cheese – Page 6 – Michael Eats

Raptor Chicken Nacho Poutine at McDonald’s

Published on November 8, 2024November 8, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I’ll admit that the Raptor Chicken Nacho Poutine kind of sent me into an existential panic. Like, where did I go wrong in my life that I’m sitting alone in a McDonald’s on a Friday evening, scarfing down an ill-advised novelty poutine so I can review it for my food blog? What wrong turn did I make to get here?

The Raptor Chicken Nacho Poutine is not good. But hey, I ate it. It caused me to look deep down inside myself and not like what I see, but I did eat it and finish it, so of course I’m going to blog about it. Otherwise what was it all for??

Here’s how McDonald’s describes this thing: “this new offering is made with 100% Canadian-raised seasoned chicken, our World Famous Fries™ layered with stringy cheese curds and savoury gravy, topped with tortilla strips and drizzled with nacho cheese sauce.”

Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit about how bad this is. It’s not gross, I guess, but I didn’t find anything about eating it to be particularly pleasant. It’s mostly just an odd hodgepodge of flavours and textures that don’t particularly belong together.

I think the nacho cheese sauce is the worst offender. I actually like nacho cheese sauce, but combined with the gravy and curds it had an odd sourness that I found off-putting. The tortilla strips were fine, but again, they just seemed odd in the context of a poutine.

As for the big chunks of chicken that they had plopped on top — like everything else, they’re just kinda there, doing their own thing. They don’t really add anything to the dish.

Then there’s the poutine base, which is fine, but I don’t think McDonald’s has a great poutine in the best of times, and this was certainly not the best of times (the fact that the fries were paler and soggier than usual didn’t help).

An Amazing Cheeseburger at BEAR Steak Sandwiches

Published on November 6, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 550A College Street, Toronto
Website: https://bearsteak.ca/

BEAR Steak Sandwiches recently added a cheeseburger to their delightfully focused menu (they serve three things: a steak sandwich, a roast pork sandwich, and now, a burger), and yeah. Of course. Of course I need to try that. Their steak sandwich is easily one of the best sandwiches in the city. So if they’re taking a swing at a hamburger? Yes please.

Bonus: it’s a big fat chunky boy rather than the thin smashed burger that’s so omnipresent in the city. I like a smashed burger as much as the next guy, but come on. Other types of hamburgers exist.

The cheeseburger, as per their menu: “Medium rare chuck patty, American cheese, white onion, pickle, sesame bun. Sauce on the side.”

I skipped the onion, but otherwise got this as is.

Wow, it’s good. Seriously, seriously good. The patty is a thing of beauty: amazing beefy flavour, great texture, perfectly seasoned. That beefy flavour slaps you in the face in all the best ways. I know that it looks very rare in that photo, but it was cooked to a perfect medium rare and had none of the mushiness that you’ll find in too-rare hamburger patties. It was glorious.

It comes with a little tub of what I’m assuming is their chimichurri sauce with mayo mixed in; it’s seriously delicious, but completely unnecessary. When the beef is this good, I don’t need anything to distract from its flavour; the zippiness from the pickles and the salty richness from the cheese are all you need.

The bun has a bit more heft than your typical burger bun, but since the patty here is so substantial, it totally works.

My burger blog is pretty much defunct at this point, but if I were to review this there, I’d rate it a perfect four out of four. I have some minor nitpicks (the cheese could have been meltier, the grind on the beef could have been a bit more coarse, and the beef could have been slightly fattier/juicier), but those are teeny-tiny complaints about an otherwise superlative hamburger.

Fantastic Mexican Food at Itacate

Published on November 4, 2024November 4, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 998 Saint Clair Avenue West, Toronto
Website: https://itacate-toronto.com/

Itacate is a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that serves some seriously, seriously tasty eats. They only have a handful of tables, so I guess it’s mostly a take-out place, but it’s worth either waiting for one of those tables or eating in your car. It’s so good.

I tried a couple of things. I wanted to try at least one taco, and their menu is extensive, with almost a dozen choices. I went with the carnitas, which comes with a very generous amount of ultra-tender pork on a double corn tortilla.

They asked if I wanted onions and cilantro, and I said no because I am a card-carrying raw onion hater; in retrospect, I probably should have said no to the onion and yes to the cilantro, but that pork was so incredibly tender and flavourful that it was beyond delicious with just a little bit of the zippy salsa that comes on the side.

I like corn tortillas, but they’re always a bit of a crapshoot, because if they’re not very fresh, they can dry out and become unpleasant to eat. That definitely wasn’t an issue here.

I also tried the pambazo: “bread dipped in guajillo sauce with sausage and potatoes, with sour cream, lettuce and cheese.”

Man, what a sandwich. Perfect bread (with a light crispiness on its exterior and some nice flavour from the guajillo sauce), tasty sausage, and some great texture and flavour from the lettuce and cheese. Once you add some of the aforementioned salsa? All-time great sandwich. Crazy good.

Stellar Pizza at One Night Only

Published on October 27, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 581 Pape Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://ono.pizza/

I’ve been hearing basically nothing but great things about One Night Only since it opened — it started out as a home-based pandemic-era lark, but quickly became popular enough to justify their own storefront.

They’re way out on the east end and have somewhat unusual hours (they’re closed on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays), so it took me a while to check the place out, but man I’m glad that I did. The pizza here is phenomenal.

I tried the pepperoni, bacon and jalapeno; I typically like a more sparsely-topped pie, particularly when I’m first trying a place, but that was all they had left when I showed up at around 1:30 on a Saturday.

It’s an amazing slice of pizza. The crust has a great balance between exterior crispiness and interior chewiness/fluffiness, with just the right amount of heft and flavour.

The slice is generously topped but still nicely balanced, with a good ratio between the sauce, cheese, and toppings. And while it’s not the pizza I would have picked if I had the choice, it features great quality pepperoni and bacon, and the pops of heat from the jalapeno slices works well.

The buzz about this place meant my expectations were quite high, but this still managed to exceed them. It’s easily on par with top-tier places like Badiali, North of Brooklyn, and Superpoint. It’s so good.

Solid Roman-style Pizza at A Pizza

Published on October 13, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 252 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: None

First off: yes, this place is called “A Pizza,” and yeah, I’m as baffled by the name as you are. I’m not an expert in business, but I think making the name of your restaurant so generic that it’s nearly impossible to find online may not be a great idea? As I noted above, there’s no website — or maybe there is, and I just can’t find it?

The restaurant is also inside a convenience store, which just adds to the oddness factor here.

They have a variety of slices of Roman-style pizza that you can grab and go, along with a few sandwiches and a Nutella-filled doughnut.

I got a slice of the margherita, and it was pretty decent. I don’t exactly foresee Badiali-esque lines around the block anytime soon, but it’s a respectable slice of pizza.

There’s a nice balance of sauce and cheese, and the thick crust is crispy on its exterior and fluffy within. It’s maybe a bit too fluffy, and is a bit lacking in both taste and substance, but it gets the job done.