Michael Eats

Tasty Noodle Soup at Pho Anh Vu

Published on March 26, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1482 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: https://phoanhvu.com/

I’ll admit that I did not have particularly high hopes for Pho Anh Vu. A chain Vietnamese restaurant in a Walmart plaza? Surely that will be okay at best.

And indeed, the chain Hakka joint a couple of stores over is just as mediocre as you’d think. This place, however? Surprisingly good. Way, way better than you’d expect.

In particular, I’d heard good things about the bun bo hue here, so that’s what I got. I actually got the deluxe version of the dish, bun bo hue dac biet, which they only serve on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: “Hue Style Beef Special, Crab Cake, Homemade Sausage, Rare Beef with Vermicelli Soup, Beef Shank, Ham Hock.”

It’s a tasty bowl of noodle soup and a solid version of this dish, with a vibrant, flavourful broth that has a nice spicy kick.

It’s also crammed with tasty stuff (though I think they left out the crab cake in mine, sadly), with the very tender beef and the flavour-packed sausage being the highlights. It’s quite good.

Sweet Heat Honey Garlic Chicken Strips from Wendy’s

Published on March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 44 Britannia Road East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

This is going to sound like an insane thing to say about a fast food item that has the words “sweet” and “honey” in its name, but the Sweet Heat Honey Garlic Chicken Strips from Wendy’s? Too sweet.

Yeah, that’s right — I said it.

Here’s how Wendy’s describes them: “100% Canadian, white-meat chicken strips flipped & dipped in a honey garlic sauce with ranch dip. Perfectly sweet with just a touch of heat. Like a good date.”

I should note that I quite enjoyed these things, despite their intense sweetness. As advertised, they’re sweet and garlicky, with just a little bit of spice — it’s enough that you’ll know it’s there, but it’s not exactly going to put any sweat on your brow. They also have a nice tanginess that theoretically should round out the sweetness, but really, nothing can put a dent in how sweet these things are. It’s intense.

They actually reminded me a lot of something you might find at Manchu Wok or Panda Express, like General Tso’s chicken or something along those lines. It seems like the type of thing you should be eating with rice (which would do a nice job of mellowing out its flavour).

They come with ranch on the side; this adds a nice creaminess, but its flavour is mostly obliterated by the intense sweet tanginess of the sauce.

As for the chicken strips themselves, I got lucky with a well-prepared batch — the chicken was nice and fresh and not dry at all. It was sauced to order, which meant that the exterior kept its crunch despite being absolutely doused in the sweet, sticky sauce. Despite my reservations about how sugary these things are, I still quite enjoyed eating them.

Quick Bites: Susie’s Rise & Dine, Dear Grain, The Saj Wraps

Published on March 24, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Mapo Frito Pie from Susie’s Rise & Dine at the Taste of Little Italy

The food at last year’s Taste of Little Italy was a bit of a disappointment — it was mostly an assortment of generic street festival stuff, without a whole lot of local flavour. There were a few gems, however. Most notably: the Mapo Frito Pie from Susie’s Rise & Dine, which consists of a bag of Fritos topped with a seriously tasty chili (that, as the name implies, is infused with mapo tofu flavour). They serve this at the restaurant, and clearly I’m going to have to check the place out.

Buckwheat cookie from Dear Grain

I can’t say I’ve ever had a buckwheat cookie before, but if the one from Dear Grain is anything to go by, I need more buckwheat cookies in my life. It’s basically a chocolate chip cookie, but with a nuttiness and earthiness from the buckwheat. It’s also got a nice sprinkling of salt on top to cut through the sweetness. It’s a very good cookie.

Sujuk saj wrap from The Saj Wraps

I feel like, very broadly, there are two types of restaurants: restaurants you’re happy to go out of your way for, and local joints that are solid, but not exciting enough to warrant any kind of trek (well, I guess there’s also a third kind — a bad one — but I make it a point to not discuss anything I outright do not enjoy on this blog). I’d classify The Saj Wraps as more of a local place — the wrap I tried was solid, but nothing about it particularly jumped out at me.

Delicious Slices at Sadboy Pizza

Published on March 23, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 51 Main Street South, Georgetown
Website: https://sadboy.ca/

I can’t say I’m in Georgetown often (or ever), but I had heard nothing about good things about Sadboy Pizza and was in the general vicinity, so sure, why not?

All those good things: 100% correct. Sadboy Pizza serves some top notch slices.

They have a variety of interesting-looking pizzas, but I’m all about the plain cheese, particularly when I’m first trying a place, so I went with the mozz OG (“fresh and aged mozzarella blend”).

It’s a great slice of pizza. In particular, the crust is just where you want it to be, with a perfect amount of exterior crispiness, a tender chewiness within, and a really satisfying flavour.

The combo of fresh and aged mozzarella adds a pop of flavour that you normally don’t get in this type of pizza, and there’s a good ratio of cheese to tasty sauce.

It’s not one of the bigger slices I’ve ever had, but it was also only five bucks even. Which means that it was small enough and cheap enough that I was able to justify buying a second slice. I went with the breakfast4dinner (“garlic cream sauce, crispy diced hashbrowns, bacon, chicken breakfast sausage (halal), sesame seed crust, frank’s maple syrup drizzle”), and yeah, it was just as good.

I don’t know that I would have guessed the breakfast angle if you hadn’t told me — it tastes like a pretty standard meaty pizza, though the syrup does add a nice sweetness that helps to balance out the saltiness from the sausage and bacon. Still, whatever it is, it’s quite delicious.

My only real complaint here is that both slices could have used another minute or two in the oven (they were both a bit lukewarm around the middle), but other than that? Sadboy totally holds up to any of the top-tier pizza joints in the GTA. It’s that good.

Tasty Katsu Curry at Hinoya Curry

Published on March 22, 2026March 22, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 20 Carlton Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.hinoyacurry.net/

Hinoya Curry is a chain that specializes in tonkatsu curry; they’ve got a bunch of locations in Japan and a few worldwide — including, most recently, right here in Toronto.

I actually tried the tonkatsu curry at Hinoya a few years ago in Tokyo and found it to be satisfying, but by Japanese standards, just okay.

By Toronto standards, on the other hand? Quite good!

I ordered the same dish here, tonkatsu curry, which features a fried pork cutlet on top of rice that’s absolutely doused in a rich, beefy curry sauce.

It’s very tasty. The menu describes the curry as “sweet first, spicy later,” and yeah, that’s about right. It’s got a nice balance of sweet and savoury, a pleasant curry flavour, and a lingering heat that’s mild, but definitely present.

It goes very well with the freshly fried tonkatsu, which is nice and tender and retains its crunch, despite being smothered in sauce.

It comes with some pickled radish on the side, which has a vinegary brightness that does a great job of cutting through the dish’s richness. I wish there were more of it, however; they put a teeny-tiny amount on the plate, and I could have used about double or triple (it’s in a container on the side in Japan — or at least it was when I visited — which makes much more sense).

Another nice touch: the container with a mix of puffed rice and toasted garlic on the table, which adds more crunch and flavour to the dish. I’ve never seen this anywhere but here, and I don’t know why — it seems like it would improve pretty much anything.