Restaurant Review – Page 77

Another Decent Breakfast Sandwich at Egg Bae

Published on July 24, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 189 Augusta Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://eggbae.ca/

I think it’s safe to say that Egg Bae isn’t for me. I think it’s fine — actually, it’s better than fine. All of their sandwiches use high quality ingredients that are prepared well; they’re just not particularly to my taste.

The last sandwich I tried — the eponymous Egg Bae — was tasty enough, but I found it to be one-note soft and rich.

This time, I went with a pick from Toronto Life’s list of the 25 best sandwiches in the city: the Eh Bae Bae (“Soft Scrambled Eggs, Sweet and Spicy Bacon, Muenster Cheese, Tomato, Arugula, Pickled Shallots, Bae Sauce”).

Once again, the individual components are all top-notch; the sweet bun is fresh and fluffy, the bacon is meaty and satisfying, the Muenster is nice and gooey, and the eggs are ultra creamy and luxurious.

But while this sandwich actually has a bit more balance from the pickled shallots, it needs a lot more; it’s incredibly rich. It does have some texture thanks to the bacon and the veggies, but it’s still mostly just soft overload.

That’s not to mention that between the glazed bacon and the very sweet bun, it’s an intensely sweet sandwich.

Still, it’s enjoyable enough — but considering the quality of the ingredients, it could be so much better.

A Simple (but Delicious) Sandwich at Mattachioni

Published on July 22, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1617 Dupont Street, Toronto
Website: http://www.mattachioni.com/

If it weren’t for Toronto Life’s list of the best sandwiches in the city, there’s no way I would have ordered the mortadella sandwich at Mattachioni. Aside from the fact that the pizzas looked very, very good, the mortadella sandwich is quite bare bones — it’s just mortadella and fresh mozzarella on tomato focaccia bread.

But of course, sometimes the simplest things are the best. If you’re dealing with really good quality ingredients, less is more.

The contrast between the tender, salty mortadella and the creamy mozzarella works really well (fresh mozzarella has a radically different texture than the rubbery shrink-wrapped balls at the supermarket — it’s soft, creamy, and luxurious).

The fluffy, slightly chewy focaccia is quite good too, though I wish it had a bit more texture (it was soft throughout). It was also soaked through with olive oil; it gives the sandwich a nice greasy heft, though it might have been a little bit too much of a good thing.

Still, it’s a very tasty sandwich. I don’t think I’d put it on my list of the best in the city, but I don’t begrudge anyone for putting it on theirs.

I also got to try a little bit of the Margherita pizza, which was absolutely outstanding (I didn’t take a picture of that one, sadly, so you’ll just have to take my word that it looked and tasted amazing).

They have both custard and dulce de leche bomboloni for dessert (a.k.a. Italian doughnuts). I tried both, and while they were tasty, they definitely weren’t on the level of the sandwich or the pizza. They were a little bit too dense, with a slightly oily flavour.

A Decent Sandwich at Gold Standard

Published on July 19, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1574 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: http://breakfastsandwich.ca/

There’s basically nowhere to go but down from Gold Standard’s breakfast sandwich. It’s bordering on sandwich perfection.

I just tried the Sabich from Gold Standard’s new location on Queen, and yep: it’s not as good as the breakfast sandwich. It’s not even close.

The sabich, per their menu: “egg salad, fried eggplant, cucumber, pickles, parsley.”

It’s fine. It’s decent enough, but the breakfast sandwich is clearly the thing to order here.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with it; the egg salad is nice and creamy, as is the meaty eggplant. The cucumber adds a bit of crunch, though some additional texture would be nice.

The biggest problem is that all of the components are basically on the same wavelength; the flavour is one-note. It’s boring. It needs some acidity to round things out. The pickled onions add a slight vinegary bite, but there isn’t enough of them to make much of an impact.

Great Tex-Mex Tacos at Hotmess Tex Mex

Published on July 16, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 615 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.hotmesstexmex.com/

Hotmess was selling tacos at the recent Taste of Little Italy festival; having heard nothing but good things about their Tex-Mex grub, tying it out was a no-brainer.

They were doing beef, chicken, and corn tacos; I went with beef. It was quite good.

It’s very simple: spiced beef, diced tomato, shredded lettuce, and cheddar cheese served in a hard shell tortilla.

It’s basically Taco Bell if Taco Bell were really, really good.

The beef was nicely spiced, and unlike Taco Bell, it actually has the taste and texture of beef. How about that! The lettuce and tomato are fresh and crunchy, and the cheese adds a nice salty bite.

The shell is probably the highlight, oddly enough. It’s obviously freshly fried, and it’s glorious — the level of crunch is profound. It’s ridiculously satisfying.

Roast Beef Perfection at Donna’s

Published on July 10, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 827 Landsdowne Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://donnas.ca/

Yep, another sandwich from Toronto Life’s top 25. Another damn good one, too, so clearly this list is not to be trifled with. These sandwiches aren’t kidding around.

Donna’s serves a roast beef sandwich that’s topped with parsnip, horseradish sauce, crispy fried onions (or shallots?), and watercress. As per Toronto Life, the meat is marinated in beef fat and honey. It’s superb.

The sandwich is awash with flavour, but everything works so well together — it never feels too assertive or busy. First and foremost is the very healthy pile of thinly-sliced roast beef. It’s beefy, tender, and just a little bit sweet from the honey. It’s great.

The horseradish sauce is creamy and zingy, with a nice even burn that makes its presence known, but doesn’t overwhelm. The parsnip is kind of ingenious. It’s thinly sliced, and on first glance it looks like cheese. But it’s soft and creamy, and adds a bit of a starchy heft.

It’s all on a soft, fresh, slightly chewy roll that compliments it perfectly. Toronto Life calls it the fifth best sandwich in the city; that sounds about right to me. It’s really, really good.