Crispy Fried Goodness at Mr. Tonkatsu

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Mr. TonkatsuLocation: 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.

Mr. Tonkatsu

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.

Mr. Tonkatsu

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.

Mr. Tonkatsu

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.

McFlurry Deliciousness at McDonald’s

Published on by Michael Nusair2 Comments

McDonald'sLocation: 6170 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.ca/

Generally speaking, I think McFlurries are a waste of time.  I mean, they’re just a poor man’s Blizzard, right?  If I’m craving a blended ice cream treat, why get an imitation when I can have the original?

It turns out I might be wrong about this, because I just had the Butterscotch Blondie McFlurry, and it was easily better than any Blizzard I’ve had in recent memory.

McDonald's

It had a really rich caramel flavour from the abundant butterscotch, and the sizable blondie chunks were chewy, tasty, and satisfying.  It’s super sweet, obviously, but there was enough going on here that it didn’t feel one-note.

The ice cream was a little too melty, but aside from that?  Shockingly good.

Chicken Strips at the Burger’s Priest

Published on 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.

The Burger's Priest

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.

The Burger's Priest

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

Chocolate Buffalo from Bagel Nash

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Bagel NashLocation: 7355 Bayview Avenue, Thornhill
Website: http://bagelnash.ca/

They sell something called Chocolate Buffalo at Bagel Nash, a bakery in Thornhill.  I really don’t have a whole lot to say about it, but here’s a few points:

  1. I hadn’t even heard of a Buffalo pastry up until this point.
  2. It was bad.
  3. No, like really bad.

Bagel Nash

  1. Like, I tried it, I had a few other people try it, and then I threw it in the garbage.  That bad.
  2. It was incredibly dry (it was possibly one of the driest pastries I’ve ever had), and it didn’t taste nearly as deliciously chocolatey as it looked.  It was mostly just sour, oddly.  It tasted a bit like an enormous rugelach — but then I’ve never had a rugelach that bad.
  3. I have no idea if it’s an acquired taste or if it was just terrible, and I don’t particularly care to find out.  I can’t imagine that I’ll ever try a Buffalo again.

A Misguided Brunch at Ramona’s Kitchen

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Ramona's KitchenLocation: 7355 Bayview Avenue, Thornhill
Website: http://www.ramonaskitchen.ca/

I should note a couple of things up front: Ramona’s Kitchen is popular.  I showed up with a group of four at around 11:30 on a Saturday, and the place was absolutely packed, with a full restaurant and a bunch of people waiting around for tables.  It took a solid half hour to sit down.  So people obviously like the place.

And everyone I was with really liked the food.  A lot.

Ramona's Kitchen

That being said?  I ordered the breakfast poutine, and it was kind of shocking how bad it was.

The dish consists of hash browns (which they call “tri-coloured potatoes” for the three types of potatoes they use), hollandaise sauce, cheese curds, and a poached egg.

The individual components were all decent — the potatoes were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, the hollandaise was rich and creamy, and the poached egg had a perfectly runny yolk.

Ramona's Kitchen

But the whole thing was just off.

It was served in a tall, narrow bucket, which I guess is a fun presentation, but really awkward to eat out of.

And while most of the components were good, the curds were a bit too salty and tasted stale (fresh curds should squeak when you bite into them; these did not).  And though the potatoes were hot and fresh, the hollandaise was only warm, which didn’t provide enough heat to get the curds even vaguely melty.

Ramona's Kitchen

Also (I sure have a lot of complaints about these cheese curds, don’t I?), the majority of the pieces were tiny little curd fragments, and since they were cold and unmelted, the whole thing was unappealingly cottage-cheese-esque.

The hollandaise was quite good, though, as were the potatoes, so you’d think that alone would be enough to make this delicious.  I mean, crispy potatoes?  Delicious.  Hollandaise?  Also delicious.  But if there was ever a case of “too much of a good thing,” this is clearly it.  The entire bucket was absolutely swimming in heavy, creamy hollandaise, and it’s just overkill.  It’s like hollandaise pudding with potatoes.  It’s off-putting.

Ramona's Kitchen

That’s not to mention that, by the bottom of the bucket, the hollandaise had started to congeal, making it even thicker and richer, with a gluey, mayonnaise-like consistency.

But again: I think this is a good restaurant?  Just don’t order the breakfast poutine unless you really, really like hollandaise (and I do!  But not as much as I thought, apparently).