Big Smoke Burger (Square One)

Not too long ago we heard about Big Smoke Burger and our immediate reaction was: omg not another burger place!
Anyway, given how much we enjoy trying out new places, we thought why not give it a try, especially since it was highly recommended by a friend. We ordered Crazy Burger (requested halal beef patty) ($14.95 with onion rings and pop) and Spicy Burger (requested halal beef patty) ($14.72). Upon seeing the total ($29.67), we were skeptical and were waiting impatiently for our order to be prepared and for us to dig in.

To our surprise, the fresh beef patty (non-processed) lived up to our expectations and we loved the toppings on both the burgers. Actually one of us loved the Crazy Burger (alapeno havarti, coleslaw, chipotle mayo, bbq sauce, hot peppers & lettuce), whilst the other one thought Spicy Burger (caramelized onions, spicy chipotle mayo, tomato & lettuce) was better.

We thought the fries were quiet good. They were very similar to New York Fries in taste. The onion rings were good as well; just that we personally find it difficult to finish an entire order of onion rings.

We visited Big Smoke Burger’s Square One (Mississauga) location. The sign clearly indicates that you have to ask for halal beef and/or chicken. We wanted to try out their poutine, but we were informed that the gravy on poutine is not halal. We were very thankful for their honesty.

We can’t wait to go back and try other burgers on the menu!

Big Smoke Burger is located in Square One Mall’s food court. For more information, please visit: http://www.bigsmokeburger.com

Paramount Butcher Shop – Fine Halal Meats

Summer is almost here in Toronto and we are sure you are ready to fire up your BBQ. The one place you need to check out this BBQ season is the Paramount Butcher Shop. Not only is this a gorgeous shop, it has a wide selection of meat and related products.

Shiny displays, excellent customer service, free coffee and best of all, 100% halal and hand-slaughtered. This shop really is any North American Muslim’s dream come true. 

They have marinated chicken, beef, lamb of various cuts.  Although these were all raw, the displays were drool worthy!

We regularly buy shish tawouk, chicken shawarma, and kabobs from here. 

They also have a wide selection of deli meats. 
The beef counter. We were amazed at the selection and various cuts of meats that were available.
Be sure to check out this wonderful store this summer and let us know what you tried!

Address:

4646 Heritage Hill Boulevard

Mississauga, ON

L5R 1N4

Phone: 905-890-1700

Website: http://paramountbutchershop.com/

 

Dunk ‘n Dip: Resto & Chocolate Lounge

One lazy Friday night we were in mood for dessert and wanted to try a new place. We remembered our friends telling us about Dunk ‘n Dip so we quickly google-d the location and decided to visit the Mississauga location. We had gotten mixed reviews about this place so we weren’t sure what to expect.

Our first impression was positive. It was a bright and vibrant space buzzing with people and staffed with friendly servers. What caught our eye were the chocolate fountains. Mmm…

We took a look at the menu, which had lots of sweet and savoury options. We were torn between getting waffles or crepes. Although we wanted to try both things, we knew the portion sizes would be large and thankfully decided to share a dessert.

We ordered the Wonder Land Waffle, which had toasted waffles served with a layer of their signature cream garnished with sliced fresh strawberries, and topped with Belgium chocolate. There were four kinds of Belgium chocolate: milk, white, dark or caramel chocolate. We asked them to put all of them!

If this picture looks scrumptious to you, we can assure you it tasted out of this world! The waffles were perfect, the cream was custard-like and the Belgium chocolate was SO good. We wish there was more of it! We also got a scoop of pistachio gelato, which is hidden behind the waffles in this picture. The pistachio gelato was not as good as we had expected.

We also tried the coconut gelato. It was also topped with Belgium chocolate. We enjoyed this flavour way more than the pistachio. Again, the chocolate just made everything finger licking good!

 

We were told by the staff that the menu is fully halal. We loved the dessert at Dunk ‘n Dip and can’t wait to visit again, inshallah!

