Congee Queen

230 Commerce Valley Dr. E., Unit 1

Thornhill, ON L3T 7Y3

(905) 707-8388

Dining Out: Padak Fried Chicken, Gangjeong Fried Chicken, and Rose Tteokbokki at Bb.q Chicken

Dinner at bb.q Chicken with Daniel and Minji because there's nothing like fried chicken after two days of eating hot pot:

Padak fried chicken
Gangjeong fried chicken
Rose tteokbokki

I asked Daniel and Minji to make the flavour decisions, so they ended up ordering two that I'd never tried before and I inadvertently found my new fave flavour in the padak chicken. I didn't even think I liked green onion that much, but the flavour and texture of it works supremely well with sweet, tangy fried chicken. Anyway, the new goal is to make my way through the entire BBQ Chicken menu now. (Except for maybe the ultra-spicy variants. I do value my tastebuds.)

bb.q Chicken

8110 Birchmount Rd., Unit 1 and 2

Markham, ON L6G 0E3

(905) 305-8110