World Class Bakers Cafe Review

My career as a Life Enrichment Coordinator takes me to many places.  The retirement community I work at has their own choir and two weeks ago they performed at a benefit concert in a church.  This event was planned by the seniors, however, I decided to tag along to make sure there were no issues with the bus we booked.  The church is just up the street from work and once the seniors were settled I decided to grab some dinner.  I walked across the street to World Class Bakers.  I drove past this cafe on many occasions, always wondering what it's like.  Well, I was about to find out.  I was surprised to see how big this cafe actually is.  What I noticed right away, and what I really liked, is that there are a few different sections for seating.  I always like that because I have a choice of where to sit as opposed to being forced to sit in one general area.  This cafe has a TON of desserts.  Cakes, cupcakes, pies, cookies.  They also have lots of lunch/dinner items such as fish, pasta, sandwiches, etc...  I ordered the lasagna, which was around $9.00 and I was very unpleasantly surprised to find out that this cafe only accepts cash.  No debit.  No credit card.  Just cold, hard cash.  Of course, I didn't have enough with me so I had to withdraw cash from the bank machine inside the cafe.  And, I had to pay the $1.50 service charge for not taking money out of my own bank.  I sat in the back at a table for two and ate my dinner.  The lasagna was delicious with just the right amount of cheese and tomato sauce on top.  It was a satisfying meal and the portion was pretty good too.  I asked one staff member if they do custom orders for dessert and she said that they do and I can pick up the information at the front.  When I asked the girl at the cash she said that they don't have a brochure and offered me a phone number instead.  I got the impression that it belonged to the owner.  I declined.  The food was good but the girl at the cash wasn't the friendliest person I've ever met.  Overall, not a great first impression.  I am not itching to go back.  I also don't like the fact that this cafe doesn't have a website.  The only information I could find online was via a blog. 
http://www.blogto.com/bakery/worldclass

Aberfoyle Mill Restaurant Review

My mom had a birthday recently so to celebrate we went to Aberfoyle Mill for dinner.  I wasn't too thrilled about the idea at first because Aberfoyle seemed really far.  However, my parents had been there before and LOVE this place so it was only fitting that we had dinner there.  I was pleasantly surprised that it took only 45 minutes to get there from my parents' house in Mississauga.  Which is still a long way to drive for dinner, but I expected longer.  It was well worth the drive.  This restaurant is fabulous!  It's a very charming restaurant with authentic antiques, most of them hanging from the ceiling.  It's one of the largest personal collections of Canadiana in the country.  There is a beautiful, large fireplace in the restaurant but someone else already reserved the table next to it so we couldn't sit there.  After we were all seated, I got up to ask the hostess to put a candle in my mom's dessert, which the waiter did.  It was a little something extra.  Our waiter was awesome and we really enjoyed talking with him.  He was very knowledgeable about wines and made good recommendations because our drinks went well with our meals.  For my appetizer, I ordered the spinach salad with baked Monforte feta, pecans, roasted red peppers and Niagara cranberry plum vinaigrette.  Absolutely one of the best salads I've ever had.  Mmm!  Then I had the bow-tie pasta with butter seared beef tips, roasted garlic, spinach and a Gorgonzola cheese sauce.  It usually comes with mushrooms but I asked for none.  I am not a fan of blue cheese and I'm also not a cheese expert so I had no idea that Gorgonzola cheese was blue cheese.  The dish was excellent and it had a very unique flavour.  I had to get a doggy bag (as usual) and ate the rest for lunch at work the next day.  It actually tasted better on day 2.  Amazing dish, but knowing now what Gorgonzola cheese is, I won't order it again, even though it was good.  Really good.  For dessert I ordered chocolate cake with raspberry sauce and it was good, although I would have preferred milk chocolate over dark chocolate.  My brother and dad ordered a white chocolate cheesecake and it looked marvelous.  This restaurant is excellent and I recommend it.  I can see what my parents meant every time they talked about it.  The food is top notch and a lot of their dishes have a unique flavour.  For 5 people, the cost of dinner was almost $400.00.  
http://www.aberfoylemill.com/index.html 

 

ZEMRA Bar Lounge Restaurant Review

My colleague and I received free tickets to a comedy show through work and we decided to go out to dinner with our hubbies prior to the show.  We made reservations at ZEMRA Bar Lounge since it's near our work.  Our work is located in a prime Toronto neighbourhood and there are lots of restaurants and lounges nearby.  The restaurant is small, with about 8 tables in the front and more tables near the back.  After the waitress took our drink orders, we had to wait quite a while before she came back for our dinner orders.  I didn't time it but it did seem like a good 15 minutes.  Finally, when she came around,  I ordered the Spicy Penne which is made with shrimp, scallops (I asked for none), sweet peppers, red onions, sun-dried tomato and topped with an avocado rose sauce.  I can't handle spice very well so I asked for as little spice as possible.  The food took a while to arrive, but I was hoping this meant that everything was being made from scratch.  It was definitely worth the wait because it was absolutely delicious.  It wasn't too spicy, it was just right.  The avocado rose sauce was unlike anything I've ever had.  It was creamy and flavourful and it went well with the shrimp and vegetables.  I wasn't able to finish my meal and was sad to have to leave it behind.  Had I been going home after dinner, I would have asked for a doggy bag.  We all ordered some kind of chocolate lava cake.  It was good but nothing special and my husband said it could easily have been a frozen dessert by President's Choice, especially because it arrived at our table in no time.  I love PC but I can buy that myself in the store so I would have preferred something unique.  Everyone else enjoyed their meals and it was reasonably priced.  The menu isn't very extensive so have a look online before you go.  Otherwise, you may be in the mood for something they don't offer.  
http://www.zemrabarlounge.com/index.php