cheese – Michael Eats

Big Tasty at McDonald’s

Published on October 27, 2026October 27, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The Big Tasty definitely exists. It’s a thing that is now on the menu at McDonald’s. You can eat it.

That’s about my max level of enthusiasm for this burger. It’s not bad, certainly, but there’s nothing about it that stands out in any particular way.

Here’s how McDonald’s describes it: “A 100% Canadian beef patty topped with smokey flavoured Big Tasty Sauce, two slices of white processed cheese, tomato slices, shredded lettuce and slivered onions.”

(And if that colourless description is anything to go by, even McDonald’s is unenthused about this particular burger.)

The most interesting thing I can say about it is that it has tomatoes in it, which you don’t typically find in McDonald’s burgers (they were pretty mushy and not great, which is probably why they’re not normally in McDonald’s burgers). Otherwise, this is basically an inferior Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

I think the Big Tasty sauce is the biggest culprit here — it’s fine, with pleasantly sweet/zesty flavour, but it’s very forgettable. Nothing about it stands out. I guess it has an extremely mild smokiness, but if the menu hadn’t mentioned that it’s “smokey flavoured,” I don’t think I would have noticed.

Still, the whole thing is inoffensive, I guess? I’m not upset I ate it. I’m not happy, either, but hey, they can’t all be winners.

Tasty Pizza at Raffaella

Published on October 19, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 296 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://raffaellapizza.com/

Raffaella started as a pop-up serving New York-style pizza, and eventually did well enough to graduate to their own spot inside the Annex Hotel.

They’re mostly known for their pizza, but they do have a few other things on the menu. The arancini, in particular, caught my eye: “Cacio E Pepe Risotto, Tomato Sauce, Parmigiano Reggiano.”

This was clearly some of the better arancini I’ve had in a while, with a great contrast between the perfectly crispy exterior and the rich, creamy risotto within. It might have been too rich, but the zippy tomato sauce gives it a nice balance. It’s great.

They let you try a couple of things by splitting a pizza in half, which is nice; I went with the Margherita (“Raff’s Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella, Grana Padano, Fresh Basil”) and the Annex (“Raff’s Tomato Sauce, Spicy Sausage, Whipped Ricotta, Roasted Red Pepper, Hot Honey”).

It’s a solid pizza. Raffaella describes it as “48 hours sourdough, thin and crispy” — this one wasn’t particularly crispy, with its soft floppiness giving it a bit of a Neapolitan-meets-NYC vibe, but whatever it is, it’s tasty. The crust has a nice chewiness and a decent amount of flavour thanks to the sourdough. It didn’t blow my mind, but it’s really solid.

As for the toppings, I tend to prefer the simplicity of a plain cheese pizza, and that continues to be the case here, with a nice balance between the tasty sauce and gooey cheese. I liked the Annex as well, though the flavour of the roasted red peppers did kind of dominate everything else.

A Tasty Egyptian Speciality at Adel’s Fatatre

Published on October 13, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 6085 Creditview Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.adelsfatatre.com/

Adel’s Fatatre serves an Egyptian stuffed pizza called fateer mahshey (which Wikipedia spells “feteer meshaltet“). I wasn’t super familiar with this dish prior to trying it here, but based just on this place, it’s a tasty dish.

They have a handful of options on the menu (including a few sweet ones); I went with the soujouk, which the menu describes as “soujouk, green pepper, cheese, and spicy tomato sauce.”

It’s quite satisfying — in particular, I feel like soujouk is extremely underrated as a pizza topping. It has a pleasantly assertive flavour that is quite distinct from any other sausage that I’ve had (and it’s quite delicious). If I ruled the world, this would be a mandatory option at every pizza joint.

The crust is vaguely calzone-like, but thinner and crispier (while still being nice and chewy around the edges).

I enjoyed it a lot, though I will say that I don’t think I saw or tasted any green peppers, or even the spicy tomato sauce. The only flavours I noticed were the gooey cheese, the sausage, and the grease from the sausage, with a little extra pop of flavour from the spice blend sprinkled on top.

It’s possible the sauce was just spread very thinly, but whatever was here was extremely delicious; it certainly didn’t taste like it was missing anything, so I’m not going to get too worked up about it.

Windsor-Style Pizza at Ambassador Pizza Co.

Published on October 11, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 946 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.ambassadorpizzaco.ca/

Ambassador Pizza serves Windsor-style pizza — yes, Windsor has its own style of pizza (why is there no Toronto-style pizza? Someone get on that).

This style of pizza is known for having a flour and cornmeal crust, and, most famously, for being topped with shredded pepperoni.

If you’re buying a slice, you can get either cheese or pepperoni. Normally I’d go for a plain cheese pizza, but obviously I had to see what was up with the shredded pepperoni.

It’s interesting; you wind up with a much more subtle pepperoni flavour, so if you’re not a big fan of the stuff, this might be the pizza for you. Its distinctive saltiness is dialed down quite a bit, with the flavour spread much more evenly throughout the slice.

As for the pizza itself, it’s solid. The crust a nice exterior crispiness and a pleasant airiness, with just enough heft to hold up to the generous amount of tasty sauce and cheese. It’s not the most flavourful crust ever, but I think it was brushed with some kind of garlic oil that worked pretty well.

It’s about nine bucks for a slice, which is on the higher end — but it’s also comically large, so you could easily share. I don’t it’s anything anyone is going to lose their minds over, but it’s clearly above average.

Quick Bites: Sovily, Misfit Ice Cream, Little Baba

Published on August 30, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Pizza from Sovily

I had a slice of the Sovily Rosé (“Rosé Sauce, Mozzarella, Cherry Tomatoes, Fresh Basil, Parmesan”) from this place, and it was totally fine. The fluffy crust was kind of lacking in substance or flavour (it’s reportedly sourdough, though there’s zero sourdough flavour), but it had a nice exterior crispiness and was generally pleasant enough. The sauce tasted canned and was a bit too generously applied, but the combo of mozzarella and parmesan was nice. I can’t say I’m in a huge rush to come back here, but it got the job done.

Soy Boy at Misfit Ice Cream

I was extremely intrigued by the Soy Boy flavour at Misfit Ice Cream, which the menu describes as “tofu fa, brown sugar ginger syrup.” Tofu fa is a really tasty dessert made with silken tofu, and I’m certainly on board for an ice cream version of it (but then I’m on board for an ice cream version of basically any dessert). The version here does a pretty solid job of capturing the flavour of that dessert, though I’ll admit that the texture — which was icy and dense — left a bit to be desired. The whole point of tofu fa is its luxurious ultra-silky texture; if you lose that, it does kinda put a damper on things.

Chicken Tawook Baba Box from Little Baba

I was a pretty big fan of Little Baba when I tried a couple of their wraps; well, I just tried their namesake Baba Box, and yeah, they know what they’re doing. The one I tried came with chicken tawook, a zippy fattoush salad, basil hummus, some pickles, and a generous amount of garlicky toum (which their menu calls “garlic cream”). Everything here was quite tasty, particularly the perfectly grilled chicken and the basil hummus. I’ve never heard of adding basil to hummus, and I was afraid its distinctive flavour would be overwhelming. But they add just enough of the stuff to bring a nice herbal zip that perfectly complements the other flavours, and the ultra-creamy texture is a thing of beauty (it might be one of the silkiest versions of this dish that I’ve ever had).