EATS: Born and Raised

Hello everyone! The HF recently took me out for non-Valentine’s Day and as per last year, it was another surprise. He gave me these beautiful peach roses and whisked me off to dinner. I’d only been to Born and Raised once before (grabbed a pizza with TasteHamOnt during our first food crawl) and had been longing to try some more on their menu. We decided to start with the Beef Tartare. Deliciously seasoned and topped with a perfectly soft boiled quail egg, it was absolutely perfect with the toasted bread. 

EATS: #HamOnt Food Crawl with @tastehamont

Hello everyone! So I’ve basically been made an honourary Hamiltonian and one of the awesome things about hanging out in Hamilton a lot is making friends with the local food-Instagrammers. A few months back I had dinner at The Aberdeen Tavern with @twohamontgals and recently, I met up with @tastehamont to go on one of her famous food crawls. First stop: Nique. 

EATS: Queen Margherita Pizza

Hello everyone! Several people had told me about Queen Margherita Pizza, and I must admit, I really took notice after they followed me on Twitter. I finally went in last week to give them a try, and I was thoroughly impressed! I went to the location in the Baby Point area of Jane and Annette in the west end of Toronto (or Etobicoke if you’re like me and still call it that) for dinner with my friend Laura, and we both indulged in their awesome $29 Prix Fixe Menu. I started with their Caprese Salad and I must say, this was probably the best rendition of this classic dish I’ve ever had. Sliced rainbow heirloom tomatoes were enhanced with basil and bufala mozzarella. Everything on this plate had strong flavour but none of it overpowered the other – it was in perfect harmony.
I went with the Gio Oldschool pizza topped with prosciutto and arugula, which is probably my favourite combination for this type of pizza. Let’s just get this out of the way: yes, QMP is compared with and rivals Pizzeria Libretto and I will say: the only thing that would’ve brought this over the edge is the delicious chili oil that is offered at the latter. I still really enjoyed this pizza, and I love that this is closer to me than PL.  I finished off the meal with their Tiramisu which was served as a very generous portion. This was a fantastic end to a hearty dinner. Perfectly balanced sweetness and texture with the mascarpone and coffee.

I highly recommend checking out Queen Margherita Pizza to get your pizza fix. There are 3 locations across the city: Leslieville (1402 Queen St E), Dundas West (772 Dundas St W), and Baby Point (785 Annette St). You can find them online at http://www.qmpizza.com and follow them on Twitter and Instagram.