Restaurant Review – Page 47

A Tasty Meal at Union

Published on April 7, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 72 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://union72.ca/

Union was featured on an episode of Big Food Bucket List, and yeah, of course I wanted to go there. It’s rare that I watch an episode of that show or Diners, Drive-ins and Dives without being hit by a strong desire to eat at every featured restaurant.

I tried a few things. Up first was the warm roast parsnips: “chateau de Bourgogne, pecans, bitter leaves.” This was great; the parsnips were perfectly cooked and had some kind of sweet glaze, and the creamy cheese and crunchy pecans complemented them perfectly.

Next was the Union salad: “organic greens, double smoked bacon, chèvre, rosti.” This was equally tasty, with the perfectly cooked rosti (which was super crispy on its exterior and nice and creamy inside, with a great flavour) being particularly delicious.

Of course, I had to try the sticky ribs, which were featured prominently on Big Food Bucket List: “charcoal smoked, in house bbq sauce, braised greens.” This was tasty enough, but was easily the weakest dish of the night. The sweet BBQ sauce was quite good, but the ribs themselves were a bit tough, and had a gamy flavour that makes me think they had been prepared a bit too long in advance and then reheated.

They did, however, come with a side of fries that were absolutely phenomenal, and that came with an intensely delicious garlicky aioli for dipping. Easily some of the best fries I’ve had in a long, long time.

I finished with the chocolate mousse, which was super rich and intensely chocolatey. It’s topped with fleur de sel, which is theoretically a great way to cut through the sweetness of the mousse, but was applied with a heavy hand and frequently overwhelmed.

A Great Veal Sandwich at Cosimo’s Cheese and Deli

Published on April 4, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1051 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/mammaangelinacooks/

Cosimo’s Cheese and Deli is a delightfully old school Italian deli in Mississauga; it’s been around for over thirty years, and it looks like not much has changed since they opened (hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it).

It’s a full deli with the usual assortment of cold cuts, cheese, and Italian pantry items, but it also serves hot sandwiches like veal and meatball.

I went with the veal, which — assuming you ask for everything — comes topped with a mix of peppers, onions, and eggplant, along with a fiery pepper paste.

It came up to $13 even (and it’s a cash-only establishment, so come prepared) and is a seriously hefty sandwich, so it’s a great deal. I was planning on eating half and then saving the rest for later, which obviously did not happen. I mean, come on. I’m sure there are people out there who have the self-control to stop eating a delicious veal sandwich halfway through, but I am not one of those people.

It’s a great sandwich. The veal is super tender, and the sauce it comes with is richly flavourful, with a nice garlicky punch that doesn’t overwhelm. My only real complaint is that this is a hot table place, which means that the veal has been sitting in the sauce. On one hand, that results in a piece of veal that’s really soaked up that tasty tomato sauce; on the other hand, you lose the crispy texture of the fried veal, which is missed.

The sandwich winds up being kind of one-note soft; the veal is incredibly tender, the bread is fluffy with no exterior crustiness, and the toppings are all silky, resulting in basically one texture throughout. But it’s so delicious that is is a very minor complaint.

Tasty Korean Noodles at BookChon

Published on April 3, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 315 Dundas Street East, Mississauga (inside PAT Supermarket)
Website: None

BookChon has a bit of an odd setup — they’re inside PAT Supermarket in Mississauga, and if you want to order, you can’t actually do it at the restaurant. You have to line up at the grocery store’s checkout area, and then tell the cashier what you want and pay there.

I’m assuming most of their business is take-out, but they do have a small seating area around the corner.

I ordered the jajangmyun, a Korean dish in which noodles are served with a thick black bean sauce.

It’s not the best version of this dish that you’ll ever have (it’s a bit on the bland side), but it’s tasty enough, with a generous serving of chewy noodles topped with a savoury, slightly sweet sauce.

I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way for it, but if you’re in the supermarket anyway, it’s a pretty solid deal at ten bucks.

Halal Deli Sandwiches at East Meats West

Published on April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2399 Cawthra Road West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.facebook.com/emwhalal/

East Meats West specializes in halal deli meats; they mainly sell various cooked and uncooked meats that you can buy and take home, but they also have an assortment of sandwiches for take-out.

One of their specialties is Montreal smoked meat. I’m never going to say no to a Montreal smoked meat sandwich, so obviously that’s what I ordered. I went with the small size, which comes with a decent amount of meat, and rings in at a delightfully cheap eight bucks. Can’t go wrong there.

The woman behind the counter asked if I wanted “everything,” which turned out to be quite a lot. The sandwich comes topped with lettuce, pickles, mustard, mayo, and one more sauce (Russian, I’m guessing).

The meat here was thinly sliced and a bit more on the chewy side than somewhere like Sumilicious, which means the extra condiments were probably necessary. The spicing is also a bit more subtle than the norm, so again, the many condiments aren’t unwelcome.

It’s certainly not the best Montreal smoked meat sandwich I’ve ever had, but it’s tasty enough, and it’s hard to deny that it’s a great deal.

Indian Grilled Cheese at Thindi Cafe

Published on March 31, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 400 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.thindi.ca/

Thindi is interesting — their website says that their goal was to offer something a bit different from the “curry focused” Indian restaurants in the GTA, focusing instead on Indian street food, with a bunch of sandwiches and jazzed-up Maggi noodles on the menu.

I went with the green chili cheese toast, which the menu describes as being “layered with fresh coriander chutney, onions, bell peppers, thai green chilies and cheese.”

It’s basically an Indian grilled cheese sandwich; it has a nice zippy flavour from the chutney, some pops of spice from the green chilis, and a decent amount of gooey processed cheese.

It didn’t exactly blow my mind, though I will admit that I removed the raw red onions, thus rendering my opinion somewhat worthless (raw onions are terrible, what can I say??). Usually when I remove them from something, I feel like I’m not missing out on much, but in this case I think they were probably pretty important to the overall taste/texture of the sandwich.