Michael Eats

Tasty Cheesecake in a Jar at Laila’s Cheesecake Co.

Published on February 10, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 855 Browns Line, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.lailascheesecake.com/

It’s hard to go wrong with cheesecake, and Laila’s definitely makes a tasty one. Which is good, because it’s literally all they serve.

You can get whole cheesecakes, slices, or individual jars of cheesecake, which seems to be their specialty. The jars come in two sizes: four ounce or eight ounce. I found the four ounce serving to be a perfect amount, but eight is there if you really want to cheesecake it up (or if you’re sharing).

They have a variety of flavours like salted caramel, blueberry, and cherry; I went with caramel chocolate pecan.

It’s really good. It’s sweet but not too sweet, with a nice balance of flavours between the chocolate, caramel, and tart cheesecake (with another nice dose of texture and flavour from the graham cracker crust at the bottom). The NY-style cheesecake base is just the right amount of dense and creamy. It’s a satisfying dessert.

Great Pizza at King Slice

Published on February 9, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1598 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.kingslice.ca/

Whenever there’s a discussion of the best pizza joints in Toronto, King Slice pretty much always comes up. They’ve been around since ’89 and predate all the trendy spots in the GTA by a few decades, so clearly they’re doing something right.

And yeah, okay. I just tried a pepperoni slice, and I get it. I don’t know if it’s my favourite slice in the GTA, but it would be in my top 10 for sure.

It’s a simple slice of pizza, but everything is just right: it’s got a good amount of cheese and pepperoni (it’s heavy on both, but doesn’t feel overloaded), the sauce has a zippy richness and definitely doesn’t taste like the canned stuff you might expect from an old-school place like this, and the crust is nicely baked (if a bit bland) with a light crispiness on its exterior.

That’s not to mention the famous garlic oil, which they can either slather on just the crust or the whole slice (I went with the former). This stuff is herby, garlicky, and delicious, and definitely brings the pizza a bunch of personality. The crust is otherwise a bit lacking in flavour, but once you add a bunch of that garlic oil, you’re in business.

The pizza doesn’t taste as fussed-over as some of the trendier joints in the GTA like Badiali or One Night Only (I’m pretty confident that there’s no sourdough or 48 hour proofs happening with the dough here), but for an old-school, no-frills pizza joint like this, it doesn’t get much better.

I liked it so much that I came back about a week later to try the margherita slice, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I should also note that the slices are comically oversized; I don’t think I’ve had such a gigantic slice of pizza since the heyday of The Big Slice (RIP).

Tasty Noodle Soup at Paddler Thai Boat Noodles

Published on February 8, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1710 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.paddlerthai.ca/

I’m pretty sure this is my first time trying boat noodles, but if this place is anything to go by? Boat noodles need to be a regular part of my life. They’re seriously, seriously tasty.

Here’s how Paddler describes the dish: “‘Kuaytiaw – Rua’ was originated in Thai floating market back in the old days. A dark brown flavorful soup contains Thai herbs, dark soy sauce, coconut milk. Comes with Chinese broccoli, bean sprouts garnished with fresh basil, culantro, fried garlic and pork rinds.”

You can pick from small rice noodles, medium rice noodles, flat rice noodles, or egg noodles (I went with small rice noodles). You can also pick either beef or pork (I went with pork).

Everything here is so good. The soup itself is intensely savoury, with a satisfying tangy brightness and a bunch of depth (sometimes you’re kinda sick of the broth at the end of a bowl of noodle soup, but that definitely wasn’t the case here).

The bowl is absolutely crammed with tasty stuff, from the tender pork, to the pleasantly springy meatballs, to the flavourful herbs and fried garlic. It’s a definite flavour bomb, but in a way that feels very finely tuned. I’d probably go with the medium noodles next time (the small noodles were slightly too thin), but otherwise this was a superlative bowl of noodle soup.

Great Sandwiches at Leslie’s Sandwich Room

Published on February 7, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 969 Queen Street East, Toronto
Website: https://www.lesliessandwichrooms.com/

Leslie’s Sandwich Room is a great little sandwich shop on the east end. Pretty much every sandwich on their menu is something I want to try immediately, but I did manage to narrow it down to a couple.

Up first: The Cure (“focaccia, salmon, beets, horseradish dill mayo, rye croutons”). This was basically like an upscale tuna salad sandwich, with a really great flavour and texture on the salmon (and zero fishiness), and with some nice pops of flavour from the beets, not to mention the creaminess from the horseradish mayo. And the focaccia its served on works perfectly, with enough substance to hold up to the overstuffed sandwich, but not so much that it overwhelms.

The highlight here might have been the rye croutons, however. It never would have occurred to me to put croutons in a sandwich, but their satisfying crunchiness perfectly balances out the softness of the other components here.

I also tried La Bomba (“focaccia, roasted chicken, white American cheese, sriracha mayo, sweet pickles, spicy garlic bomba”). This was a really satisfying sandwich: meaty, cheesy, spicy, and profoundly rich. I kinda wished there was something here to cut the heaviness a bit (the pickles are presumably supposed to do that job, but they’re more sweet than zippy, and get a bit lost among the other flavours), but it was still a top-notch sandwich.

Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald’s

Published on February 6, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I recently tried the Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy and found it to be pretty disappointing. It just didn’t particularly taste like Frank’s RedHot, which is odd, considering it’s right there in the name of the sandwich.

I figured I’d have a bit more luck with the Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey dipping sauce. Surely a Frank’s RedHot sauce would taste like Frank’s RedHot?

Yeah, about that.

Here’s how McDonald’s describes it: “A dipping sauce with the sweet taste of honey and the heat of Frank’s RedHot® to treat your McNuggets® to a flavour they’ve never experienced before.”

The problem here is that the sauce doesn’t really taste like honey or Frank’s RedHot. It’s just a mildly spicy sweet goo. I can’t find the ingredients online, but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t mostly corn syrup with a teeny-tiny bit of honey so they can legally put honey in its name. As for the Frank’s RedHot, the vinegary flavour of the hot sauce is almost completely wiped out by its intense sweetness.

If you like a very (very very) sweet dipping sauce, you might enjoy this — but I can’t say I did.