Day Trip - a pre-taste of "The Taste of Danforth"

I don't often head to Toronto, but a co-worker was coming to town and we had scheduled a lunch meet-up for Aug. 6th. It's been less than a week since the strike was over and by all reports I was a bit worried it might be a stinker of a visit.

The weather reports promised the day to be beautiful - so I decided to take a chance and plan an outdoor picnic. Tiina and I both telecommute (we work from our home offices) so a day in the sunshine and fresh air would be perfect. I looked at the tourism websites and decided on Ashbridges Bay.

For picnic goodies, I thought "greek" might be a nice treat. My sources on Twitter provided me an excellent food guide. @greekfood made several excellent suggestions: "Finger foods: dolmades, taramoslata, some pita bread, tzatziki, gigantes beans (canned r good), a village salad, cheese. Oh, and don't forget the spanakopita & tiropita, go to Athens Pastries on Danforth for that, and get some Loukoumades from there too".

So the first stop in Toronto, after I did the Don Valley Parkway Creep, was to stop for desserts. No it wasnt because its the most important part of the meal ... really!!! The bakery just happened to be open before the restaurants. I wanted a selection of small treats and ended up buying quite a bit more than expected - they all looked so good!

The lovely woman at Athens suggested I just try the restaurant a few doors down - The Greek Grill. She said it would be a healthy sized lunch.

After reading through their sizable menu - I decided on ordering a large Chicken Souvlaki dinner - it had everything! Tzatziki, pita, greek salad, potatoes, rice and lots of juicy pieces of chicken souvlaki. I added an "extra" chicken stick to be sure there was enough and a Spanakopita as an special treat.

I have to say - there was more enough food to feed the two of us. I knew Id be taking extra desserts home, but I didnt expect to have so much lunch left over. We had a great feed and there still was lots of rice & chicken. Its was an amazing lunch deal and such a great choice for a picnic on the beach.

The location was a great pick as well. The air was fresh and the park itself was pretty clean. We found a table under a big tree near to the beach to enjoy our feast. I couldnt imagine a nicer way to have a "business lunch" ;-)

Enjoy the rest of your stay in Toronto Tiina!!!

A great big thankyou to Sam (@greekfood) for his wonderful suggestions.