Summerlicious: Ouzeri

My university friend and I decided to have lunch at Ouzeri today. We sat at the patio out front. The inside is fairly large as well. The service is much to be desired. Our mains came soon after our appetizers. We only had a few bites of our appetizers before our mains arrived. We had to borrow table space from the next table since our table couldn’t fit both our appetizers and our mains at the same time. We also waited for awhile to get and pay our bill while the table near us got their bill settled before us even though we got our bill first and they sat down for lunch when we had just finished our appetizers. We also weren’t able to get our water refilled until the end of our meal. Summerlicious lunch is $15 and tax & tip. My friends got the soupa avgolemono for the appetizer, Rosemary chicken pie for the main and Yiaourti for the dessert. I got Mydia for the appetizers, calamari for the entree and Bailey’s creme caramel for dessert. Soupa Avgolemono is a broth of chicken, rice, celery, whipped egg and lemon. My friend thought it was OK. Chicken Rosemary pie is tender pieces of chicken breast, onions and mushrooms slowly stewed in a rosemary and feta cheese sauce and enveloped in a filo pastry and served with a side of rice, potato and tzatziki sauce. My friend thought it was good.   Yiaourti is pressed Greek yogurt topped with nuts and honey poached figs. My friend enjoyed it. Mydia is mussels steamed in red wine with garden vegetables, herbs and garlic and dowsed in Mediterranean red sauce. I enjoyed it. I thought it was more flavourful compared to the mussel appetizer served at Byzantium due to the herbs. Kalamari is a choice of with grilled or deep fried calamari served with tzatziki sauce, rice, spinach, and potatoes and garnished with a lemon wedge. I choose the grilled calamari and it was tasty. The calamari here is just as good as the calamari at Destingo.  The Bailey’s creme caramel was nice.

Jerusalem Restaurant

Yesterday, two of my friends and I had dinner at Jerusalem Restaurant on 4777 Leslie Street. Jerusalem Restaurant is an all you can eat Middle-Eastern buffet. It’s $25 (tax and tip included) on a weekday. On a weekday there’s a belly-dancing performance. The decor reminds me of the Mediterranean area. My friends and I had a booth table. Prior to going there, I read the reviews online and it was very mixed so I was slightly apprehensive.

For my first plate, I had calamari, mussel in tomato sauce, sea bass fillet,  imitation crab salad, saffron rice with meat, rice with chicken, BBQ zucchini and eggplant and half of a zucchini stuffed with meat and rice. I really liked the zucchini stuffed with meat and rice, it was quite delicious. The mussels, calamari and sea bass fillet were tasty and cooked perfectly. I didn’t like the imitation crab salad, it didn’t taste completely like imitation crab and it wasn’t well-made. The BBQ zucchini and eggplant just taste like BBQ vegetables while the saffron rice with meat and rice with chicken were ok.

For my second plate, I had baba ghanoush, hummus, labaneh, taheena, purple coleslaw, crispy shrimp, chickpeas with eggplant and chili, cous-cous and stuffed grape leaves with rice and herbs. Baba ghanoush is eggplant, taheena sauce, lemon, garlic and olive oil blended together. Hummus is chickpeas, garlic, lemon, taheena sauce and olive oil blended together. Labaneh is homemade strained yoghurt with olive oil. Taheena is sesame seed sauce mixed with lemon and garlic. The baba ghanoush, hummus and taheena were absolutely scrumptious. I’ve had better labaneh at Armenian Kitchen. The purple coleslaw, crispy shrimp and chickpeas with eggplant and chli were ok. The cous-cous and stuffed grape leaves with rice and herbs were delectable. The cous-cous was fluffy and light. I had stuffed grape leaves with rice and herbs at Rodeo Brazilian Steakhouse and it is just as delicious as the ones I had there.

For my third plate, I had lentil soup, chicken skewer, pieces of a lamb shank, kabab (kafta), hummus, babaghanoush and taheena. The lentil soup was tasty and enjoyable. I only had pieces of a lamb shank because one of my friends had an entire lamb shank for his second plate and he became very full from it. The portions of the lamb shank are very sizable and quite large. The lamb shank and kabab were tasty. I dipped it in hummus, babaghanoush and taheena which made it scrumptious. The chicken was ok but dipped in hummus, babaghanoush and taheena made it delicious. My other friend told me that anything with hummus and babaghanoush is absolutely delicious and she is correct.

My fourth plate was dessert and Jerusalem Restaurant has creme caramel/flan. It was absolutely delicious and mouthwatering. The last time I had creme caramel/flan, it was homemade by my high school friend a few years ago.

Overall, this restaurant is alright. It’s not as bad as I thought and it definitely has some delicious offerings. If you’re in the neighbourhood and want Middle Eastern cuisine rather than Asian cuisine, then I would recommend this place.