The Week in Yum November 1-7 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in The Beaches - Stone Lion and an update on another spot in the 'Hood



Delicious cortado at Soma on King, just west of Spadian



I don't usually have to do this but I have to update my opinion on a restaurant. A couple of weeks ago, we had brunch at Wood Fire Pit and I wrote about it here. We were really happy with our brunch and so we went back this past Sunday with the VIP's because The Wren was packed and we couldn't get a table. 
This time it was a different experience. First of all, there was no coffee and the waitress, god bless her, told us not to order since she was just making instant. A restaurant that is out of coffee during brunch service is a restaurant that should run over to Starbucks, a block away, and buy a couple bags of coffee beans, am I right?


After that it was just kind of one little thing after another. Our very nice waitress left and a guy took over. After ordering tea instead, we were not given anything to put our teabags on and were kind of forced to lay the wet tea bags on the table until we could get him to bring a little bowl for them. There was a little something wrong with half of the orders - beef brisket was cold, one out of two eggs were soft poached as ordered, the other was well done and, as you can see up there, one egg had cheese and the other didn't. We got our meals but had to get the waiter back so he could bring cutlery- I know that's a small thing but it was small thing #5 or 6 by that time and I HATE having to wait to start in my eggs because I must have my eggs while they are hot. My food was fine, The Kid's was fine, Shack's pulled pork was dry and hard like they were scraping the bottom of the pulled pork barrel and two out three of our guest's meals had something wrong with them.

I just have to be honest here. The first time we ate there, it was fabulous so there are clearly some issues with consistency and I want them to be better because I want them to do well but, because I gave them the two thumbs up so I have to also give the yellow light warning flag and hope that this was not a regular occurrence. I will absolutely try it again and hope that it is a repeat of our first visit.


The Stone Lion

Fish and chips- three big pieces of fish, crispy, not greasy and on a stick - LOVE food on a stick

We made our second visit to another new spot in the Beach, The Stone Lion (the owners of the Stone Cottage in Scarborough have taken over the Lion on the Beach) and I am happy to report they are batting 2 for 2, or however that baseball analogy works.
We went last Thursday for their $6 tapas menu and we were thrilled with everything we ate. That charcuterie plate is a steal at $6 and the other items we tried were all freshly made with care, tasty and the portions were perfect - certainly better than most any other pub food you are going to get in the neighbourhood. 

Shack wanted to just taste the bolognese sauce to see if he would like it (he is so picky) and the chef sent out a nice little bowl of sauce with shavings of fresh parmesan and some basil garnish - we thought he might get a tbls of sauce slopped into a tiny bowl. It was delicious and tasted like a true bolognese, made with milk in it, and with that little overture, they guaranteed that Shack will be back to eat the pasta with bolognese and a stuffed meatball.

This week we took The Neighbours and it was $6 burger night so they all ordered that and I had fish and chips. Shack said the burger was very good (homemade patties made in house), the fries were crispy and nicely done and my fish and sweet potato fries were great. I had to give Shack the third skewer of fish because it was almost too much for me.

Great servers both times, good food that tastes fresh, nothing pre fabbed, good prices, decent wine and beer list and we can walk there. What more can a girl ask for?


The only negative I can think of is the fact that it's really open and airy but that also means its very loud and I think taking a few measures to do whatever needs to be done to absorb sound a bit and make it less overwhelming would go far - it's the only complaint I have heard from neighbours - great food but just really, really boomy and loud.

On Tuesday, I went to my first Dinner and A Book thing at the Musgrave Loblaws (the store I also teach at). For $35 we had dinner, a glass of wine and then discussed Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Chef Andrea Buckett cooked our meal (she had all of us come up and assemble our trout, mushrooms and asparagus with a maple glaze in parchment so it was interactive as well). If you get a chance to do one of these at your local Loblaws, do it.

 For the rest of the week, we didn't really go out or eat anything out of the ordinary because we were running around getting Shack ready for his impending trip to Jordan. He left on Thursday morning and he will spend the next month or so working on a movie in Aqaba - we all watched Lawrence of Arabia to get in the mood- and there was way too much to do to worry about food.

Speaking of Jordan, The Kid and I will be joining Shack in Jordan for a couple of weeks and I will be trying to do daily blog updates this time so, if you want to keep up with us on our adventures, make sure to follow the blog by email (up there in the top right hand corner of the page).

Happening this week:

A Fried Chicken Smackdown at the Drake this Monday!

A Taste of Iceland runs from Nov 13 to the 16th


Pin of the week: It's all Jordon all the time right now

Instagram of the week: Four Magazine's feed is stunning

Facebook Share of the week:


Post by The Yum Yum Factor.

Tweet of the week: 

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