Michael Eats

Tasty Sandwiches at Paris Steak

Published on May 25, 2025May 25, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 120 Atlantic Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.parissteak.ca/

Paris Steak has an admirably focused menu — you can get their steak (ribeye, striploin, or chuck) in a sandwich, by itself with fries, or on a salad, and that’s about it.

They have a small seating area downstairs, but seem to be mostly a take-out joint.

The sandwich, as per their menu: “Your choice of steak, seasoned and grilled medium rare, served on a buttered ciabatta bun with arugula salad and house-made chimichurri.”

I tried a couple: ribeye and striploin, and both were quite tasty; I slightly preferred the fattier ribeye, but both were perfectly cooked and quite tender, with the toasty ciabatta bun being a great vehicle for the substantial steak.

It’s a very satisfying sandwich, though the heavy-handed application of garlicky, herby chimichurri — while extremely tasty — kinda defeats the point of using dry-aged steak, at least somewhat. While dry-aging does add tenderness, which is certainly a factor here, its main draw is that it adds complexity to the beef’s flavour. That’s almost entirely lost here, with the flavour of the beef being mostly overwhelmed by the chimichurri.

I should reiterate that the thing that’s overwhelming the flavour of the steak is thoroughly delicious, so it feels absurd to complain too much. But I wish that the chimichurri was dialed back a bit so that it could complement the steak without becoming the star of the show. Regardless, it’s a very good sandwich.

The duck fat fries (“fresh-cut fries tossed in duck fat and finished with parmesan crumble”), on the other hand? 100% perfect, no notes. Great flavour, with an amazing crispy/creamy balance. Legitimately some of the best fries I’ve ever had.

Grilled Cheese Cheeseburger at Wendy’s

Published on May 20, 2025May 20, 2025 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 5250 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

Wendy’s has apparently been in Canada for 50 years, and to celebrate, they’re serving a cheeseburger with two grilled cheese sandwiches for buns. As you do.

No, grilled cheese sandwiches as buns isn’t exactly the most original or fresh idea at this point, but it’s still the type of novelty fast food nonsense that gets me through the day. Most new fast food burgers just add a different sauce or whatever, and it’s like, come on, guys. I know you can do better than this.

Wendy’s: I commend you. I don’t think the burger was particularly good, but hey, you tried.

Here’s how Wendy’s describes the Grilled Cheese Cheeseburger: “A quarter-pound of fresh, 100% Canadian beef topped with cheese, caramelized onions, and mayo all between a grilled-cheese bun on top and another on the bottom. Three sandwiches. One burger.”

The biggest issue here? I don’t think anyone gave the person who made my burger the memo that a grilled cheese sandwich is supposed to be grilled. I mean, maybe I’m out of the loop, but I’m pretty sure that’s how grilled cheese is supposed to work? Otherwise it’s just a cheese sandwich?

Both sandwiches had been lightly toasted on one side, but not enough to particularly melt the cheese. The bottom one was partially melted, but the cheese in the top bun was fully cold.

This means that you’re getting double the bread for no reason. It’s a lot of bread! And because it was mostly untoasted and fully unbuttered (and slightly stale), it’s all very, very dry. Between the mega-dose of bread and the not-especially-juicy burger patty, it was legitimately hard to eat. It was like the Wendy’s version of the saltine challenge. If my bites were too big, my mouth dried out. I was reaching for my drink between every mouthful.

And I like caramelized onions, but the combo of the sweet onions and the punishing amount of mildly sweet bread meant that the burger really needed some pickles or veggies or something to break up the one-note flavour.

I really wanted to like this, but no. I’m sorry, but no. This burger seems like it should be fun, but my life is now appreciably worse for having tried it. Thanks, Wendy’s.

Quality Pastrami at Linny’s Luncheonette

Published on May 18, 2025May 18, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 174 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://linnysluncheonette.com/

Whenever there’s a new deli specializing in pastrami or Montreal smoked meat, I sit up and take notice. We have a handful of quality restaurants like this in the GTA, but not nearly enough. There should be one on every block, and there’s what? Like maybe five or six?

The menu here is extremely simple. They serve pastrami, a couple of other sandwiches, and a few sides. It’s also take-out only, so if you don’t get one of the two small picnic tables out front, too bad. Take your food and walk.

