Review: Yutaka Japanese Restaurant

Meet up with a friend I haven't seen in a very long time 2 weeks ago. We went to buy matcha madeleines with red bean at the Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Matcha Cafe and then headed for dinner at the Yutaka Japanese Restaurant just newly opened down the street on Dundas across from Chatime. This is actually my 2nd time eating at the restaurant. The first time I had lunch there. It's an authentic Japanese restaurant that serves great quality and fresh sushi and sashimi! =D

I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the restaurant when I passed by it today. -___- So I'll edit this post later when I have the picture, lol. I also didn't take any pictures of the inside of the restaurant and this was the only decent one I can find from google.

We got a sashimi sushi bowl to share. This was actually really good and the meat is soooo fresh! Note: I actually don't normally eat sashimi because I don't really like the texture and taste of eating raw meat but decided that I should try eating it more and maybe I'll grow to like it. I still need some time to get used to it but I think I'm starting to like eating sashimi better now and it actually doesn't taste as bad as I think when I eat it with rice. And btw, they served us sushi rice in this bowl, not just plain white rice. It has sushi vinegar flavour to it which made it taste much better!

We also got a dynamite sushi roll to share as well.

This is called Shishamo. Some type of baby Japanese fish that is grilled. It was on the "today's special" recommended by our waitress. We decided to give it try as I have never eaten Shishamo before. It was okay. I thought it was too grilled and a bit dry for my liking.

Black sesame and green tear ice cream. OMG the BEST combination ever!

Thoughts about the restaurant: Overall the atmosphere at the restaurant is pretty nice. It's nice and spacious and located in a good area. The food is good and the price is not bad either. You can have some really fresh and great quality sashimi for a decent price. I would come back again for dinner or lunch. =) 

Stephanie got me a souvenir gift from Hong Kong. A grey sweater blouse with a lace collar. Thank you so much for getting me the gift. I actually don't have anything in this colour and style so it is perfect to add to my wardrobe! =D

Selfies I took at home before meeting up with Stephanie. My hair and outfit for the dinner night. I curled my hair with my you curl wand this time and it gave my hair such nice and bouncy curls and also added some volume to my super flat and thin hair. I also looked a bit more mature than usual. Just a bit pale and I look like as if I'm sick or something. My lips are too pink and light, should have applied some lip gloss or lip stick for some pop of colour to look more alive! lol. 

And at last we finally had a new nice picture together after so many years. Don't even remember when we last took a picture together. 2008 maybe? It was also our first time meeting up and seeing each other after over a year! It was so nice to catch up with you and we talked about so many things until it got so late and we didn't even realize how late it was. XD I hope the next time that we meet again won't be another year later, lol. 

Outfit: Cat Print Dress

Hello lovely readers, I'm back with another outfit post from last week. I still have so many photos taken both on my actual camera and iPhone that has never even seen daylight yet because I never had time to transfer them from my iPhone and camera. Well, more of just my iPhone because I recently bought a new computer over the x'mas holidays and I haven't sycned my iPhone to iTunes since then because I need to backup all my stuff first (like remake my music playlist) before syncing my iPhone into iTunes otherwise I'd lose all my apps and photos on my phone and have no music in there! I have been transferring my photos (the ones I want to blog about and edit) the long way via emailing them to myself so I won't have to sync my iPhone to access them. And yeah that takes me sooooo long to do. I should really finish up my music playlist this weekend so that I can finally sync my iPhone and transfer all my photos to my computer because I am running out of storage space to take new photos that I have to delete old ones to take more photos, lol. Yeah, it's that bad. I seriously need to get a phone with more storage space when I upgrade to a new phone at the end of the year this year. XD

I LOVE this cat print dress that I bought from H&M back in the summer. It's actually very thick and warm so please don't think I am crazy for wearing a dress in this super cold weather. Well, maybe I am kind of crazy because I'd wear dresses all year round whether it's winter or summer, haha. But I layered it with a thin cardigan for extra warmth and wearing the cat ear headband I bought from eBay to match with the outfit. I'm just missing some cat print tattoo tights. Maybe I should get that for spring/summer. 

