Date Night at Nota Bene

Hello everyone! Just wanted to recap what happened over the May Long weekend. I hope you guys all had a very relaxing and happy time off. The weather was a bit cold though for this time of year but at least the sun was shining ( for the most part). I will apologize in advance for all the cellphone photos today. I forgot to take my camera out with me for the past few days!

My weekend started with date night at Nota Bene on University and Queen. I had always walked by I've never actually gone in so it was awesome to finally try their food.

My boyfriend got the onion rings to start and they were probably the best onion rings I've ever had. The batter was very thin and the sauce was really flavourful. 

I don't like onion rings but I loved these ones

For the main course, I tried their pulled pork tostada with a pineapple salsa. The pulled pork was quite flavourful but I did find the dish to be a bit sour over all. 

My boyfriend got the ravioli and he said they were really good even though I thought the portion size was a bit on the smaller end.

I'm not sure if I would be full...

Overall, it was nice dinner out and I did enjoy the food at Nota Bene. This was more of a fancy place and the menu was a little pricier so I would recommend this place for more special occasions. 

On Monday night, I got to see one of my best friends and we got to catch up over coffee. It was a really nice day to walk around outside and I took this picture while waiting for her to get tokens.

The Canada Life building is one of my favourite ones in downtown Toronto. My boss's window faces this building and I can honestly say I never get tired of the view. It's a high rise, yet it has so much character and the inside is really pretty too! The best part is that you can use the lights at the top to know what the weather will be like in the upcoming 24 hrs. 

We ended up getting Korean BBQ at a local Korean restaurant. It was a called a "pot lid" and it seemed like enough food for 4 people (the menu specified it for 2 people). 

The two of us had enough leftovers for lunch the next day!

Extras: Goggles bought on Ebay

As some of you will know, I used to be a really avid swimmer, I'd go maybe 2-3 times a week. However I stopped swimming in the last 2-3 months since I lost my goggles and I find it really uncomfortable to be in the water without them. Since I can be really lazy and cheap, I decided to get my replacement on Ebay (~6 dollars) and they finally came after 2 weeks!

So fancy! Comes with a case too!

These are actually a lot more fancy then the last pair that I had from Speedo. I like how they come with a protective hard plastic case. Maybe I won't lose them as easily in the future...

I've tried them on and so far they seem to provide really good suction at the eyes. I'll test them out when I go for a swim this weekend with my dad. 

Anyways, thanks for reading everyone, have a great week!

Goodbye Grad School!

 Hello everyone! Seems like it's been another while since I've had the chance to post. I hope you guys are all doing well :). As for me, I've just been busy living the post grad life and enjoying my "free-time".

For this particular post, me and the two awesome people who helped me on my M.Eng project went out for a post-project celebratory dinner. I really couldn't have done it without either of their help in my project. Plus, it was also nice to catch up over the last few weeks.

We ended up going to one of my favourite restaurant in Toronto, Bannock, part of the Oliver + Bonnacini chain on Queen and Bay.  I just feel like the food here is so good and the atmosphere is really nice yet the prices are still reasonable for the downtown core.

Everyone's casually dressed and you can see into the Bay!

On this particular trip, I got a salad and I tried the Piri Piri chicken.

Normal salad, nice presentation though

Yummy chicken!

 I had first tried this particular dish at Nando's,  a chain from the UK that recently expanded into Canada and I just loved the spices and how juicy the chicken was, even though it was grilled. In my experience, I usually find grilled food to be more dry. I found the Bannock version a slight bit drier but the spices were still very flavourful.

Lawrence, the PhD student got the steak on my recommendation.

Not the best presentation Bannock

Jeffrey, who's starting his master's got the burger and I got a side of the sweet potato fries to share :D
.

I try to get the fries everytime I go

The burger was too big so Jeffrey ended up eating it with a knife and fork lol.

I would probably have done the same

Overall, it was a great night out with friends and hopefully we'll get to do this again before the summer is over. So happy that I'm all done my M.Eng now and it's mostly thanks to these two awesome guys! So a humongous thank you to the two of you if you happen to be reading :).

Extras: Godzilla

On my way down to the restaurant, I passed by the Godzilla set/ad on Yonge and Elm. The subway car looked like it was coming out of the ground and the whole set was really well done!

If you din't know better, you really thought something came and did some serious damage to the subway( except that subways don't run on Elm St.).

Upon closer inspection though, you can see that the subway car was cut at an angle to make it seem like the car was coming out. Very clever!

So thanks for stopping by you guys! It's been a great week and I'll try to post some stuff from the upcoming long weekend. Now that I'm done my M.Eng, I feel like I should try out another hobby...or something. Any ideas/suggestions?

Anyways, bed time for me, as usual, thanks for reading and have a great day!