CLOSED - Spoon and Fork - Vaughan (Pan-Asian)

UPDATE 2020-July-11: Spoon and Fork has closed at this location, but has been replaced with "SPARKLY Japanese and Thai," under different ownership but the same staff. AYCE is still available on their patio for $22.99 for weekend lunch. We'll be posting a review soon.

Spoon and Fork is located at 11 Colossus Drive in Vaughan, the municipality that borders the west end of Toronto to the north. Even though it is north of Toronto, it's still transit-accessible due to the nearby recent subway extension by being walking distance from Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station. Ordering is done directly to the waiter from the menu a la carte style, which is a rather arcane system. Pop is $2, fountain but not AYCD. Green tea is $3 which is excessive for something many restaurants offer for free. The decor is gorgeous and very elegant, but is unfortunately marred by yellow-green sheets of colored glass which colour the light and make things look unappealing. Chopsticks are reusable, soy sauce at table was very fresh and not salty and was quite good quality. There also is free Wi-Fi.

There was no miso soup due to some technical issue, which I have never seen before. Hot and sour soup was not traditional but was still hot and sour enough and was very good. Wonton soup was understated but still well-seasoned than enjoyable. Green salad was similarly understated and did not have enough dressing on it.

Beef teriyaki made up for any of the previous by being fantastic; as for the sauce I can't really describe what was in it but the beef itself was not overpowered with any flavor so that the the flavor of the beef itself came out and was a good cut of wonderful large pieces like steak; it also comes with a very good dipping sauce on the side. Garlic beef was absolutely heavenly and Mishy and I completely loved it. Black pepper beef was also very good and we both love that as well with large chunks of multicolored pepper. Chicken katsu AKA torikatsu was very good and I liked the sauce, as it was strongly flavored but just at the point where it would be going acrid and not over it. Chicken teriyaki was excellent as well, with large tender pieces of chicken; the dipping sauce was not the same as the beef teriyaki, it had wine in it which was also at the Kipling location and because of this was phenomenally good.

Butterfish sashimi was probably Escolar but was excellent nonetheless... another place that does sashimi on lunch, which is very welcome… five or eight pieces are permitted per order and as one can order as many times as able during the time limit, we did have a satisfactory amount. Salmon sashimi was also excellent and very fresh. Shirome red snapper sashimi was very good and fresh although a little thick for snapper. Tamago egg sashimi was good and not too sweet. Crab surimi sashimi was good and fresh. Shrimp sashimi was very good and also well presented in that it was divided for easy eating. Salmon nigiri was also very good, although the salmon was a tiny bit less fresh than the sashimi. Spicy salmon nigiri was not that spicy at all, but was still tasty. Philly roll was very good, rolls are in only four pieces which is excellent because it avoids overdoing it.

Gyoza was very good and had excellent sauce, even though it was only slightly above room temperature. Coconut shrimp was like the Kipling location in that it had large pieces of shredded coconut, so was among the best I've ever had. We both enjoyed the chicken pad thai very much, as it had plenty of smokey flavour and was not excessive on bean sprouts. Shrimp tempura was light and flaky, yam tempura was also good, light and flaky and not oily, however the sauce was rather like watered-down soy sauce with not enough sour in it and was not good. Both of us loved the golden chicken curry as it had had an excellent sauce.

The only desserts available are chocolate, vanilla. and twist(which is both mixed together) soft-serve ice cream, however both are very good and I didn't mind the lack of other desserts. We went for lunch on a weekday for $17.99. Service was a bit slow possibly due to the ordering system, and one of the waiters (not "ours") forgot a couple orders. "Our" waiter was excellent however. This was of small concern however, as even with the excessive price for tea and pop and without the miso soup and desserts, we had a memorably enjoyable lunch, given that sashimi and beef teriyaki was available and most of the other items were good to excellent, and all in a location which if it was an a la carte one would expect to pay three times as much for a good meal, so it was also a very good value.

Rating: 9/10