I went out for dinner last Friday with a friend at Mabu Station 麻布小館 which I have blogged about before. I wanted to try their famous toast bread decorated with fruits and sweets on top. 

We ordered popcorn chicken to eat as an appetizer. 

This custard pudding served in an egg was actually a free dessert we got. The restaurant has this promotion where if you go eat at the restaurant and take a picture of their food and post/share it on facebook, they will give you 4 free custard puddings. After you have posted the picture on facebook, you simply show the waitress/waiter and they will give you the free custard puddings. Isn't that such an awesome promotion?! I think that is a really cool promotion. Omg, they should have more restaurants doing this! o(≧∇≦o)

The toast bread that we ordered. We actually got a fruit mix toast bread with honey inside. It was really sweet and omg, don't let the size fool you! It might actually look small in the pictures above but it's actually quite big in person. We didn't even end up finish eating the whole toast because it was honestly too big and too much! But it was quite yummy and good! =) 

Christmas Decorations

Getting into the holiday spirit with some Christmas decorations!

Also went out for dinner with family to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday! 

Japanese Restaurant: Ryoji Ramen & Izakaya

Went out to celebrate a friend's birthday at Ryjo Ramen & Izakaya. It was my first time at the restaurant. Apparently the restaurant is from Okinawa in Japan and has been in business ever since 1988! 

The restaurant was surprisingly not that busy on a Friday night. The place looks pretty nice with a lot of colorful lights that look like lanterns which gives off an authentic traditional Japanese style atmosphere. We were seated to a corner table at the far back of the restaurant in front of this really big table that could fit about 20+ people with some interesting wood structure. 

Calamari Salad! This was actually pretty good. A great dish for an appetizer/starter food.

This was called the "Rock and Roll" sushi that our cute Japanese waiter recommended to us. He said it's the best dish on the menu and no doubt. It was soooooo good! 

Zucchini Fritter Tempura.

Ryoji Takoyaki. I've eaten takoyaki at other Japanese restaurants and I have to say this was the most disappointing one that I have tried. It just wasn't quite as satisfying compared to the ones that I've had in the past. 

Cold noodle with chicken. I didn't want to order hot ramen as it was pretty hot that day and I wanted to eat something cold so I ordered this cold noodle and shared it with my friends. My friend (who was the birthday girl) liked it so much that we actually ordered another plate after, lol. It was quite refreshing to be eating cold noodles on a hot summer day! =) 

Baked oysters. My friend (birthday girl) recommended us to try this. I thought it was OK. Personally I wouldn't want to eat it again and it was $8 for 2 pieces!! My mom actually makes way better oysters than this. XD It was a bit pricey for 2 pieces and I didn't think it was that great.

And for dessert we got a Brûlée and Mango matcha cake. It was sooooo tiny, omg!! If we have knew it was this small then we wouldn't have got it. Quite expensive for such a small piece of cake too. We weren't even full after our dinner that we had to eat ice cream at Dolce Gelato across the street, lol. 

Cafe Princess

Went out to eat dessert at this SUPER CUTE princess cafe called "Cafe Princess" on Monday with a friend. I wasn't even planning to go out at all because I need to reserve all my money for my Japan trip. Yup, I am totally ready to be a hermit for the rest of the summer until I save enough savings for my Japan trip. 

