Toronto Underground Market @ The Brickworks

[ronin1701]

Went with some friends yesterday. Event was sold out.

The shuttle bus from Broadview subway station was useless - it's one of those mini buses and there was a long lineup at the station. What's more, it was only running once an hour. My friend had the presence of mind to suggest taking a cab from the station, bless her - it's only $10. When we arrived at the Brickworks the shuttle was there, and empty, driver no where to be seen. It was about 4:45pm, close to opening time - you'd think that it would have been on it's way to the pick-up if not already there.

They made a huge line of people wait outside in the freezing cold (and man, was it cold!), I'm thinking that they could have found a better way, like at least having the lineup start in one of the enclosed (albeit unheated) buildings next to the TUM building.

The TUM, despite it's name is not underground. And despite being in a covered area was open-sided, which made for a frosty experience. Even the vendors had problems keeping their food hot (lukewarm congee and lukewarm french onion soup :(). Fortunately the organizers had the foresight to have propane heaters set up, but not really enough for them.

None of the vendors sold coffee or hot alcoholic beverages (mulled wine or mead would have been really nice) although regular wine and beer(!? - who drinks cold beer in -10C temperatures, Cliff and Norm notwithstanding) were available.

If you do decide to go, make sure to arrive early and do your research in advance. If you're planning to judge according to which lines are longest, you may be SOL by the time you actually get to the booth, as it may be sold out. The longest lines were really long - the booth for "Carnitas" was set up in a separate section away from all the other booths because the line was literally 500 feet long, within half an hour of the TUM's opening.

Our group was out within 1.25 hours of going in. Between the cold and the underwhelming food (have you ever felt full but unsatisfied at the same time?) we just decided to retreat - went to Ten Ren's for hot tea and real food :)

I'll post more specific comments re: food once I get pics uploaded.

[Alienxx45]

That was my first TUM event and I have to agree with what you said going through a very similar experience.
I think they might have jumped the gun and launched this years event too early, if they waited another month it would of been better with the weather warming up. The Evergreen Brickworks is indeed a really cool place, but I think the event has outgrown the venue. The place is just too small to house the line ups that it brings unless they do not intend on expanding and bringing in more vendors.

As for the food, i do not understand how places were sold out of certain items 30mins in to the event! I wanted to try out Le Carnitas but the line up was ridiculous. Most of the other food i tried were just ok, my favorite would have been the High School Culinary stall with the italian food raising money for a trip was well done and for a good cause. The other standout would be The Sweet Secret(I think..) with the macaroons even though priced kinda high at 2.75 for one. Biggest disappointment of the night was the donut stall, at $3 i got a mini sized donut that was supposed to be "Maple Bacon" but what i got was a cold hard and dry mini donut with maple frosting and the typical chinese dry pork shreds as the "Bacon". For that price i could of got a Glory Hole donut and would of been 100x better.

Many stalls also had equipment problems throughout i dunno if it was due to the weather or just inexperience but many times after the wait of standing in line you would have stand just as long waiting for the food.

With all the things that didnt go right i would probably still give it one more try when its warmer. They are supposed to have a co-event with Ont Food Trucks in May so we will see how that goes.

[ronin1701]

With all the things that didnt go right i would probably still give it one more try when its warmer. They are supposed to have a co-event with Ont Food Trucks in May so we will see how that goes.

I may pass on that - the events I'm really looking forward to this summer are the food truck festival at the Distillery, and the Asian night market at T&T on Cherry St. :D

[sarnya]

I went to the underground market at the end of last summer. Overall, I thought the event was really well run considering these food events often are often overcrowded and disorganized. That being said, there were some very long line ups later into the evening. I felt bad for some vendors who had people waiting in lines blocking off their tables.

I've been to the Brickworks Market in the winter and I can imagine yesterday's event must have been pretty miserable considering the weather.

I had a grilled cheese sandwich, frikadiller, pork belly sandwich and lemonade when I went. All of it was good but I think you definitely need to spend $20 to fill yourself up.

[Pochacco]

I went to the underground market at the end of last summer. Overall, I thought the event was really well run considering these food events often are often overcrowded and disorganized. That being said, there were some very long line ups later into the evening. I felt bad for some vendors who had people waiting in lines blocking off their tables.

I've been to the Brickworks Market in the winter and I can imagine yesterday's event must have been pretty miserable considering the weather.

I had a grilled cheese sandwich, frikadiller, pork belly sandwich and lemonade when I went. All of it was good but I think you definitely need to spend $20 to fill yourself up.

