Billy Jacks Po'Boys

We've eaten several times now at Billy Jacks Po'Boys and each meal has been excellent.  Located in the west end on Bloor St near Islington Avenue, this restaurant specializes in "Southern Comfort" food, including the Po'Boy sandwich which it is named for.

A Po'Boy is a submarine-styled sandwich that originated from Louisiana.  It usually consists of fresh crispy French bread wrapped around fried, breaded seafood such as oysters, shrimp, catfish or soft-shelled crab, or meats such as roast beef, chicken, pulled pork, and accompanied by lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo.

Billy Jacks offers delicious Po'Boy sandwiches that are generous with its fillings.  Our two favourites are the fried oyster and the blackened catfish.  The oysters are large, plump and juicy with a delicious light coating of what tastes like a cornmeal breading.  The blackened catfish is delightfully spiced and has a kick.  The sandwich comes with a large choice of sides including fries, hush puppies & gravy, gumbo soup, onion rings, coleslaw, rice and the Po' Boy salad.  This is a heaping salad of artisan greens, toasted pecans, raisins tossed with a seasonal vinaigrette.

Unable to decide which sandwich to order, I asked whether I could get the oysters as an appetizer rather than a sandwich, even though this was not on the menu.  Not only was the request accepted, but the oysters came with an amazing dipping sauce.  We have tried are the Acadian perogies–sauteed roasted garlic, mashed potato and cheddar cheese perogies with a Cajun dipping sauce, and the pulled pork mini sliders.  Everything has been delicious.

Another stellar main course option is the Chicken Fried Chicken. This is a breaded chicken schnitzel smothered with an amazing creamy mushroom sauce, served with mash potatoes and the best coleslaw we've ever had.  What put this slaw over the top for us was the light dressing, nuts and raisins which made for a perfect side.

The only course that we found to be just average was the dessert.  The Bananas Foster had a nice flavour, but the graham cracker crust and Chantilly Lace cream topping of the Lemon Icebox Pie was too thick and overwhelmed the lemon filling.

This is now my go-to place to get breaded oysters, which I will never tire of.

Billy Jacks Po' Boys
3369 Bloor St. West
647-352-3369

Hopgoods Foodliner Maritimes Dinng

While it would be difficult to pinpoint what exactly is Canada's national dish, it is much easier to talk about regional specialties.  Hopgoods Foodliner's menu focuses on ingredients and recipes from the east coast.  The restaurant is named after Chef Geoff Hopgood's family's chain of grocery stores (which are known as foodliners in the Maritimes)

We started off with the signature Halifax Donairs, which is an east coast spin on the Greek gyro, but the sauce is sweet instead of savory.  Thin slices of seasoned beef are covered with tomato, onion and this delicious, creamy sauce and served on a pita.  The not so secret ingredient for the sauce is proudly touted in the large display shelves full of cans of Carnation evaporated milk.  The donairs arrive on a paper bag, as a tribute to the traditional "take-out" nature of this snack.

Another retro appetizer was the hot crab dip topped with panko bread crumbs that were served with Triscuit crackers. In fact, the boxes of Triscuits were also prominently displayed on another shelf.  This was apparently based on a recipe that Hopgood's mother used to serve at cocktail parties in the 80s.  The waiter told us that they used to try to make their own crackers, but the result tasted exactly the same as the Triscuits.  Most of the appetizers were in the $14-16 range.

We've been to Hopgoods Foodliner twice in the past 8 months.  On each visit, one of us decided to order the Digby scallops with ham hock and pease pudding.  It was interesting that the same dish with the same ingredients arrived in a totally different cooking style and presentation.  Each time, the scallops were nicely seared but what they sat on varied.  On our first visit in the summer, they came on an oblong dish with slices of ham and a pool of summer peas covered in melted pork fat.  The second time in the winter, the meal was served on a round plate with fried ham croquettes and pea shoots with a balsamic drizzle. 

We've also tried the tender veal cheeks with turnip puree, shoots and slices, served with a beer stout and beet reduction, and sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts for an added crunch.  The mains ranged from $22-27.

There are surprisingly only two dessert choices on the menu, but anyone who loves chocolate would only need one–the Crispy Toffee, which misleadingly does not even have chocolate in its name.  This home-made chocolate bar ($8) contains a mixture of Rice Krispies, cereal and melted white chocolate, topped with a soft toffee.  This combination is formed into a bar and frozen for several hours.  It is then covered with a layer of melted dark chocolate and cocoa butter and what seems like a dusting of cocoa powder.  The final touch is a sprinkling of sea salt.

The result is an explosion of flavours and textures that have to be experienced to be believed.  This bar is so good that I'm tempted to order it for appetizer and main course as well as dessert.  It comes conveniently wrapped up in paper and a string, which makes it perfect for taking home a few extra bars.  Perhaps I need to bring along a cooler next time.


Hopgoods Foodliner
325 Roncesvalles Ave
416-533-2723

Izakaya Dining at Guu Sakabar

Wanting something different from the standard Japanese sushi restaurants, we went to an Izakaya, an alternative Japanese dining adventure both in terms of atmosphere and menu. Dining at Guu Sakabar turned out to be not only a culinary experience but a cultural one as well.

As each new patron enters the restaurant, he is greeted by a loud chorus of hellos in boisterous Japanese by the wait staff.  There are three choices of seating.  You can sit on high stools at the bar, where you are further greeted with deep two-hands-raised-in-the-air bows of respect and welcome from the bartenders.  There are standard wood tables with backless stools that seat two or four people.  And finally there is a separate area that requires you to remove your shoes and sit on a mat at a large communal table.  Whenever an order is taken, the menu choices are shouted out loudly across the room and acknowledged by the chef.

Izakaya fare is offered in a similar fashion to tapas or dim sum, with small plates meant for sharing. The menu sections include starters, salads, cold, grilled/baked or deep fried dishes, rice hotpot and noodles with prices ranging from around $3.5 for the smaller dishes to $12 for the more substantial ones.  We started with the blanched spinach in a sesame paste, seared B.C.tuna sashimi in a ponzu sauce with fried garlic slices, baked oysters with mushroom and cheese, and green bean tempura served with a matcha (green tea flavoured) salt.  While we've had variations of the other dishes before, the spinach dish was unique and delicious.

As a second round, we ordered a few more dishes, including the intriguingly presented Kabocha Korokke which looked like a candied apple on a stick covered with pink sauce.  It was actually a hard boiled egg covered with a puree Japanese kabocha pumpkin, then breaded and deep fried like a scotch egg and covered with a sauce that might have been a mayo and ketchup mixture.  It was average in taste but awesome in appearance.  We also tried the tender and aromatic grilled pork cheeks with salt and yuzu pepper topped with white cabbage, and the grilled saba mackerel with herbs, lemon, onion and garlic on a sizzling hot plate.  This last dish had a fishy taste and little bones in it.  This is not one we would order again.

We had the only non-Asian waitress taking care of our table.  It was amusing to hear our blond server calling out our order in a stream of Japanese. We found out that she started out in an Izakaya in Vancouver and while she was not fluent, she knew enough Japanese to be able to eat well in Japan.

As we left, there was a loud chorus of "Arigato" as we were thanked for coming.  This was a really fun dining experience and the food was tasty. We would definitely return to try some of the other choices and re-order some of our favourites. 


Guu Sakabar
559 Bloor Street W
647-343-1101