Restaurant Review – Page 99

Chewy, Hand-Pulled Noodles at Sun’s Kitchen

Published on May 24, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4300 Steeles Avenue East, Markham (inside Pacific Mall)
Website: None

There are few things that are more satisfying than a really good bowl of chewy, hand-made noodles. And Sun’s Kitchen in the Pacific Mall definitely knows how to do it.

If you come at the right time, you can see the noodle maker doing his thing; he pulls the dough again and again and again until a thick piece becomes a handful of noodles, almost as if by magic. It’s the work of a man who has clearly spent years mastering his craft, and it’s a sight that’s as hypnotic as it is impressive.

I’ve been here at least a dozen times, and I order the same thing every time: noodles with spicy pork. I’m occasionally tempted to order something else, but the spicy pork is so damn good, and I don’t come here enough to mess around.

It’s an exceptionally simple dish; it’s just spicy ground pork, a whole bunch of noodles, and some sliced cucumber to cut the richness and the heat of the pork.

It’s outstanding. The pork is salty, spicy, and intense. It’s the perfect foil for the amazingly chewy noodles.

It comes with a cup of sweet, citrusy soy milk. I didn’t like it at first, but now I can’t get enough. It also comes with a bowl of bland soup that I’m not crazy about. I keep meaning to tell them to hold the soup, but I always forget.

Amazing Fried Chicken at Chica’s Chicken

Published on May 22, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2853 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.facebook.com/chicaschicken/

Recently, I had the Nashville hot chicken sandwich from Porchetta and Co. and was thoroughly unimpressed; it was bland, disappointingly mild, and dripping with flavourless grease. It was a surprisingly mediocre sandwich from an otherwise great restaurant.

Clearly, the problem was not with the dish itself, because I just had the version from Chica’s Chicken, and hot damn it was so good.

The menu here is exceptionally simple; it’s pretty much just bone-in chicken, chicken wings, and a chicken sandwich, along with a variety of sides. I got the quarter chicken (dark, of course) with a side of coleslaw.

There are three heat options: mild, medium, and hot AF. I ordered hot, which prompted the woman behind the counter to warn me that it was indeed very hot. She mentioned Carolina Reaper peppers (currently the hottest pepper in the world) along with another pepper I can’t recall.

It’s so good. The chicken is perfectly cooked, with an amazingly satisfying level of crispiness on its skin and abundantly juicy chicken. And the flavour is explosive; aside from the level of heat, their spice blend is outstanding. It’s some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.

As for the heat: it’s hot enough to make you sweat and to clear your sinuses, but not so spicy that it feels like something you should be eating on a dare. It’s great.

It comes on a plain slice of bread (de rigueur for this style of chicken), which soaks up all of the amazing grease. It also comes with a side of ranch for dipping, which was a huge upgrade over the typical Hidden Valley; it was creamy, slightly garlicky, and a little bit sweet. It was a delicious compliment to the intensely spicy chicken.

The creamy coleslaw was great, too; I normally prefer vinegary coleslaw, but versions like this make me second guess myself.

Reliably Great Smoked Meat at Centre Street Deli

Published on May 12, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1136 Centre Street, Thornhill
Website: http://www.centrestreetdeli.com/

Ah, Centre Street Deli. Other delis have come and gone over the years, but Centre Street has always been around, quietly and consistently pumping out some of the best smoked meat in the city.

A couple of years ago, some of the employees got together and bought the place out. I was afraid the quality might take a hit, but nope — still delicious.

They have a couple of types of smoked meat: mild smoked meat, and old fashioned. One has a bit more spicing than the other, and I don’t know why but I can never remember which is which. I have to ask every time. I just ate this and I’ve already forgotten again. I think the old fashioned is the more aggressively spiced one, and the most popular.

The platter is a great deal — a generous sandwich, a heaping mound of fries, coleslaw, and a pickle for $16.50. Hard to go wrong there, especially when the food is this good.

I got the old fashioned (I think?), and it was quite tasty, as usual. It was, however, a bit too lean, and the meat was slightly tougher than it should have been.

I’m starting to think that I should be ordering my smoked meat sandwiches fatty instead of medium. Ordering your sandwich fatty feels weirdly indulgent, but hey: I like what I like. I think I need to own it.

Crispy Fried Goodness at Mr. Tonkatsu

Published on May 8, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 520 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.mrtonkatsu.com/

Tonkatsu is one of those dishes that’s very difficult to dislike. You can coat pretty much anything in panko breading and then deep fry it, and that thing is going to be tasty. A fried, panko-breaded pork cutlet? Served with rice and a delicious dipping sauce? Yeah, it’s hard to go wrong there.

And while Mr. Tonkatsu doesn’t serve the best tonkatsu I’ve ever had, they certainly do a solid job with it.

They have a couple of different pork options on the menu — loin and tenderloin, with the latter being an extra dollar. I went with loin, which comes with a bowl of rice, tonkatsu sauce, shredded cabbage, and miso soup.

The panko breading on the tonkatsu had an absolutely perfect texture — it was golden and lightly crispy, with just enough heft to make its presence known, but not enough to overwhelm the meat. But it was way underseasoned; it was actually pretty bland.

Thankfully, the tonkatsu sauce very thoroughly solves that problem. I normally like that stuff — it’s kind of like a Japanese take on HP sauce — but the version here was something special, with way more complexity than the norm.

It’s good that the sauce was so delicious, because the meat needed a lot of it. Aside from the distinct lack of flavour, the pork itself was overcooked and extremely dry. A prodigious application of the tasty sauce goes a long way towards fixing those problems, but they are problems nonetheless.

Everything else was quite good. The dressing for the cabbage was the usual sesame-infused concoction you’d expect; it was quite satisfying. And the miso soup had a mildly fishy funk that I found to be delightful.

Chicken Strips at the Burger’s Priest

Published on May 3, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1599 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.theburgerspriest.com/

I love Buffalo sauce. I know there are some people who find it too vinegary, and I totally get that, but me? If you toss something in Buffalo sauce, I’m going to eat it. It doesn’t matter what it is.

The Burger’s Priest recently introduced chicken strips to their menu; you can get them plain or tossed. Obviously I went with tossed.

They’re quite good. The exterior has a good amount of crunch, and the chicken inside is nice and tender.

And I don’t need to tell you that good-quality fried chicken is delicious when you toss it in Buffalo sauce. That just goes without saying.

It comes with a side of ranch, as well as your choice between BBQ sauce and something called G14. I got the G14, and man, whatever that was, it was crazy delicious. It was tangy, a little bit spicy, and seriously addictive. Easily one of the best dipping sauces I’ve had in a while.

I should note that there are some consistency issues. Two of my chicken strips were as described: crispy, tender, delicious. The third was somehow simultaneously overcooked and undercooked. The chicken was completely dry, and yet the batter was doughy and underdone in parts. You can kind of see what I’m talking about with the batter in the picture below.

With all of the Buffalo sauce and the dipping sauce it wasn’t a huge issue, but it was an issue nonetheless.