Restaurant Review – Page 37

Unique Fried Chicken at Rick’s Good Eats

Published on December 23, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 6660 Kennedy Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.ricksgoodeats.ca/

Tucked away in an industrial area of Mississauga, Rick’s Good Eats is a delightful hidden gem serving tasty Indian fusion dishes. I had the burger there a few years ago and quite enjoyed it, and I just tried the fried chicken sandwich and liked it even better.

Rick’s Fried Chicken Sandwich, as per the menu: “Battered, double-fried Tandoori Chicken dressed with signature Ting Tang sauce, Achari Mayo, lettuce, chopped tomato and onion, pickles and cilantro.”

The woman behind the counter also asked if I wanted to add bacon, and of course I said yes. I’m not gonna say no to bacon; what am I, a maniac?

(Though as it turns out I safely could have said no to the bacon — there are so many bold flavours and textures here that the bacon is pretty much completely lost.)

It’s a phenomenal fried chicken sandwich. In particular, the idea of crossing tandoori chicken and fried chicken is actually kind of genius. The very tender chicken has a pronounced marinated tandoori flavour and an intensely satisfying exterior crunch. It’s very, very good.

Everything else is just as good, with a great contrast between the zippy Ting Tang sauce and the creamy mayo, additional crunch and freshness from the veggies, and a fluffy bun that does a good job of holding it all together. It’s easily one of the better fried chicken sandwiches I’ve had in a while.

Unique Chinese Food at Tangritah Kabab House

Published on December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 900 Rathburn Road West, Mississauga
Website: None

One of the things I like about living in Toronto is that not only is pretty much every country’s cuisine available to try (which I explore in another blog, 196 Plates — I think it might be about time to bring that one back), you can actually get so much more specific than that.

This place — which specializes in Uyghur cuisine — is a great example of this. “Chinese food” tends to be put under one enormous umbrella, but China is a huge country, and its food is wildly different from region to region.

I tried a few things here, and it was all extremely delicious. First up: a dish the menu only refers to as “fried meat.” I think it was beef, though it might have been lamb (if it was, it didn’t have much of a lamby flavour). Either way, it was super tasty, with a bunch of tender meat, nicely cooked onions, and a very cumin-tinged flavour that was extremely addictive.

Next up was the Tangritah Special Langmen, which is an Uyghur dish in which hand-pulled noodles are topped with stir-fried veggies and meat. The flavour here was a bit less distinctive than the fried meat, but the noodles had a really satisfying chewiness, and the veggies and meat were perfectly cooked (again, I’m not sure what the meat was, but I’m gonna say beef).

Finally, I tried the samsa, a bun filled with a mix of lamb and onions. This looks like it might have initially been crispy on its exterior, which would have been nice, but it was either steamed or microwaved to reheat and was soft throughout. Regardless, it was quite tasty.

Tasty Slices at Slowsouth Pizza

Published on December 14, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1588 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.slowsouthpizza.com/

Slowsouth is a delightfully unfussy pizza place that sells slices to go and whole pies, along with arancini, salads, and dessert. It serves the classic style of pizza you’ll find at chains like Pizza Pizza or Dominos, only much, much, much (much much much) better.

When I visited, they had four varieties of pizza on offer: standards like plain cheese, pepperoni, and vegetarian (topped with peppers, mushroom, tomato, etc.). I ordered the plain cheese, which they top with a couple of basil leaves post-heat.

It’s a solid slice of pizza: it’s got tasty sauce, quality cheese, a good proportion of ingredients, and the crust is fantastic. Their website says that they proof it for 72 hours, and yeah, it tastes like they’ve put a good amount of care into it.

I know a lot of people are all about the toppings, but for me, if you start with good dough and bake it well (which they definitely do here), then you don’t need a whole lot of ornamentation to make it sing. The crust here has a nice contrast of crispiness and chewiness, and the simple toppings complement it perfectly. It’s quite good.

Solid Noodle Soup at Kenzo Ramen

Published on December 10, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3337 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke
Website: http://www.kenzoramen.ca/

It’s hard to remember this now, but there was a time (not that long ago!) when ramen was actually pretty difficult to find in the GTA. And Kenzo is Toronto’s ramen OG; they opened their first location in 2002, and for quite a while, they were pretty much the only game in town if you wanted to sample ramen in the city.

Of course, these days it’s hard to go more than a few blocks without coming across a ramen joint, but Kenzo’s still around despite all the competition. So they must be doing something right.

And indeed, the bowl I had might not have been up there with the city’s best, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

They have a whole bunch of options, but the waiter mentioned that the King of Kings is their most popular, which is a spicy shio broth with an “assortment of stir-fried vegetables with ground pork, topped with charsu, egg, naruto maki, menma, wakame, green onion, nori.”

You can choose your spice level; I went with the spiciest, and it was indeed quite fiery.

The stir-fried vegetables are actually the most unique part; they give the whole bowl that distinctive stir-fried wok hay flavour, which makes it feel quite distinct. It actually kind of reminded me of a style of ramen called burnt miso ramen that I don’t believe you can find in the GTA.

The noodles were a bit on the soft side, and the broth lacked the complexity you’ll find in the best bowls of ramen, but overall it’s a tasty bowl of noodle soup.

Amazing Sri Lankan Rolls at Reggie’s Rolls

Published on December 8, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: No permanent location
Website: https://www.reggies-rolls.com/

Sherway Gardens currently has a Christmas Market where Nordstrom used to be (it’s running until December 23). It’s mostly not super interesting (at least from a food point of view), but there are a couple of vendors serving stuff you can eat. Most notably: Reggie’s Rolls, which sells delicious Sri Lankan rolls.

These things are seriously, seriously good. When I went, they were offering three flavours: mutton (which is the classic), cheeseburger, and butter paneer. I went with mutton and paneer (the cheeseburger variety is intriguing, but I figured I’d stick with more traditional choices since it was my first time trying it).

Did I mention how good these are? Because they’re amazing. I’ve actually never tried this particular dish before, though it is a Sri Lankan standby. So I can’t say how authentic it is, but I can say that it tastes extremely good.

The exterior isn’t quite as crispy as I was expecting — I figured it would be something like an egg roll, but it has a very lightly crispy but mostly chewy texture that worked quite well. And the filling was a taste explosion, with the mutton variety having a really complex curry-tinged flavour and a pronounced spicy kick. The texture is similar to a Jamaican patty, with the meat being quite finely ground, with a few larger chunks.

The butter paneer had a similar texture and a slightly sweeter flavour, with a much milder level of spice (I actually don’t think it was spicy at all, but I did eat it after the mutton, so it might have been a bit spicy and I just didn’t notice). Of the two, I preferred the mutton, but both were seriously tasty.

Sadly, they don’t have a permanent location, but as per their website, they do occasionally pop up at events like the Christmas Market. Otherwise, they’re wholesale only, which is a shame.