Michael Eats

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.

Tasty Soup at Tang Home Style Lamb and Beef

Published on May 12, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3380 Midland Avenue, Scarborough
Website: None

Tang Home Style Lamb and Beef is a great under-the-radar Chinese restaurant; they’ve got a whole bunch of tasty looking noodle dishes on the menu (not to mention a lamb bun that it seemed like most of the other tables were ordering — I’ll have to come back to try that one), but their specialty is paomo, a delicious lamb soup.

They serve a regular version and a spicy version; I went with the spicy version.

The thing that makes this dish stand out are the chopped-up pieces of flatbread interspersed throughout. They’re kinda like very thick, chopped up noodles; they have a great amount of chewiness to them (they’re not soggy or mushy at all) and bring the soup a ton of personality.

The bowl is also crammed with a generous amount of sizable pieces of tender lamb. It’s a hearty soup, that’s for sure.

As for the broth, it’s mildly spicy and has a very zesty, slightly sweet flavour. I liked it on its own, but it really comes alive once you add some of the smoky chili oil that’s on the table.

Fruit on a Stick at Tanghulu Tanghulu

Published on May 10, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 252 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.tanghulutanghulu.com/

Tanghulu is an Asian street food snack in which pieces of fruit are coated in crispy sugar and served on a stick. That’s it — fruit + sugar + stick.

At Tanghulu Tanghulu, they give strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and clementines the sugar-coating treatment. They also serve fruit cups with chocolate sauce.

I went with strawberries, and yeah, it’s good. The strawberries were fresh, ripe, and juicy, and the generous layer of sugar gives it a nice crunch and some extra sweetness.

That’s it. It’s fruit covered in glassy sugar. It’s exactly what you think it is.

A Great Deal at Juicy Dumpling

Published on May 3, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 280 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.juicydumpling.ca/

Juicy Dumpling actually does have stuff other than juicy dumplings on the menu, but of course, if you go to a place called Juicy Dumpling and you don’t order the juicy dumplings, what are you even doing with your life?

I got an order of six mini soup pork dumplings, which was $4.99, and a pork bun, which was $2.85. It was a solid lunch for under ten bucks.

I’m a little bit perplexed as to why they’re calling these mini soup dumplings. They seemed like a pretty standard size to me? I can’t recall having soup dumplings that were substantially larger than the ones they serve here.

They’re tasty dumplings. There’s no vinegar or any of the other condiments you’d expect with soup dumplings, but they’re pretty tasty on their own, with a decent amount of pork and soup inside. They’re not the best soup dumplings you’ll ever eat, but for five bucks for an order of six, they’re pretty great.

The pork bun was satisfying too, with a good amount of sweet pork filling inside of a fresh, fluffy bun.