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Dining: Best west-side fajitas. West side of the Earth, anyway.
Sat, 13 Jan 2007

I briefly considered clutching this information close to my heart while rolling pig-like in the mud, but this restaurant absolutely needs to stick around. So I can tell you about it and still feel self-serving, that you and I are sharing some deep Mexican cuisine conspiracy.

Rio Grande Cantina is located in northern Mississauga, upon the east side of Dixie Road south of Aimco and somewhere north of Eglinton Avenue. A little plaza sporting a Yuk Yuks, an Irish pub, some variant of Indian restaurant.

Like pants have two legs, Mexican restaurants must have a certain look and feel when in North America, but this fine place differentiates by opening up into a little gift shop. My cynicle nature didn't care for this at first, but it's always good to know where you can - in a pinch while on the run - find good hotsauce. Still, the simple interior of most restaurants like this is welcoming and homey, so nothing to complain about here. Decent music (and not too loud), a hearthy atmosphere, and cheap tables.. good to go.

I ordered chicken fajitas (that or a three layer club sandwhich are my yardsticks by which diners are compared), while my wife ordered a beef burrito ('wet rolled' for sauce and melted cheese on top.) Its hard to really say what happened here for most assurredly sed food arrived, but it was hot-damned fantastic. We left stuffed silly, but not full and satiated .. but let me start at the beginning. We received the obligatory freebie chips-and-salsa, with warm tortilla chips and homemade salsa. Really good, and I'm again inspired to find a good sweet-but-tangy recipe so I too can have good salsa on demand. The main course arrived and it too was tasty and full of flavouring spices, without being hot. (My wife is having huge heartburn issues with the pregnancy, so keeping the hot-ness down is a priority.) Food was heaped up, fairly priced, and seriously gorramned delicious.

The place was fairly quiet at 6:15 on a Saturday evening, and no rush. (I mean, it was prompt, but relaxed so we could chill if we liked.) The chef was out and about a few times, and I had to pass along the word that everything was just peachy. We'll go back, and soon so as to not forget. Damn. Really, I wished the tummy had a latch to open up a backup storage area so I could drop in another order.

<Pats belly>"Soon my precious, soon."

P.S. I should note that Mississauga has become home to numerous Mexican restaurants of late; Mexicali Rosa's has opened up a joint, and several fast food places have popped up, including the nearly famous Burrito Boyz. Be sure to check 'em out :)

P.P.S. As a brief aside, let me humbly note that it would appear there's been a new Trancers film. Zombies and future-cops sent to the 80s ftw!

P.P.P.S. While I'm linking to goofy things, check out Christopher Walken

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Dining: A quick review of Tony Pistola's
Sun, 25 Sep 2005

An old university pal of my wife was in town so we had the opportunity to gather up the clan of old friends and head out for an evening of catching up. It was a really nice time -- any time you get out with friends is a great time - and we even went mini-golfing in the dark afterwards, so a fine evening was had by all. For dinner we decided to try out this place we'd all heard of, but never been to.. a small chain thats popping up in cities here or there as I understand it. (Apparently there are 2 or 3 in the Greater Toronto Area, but a few in the US as well.) So over to Tony Pistola's we headed.

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Dining: Soaked at the Harbour 60 Restaurant
Wed, 11 May 2005

The Harbour 60 restaurant is one of Toronto's premier steakhouses and I recently had the good fortune to pop by for an evening of dining and conversation with friends. While a wonderfully historic building, I left fealing a little lacking... so I rate her a majestic 3 stars out of 4.

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