Canada – Page 89 – Michael Eats

Amazing Ramen at Nobuya

Published on March 11, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 285 Royal York Road, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Ramen-Restaurant/Nobuya

Generally speaking, if Suresh Doss recommends a restaurant, I immediately add it to my list of places to check out. The man has an almost supernatural gift for sniffing out unsung gems, and his recommendations are always stellar.

But I was particularly excited after reading his write-up on Nobuya, in which he raves about the ramen and calls the karaage “some of the best fried chicken you’ll ever have.”

Nobuya is an interesting place. The restaurant is decked out in sports paraphernalia, and is entirely a one-man show. It’s staffed entirely by the owner, who shuttles back and forth between the small dining room and the kitchen. As you might expect, the service is leisurely, but very friendly.

I started, of course, with the karaage, which was a bit of a let-down. It’s well seasoned, with a nice light crispiness on its exterior. But the best versions of karaage are made with juicy dark meat; this was made with dried-out white meat. It certainly wasn’t bad, but the dryness was a bummer.

But of course, the ramen is what you’re there for. They have a few varieties on offer, but the owner identified the Tokyo ramen as his favourite, so that’s what I ordered.

Tokyo-style ramen is very, very different than the rich, hearty tonkotsu ramen that’s so omnipresent in the city; it has a much lighter consistency and a delicate flavour which makes it a very refreshing change of pace.

It’s also seriously delicious, with a complex meatiness, a very mild fishy funk, and a subtle sweetness to round things out. It pulls off that delightful magic trick you’ll find in the best bowls of ramen, where every spoonful seems to bring something new to the table.

The many toppings — things like garlic, green onion, and pickled ginger — only amp up the already delightful flavour. It’s fantastic.

But then there’s the noodles. I’m assuming this was a one-time mistake (the bowl was too delicious for it to be anything but an unfortunate glitch), but the noodles in my and my dining companion’s bowl were overcooked to the point of mushiness. Given how good the rest of the bowl was, this was particularly unfortunate. But I guess if you’re one guy running an entire restaurant on your own, little slip-ups are bound to happen.

The chashu wasn’t great either, with a slightly tough texture and a gamy flavour. But again, that soup was so damn good that it really didn’t matter.

A Middling Breakfast at Cafe Crepe

Published on February 27, 2020February 27, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 246 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://cafecrepe.com/

Cafe Crepe does surprisingly well; I recently showed up at 9:30 on a Saturday morning, expecting it to be mostly empty, and the place was absolutely packed. People, apparently, love crepes.

And the crepe itself is solid. Everything else, on the other hand…

I ordered the Cafe Crepe Speciale, which comes with three eggs that are theoretically cooked how you like them, “with bacon or sausage & your choice of crêpe: sugar butter, lemon sugar or cinnamon sugar.”

I went with a lemon sugar crepe, sausage, and eggs cooked over easy.

I briefly considered mentioning something when the waitress plopped down a plate of scrambled eggs, but the prospect of eating in shifts with my dining companion wasn’t particularly compelling.

It was fine? I guess? The scrambled eggs were slightly overcooked and completely underseasoned (if they had any salt, I couldn’t taste it), but decent enough. And the sausage was something resembling chorizo rather than the breakfast sausage you’re expecting, but it’s tasty enough.

As for the crepe, it’s actually very good — it’s nice and fresh, with a texture that does a great job of balancing tenderness and bite. But it’s absolutely doused in sugar (it’s both on top of and inside the crepe), and the lemon (which was also copiously applied) tasted off; I’m pretty sure it was actually ReaLemon or something similar.

It wasn’t a bad breakfast, but it probably makes more sense to order a crepe that’s harder to mess up, like Nutella and banana.

Tasty Treats at Kevin’s Taiyaki

Published on February 25, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 333 Dundas Street East, Mississauga (inside PAT Supermarket)
Website: None

Kevin’s Taiyaki is inside the PAT Supermarket in Mississauga, which is a pretty trippy place to visit. It’s basically like stepping through a portal into South Korea. When I went, every other person — both customer and employee — was Korean, and the only language I heard spoken was Korean. PAT has a downtown location as well, but I’ve never quite had the same experience there.

I have a definite fondness for South Korea (I think it’s an underrated travel destination), so that was delightful.

Like the downtown PAT, there’s a location of Kevin’s Taiyaki right inside the supermarket, which specializes in red bean or custard filled pastries.

I got the red bean, and it was very, very good. It was freshly made, with a nice crispy exterior, fluffy pastry (if you’ve never had taiyaki before, it’s extremely waffle-like), and a delicious red bean filling. The red bean had a restrained level of sweetness and a chunky (but still smooth) texture that was extremely satisfying.

Taiyaki is one of those dishes that’s very simple and rarely bad, but difficult to do really well. Kevin’s Taiyaki does it really well.

A Solid Sandwich at Banh Mi Saigon

Published on February 20, 2020February 20, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1133 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: None

It’s hard to go wrong with a good banh mi; it’s cheap, filling, and delicious. And yes, Banh Mi Saigon serves a good one.

The menu’s pretty basic — they have seven different types of banh mi, and they all cost $3.50. I went with the assorted, which comes with the usual medley of Vietnamese cold cuts, pate, and pickled veg.

Nothing about it particularly jumped out at me, but for $3.50 for a hefty sandwich, it’s hard to complain too much.

I will complain a little bit, though. In particular, there’s so little pate that I couldn’t even taste it, the cold cuts were ho-hum, and the bread pretty much wrecked the roof of my mouth (though it was otherwise fresh and tasty).

Still, it was a tasty sandwich; it just wasn’t anything too mind-blowing.

Sweet Heat Sandwich from Chica’s Chicken

Published on February 18, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

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

I’ve written about Chica’s many times on this blog, so I’ll make this brief.

Most importantly: yes, their fried chicken is just as good as ever. And the restaurant was packed (the other times I’ve visited it’s been half full at best), so I think the word is finally getting out that Chica’s is doing something amazing.

The sweet heat has been an occasional special up to this point, but they’ve recently added it onto the regular menu. It is predictably delicious.

It’s maybe borderline too sweet, but it’s balanced out quite well by the vinegary bite of the pickled jalapenos. It’s probably my least favourite thing on the menu, but that says more about the deliciousness of everything on offer here than it does about this particular sandwich. It’s still incredibly good.

It’s the fried chicken itself. It’s magical. The contrast between the perfectly crunchy exterior and the juicy interior is the stuff dreams are made of. If you like fried chicken and you haven’t tried Chica’s yet, you’re living your life wrong.