Restaurant Review – Page 41

Delicious and Unique Ramen at Afuri Ramen + Dumpling

Published on October 29, 2023October 29, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 411 Church Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.afuriramen.com/

There are many, many ramen shops in the GTA, but I can say with a good amount of certainty that what they’re serving at Afuri Ramen is delightfully unique.

Their specialty seems to be the yuzu shio, which the menu describes as “shio tare, chicken broth, bamboo shoot, frisee, chashu, egg, nori, yuzu, thin noodles.”

It’s the yuzu (a clementine-esque fruit from Asia) that sets this apart; the light, chicken-infused broth has a distinctive citrus-zest brightness that really makes it sing (there’s also a tasty browned garlic flavour that rounds things out). It’s leagues apart from the typically heavy tonkotsu ramen that’s so common in Toronto, but no less delicious.

The toppings are (mostly) quite tasty, with the perfectly cooked egg having a delightfully savoury kick, and with the light bitterness of the frisee contrasting nicely with the slightly sweet broth. That’s not to mention the thin, chewy noodles, which complement the bowl perfectly.

The chasu is the one weak point; it’s fine, but it’s a bit tough, and nothing about the flavour particularly stands out. Still, everything else is so good that this barely even matters.

Great Filipino Brunch at BB’s

Published on October 26, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5 Brock Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs/

BB’s is a delightful Filipino joint that’s mostly known for their brunch, though they are open in the evenings on the weekend, serving… not brunch? I don’t know, they don’t have a website. Maybe it’s all day brunch? Who knows; go and find out!

What a useful blog post this is. Not a waste of your time at all.

What I can say with some level of certainty is that if you show up between 11:00am and 4:00pm between Friday and Sunday, you can brunch it up. Even more of a certainty: the food is delicious.

I ordered the BB’s Silog, which the menu describes as “breakfast plate w/ garlic rice, two fried eggs, atsara, & your choice of house made longanisa, corned beef hash, fried milkfish.”

It’s a seriously, seriously tasty breakfast. I went with the corned beef hash, which is exactly what you want it to be: it’s super tender, the flavour is great, and it’s got a bunch of delightfully crispy bits from the griddle. It also has a perfect ratio of perfectly-cooked potato cubes to meat, which is to say that it’s mostly meat, with a few little potatoes interspersed throughout.

I also tried the longanisa, which is basically a Filipino take on chorizo. This was great, with an interesting sweetness and a great meaty texture. I’m a big fan of sausages with a more rustic grind, and that was definitely the case here.

As for everything else on the plate, the garlic rice was, as advertised, extremely garlicky, with an intense browned-garlic flavour and an interesting texture (it’s reminiscent of Vietnamese broken rice). The eggs were perfectly cooked, and the atsara (pickled papaya) was a perfect zingy counterpoint to everything else on the plate.

The only odd note was the big dollop of ketchup, which could not have been more unnecessary or unwelcome here. I tried a bit on its own, and as far as I could tell it was just plain old Heinz. I’m not a ketchup hater, but there was absolutely nothing on this delicious plate that even remotely needed it.

Delicious Thai Food at Thammada Thai Cuisine

Published on October 25, 2023October 31, 2023 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 2888 Lake Shore Boulevard West, Etobicoke
Website: https://thammada.meemup.com/

I visited Thammada Thai Cuisine on a recent Sunday for lunch; the place was completely deserted for the entire time I was there, which is a damn shame because all of the food was very, very good.

I had read about this place in the Toronto Star, so of course I had to try the main dish they recommended, which is a whole fried fish that you can either order with fried garlic or nam chim sauce. I went with the latter, which is a delightfully zesty, zippy sauce that complements the crispy fried fish perfectly.

The fish looks like it’s going to be one of those dishes you have to eat very carefully, with a minefield of tiny little bones, but it’s actually completely deboned aside from the tail and the head. It’s all edible and it’s all delicious, with a perfectly crisp exterior and flaky meat within.

I also sampled the tried-and-true pad thai, which was just as good as the fish. I sometimes find this dish to be a bit cloying, but the version here had a really great balance of flavours, perfectly chewy noodles, and a mild smokiness from the blazing hot wok. It was probably one of the better versions of pad thai that I’ve ever had.

Decent Noodles at Lion City

Published on April 23, 2023April 23, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1177 Central Parkway West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.lioncityrestaurant.ca/

It’s odd — Singapore’s cuisine is incredibly delicious, and yet there’s maybe like half a dozen Singaporean restaurants in the entire GTA? If that? I feel like there should be one in every neighbourhood, but at least we’ve got a few of them.

One of those few restaurants is Lion City in Mississauga, which serves a diverse menu of Singaporean classics that, alas, were mostly unavailable when I visited. I guess they were having kitchen issues?

The laksa was one of the few dishes that was available, and hey, I’m never going to be mad about having to order laksa.

The style of laksa they serve here features a really tasty, curry-and-seafood-infused broth that’s made luxuriously creamy thanks to coconut milk, and that comes with a generous amount of thick rice noodles.

It was far from the best laksa I’ve ever had, with a flavour that was a bit too muted, and with slightly overcooked noodles, but it was still tasty. The various toppings — shrimp, fish cakes, chicken, tofu — were all well prepared and complemented the soup quite well.

This is going to make me sound like a maniac, but there’s a type of instant laksa you can find at Asian supermarkets from a Singaporean company called Prima Taste, and… I honestly think it’s a little bit better than the version they’re serving here, with a more vibrant flavour and a better texture on the noodles.

I know that recommending instant noodles, of all things, over a restaurant dish sounds like a food crime, but trust me: try those noodles. They’re so much better than any other instant noodles you’ve ever had.

Tasty Buffalo Chicken at Harry’s Charbroiled

Published on April 20, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 293 Palmerson Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.harryscharbroiled.com/

Though Harry’s is mostly known for their cheeseburger (which I didn’t care for when Grant van Gameren first took over, though it has supposedly improved in the interim), they’ve recently added a fried chicken sandwich to the menu (because are you even a restaurant these days if you don’t serve a fried chicken sandwich?).

The sandwich, which consists of fried chicken tenders rather than one piece of chicken, comes topped with pickles and ranch, and can be optionally tossed in spicy Buffalo sauce, which is what I went with.

It’s a tasty sandwich. The fried exterior has a good amount of crispiness, and while the white meat within is a bit dry, it’s so thoroughly doused in sauce that it barely even matters. This might have literally been one of the sauciest sandwiches I’ve ever had. It was constantly dripping the entire time I ate it.

The bun (a potato bun, I think), was nice and fresh, and held up quite well to the sauce-drenched chicken.

I’m a sucker for the Buffalo/ranch combo, so yeah, I quite enjoyed it. I wish it were spicier — they call it “spicy Buffalo,” but the level of heat here is basically a mild tingle. It’s flavourful enough that this isn’t a huge deal, but I wish they’d give you the option to crank up the spice a bit.

I also tried the fries, which are outstanding. They’re thicker than the norm, which could be trouble (there’s nothing worse than a thickly-cut fry that’s chalky on the inside), but these are perfect: they’re crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.