Spoon & Fork- Woodbridge, ON

Curry Pad Thai

My friends and I have sort of this tradition; every time we are all in one town, we go for AYCE Sushi. For those who don't know what AYCE means, it stands for All You Can Eat. It's not so much the fact that its amazing sushi, but more for the average quality (most of the time), yet unlimited quantity that we can order. I know what some of you are thinking, that sounds amazing! But there are also those who are thinking, that sounds disgusting. Let me explain our reasoning; ever since we were in high school, my friends and I always went to places like these because you pay one price for as much sushi, sashimi, meats, vegetables, gyozas, side dishes and multiple desserts that your stomach can handle. And for those who like to sample but not eat a full plate of the same food, you can also try all of the things on the menu in smaller portion sizes without paying a dime more.

Sashimi: salmon(top), butter fish (bottom left),  surf clam(bottom right)

So on my most recent trip to Toronto, my friends spoke of this new-ish AYCE restaurant called Spoon & Fork that we should try next. S&F has multiple locations (Vaughn, Queensway and Oakville) in Toronto. Spoon & Fork isn't just a Japanese sushi house, it serves a variety of Thai dishes as well. The price for dinner at Spoon & Fork is set for adults at $26.99, while the price for lunch is $16.99 plus $1.00 more for each meal on Friday- Sunday, and that not even including taxes and tip! We decided to go for lunch because they seemed to serve most of the same dishes they do for dinner but just $10 cheaper.

 On entering S&F, we were nicely greeted and led to our table. The first thing that stood out about this restaurant was their very modern, chic decor. The colors were mostly black and white, which gave a more modern feel to the restaurant. We decided to go with the AYCE menu (as they also have an a-la-carte menu for both lunch and dinner). We gave our first round of orders and soaked up the atmosphere, which was really nice and upscale. After only a few minutes, food started to arrive at our table. Each food item came in a portion specifically designed for 1-2 people, which was something I have not seen at all-you-can-eat restaurants (usually they place all the same orders of the same food on one big plate to save clean up).

Mango Salad

Since there were many things that we tried, I will only describe a few of the dishes. I was thoroughly impressed with most of the Thai dishes; some available were: green/red/golden curry, pad thai, Thai fried rice, pepper beef, sweet and sour fish, etc. I enjoyed the different curries with your choice of beef, chicken or vegetable. The green curry was very creamy and had the perfect amount of kick from the spice; the chicken in the curry was SO tender and felt apart when I put it into my mouth. The curry pad thai had a nice taste as well; I am a BIG fan of curry flavors so this noodle dish was simply delicious. The curry powder and the aroma of the vegetables all added to a taste buds explosion and the peanuts with shrimp are a necessity to any pad thai. The mango salad was definitely one of my favorite dishes of the day; the nice mango's had a very subtle, sweet taste. The green peppers, red peppers and red onion covered in a nice vinaigrette balanced out the refreshing mango's nicely.

Maki rolls: Spicy Salmon (left) & dragon roll (right)

However for being primarily a Japanese sushi place, I was utterly disappointed. The sashimi ordered (available for lunch are: salmon, butter fish, white tuna, hokkigai (surf clam), tai (snapper), kani (crab stick), tamago(egg)) was very tasteless. I love sashimi because of its true fish flavor; all of this sashimi was bland and boring. After one taste, I had enough as there was literally no seafood flavor. Also, the sushi rolls were average at best; there was nothing distinctly interesting nor flavorful, mainly tasting of rice and an indistinguishable piece of fish. Even the spicy salmon hand rolls had no kick to it and tasted dull (although there was a large piece of fish). Only 2 out of 4 soups are available each day and that was disconcerting as my friend is an avid miso soup lover. Although, the yam and shrimp tempura were nicely breaded (unlike most places which over bread) and tasted hot and light.

Green Curry with Chicken

We also ordered green tea (which we thought was free) and eventually found out when the bill came, they charge $3.00 per person. We were very astonished and disappointed. One BIG problem I had with Spoon and Fork was that unlike ALL the other AYCE restaurants I have gone to, S&F charged for dessert (about $4.00-8.00 a dish). For me, it is unacceptable for an AYCE restaurant to charge for dessert, no matter what meal of the day. The meal came out to ~ $25.00 per person. For me, that's a rather large price to pay for such an average meal. Service was also average as the waiters were decently friendly but everyone agreed that there was nothing special. The only thing that saved the meal was the Thai dishes, as the Japanese dishes were not appealing at all.

Overall, I do not think I will be back to Spoon and Fork; there are just too many other restaurants out there that are cheaper and in my opinion, have better quality of food for their respective prices.

http://www.spoonandfork.ca

Rating:

3/5 Erics