Address:

241 Lakeshore, Rd East,
Mississauga, Ontario, L5G 1G8, Canada

Phone:

905-990-5522

Website:

http://dunkndip.ca/

Intense Poutine Craving

 

We had the biggest poutine craving a few weeks ago. What triggered our craving were our blog stats, which kept showing people searching for “halal poutine Toronto”. The problem was, we didn’t know where to go. We wanted GOOD poutine; a poutine that would be worth the calories. For someone living in the east end of Toronto, we were surprised that we had such a hard time finding a place. Our options were:

– Crown Pizza

– Affy’s

– Flavour’s Cafe

– Big Moe’s

All three options were a bit of a drive so decided against them. That is where our list ended.  We were certain that there must be more places to grab poutine at but nothing was coming to mind!

After a lot of thought we remembered that Sizzling Skillet has decent poutine. Since we live a few minutes away, we hoped this place would satisfy our craving.

One word for the poutine: awesome! It doesn’t get any better than waffles fries smothered in gravy and cheese. They sprinkle red pepper on top which really elevates this french fry dish.

So the next time you are in the east end and are craving poutine, visit Sizzling Skillet.

Address: 

2290 Markham Rd

Toronto, ON M1B 2W4

Phone: 

(416) 321-9991

Website:

https://www.facebook.com/sizzlingskillet

Marrakech Restaurant

Check out our review of Marrakech Restaurant on Halal Foodie.

Click here to read the article. 

 

Brunch at Spice Shack

This restaurant has closed down as of March 14, 2015

Breakfast is our favourite meal of the day. So any chance that we get to make this meal grand and fancy, we jump to it. Upon learning that Spice Shack has introduced a brunch menu, we knew we had to try it. Currently, the brunch starts at 11am but the staff told us that they may start it earlier, which is great because we like to eat our breakfast early! We ordered the Nutella Banana Crepes and the Eggs Benedict. We thought the crepes would be overly sweet but to our surprise, the sweetness was not overwhelming at all. We highly recommend trying this item.     The Eggs Benedict were delicious as well. We asked them to remove bacon because one of us does not like it too much. The eggs were perfectly poached and seasoned well. The spicy, South Asian style side of potatoes brought in the fusion element that we like so much at Spice Shack. Yum yum yum! Happy brunching! Address: 308 Painted Post Drive Scarborough, ON. M1G 2M3 Phone:  647 748 0786 Website:  http://www.spiceshack.ca

Max’s Chicken & Seafood

Check out our review of Max’s Chicken & Seafood on Halal Foodie.

“Naturally, we compared the food at Max’s to the food at this same establishment. We feel that comparing Max’s to them is like comparing apples of different kinds: Gala vs. Macintosh.  Even though the apples look similar, they have different tastes.”

Click here for the full review.

Dessert at Affy’s

Those who know us know that we love the food at Affy’s. Despite our many complaints with this restaurant, we continue to go back again and again for the food and especially the dessert. When it comes to dessert, we are a little bit picky because we want to indulge in a dessert that is truly worth the calories. Out of all the halal restaurants we have visited, we feel that Affy’s knocks it out of the park when it comes to their dessert menu.

Our all time favourite is their Tiramisu. It is heavenly to say the least! The cake is uber moist, the mascarpone cheese is creamy and fresh and the ladyfingers are drenched in just the perfect amount of mocha coffee. Drizzled with caramel sauce and garnished with whipped cream, this tiramisu is worth the trek to Affy’s.

The Molten Lava Cake is another great dessert option. The warm chocolate cake is chocolaty enough to satisfy any chocolate lover’s sweet tooth (did we just use the word chocolate three times in one sentence?). It is topped with vanilla ice cream, and garnished with whipped cream and chocolate and caramel sauces. One bite, and you will not want to share this.

