Tasty Fried Chicken and Curry at Ramen Ryu

Tasty Fried Chicken and Curry at Ramen Ryu
Location
: 486 Front Street West, Toronto (inside Wellington Market)
Website: https://ryusnoodlebar.com/ramen_ryu

I mentioned recently that I tried the ramen at Ramen Ryu at the Well and found it tasty, but not mind-blowing.  Well, maybe I just ordered the wrong thing?  This place has a “recommendation” board on their menu, and the top choice isn’t ramen at all — it’s karaage & curry.

I ordered it, obviously, and yeah, it’s quite tasty.

Tasty Fried Chicken and Curry at Ramen Ryu

It’s a simple dish — rice, a whole bunch of Japanese curry, and three pieces of karaage (i.e. Japanese fried chicken).

The curry is great, with a nice depth of flavour and a mild spicy kick.  It’s maybe a touch on the salty side, but is otherwise above average Japanese curry.

The chicken features a nice balance between the crispy exterior and juicy interior, and complements the curry well.  And the rice does a great job of soaking up that curry.  It’s a very satisfying dish.

Tasty Noodle Soup at Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar

Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar
Location
: 755 Queensway East, Mississauga 
Website: https://tokasuramen.com/

Tokasu specializes in ramen and laksa, which strikes me as a bit of an odd combo.  I mean, I guess they are both noodle soups, but the resemblance kinda ends there.  Still, they’re both delightful, so why not?

Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar

I ordered the laksa, since it’s quite a bit harder to find in the GTA.  They actually have six different varieties of the dish; I went with the chicken white santan laksa, which they describe as their “signature laksa bowl featuring a fragrant coconut chicken broth, shredded chicken, tofu puffs, bean sprouts, and noodles.”

Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar

It’s quite good.  The broth doesn’t quite have the complexity of the best versions of the dish, but it’s nice and creamy, with a zingy tanginess that helps to cut through its richness.

The noodles were a bit on the soft side, but the chicken (which comes sliced rather than shredded) is nice and tender and the tofu puffs do a great job of soaking up the broth.

Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar

It might not be the best I’ve ever had, but it’s a solid bowl of laksa.  I’ll definitely have to come back to try the ramen.

Tasty Katsu Curry at Cafe Green Tea

Cafe Green Tea
Location
: 3160 Steeles Avenue East, Markham
Website: None

Though the name might make you think it’s a coffee shop of some sort, Cafe Green Tea is actually a delightful little restaurant in the J-Town area of Markham specializing in Japanese comfort food like soba, udon, and katsu curry.

Cafe Green Tea

I ordered the katsu curry, which you can either get with pork or chicken (I got pork).  It’s a counter service place, and they work quite fast; once I ordered, it only took a few minutes for my number to be called.

Cafe Green Tea

It’s a tasty plate of no-frills katsu curry.  The pork is slightly on the dry side, but otherwise everything here is right where it should be: the curry is rich and flavourful, and the katsu has a perfect level of exterior crispiness.

Cafe Green Tea

Bonus: at 14 bucks for a relatively hefty serving, it’s a solid deal.

Fun Fusion Brunch at Curryish Tavern

Curryish Tavern
Location
: 783 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://curryishtavern.ca/

As you might guess from the name, Curryish Tavern is a fusion restaurant that mixes Indian flavours with pub classics like burgers and fries.  The brunch menu, which I tried, features a bunch of brunch standbys with an Indian twist.

I had the samosa eggs benny, which finds a couple of samosas topped with poached eggs and ghee hollandaise, served with ultra-crispy home fries and a slice of “mirch maple pork belly.”

Curryish Tavern

It’s a tasty dish.  The samosas themselves are a bit middle-of-the-road, but the combo of the samosas, the perfectly poached eggs, and the zippy ghee hollandaise — not to mention the sweet, tender pork belly — is a winner.   My biggest complaint here is that the pork is off to the side instead of on top of the samosas as you’d expect, which feels like an excuse to give you less of it (which is odd considering that the dish isn’t exactly cheap at 21 bucks).

Curryish Tavern

(I should also note that since I wrote this (I’ve got a bit of a backlog) the menu has been changed slightly; the benedict now costs $18, and the pork is a $5 upcharge.)

The potatoes are great; they’re perfectly cooked, with a delightfully crispy exterior and a fluffy interior.

Amazing Sri Lankan Rolls at Reggie’s Rolls

Reggie's Rolls
Location
: No permanent location
Website: https://www.reggies-rolls.com/

Sherway Gardens currently has a Christmas Market where Nordstrom used to be (it’s running until December 23).  It’s mostly not super interesting (at least from a food point of view), but there are a couple of vendors serving stuff you can eat.  Most notably: Reggie’s Rolls, which sells delicious Sri Lankan rolls.

These things are seriously, seriously good.  When I went, they were offering three flavours: mutton (which is the classic), cheeseburger, and butter paneer.  I went with mutton and paneer (the cheeseburger variety is intriguing, but I figured I’d stick with more traditional choices since it was my first time trying it).

Reggie's Rolls

Did I mention how good these are?  Because they’re amazing.  I’ve actually never tried this particular dish before, though it is a Sri Lankan standby.  So I can’t say how authentic it is, but I can say that it tastes extremely good.

Reggie's Rolls

The exterior isn’t quite as crispy as I was expecting — I figured it would be something like an egg roll, but it has a very lightly crispy but mostly chewy texture that worked quite well.  And the filling was a taste explosion, with the mutton variety having a really complex curry-tinged flavour and a pronounced spicy kick.  The texture is similar to a Jamaican patty, with the meat being quite finely ground, with a few larger chunks.

The butter paneer had a similar texture and a slightly sweeter flavour, with a much milder level of spice (I actually don’t think it was spicy at all, but I did eat it after the mutton, so it might have been a bit spicy and I just didn’t notice).  Of the two, I preferred the mutton, but both were seriously tasty.

Reggie's Rolls

Sadly, they don’t have a permanent location, but as per their website, they do occasionally pop up at events like the Christmas Market.  Otherwise, they’re wholesale only, which is a shame.