Pearl Diver

I am so behind in my blog posts that I am only now getting around to blogging about Mother's Day brunch! My husband and my sister wanted to treat my mom, my aunts, and myself to a nice Mother's Day brunch, and seafood seemed like a good bet because my family loves seafood. We opted to go downtown because we heard something about a lobster benny that sounded pretty exciting!

Restaurant: Pearl Diver
Location: Corktown
Meal: Brunch
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 13 months

As with any Sunday brunch, it was super important for us that this restaurant took reservations, since waiting in line with a baby is never an ideal situation. They actually have a back area with two larger tables so we didn't have to sit in the middle of a crowded restaurant, which is nice.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
This restaurant is not stroller friendly. To get to the back table, the path is quite narrow, and there is a step. Once we were there, we were given the option to park the stroller beside us or leave it at the front, and we quickly realized that leaving it next to the table would make the area very crowded. They also did not have proper high chairs, but instead had booster seats that strapped to their chairs.

This doesn't seem like an issue, except the back of the chair is curved so the strap doesn't actually go around very tightly, and the seat ended up being slightly crooked. There is an option to attach a tray table directly to the seat, but space made it very inconvenient to use. (And yes, that is my husband's wallet that my son is playing with - blah blah hygiene germs blah blah - his grandmother was present so trust me I already heard the lecture.) The washroom also does not have a change table.

The saving grace is that the toilet seat has a lid so you could still change a diaper if you needed to.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐

Service was fine, but not memorable. When we were struggling with tightening the booster seat onto the chair, no one offered to help, which is fine, but it means you can't rely on the service to make your experience of taking your baby to a restaurant easier. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I am so torn about how to rate the food. We started with a dozen oysters for the table.

The special was supposed to be 6 east coast and 6 west coast oysters, but given the news about contaminated west coast oysters, we asked for all 12 to be east coast, and they obliged. The oysters were delicious, as expected, served with the traditional condiments of horseradish, lemon, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, and mignonette. For my main, I went with this famous lobster benny.

Let me tell you, these home fries were mind blowing. I could have just eaten a giant portion of home fries. Seriously, these might be the best home fries I've ever had. That sounds lovely, but I found the star of the dish was just okay and not memorable. There wasn't that much lobster, and it was so light that it got lost amongst the flavours of the egg, hollandaise, and bun. My husband ordered the PD classic breakfast.

This is a typical classic with eggs, bacon, toast, home fries, and salad. Again, amazing home fries, but also surprisingly the best toast I've ever had! I don't know what it is, but it was perfectly toasted and perfectly buttered, so it was just such a standout on the plate. So, overall I'm not sure how to judge the food, because if you like toast and home fries, you seriously need to come here. The rest of the food is fine but not great, so I've decided to net this out at four stars.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐
This place is fine to bring your baby, and the food is pretty good. If you want the best toast ever, it's worth the effort, and being able to make reservations is definitely a plus, but I think there might be other places that are more worthwhile. 

Kub Khao Thai Eatery

We were visiting my mom and sister in Scarborough and decided to go out for lunch. I'm trying to have my son eat whatever I eat instead of bringing food with him, so I was looking for a decent place with baby friendly food (aka not sushi), and my husband suggested we go for Thai.

Restaurant: Kub Khao Thai Eatery
Location: Scarborough
Meal: Lunch
Day: Saturday
Son's Age: 13 months

Heads up: the location is weird. The restaurant is in this small strip mall and there is a gas station right in front of it. The parking lot is small too, although I suppose it's sufficient for the size of the plaza. I probably would have missed it except there were a couple girls standing in front of the restaurant taking selfies (in the middle of an open parking spot, I might add - grrr).

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
Since the place is quite small, they actually only have one high chair. I think I might have hijacked it by accident, because upon arrival, we said we needed a table for four adults and a baby, and they seated us after they seated a larger party with two children (not babies, I should add, but one was a toddler). A server started walking in our direction with the high chair and I immediately stepped forward and said thank you, and directed her to where I wanted it. She paused and clarified that I needed the high chair, and my mom and I both insisted that we did, so she placed it at our table before proceeding to apologize to the other table. In my defence, the adult chairs at my table were stools, whereas the larger party had a long bench seat. Anyway.

The moral of the story is that there is only one high chair. The good news is that they also have plastic plates and cutlery for kids, which my son found very exciting. As expected, the washroom does not have a change table.

There also isn't really any counter space, but the toilets do have lids if you need to change a diaper so that's useful.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Service was fine - as I mentioned earlier, there was obviously some confusion regarding the high chair, but once they gave it to me, the server immediately got a cloth and cleaner to clean the chair for me as well (I usually use my wipes to clean high chairs before my son sits down, and when she saw I was about to do this she intervened). She also was nice enough to provide the plastic silverware (is it still called silverware if it's plastic?) for my son, and she answered questions that we had about the menu. Overall the server was pretty hands off, so she doesn't really come back to check how we are doing once the food arrives, but that's fine by me.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love that this restaurant has lunch specials because I like having smaller portions at lunchtime. I ordered the street lunch of grilled pork with sticky rice.