The newest item on Affy’s dessert menu is their White Chocolate Bread Pudding. This was the most scrumptious dessert that we have had to date. It almost tied with the Tiramisu for being our favourite dessert. The warm bread pudding is served on chilled white chocolate sauce and it is absolutely decadent. We regret sharing this dessert. We spoon-fighted each other for the last bite.

Have you tried any of these desserts? Do let us know!

Big Mamma’s House – Burgers & Ribs

We have been wanting to try Big Mamma’s House – Burgers & Ribs since we heard about it at the Halal Food Fest. Unfortunately, we couldn’t try it at the Halal Food Fest due to long lineups and along with the fact that it was pouring that afternoon. Since we were in the Durham area recently , we decided to try it out.

Big Mamma’s House has a look that resonates with burger joints from the 60s and 70s. We loved how it’s well maintained (nice and clean sitting area). Since it was getting pretty late in the evening and it was almost closing time, we quickly ordered:

The Big Momma’s House burger: This burger was well enjoyed by our guest who was looking forward to  a double beef patty burgers. All the ingredients gelled well, that made the burger quite flavourful.

The Big Spice: This was one of the burgers we were very much looking to try. We found this burger just as delicious as the preceding burger.

The menu is expansive you can be assured that hopefully everyone. We could tell within the first few bites that the burger patties were made from scratch and prepared right in front of us.

We tried their fries and loved the fact that they were hand cut with some skin still on. One word: tasty.

There are now gourmet burger joints all across GTA and if you happen to be in Pickering, Ajax and Whitby area, you should try out this burger joint.

For more information, please visit: Big Mamma’s House – Burgers & Ribs

Crave Grill House

Lately a number of North American/Italian halal restaurants have opened in and around the GTA. We’ve tried a number of them and some are winners all round, whilst others have been disappointing.

We were a little cautious trying out Crave Grill House; however, our experiences have been great thus far. Briefly, a few things that makes Crave Grill House a winner for us include:

• Nice and spacious seating area
• Great ambiance
• Excellent customer service
• Great food

We’ve been to Crave Grill House on several occasions and we have also taken picky guests along with us, who enjoyed the overall dining experience as much as we did. Here’s what we’ve ordered thus far:

Cheese Nachos: We were expecting plain boring nachos with some cheese melted on top. We were glad to receive a shareable appetizer with colourful nachoes with melted cheese along with a generous amount of jalapenos, some other veggies and of course accompanied with sour cream and salsa. We have tried this appetizer both with and without chicken, and have found it equally good. Hence, the second time we only ordered Cheese Nachos and it tasted great!

Four Cheese Chicken: We absolutely loved this dish and so did our guests. To start off, the chicken breast is coated with breadcrumbs, which makes every bite so delightful. Once you work past the crust, you realize how delicious the chicken breast really is. We didn’t think spinach and artichoke dip stuffed in chicken would taste good, but we were dead wrong! The dip and the four cheese make every bite very flavour (hardly any bland moments), and as you’re taste buds are done working there way through it, you enjoy the cajun sauce blanketing the chicken breast. We paired our chicken with cilantro lime rice, which is also our favourite here!

Linguini with Blackened Shrimp: This dish is another winner at Crave Grill House. The Alfredo sauce is delicious; the button mushrooms and the sun dried tomatoes compliment the shrimp very well. Gotta say we are quite picky about our pastas and this one was a winner for us. The accompanying bread was seasoned well and was tasty.

Blackened Chicken & Shrimp with Cilantro Rice: We enjoyed this dish as well!

One thing that we think Crave Grill House can improve on is their dessert menu. They offer cheesecake, molten lava cake, apple crumble and ice cream. All of these are great options but we feel that they can do so much better. We have tried their Molten Lava Cake, which was good.

We have been back a number of times and would recommend this restaurant to others as well. Crave Grill House is also a great option for lunch. Most items on their lunch menu range from $10-13.

Address:

25 Woodbine Downs Blvd #5

Toronto, ON

M9W 6N5
(416) 213-1977

Website:

Crave Grill House