Recently moved here from Vancouver, and let me say, I'm more than just a tad disappointed in the food offerings. There are no good sushi places, at all, these would be considererd bottom of the barrel in Vancouver. I know I was spoiled, as there are actual authentic Japanese places in Vancouver, and all the Japa food places here are run by Koreans. This of course means there are a couple of good Korean bbq joints, some Vietnamese chain restaurants and your north american Chinese food around, sigh. At least a decent Portuguese grilled chicken place just opened up nearby, sigh. There are hand full of high end restaurants that are decent, but I just don't get why there are not more good places to eat, this area is supposedly "blowing up".
I went to a pizza place tonight that supposedly focuses on quality, they advertise a stone bake oven... a faux stone facade with a gas burner inside and all metal construction... are you kidding me? I'm pretty sure the guy running the joint is not italian, I overhead him talking, and couldn't make out a word they he was saying, I speak strong Portuguese, and Spanish, could have been Romanian, anyways... They proudly state the sauce (what little there is of it) is not made from concentrated tomatoes, but it is still made from canned tomatoes... this in the heart of farm county, oh yes, and it was not even freshly made, they re-heated it in the oven, and it was obviously luke warm in the center as they re-heat it in a porcelain serving plate... I have eaten Lasagna in 3rd world countries that tasted better, seriously, it's not even that hard to make a great lasagna, you make sauce from fresh tomatoes. You make enough sauce for the day, in the morning, you partially cook the lasagna, now youcan make it to order, you put it together with generous sauce, and you put it in a metal serving dish, you hear that? Metal! This way the entire thing is piping hot and the cheese is nicely melted on the top. A metal serving dish alone and fresh sauce would make the lasagna 100 times better. As it is, I could get the sae "quality" at the grocery store. As for their pizza, they charge you a lot for the "quality" of their topppings, but they are super stingy with them. Back home in Richmond BC, Steveston Pizza co. still rocks these guys, real stone baked oven, great quality pizza and toppings, a higher price then your normal pizza joint, but at least you get what you pay for... Oh, course the owner was Italian , so he knew what he was doing, I can't same the same for this half ass attempt at Italian greatness.
Well, I will post something positive now to balance. There is a place called Latin Super Chicken in Mississauga, actually its just outside Streetsville, on Britannia at Mississauga rd.. It is Peruvian Style Rotisserie Chicken, and you will not find a better rotisserie chicken anywhere (well there is another place we haven't tried called Maria's but she charges more for a whole chicken, and it's further away) Anyways, the rice sucks (get fries), but the chicken is great, almost as good as the chicken in Peru. Also try a Chicha Morada (purple corn drink, very refreshing) and an Inka Kola (just try it), both Peruvian original drinks. Enjoy.
