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General Food, Dining and Nightlife News
(07-02-2018, 04:30 PM)timc Wrote:
(07-02-2018, 03:11 PM)plam Wrote: Kitchener seems to be way ahead of Waterloo in a bunch of ways these days, including the quantity of outdoor dining spaces on King St. (Also festivals that close down King St. Somehow Waterloo is super concerned about closing King St for a festival, even Buskers, while Kitchener does it all the time.)

Well, Uptown Waterloo has been closed for construction for, what, the last four summers?

We used to close King St. for Buskers, but not since the LRT construction began. I thought the festival was supposed to go back to King St., but it’s not clear to me that that is actually happening. Certainly last year it was still in the City Hall parking lot even though LRT construction had wrapped up in that area.
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(07-02-2018, 05:15 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: We used to close King St. for Buskers, but not since the LRT construction began. I thought the festival was supposed to go back to King St., but it’s not clear to me that that is actually happening. Certainly last year it was still in the City Hall parking lot even though LRT construction had wrapped up in that area.

It would be good if Buskers went back to King St but I hear that this is not happening at least for this year. It is supposed to remain in the parking lot.
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(07-02-2018, 04:30 PM)timc Wrote:
(07-02-2018, 03:11 PM)plam Wrote: Kitchener seems to be way ahead of Waterloo in a bunch of ways these days, including the quantity of outdoor dining spaces on King St. (Also festivals that close down King St. Somehow Waterloo is super concerned about closing King St for a festival, even Buskers, while Kitchener does it all the time.)

Well, Uptown Waterloo has been closed for construction for, what, the last four summers?

I do recall some street closures in Kitchener, too. At least a short one on King St W, too.
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With the tracks in, I don't think they are able to shut the street down when actually gets up and running, so they're trying to establish alternatives.
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(07-03-2018, 09:09 PM)schooner77 Wrote: With the tracks in, I don't think they are able to shut the street down when actually gets up and running, so they're trying to establish alternatives.

Not completely, but they could close the non-LRT lanes and hold the festival there.

One thing I will say, however, is that items like the ferris wheel were packed in rather tightly as I recall. I think there actually is a lot to recommend the newer parking lot location. And it’s not far from King St. so people can still get over to the restaurants etc. quite easily.
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I imagine those temporary crowd barriers could be placed along the tracks in the vehicle lane, for full safety. Though the road is now much narrower than before.
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I found what appears to be Izna Donburi's twitter, it says they were planning on pre-opening today but will be open tomorrow instead: https://twitter.com/Izna12365096/status/...7379805185 (sorry, embed doesn't seem to be working).
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Excellent! Looking forward to it, have been checking them for signs of opening almost daily.
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(07-03-2018, 10:08 PM)KevinL Wrote: I imagine those temporary crowd barriers could be placed along the tracks in the vehicle lane, for full safety. Though the road is now much narrower than before.

The road is narrower, but the sidewalk is wider.
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With Izna still not open last night, we decide to try Mark's Caribbean Kitchen, on King between Queen and Frederick. Nice, bright space, and a full bar is available (although we stuck to Grace's Jamaican Ginger Beer). The menu effectively has a "Caribbean" (really Jamaican) section and a generic burger/seafood section; we stuck with the former. Meals come with the choice of rice, rice and peas (Jamaican style, with coconut milk and kidney beans), roti or dahl -- but note that it's not a roti wrap, the roti is server on the side.

The jerk chicken was excellent, tender and moist and with great flavour. I believe McK has their own jerk spice mix, this definitely did not taste like Walker's Wood (or lesser brands of jerk rub). Oxtail was super tender, again it tasted like they had their own touch on the spices, I suspect more allspice than usual. The side order of channa curry was very good as well, and really big enough to be a meal by itself for one of us (we ended up carrying a lot of food home). All three were pleasantly spicy but not burning hot. The mains were $15-18, the channa curry was just $7.

I had my suspicions earlier on, but I do believe the three Caribbean restaurants in DTK (McK, Rainbow and Ellison's) are different enough in terms of dishes and potential customer base that there is probably room enough for all three to succeed.

Now, about that Izna opening date ...
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How's the new Indian place doing, I wonder? I've heard nothing about the Middle Eastern place that opened (last year or is it longer now?) on King at Scott.
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Izna posted today, "We are going to open on this saturday the 14th. However, we will try to open briefly for an hour or two this evening at around six with limited item options".

https://twitter.com/Izna12365096/status/...1903703041
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(07-11-2018, 05:25 PM)goggolor Wrote: Izna posted today, "We are going to open on this saturday the 14th. However, we will try to open briefly for an hour or two this evening at around six with limited item options".

https://twitter.com/Izna12365096/status/...1903703041

There was no one there around 6 PM today. Sad
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(07-11-2018, 04:49 PM)panamaniac Wrote: How's the new Indian place doing, I wonder?  I've heard nothing about the Middle Eastern place that opened (last year or is it longer now?) on King at Scott.

Sahar has some customers at dinner, but not crowded. The owner said it's busier at lunch (which makes sense, DTK definitely has more customers at lunchtime than after work, at least for now).

The Middle Eastern place appears to have customers in the evenings when I walk by. I have never stuck my head in the door, though.
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I walked past IZNA at 6:30 last evening, saw staff inside and the OPEN sign lit up so walked in. They had just opened as a soft-opening with limited menu availability, only appetizers and donburi (Japanese rice bowl). I order the spicy pork and my friend had the pork with egg. Both were delicious and we agreed we'd order them again, but I'm new to the cuisine so have no reference upon which to base my review. Service was slow, and the washroom signs are impossible to interpret (except for a male & female figure on each sign) but the place soon filled up and people seemed to be enjoying their meals and and the decor. I'll probably stop in again in a few weeks when they get up to speed.
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