Restaurant Review – Page 48

Tasty Japanese Noodles at Raku

Published on December 22, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 456 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://rakunyc.com/

If you’re looking for a Japanese noodle fix and you want something a bit different from the now-ubiquitous ramen shops throughout the GTA, Raku is worth a shot.

Raku specializes in udon noodles — which are thicker and chewier than ramen noodles — that they serve either hot or cold. I went with one of the cold choices, though I started with the yaki nasu: “deep fried eggplant, spicy miso pork, quail egg.”

The waitress explained that you should mix this one up so that the egg combines with the eggplant and the pork. The eggplant is soft, but still has some texture, and works very well with the meaty ground pork. The miso gives it an addictively savoury flavour, and the egg cranks up its silky richness. It’s a tasty dish.

As for the star of the show, I went with the zaru: “chilled noodles, dipping sauce.”

It’s a really simple dish; the dipping sauce basically tastes like a milder soy sauce. It really comes alive once you jazz it up with the accompanying green onions, mushrooms, wasabi, and the quail egg (not to mention the little dish of shichimi togarashi — a zippy Japanese spice blend — on the table).

The noodles are really the star of the show here, and they’re great, with a hearty chewiness that stands up nicely to the flavourful sauce.

Quick Bites: Wish Restaurant, Nadege, Good Behaviour Ice Cream

Published on December 20, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Turkey Aussie Burger at Wish Restaurant

My new policy with this blog is that it’s a negativity-free zone, so I’ll highlight the crispy fried potatoes that come on the side here, which are super tasty — they’re perfectly crispy on the outside, and creamy on the inside — and I’ll leave it at that. I’ll also say that my dining companions both enjoyed their meal, and that the place was packed (and always seems to be packed), so maybe I was just being a grumpy gus.

Ice Cream Bar at Nadege

Again, this is a negativity-free zone, so I’ll just say that Nadege has ice cream bars now, and that I didn’t particularly care for the one I tried; it’s probably slightly below a higher-end mass-produced product like Magnum or Haagen-Dazs in quality, but much, much more expensive at about seven bucks (!!) per bar.

Birthday Cake ice cream at Good Behaviour Ice Cream

And on the exact opposite end of the quality spectrum, there’s Good Behaviour Ice Cream. I like this place more and more each time I go (and I liked it a lot right from the get-go). This particular scoop has that classic birthday cake flavour, and the quality of the ice cream is off the charts; it’s almost absurdly creamy and rich. Assuming we’re splitting traditional ice cream and gelato into two separate categories, I think this place and Bang Bang are neck and neck for the title of the best ice cream in the city (but if gelato is in the mix, then Nani’s pretty much has to be the king).

A Solid Wrap at Charcoal Biryani

Published on December 18, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 111 Richmond Street West, Toronto (inside the Assembly Chef’s Hall)
Website: https://www.charcoalbiryani.ca/

I recently found myself in the Assembly Chef’s Hall, and I figured I’d check out whichever vendor was the busiest. This was — by far — Charcoal Biryani, though that might be because they seemed to be a bit frazzled; it took about forty minutes (!!) between getting in line and getting my food, which seems to defeat the whole point of an ostensibly grab-and-go concept like this.

Still, it was pretty tasty. They serve biryani, along with a variety of kebabs that you can either get as a wrap or in a meal with rice. I was planning on getting the original kebab wrap, but this was sold out, so I went with the chicken tikka wrap instead.

I wish the chicken were dark meat instead of vaguely dry breast, but otherwise I quite enjoyed this. As the name of the restaurant implies, they cook the chicken over charcoal, which gives it a delightfully smoky flavour. Otherwise it’s pretty by-the-numbers, but that pronounced flavour from the grill really elevates it.

I also got an order of fries that I forgot to photograph, which the menu advertised as two dollars but which the apologetic woman behind the counter explained is actually six. Inflation, I guess?? Anyway, just picture McDonald’s fries (but worse) with a sprinkling of sumac on top. This would have been worth the advertised two dollars, but six might be a bit much.

A Last Visit to Momofuku

Published on December 15, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 190 University Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://noodlebar-toronto.momofuku.com/

Momofuku announced a few months ago that they’re shutting down their Toronto outpost later this month (with their location being replaced by Mott 32, a fancy Chinese restaurant chain). I figured one more visit to the Noodle Bar was in order to say goodbye.

I tried a couple of things. First up: the spicy rice cakes from their greatest hits menu, which the menu describes as “rice cakes seared on the plancha and tossed in a sauce with pork sausage, tofu, sichuan chili, gai lan, and finished with scallions.”

It’s a great dish; the rice cakes have a nice combo of crispy exterior and chewy interior, the flavourful sauce complements them perfectly, and the tasty pork sausage rounds things out. I can see why they consider this to be one of their greatest hits. It’s very good.

Since this is almost certainly my last ever visit to Momofuku (at least in Toronto), I had to get one of my favourites: the extremely spicy noodles. I feel like the level of extreme spice was slightly toned down from previous visits, and the noodles were a bit on the soft side, but this was otherwise a tasty (and still explosively spicy) dish.

A Tasty Dessert at Old Mill Pastry & Deli

Published on December 8, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 385 The West Mall, Etobicoke
Website: https://oldmillpastry.ca/

Old Mill Pastry & Deli is an unassuming little place that sells a bunch of European groceries, along with pastries like burek and the thing I tried, a delightful Turkish dessert called tulumba.

I wasn’t familiar with this particular dessert until I tried it here, and clearly I’ve been missing out because it’s delicious.

The closest thing I can compare it to is a churro; they’re both fried tube-like pastries with ridges along the outside.

But the tulumba is thicker and soaked in syrup — I guess it’s kind of like if a churro and a Greek doughnut (a.k.a. loukoumades) had a baby. It’s syrupy but not overly sweet, with an interior that’s heartier than a traditional doughnut with an almost custardy flavour, and an exterior that has a satisfying crunch that’s amped up by those ridges. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed this.