The pork was on skewers and the sticky rice was served in a little basket on the side. The pork had a nice sweetness to it without being overpowering, and the sticky rice was a great complement. My husband ordered a quick lunch, which was served with mango salad.

The mangoes were nice and refreshing and particularly great for my son, who is obsessed with all fruit. I don't know how I feel about the wonton crisps - they add a nice crunch but aren't particularly  special. For his actual lunch, my husband had the pad Thai with chicken.

It was a decent pad Thai that made for a satisfying lunch, made with eggs, tofu, bean sprouts, chives, tamarind sauce, and peanuts. My baby was a bigger fan of the chicken and tofu from here than he was of the grilled pork, but as a mom I was just happy that he was eating. Since we didn't know what my baby would eat, we also ordered a starter of chicken toast for the table. 

It comes with sweet chilli sauce, and let me tell you, this was delicious but totally not what I would order for a baby. The toast is deep fried with chicken on it, which is awesome for me but I would rather not feed my baby deep fried food if I don't have to. As a dish, I fully recommend it - just don't be fooled by the name!

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½

This is actually a really good find for Thai food in Scarborough! It's not exactly designed to be baby friendly but the food is great so if you go at off-peak times, you might be okay bringing a baby here. 

La Banane

For whatever reason, this year, I can't help but notice that my son is getting sick right around any planned celebrations. We rescheduled our Paris trip because he was sick (celebrating my soster's birthday), we rescheduled my birthday dinner, we rescheduled my husband's birthday dinner, and my husband missed a wedding. For my husband's birthday, we decided to go to La Banane - about a week later.

Restaurant: La Banane
Location: Trinity Bellwoods
Meal: Dinner
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 13 months

I wasn't sure how this was going to go because from what I had heard, La Banane is a fairly boujee French restaurant. They're actually known for their highly Instagram-friendly Ziggy Stardust disco egg dessert, but given that it's pretty expensive and way more chocolate than two people can conceivably finish, we passed on it.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
No surprise, but the setup isn't exactly designed for babies. To their credit, they actually seated us at a table that had a bench seat on one side and a chair and high chair on the other. The host said it was so we could have options of where my baby could sit.

If you have a pre-toddler like mine who does not like to sit still, this option is actually perfect for while we order and wait for food to arrive. Once there was something to eat, we moved him to the high chair. 

Points for having a high chair, but there is no room for a stroller if you have one, and the washroom is located in the basement. 

There definitely is no counter space for changing a diaper here either, so your best bet unfortunately would be to change the diaper on the ground. Luckily I did not have to do that, but it's pretty much your only option if you need to do a diaper change. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Service here was outstanding. The staff was extremely pleasant and accommodating, and some servers came by to coo at my baby, so I felt very welcome. Our server was also very helpful in answering questions about the menu and making recommendations, and the bread was served promptly as per my request. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Since we were celebrating, we decided to start with some drinks. I got a glass of Chardonnay while my husband opted for a specialty banana cocktail. 

The bread is actually soft pretzel sticks with mustard, which was a nice surprise. My son, continuing his love of all things bread, really enjoyed this. 

For the parents who are concerned, don't worry, I only let him eat the inside and avoided the salt. Moving onto the food, what better way is there to start a meal than with some freshly shucked oysters?

The east coast oysters were served with the traditional accompaniments of lemon, horseradish, hot sauce, and mignonette. We then ordered the albacore tuna with brown butter, doll, and capers. 

It doesn't look extraordinary but the flavours were perfectly complementary and the dish was so light and savoury. We thought we should probably get some vegetables, so we ordered the white asparagus, served with mussels. 

I was really hoping my son would eat this, but he's very hit-or-miss when it comes to vegetables. Nevertheless, it was a great dish, and I had never had white asparagus before and didn't realize it would taste so different from green asparagus. I must say, though, that the pièce de résistance was the eurobass en croûte. First, they present you with the cooked fish encrusted in pastry. 

Then they take it back to the kitchen to remove the top and serve it with yuzu beurre blanc and zucchini medallions. 

This is just such a delicious dish and you really need to try it. The fish is perfectly cooked and the sauce is rich without being overpowering. We also got a side of the pommes aligot, which is pretty much puréed potatoes with cheese. The side goes very wel with the fish and my son liked both, although he appreciated the cheesy potatoes more, obviously. Each dish was light, but overall the meal was so filling that we didn't have room for dessert!

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The food and service are impeccable so I recommend you come here if you would like some good French food. Accessibility leaves a bit to be desired but I think the rest of the experience makes up for it. As long as you come at a reasonable hour so that your baby doesn't interrupt any romantic dinners or anything like that, I don't see why you can't bring the whole family here!