As I've said before, hubby and I are far from being restaurant critics - but we do know a good meal/restaurant when we see one. One of our fave genres of food (other than the pre-requisite Southern BBQ) is sushi...as such, we are always on the lookout for a good sushi place to frequent in The Hammer.
In Toronto, we lived on a street with two sushi restaurants, literally right next to each other. (Yes, we were spoiled). And they were both fabulous. As such, any new sushi place we try in Hamilton has a lot to live up to.
Our first sushi experience in The Hammer ended up being the first week we were here. The oven/stove in our place broke (ugh) and we had to eat - we looked up sushi places on the net and found Sapporo - an all you can eat sushi extravaganza on Main Street. Incidentally, I had never been to all-I-could-eat sushi in my life, but have always been intrigued by the concept.
We decided to give it a try. Rather than being the buffet-style I expected, you can literally order anything and everything you desire from the menu, with no limits (I assume). Yes. Anything and EVERYTHING you want.
The only real problem is that while the restaurant may not have limits, I certainly do - you get full FAST. In spite of this, I still feel we got our money's worth - this is the only sushi place I've ever seen where I've been able to try all kinds of different sushi, sashimi, etc...for one set price. (Even the sushi places with the conveyer belts charge you per item!)
The parking at Sapporo was less than desirable, but we were willing to work with that. Also, the second time we went to Sapporo (a random Wednesday night), the place was PACKED (I think they had a Groupon-type offer on recently, but i concur...) I rarely consider a full restaurant to be a disadvantage, but rather a sign of quality/trendiness (or perhaps just good value). At the same time, waiting for a table at 8pm on a Wednesday night is annoying.
Other great Hamilton sushi places suggested to us include August 8,
Kasa Sushi, Spring Sushi, Koi Sushi and Atami Sushi. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some eating to do. (Incidentally, most of the sushi places in Hamilton seem to be all-you-can-eat. I'm loosening my belt as we speak!)
Feel free to leave your thoughts on fave sushi spots in Hamilton in the comments below :)
Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Its coffee time in The Hammer, Part 2
My coffee tour of Hamilton continues. Although the last time I wrote about this I had scarcely ventured outside of the Locke Street Starbucks (which I enjoy, by the way), I am now slightly more versed on the java options available in The Hammer.
One of our most recent destinations was the Mulberry Street Coffee House - which hubby and I visited one Sunday afternoon after a particularly long open-house visiting session. It is housed in a beautiful building, with photography exhibited on the walls, eclectic, not your run of the mill chain and people were sitting and chatting, enjoying the atmosphere on a laid-back afternoon. We ordered and sat down to do the same.
I will caveat my comments about our trip to Mulberry with a bit of honesty. While we really did enjoy it, we did feel that perhaps we didn't exactly fit in here - it reminded us a lot of some of the artsy coffee houses in Toronto and us being a) not in our 20s anymore and b) not artists/photographers/crafty people and c) not overtly eclectic, we felt that we may have stuck out as being a bit plain and boring! lol. :) Having said that, I'm sure we will go back. It seems like a great addition to the James St. N neighbourhood. To move away from the atmosphere for a second, we enjoyed our coffee, but found the food to be a tad on the expensive side here as well.
Perhaps my favourite new coffee find was Locke St Bakery & Bagel. I decided to give this place a go one afternoon when I was looking to get some writing done outside of the house. It turned out to be a wonderful place to sit and get work done - the coffee & tea were great (and the cookies), the staff are extremely friendly, and they have wi-fi! (also, after the lunch rush finishes, its not too busy).
I've also been to P.A.M.'s in Jackson Square - the coffee was good, but I didn't stay long enough to get any work done there, so can't comment too much on the atmosphere.
Of course, none of these places are walking distance from where we're living at the moment. It does seem that this may not be a concern for much longer (and not just because we're looking to move soon!) I hear on Twitter that a coffee house is on its way to Ottawa Street this summer!
One of our most recent destinations was the Mulberry Street Coffee House - which hubby and I visited one Sunday afternoon after a particularly long open-house visiting session. It is housed in a beautiful building, with photography exhibited on the walls, eclectic, not your run of the mill chain and people were sitting and chatting, enjoying the atmosphere on a laid-back afternoon. We ordered and sat down to do the same.
I will caveat my comments about our trip to Mulberry with a bit of honesty. While we really did enjoy it, we did feel that perhaps we didn't exactly fit in here - it reminded us a lot of some of the artsy coffee houses in Toronto and us being a) not in our 20s anymore and b) not artists/photographers/crafty people and c) not overtly eclectic, we felt that we may have stuck out as being a bit plain and boring! lol. :) Having said that, I'm sure we will go back. It seems like a great addition to the James St. N neighbourhood. To move away from the atmosphere for a second, we enjoyed our coffee, but found the food to be a tad on the expensive side here as well.
Perhaps my favourite new coffee find was Locke St Bakery & Bagel. I decided to give this place a go one afternoon when I was looking to get some writing done outside of the house. It turned out to be a wonderful place to sit and get work done - the coffee & tea were great (and the cookies), the staff are extremely friendly, and they have wi-fi! (also, after the lunch rush finishes, its not too busy).
I've also been to P.A.M.'s in Jackson Square - the coffee was good, but I didn't stay long enough to get any work done there, so can't comment too much on the atmosphere.
Of course, none of these places are walking distance from where we're living at the moment. It does seem that this may not be a concern for much longer (and not just because we're looking to move soon!) I hear on Twitter that a coffee house is on its way to Ottawa Street this summer!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)