Yeah, it was super cold!!!!!I was already sick over the week-end.. and this event made it worse.. I wanted to try the grilled sandwich but the line-up was so long :(

The Asian pork belly Sandwich + the poppers were disappointing too.....:( waste of money... :(

[AnimeEd]

I was thinking of going.. now I'm not so sure...
Going on the first day probably made it worst. I'm guessing that some vendors were not very prepared.

[ronin1701]

Duck confit french onion soup with aged cheddar and gruyere crouton. Flavourwise passable, could have used a little more salt. Duck confit was really just a few pieces of shredded duck (I suppose I shouldn't be expecting a lot for the price). The broth was lukewarm, not hot. $6 a bowl from Elle Cuisine.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/5282/img0426ib.jpg

Butter chicken on waffles. Unlike a lot of the other "hot food" being served, their "butter chicken" (not really) was steaming hot which was nice. Unfortunately the waffles were pre-made, not fresh (there was a big pile of foil-wrapped packs sitting there) and weren't at least re-heated before serving. The "butter chicken" was really closer to a chicken curry in taste and texture - it didn't have the mild creamy flavour and smoothness that a proper butter chicken should have. But it sold out anyways. $5 a bowl from The Royal Tree Beaver.
http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/7623/img0402t.jpg

Congee with marinated pork belly and egg; spring rolls (well, that's what they said anyways - it looked more like a fritter - I didn't try any) and pork satay. The satay were flavourful and nicely done - good but not exceptional. The congee was lukewarm (:() and the egg was just a plain (and cold!) wedge of hard boiled egg (totally superfluous - an egg-drop or something interesting like marinated egg or thousand-year-old egg would have been much better!). If I had one suggestion for them, it would be to ditch the congee and spring rolls entirely, and just make a variety of satay like chicken, beef and lamb. $5 for the satay, $3 for the congee, ($4 for the spring rolls), from Babi & Co.
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/2319/img0386lyy.jpg

Steamed buns. Savoury version (bamboo, mushroom, and onions) and sweet version (custard with raisins). The savoury bun was under-seasoned and the sweet bun was cold and stale. $4 for 2 from Panda Buns (unfortunately they weren't serving real pandas, it would probably have tasted better).
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7562/img0376wk.jpg

Assorted buns - chicken, pork belly, lobster. As you can see, they completely (and unnecessarily) smothered the chicken and pork belly buns with cilantro. The lobster wasn't bad, but the wasabi mayo and crushed wasabi peas were a bit much - $10 for all three from Baoss. (Aside: they also had a really hard time keeping track of orders, despite having them written out in front of them - the girl at the counter kept serving people before me, who ordered after me).
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4405/img0353js.jpg

Lineup for Carnitas (it's a lot longer than it looks in this pic) - pass
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2057/img0340kj.jpg

[c_snapper]

it was my first time at TUM, and I was really looking forward to it.

It sure was cold, and that sure soured the experience for some people.

Food that i tried
Aracini from the High School stand. Super tasty. Didn't realize they're not pros. Hope they did well!
Sandwiches from Fidel Gastro - Pretty good. $4 per sandwich is not bad. Line up was about 20 mins, which was okay.
Duck Confit soup - see the pic above. it was tasty, but it definitely could've been a little bit hotter (or a lot hotter). I like my soups scorching.
Butter chicken waffle - they started selling it for $4, but eventually up it to $5 after about an hour or so in. They may not be able to meet the demand of making fresh waffles so they did what they had to. The curry itself was good, and as mentioned, it's not as creamy as you would expect but it was tasty nonetheless.

Tried waiting in the line for La Carnita. the line didn't move for 15 mins and it was the first thing i went to upon entering the venue. after a while, we just decided it's not worth it and moved on.

Not sure if the event out grew the venue or everyone just took up more space with their coats, but i think they could do a better job laying out the venue for any future events.

[ricoboxing]

The satay were flavourful and nicely done - good but not exceptional. The congee was lukewarm (:() and the egg was just a plain (and cold!) wedge of hard boiled egg (totally superfluous - an egg-drop or something interesting like marinated egg or thousand-year-old egg would have been much better!). If I had one suggestion for them, it would be to ditch the congee and spring rolls entirely, and just make a variety of satay like chicken, beef and lamb. $5 for the satay, $3 for the congee, ($4 for the spring rolls), from Babi & Co.
Did they BBQ the satay?

[ronin1701]

Did they BBQ the satay?

They grilled them over charcoal.

[AnimeEd]

Just a heads up that tickets are being sold for the market on May 5. This one is a little special because they are working with food trucks to make it bigger. It also means the tickets are now $20. They have already posted that the tickets are almost sold out.

[Alienxx45]

/\/\ they were sold out by noon.
Hopefully this time it turns out better. Atleast it'll be warmer!