Michael Eats

Tasty Pizza at Raffaella

Published on October 19, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 296 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://raffaellapizza.com/

Raffaella started as a pop-up serving New York-style pizza, and eventually did well enough to graduate to their own spot inside the Annex Hotel.

They’re mostly known for their pizza, but they do have a few other things on the menu. The arancini, in particular, caught my eye: “Cacio E Pepe Risotto, Tomato Sauce, Parmigiano Reggiano.”

This was clearly some of the better arancini I’ve had in a while, with a great contrast between the perfectly crispy exterior and the rich, creamy risotto within. It might have been too rich, but the zippy tomato sauce gives it a nice balance. It’s great.

They let you try a couple of things by splitting a pizza in half, which is nice; I went with the Margherita (“Raff’s Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella, Grana Padano, Fresh Basil”) and the Annex (“Raff’s Tomato Sauce, Spicy Sausage, Whipped Ricotta, Roasted Red Pepper, Hot Honey”).

It’s a solid pizza. Raffaella describes it as “48 hours sourdough, thin and crispy” — this one wasn’t particularly crispy, with its soft floppiness giving it a bit of a Neapolitan-meets-NYC vibe, but whatever it is, it’s tasty. The crust has a nice chewiness and a decent amount of flavour thanks to the sourdough. It didn’t blow my mind, but it’s really solid.

As for the toppings, I tend to prefer the simplicity of a plain cheese pizza, and that continues to be the case here, with a nice balance between the tasty sauce and gooey cheese. I liked the Annex as well, though the flavour of the roasted red peppers did kind of dominate everything else.

Outstanding Noodle Soup at Myungdong Noodle Shabu Shabu

Published on October 18, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2560 Shepard Avenue, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mdkalguksu.com/

I showed up at Myungdong basically on a whim with no real research, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the place was packed at around 1:00pm on a Saturday. Surely, all these people can’t be wrong?

Spoiler alert: they were not wrong.

I ordered the MD Kalguksu (“Homemade flour noodle with Beef Bone Soup and vegetables. Garnish: ground beef, spicy vegetables”), which is one of their specialties. I don’t think I’ve tried this dish before, but based on the version they’re serving here, it clearly needs to be a regular part of my life.

Wow, it’s good. The broth seems a bit basic at first, but it quickly reveals itself to have an impressive depth of flavour, with a rich meaty/seafoody flavour, a nice garlicky hit, and enough of a spicy kick to wake up your tastebuds (but not so much that it overwhelms).

The combo of that luxurious broth, the perfectly cooked veggies, the chewy noodles and the tasty ground beef is seriously, seriously satisfying. It’s one of the best meals I’ve had in a while.

And of course, it’s a Korean restaurant, so there’s kimchi; they make it in house, and it’s just as special as the soup, with a satisfying crunch and a vibrant flavour.

A Delicious Treat at Eight Cookies

Published on October 17, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 983 Dovercourt Road, Toronto
Website: https://eightcookies.ca/

I’ll admit that I didn’t have the highest of hopes for Eight Cookies. They serve big fat chunky boys, like at Crumbl or Andrea’s, which I’m generally not crazy about. I find this type of cookie to be one-note soft, and I’m not a big fan of how underbaked they tend to be.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I found that the cookie here was not underbaked at all, but still managed to be delightfully soft and chewy, with a nice level of crispiness on its exterior.

Like at Crumbl, they have a rotating menu of eight different cookies, with several of them featuring various toppings and icing. I like to go simple when I’m first trying a place, so I went with the milk chocolate and sea salt: “A delightful balance of sweet and savory, these soft cookies feature rich milk chocolate chunks, finished with a sprinkle of sea salt for that perfect touch of flavor.”

It’s a top-notch cookie; it’s buttery and rich without being overly greasy, the chocolate is obviously very good quality, and the cookie itself is quite tasty. It’s a bit sweet for me, however — I think a darker chocolate would be perfect here, but then I tend to like my dessert to lean a bit less sugary.

Still, the salt does a solid job of (mostly) balancing out the cookie’s sweetness, and other than that, I liked this a whole lot.

A Tasty Egyptian Speciality at Adel’s Fatatre

Published on October 13, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 6085 Creditview Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.adelsfatatre.com/

Adel’s Fatatre serves an Egyptian stuffed pizza called fateer mahshey (which Wikipedia spells “feteer meshaltet“). I wasn’t super familiar with this dish prior to trying it here, but based just on this place, it’s a tasty dish.

They have a handful of options on the menu (including a few sweet ones); I went with the soujouk, which the menu describes as “soujouk, green pepper, cheese, and spicy tomato sauce.”

It’s quite satisfying — in particular, I feel like soujouk is extremely underrated as a pizza topping. It has a pleasantly assertive flavour that is quite distinct from any other sausage that I’ve had (and it’s quite delicious). If I ruled the world, this would be a mandatory option at every pizza joint.

The crust is vaguely calzone-like, but thinner and crispier (while still being nice and chewy around the edges).

I enjoyed it a lot, though I will say that I don’t think I saw or tasted any green peppers, or even the spicy tomato sauce. The only flavours I noticed were the gooey cheese, the sausage, and the grease from the sausage, with a little extra pop of flavour from the spice blend sprinkled on top.

It’s possible the sauce was just spread very thinly, but whatever was here was extremely delicious; it certainly didn’t taste like it was missing anything, so I’m not going to get too worked up about it.

Windsor-Style Pizza at Ambassador Pizza Co.

Published on October 11, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 946 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.ambassadorpizzaco.ca/

Ambassador Pizza serves Windsor-style pizza — yes, Windsor has its own style of pizza (why is there no Toronto-style pizza? Someone get on that).

This style of pizza is known for having a flour and cornmeal crust, and, most famously, for being topped with shredded pepperoni.

If you’re buying a slice, you can get either cheese or pepperoni. Normally I’d go for a plain cheese pizza, but obviously I had to see what was up with the shredded pepperoni.

It’s interesting; you wind up with a much more subtle pepperoni flavour, so if you’re not a big fan of the stuff, this might be the pizza for you. Its distinctive saltiness is dialed down quite a bit, with the flavour spread much more evenly throughout the slice.

As for the pizza itself, it’s solid. The crust a nice exterior crispiness and a pleasant airiness, with just enough heft to hold up to the generous amount of tasty sauce and cheese. It’s not the most flavourful crust ever, but I think it was brushed with some kind of garlic oil that worked pretty well.

It’s about nine bucks for a slice, which is on the higher end — but it’s also comically large, so you could easily share. I don’t it’s anything anyone is going to lose their minds over, but it’s clearly above average.