Yonge Crawl: Bloor to Almost College

I walk along Yonge a lot and there are so many places I have passed thinking “I should go there some day” and decided to round up some folks and just do it. It was a mix of familiar and whatever took our fancy. Where we ended up:

1. Neo Coffee Bar – not new, but a location I’d yet to visit. Figured it was a good place to start. Had the houjicha latte and some mochi.

2. Xihe Peking Duck – the $19.99 quarter duck leg seemed worth a shot. There is crunch but don’t expect beautiful skin. Good value here. YMMV.

3. Sang Ji Bao – also not new, but new menu items. Enjoyed the fish noodle soup. Good clean broth. Would consider this again. I still prefer the OG dry scallion noodle to the spicy pork version.

4. The Peachy – had a decent enough croissant (though no crunchy/flaky to speak of, due to the rainy weather I assume). I was told they make it in-house when I quizzed them about where they get their dough. I had this place on my map for the bingsu, but it was too cold so I will save it for another day.

5. Caphelia – spied during our roaming and decided to go in. An excellent Vietnamese egg coffee here. Very coffee forward. Not too sweet. Will be back for this again. My favourite taste of the day.

6. Yee’s Hand Pulled Noodle – got the pork and pickled veg. Nice noodles. Needed the chili oil. Would try in a brothy braised beef next time.

7. Woojoo Bunsik – random pick as we walked by. Self-coined korean street food, but we picked three tofu pockets (inari): Eel, scrambled egg, and kimchi.

8. Tacqueria El Pastorcito – on my map and enhanced by Reddit here. Had four tacos (pastor, chorizo, lengua, and tripa) and would order the tripe again. Best texture favour. Bonus points for the sauce/topping selection. Good soft tortillas (though I am no expert). Thanks, team!

9. Miss Fu in Chengdu – Had takeout in the summer that made us want to further explore their menu, so there we were. Smashed cukes, the snakehead fish soup, and ox gastric wall were all very nice. Special high-five to the guy who served us both times and took the time to point out dish dupes and made real suggestions to the table. The service alone makes me want to return.

Annnnd that’s it. Didn’t even get to the food court at Aura and College Park which may be my next effort.