The pastrami is quite tasty. The spicing on the meat is weirdly restrained, though, which dials down the flavour and holds the sandwich back from greatness. But otherwise, everything here is exactly where it should be, with thick, hand-cut slices of ultra-tender beef on perfectly-fresh rye bread with just the right amount of mustard (I find a lot of places tend to over-mustard their sandwiches, overwhelming the beef, but here it’s just right).

I will say that although the borderline bland spicing is a bummer, the meat has a distinctly smoky flavour that goes a long way towards mitigating this. And it’s still a great sandwich — it’s just that everything else about it is so stellar that its lack of seasoning stands out more than it would otherwise.

I also got a side order of the coleslaw, which is a great zippy counterpoint to the very heavy sandwich (albeit a little too heavy on the onions for my personal preferences).

Tasty Eats at Shake Shack x MIMI Chinese

Published on May 17, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 10 Dundas Street East, Toronto
Website: https://shakeshack.ca/

Shake Shack is currently doing a limited-time collaboration with Mimi Chinese. It ends on May 26, so you’d better hurry if you want to check it out (and trust me, you want to check it out). They’re serving a chicken sandwich, seasoned fries, and a black sesame milkshake; all three are thoroughly delicious.

First up: the Málà Chicken sandwich (“Crispy chicken spiced with MIMI’s signature chili oil, charred scallion relish, green chili mayo, tangy pickles and lettuce”).

In Chinese cuisine, “mala” refers to a flavour that’s simultaneously spicy and numbing (thanks to Sichuan peppercorns), and yeah, this sandwich nails that. It’s not the spiciest thing you’ll ever eat, but it’s got a good kick and a noticeable tingliness from the peppercorns.

The sandwich is otherwise nice and zippy, with a great balance of flavours. It was kind of a bummer that the piece of chicken in my sandwich only filled half the bun (it was basically a hefty chicken strip), but the quality was great, with a crispy exterior and a very juicy interior (particularly impressive, given that it’s white meat).

And everything here was so tasty that even the condiment-only half of the sandwich was still satisfying.

I also tried the Shaokao Fries (“Crinkle cuts, street food–style—dusted with cumin, chili, and Sichuan peppercorn. Served with green chili mayo”).

The fries themselves were standard-issue crinkle cut fries, but that tasty seasoning really elevates them, with more of that hot/numbing flavour. And the dip is a great combo of creamy and zesty.

I wasn’t planning on getting the milkshake, but if you’re already getting the sandwich and the fries, I guess you may as well go all the way and get the shake, too. The Black Sesame Coconut Shake: “A nutty blend of black sesame and coconut inspired by traditional Chinese desserts.”

And hey, what do you know — this was pretty great, too. In particular, the pronounced black sesame flavour actually works really well in a milkshake, which was nice and creamy without being overly thick.

Steakhouse Teen Burger from A&W

Published on May 13, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3300 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke
Website: https://web.aw.ca/en/home

I like A&W. Generally speaking, I think they’re one of the better fast food chains. The Steakhouse Teen Burger, on the other hand? Uh… well, they can’t all be winners, can they?

Here’s how A&W describes it: “A perfectly seasoned grass-fed beef patty topped with sweet and smoky bacon jam, real cheddar cheese, tomato, arugula and creamy peppercorn aioli, all served on a freshly toasted sesame bun.”

It’s that bacon jam. The ads for this thing proudly proclaim that it’s sweet and smoky; I don’t know if I noticed any smokiness, but wow, is it sweet. It’s sweet. I’ve had desserts that aren’t this sugary.

This might have been okay if it has been applied sparingly — a little bit goes a long way — but they had globbed an alarming amount of it onto the burger, and it was all you could taste.

Don’t ask me what the peppercorn aioli tasted like, because I have no idea — the flavour here was 100% pure bacon jam.

And hey, bacon jam can be quite tasty, but this stuff was all jam, no bacon — it had very little bacon flavour, a little bit of tanginess, and a whole lot of sweetness.

I also got unlucky and got a burger patty that had clearly been sitting out for a while, because it was honestly one of the drier hamburgers I’ve had in a long time.

I did not enjoy anything about this. Sorry A&W; I like you, but today was not your day.