Restaurant Review – Page 14

Fruit on a Stick at Tanghulu Tanghulu

Published on May 10, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 252 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.tanghulutanghulu.com/

Tanghulu is an Asian street food snack in which pieces of fruit are coated in crispy sugar and served on a stick. That’s it — fruit + sugar + stick.

At Tanghulu Tanghulu, they give strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and clementines the sugar-coating treatment. They also serve fruit cups with chocolate sauce.

I went with strawberries, and yeah, it’s good. The strawberries were fresh, ripe, and juicy, and the generous layer of sugar gives it a nice crunch and some extra sweetness.

That’s it. It’s fruit covered in glassy sugar. It’s exactly what you think it is.

A Great Deal at Juicy Dumpling

Published on May 3, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 280 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.juicydumpling.ca/

Juicy Dumpling actually does have stuff other than juicy dumplings on the menu, but of course, if you go to a place called Juicy Dumpling and you don’t order the juicy dumplings, what are you even doing with your life?

I got an order of six mini soup pork dumplings, which was $4.99, and a pork bun, which was $2.85. It was a solid lunch for under ten bucks.

I’m a little bit perplexed as to why they’re calling these mini soup dumplings. They seemed like a pretty standard size to me? I can’t recall having soup dumplings that were substantially larger than the ones they serve here.

They’re tasty dumplings. There’s no vinegar or any of the other condiments you’d expect with soup dumplings, but they’re pretty tasty on their own, with a decent amount of pork and soup inside. They’re not the best soup dumplings you’ll ever eat, but for five bucks for an order of six, they’re pretty great.

The pork bun was satisfying too, with a good amount of sweet pork filling inside of a fresh, fluffy bun.

Sweet and Savoury Crepes at La Crepe

Published on April 28, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 300 Richmond Street West, Toronto
Website: None

Note: I’ve got a bit of a backlog of posts, and apparently this place has closed since my visit. Super useful post, I know. Enjoy?

La Crepe is a relatively new restaurant downtown that specializes in crepes. They have a few stools inside and one table outside, but mostly, it’s a take-out joint.

They have two sides of the menu: sweet, classic crepes, and savoury buckwheat crepes. I ordered the Parisienne from the savoury side (“French Emmental, ham, side up egg”).

A whole bunch of gooey cheese, ham, and an egg is always going to be a tasty combo. You cannot go wrong there. It’s impossible. They also peppered it pretty aggressively, which complemented the other ingredients well. It’s quite tasty.

The crepe was a little disappointing, though. The best buckwheat crepes have a light exterior crispiness and a chewy interior; this one was was just kinda dry throughout, despite being freshly made.

Still, it certainly wasn’t bad, and was a nice vehicle for the tasty stuff within. It may not have blown my mind, but it was a solid meal.

Tasty Sandwiches at Cubano Kings

Published on April 27, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 141 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.cubanokings.com/

As you’d expect from the name, Cubano Kings is pretty much all about Cubanos (though they do have a few other things on the menu). They actually serve five different varieties of the sandwich — who knew that many types of Cuban sandwiches even existed?

The Miami Cubano (“slow-roasted mojo pork, black forest ham, Swiss cheese, mustard & pickle”) is the classic Cubano we all know and love, so that’s what I ordered.

It’s a solid sandwich. It’s nicely pressed with a crisp exterior and gooey cheese within, and it has a good proportion of ham and roast pork.

It was very light on the mustard and probably could have used a bit more to cut through the richness of the other ingredients, but otherwise this was a solid, no-frills Cuban sandwich.

Cheap Eats at Mini Bar

Published on April 21, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 116 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
Website: None

If nothing else, Mini Bar is an absolute steal. A relatively hearty sandwich downtown for eight bucks? Yeah, you can’t go wrong there.

Well, I suppose you could go wrong if the sandwich didn’t taste good, but that’s clearly not an issue here.

I ordered the bulgogi and kimchi, which comes in a Kaiser roll, topped with tender beef bulgogi, kimchi, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and a slice of cheddar cheese.

Is it going to rock your world? No, probably not; it’s a pretty no-frills sandwich, but for what it is (and considering the price) it’s very tasty. If I worked in the area, I’m sure I’d be a regular.

Mini Bar serves kimbap on Fridays, which is also quite satisfying. They were making them as I ordered, so it was super fresh and filled with tasty stuff.