Another reason being is because my work contract will be over in mid August so I will be jobless/unemployed for some time before I find a new job so I really need to save every penny possible to last me at least 1-2 month without a job. I originally have plans about going back to my old job after my current work contract is over but when I spoke to my supervisor, he said I might be able to come back right away and may have to wait. I'm feeling a little anxious about that as I don't know if I will even have any source of income after my current job is over and I do have bills and expenses to pay every month. I have never been unemployed ever since 2007. I have been working non-stop since then until now so I feel a little scared to be unemployed with no income at all for a long period of time. I hope I will be able to find a new job right away or I will continue to be a hermit for god knows how long. =( 

This cafe is sooooo super pretty and cute, omg. It's like a real life cafe from a fairy tale of some sort or from an anime/manga. Their furniture are very vintage and girly that it's just perfect! I'd highly recommend this cafe for couples to come as this would be a dream come true kind of experience for any girl, lol. Love love love this cafe and would definitely come back for a second visit!

Even their washroom door signs are soooo super cute with a "prince" and "princess" written on it for the women and men's washroom! XD Oh the washroom inside is super pretty and princess vintage style too. I forgot to take a pic in there, haha. I was too excited! =P 

Drinks that we ordered! I got an iced green tea latte while my friend got this sweet potato latte. I never knew sweet potato lattes existed, lol. 

I got this princess moffle dessert with green tea and cookies and cream ice cream. Apparently the waffle is actually made with "rice" so it's a bit different from the normal waffles made with flours. (That's why it's also in a little lighter colour than normal waffles) Tasted really good and yummy! The dessert was a bit expensive though...about $10 but it was soooo delicious that it was worth it! ♥

My friend got a brownie chocolate fudge short cake. OMG. This cake was SOOOO SWEET! Almost too sweet to eat, lol. 

At the front of the entrance when you walk into the cafe, there's this board with lots of heart notes attached on it. I think customers/couples wrote the notes and posted them on? Such a sweet and cute idea! Omg, it's totally like an anime/manga kind of feel and theme! So sweet and lovely! ♥_♥

After dessert my friend and I went to walk around the area on Yonge and Finch and went into two beauty supply stores that sell Japanese makeup and skincare products to walk off the calories we just ate, lol. Then we had dinner at this Taiwanese restaurant called "Mabu Station" It was a really great restaurant with a nice and cozy atmosphere (very busy too!) and I'd definitely want to come back to visit again. I like how the whole restaurant was all GREEN AND WHITE. Two of my favourite colours!! It has this fresh and home kind of feel to it and the food was pretty good. We ordered a rice bowl with jerky and pork meat and chicken soup and I got this fruits drink that came in a super big size. OMG SO HUGE! I had to pee it all out after I was done drinking it, lol. 

My friend made me take pictures of her pretty gel nails in shocking blue that she got done 2 days before our meet up, lol. And that's a Samsung Note II phone that she's holding! =)

Polkadots Bow Headband Outfit

Went out again for dinner with some friends last night. I really need to stop eating out so much. I've been eating out for the past 3 weeks now and yet I'm going to have dinner with friends again this Wednesday. I swear after my birthday celebration that is coming up soon, I'm going to ban myself from eating out for a month, lol. 

Outfit I wore to my dinner last night. I curled my hair with my new conair youcurl iron for the first time and quite happy with the results. It creates much more 3D dimensional bouncy curls that my other iron can't do. My curls lasted me all day long too! It's no wonder this curling iron won the #1 best selling styling device in Canada. It simply works like MAGIC and makes curling my hair ever so easy! ♥ And it only took me 20 minutes to curl and style my hair versus how it takes me 30 minutes with my other curling iron. Saves so much time and so much more convenient! =D

Wearing the gold rings that I got from Aldo Accessories back in March! Love these rings soooo much. ♥

We went to eat dessert at dessert kitchen (糖潮) I ordered a summer mango festival with mango ice cream. SOOOO YUMMY! I want to go back to eat more dessert. Ah, I can eat dessert all day! ♥ 

Went into Forever 21 to window shop while I was waiting for a friend to pick me up with her car at the mall. Ended up getting this cute mint top with laces. Such a cute top! I don't have anything in this colour or style so it was like instant buy to add to my wardrobe and also because it was the last small on the rack so I had to get it before it gets sold out! XD