downtown – Page 14 – Michael Eats

Sad Disappointment at Crazy Crepes

Published on December 3, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 366 Church Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.crazycrepescanada.com/

Sometimes, you know you’re in trouble before you even take a bite. This was definitely the case at Crazy Crepes, a Japanese chain that serves sweet and savoury crepes.

It was game over before it even began; as soon as I ordered my crepe, the woman behind the counter went for a big pile of pre-made crepes and started putting mine together.

I’m not sure why, but crepes are one of those foods that deteriorate in quality within minutes of being made. Fresh crepes are delicious; old crepes are a pale imitation of their previous selves.

I’m sorry, but when it comes to crepes: make it fresh or GTFO. Yes, I’ll wait. Get out of here with that dry, rubbery garbage.

I ordered the Strawberry & Kiwi Fresh Cream crepe, which the menu notes is one of their signature creations, and of course, it never had a chance. The kiwi and strawberries were both pretty sour, but if the crepe had been really good, it still could have been tasty. Alas.

Upgraded Street Meat at Nobs’

Published on November 28, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 505 University Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/nobsofficial/

Nobs’ is a street vendor with a really interesting setup; it looks like a hot dog cart, but you won’t find a dog or a sausage on the menu. Instead, they serve a variety of meaty sandwiches (and mushroom for the vegetarians) that are cooked sous vide and finished on the grill. Ideally, this means that the meat will be perfectly cooked, with a nice smoky crust from the fire.

And yeah, that’s what happened.

I ordered the AAA Canadian Blade Steak Sandwich, which comes topped with greens, chimichurri, mayo, and pickled onions.

The steak was perfectly tender, with a good amount of exterior texture from the grill. The rest of the sandwich is quite tasty, too, with the vibrant, garlicky chimichurri matching well with the creamy mayo.

The bread is also great — it’s fresh, with a nice crispy exterior, and enough heft to hold up to the very substantial sandwich.

But the flavours are overwhelming. In particular, the garlic in the chimichurri packs an absolute wallop. It’s intense. It’s delicious, mind you, but it’s basically all you can taste. The beef is mostly just there for texture; the flavour is completely annihilated.

The whole thing is really good; I just wish I could have tasted more of the steak (or any of the steak).

Choices, Choices, and More Choices at The SOS

Published on November 26, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 118 John Street, Toronto
Website: http://sospasta.ca/

I know that this is an odd complaint that most people probably won’t agree with, but I’ll admit that restaurants that offer a million different combinations kind of bug me. If you’re going to do this, at least give me a few suggestions so I have an idea of what works well together. How am I supposed to know which sauces compliment which pasta varieties? And which toppings work best with those? I’m not a chef. Why are you getting me to do your job for you? Do you want me to come into the kitchen and cook my meal as well?

Which is to say that at The SOS they have 11 types of pasta, 10 sauces, 11 toppings, and absolutely no guidance on what goes best with what (at least not without asking the cashier and holding up the line like a jerk, which I didn’t particularly care to do).

Thankfully they have a daily special; on this particular day it was panko-crusted mac and cheese, which I obviously ordered.

It’s quite tasty. The pasta is perfectly al dente, and the sauce is incredibly rich and creamy, with a mild cheesy flavour. The crispy panko offers a nice bit of texture. It’s slightly underseasoned, and nothing about it rocked my world, but it’s a solid bowl of mac and cheese.

Extremely Spicy Noodles at Momofuku Noodle Bar

Published on November 21, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 190 University Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://noodlebar-toronto.momofuku.com/

After my recent disappointment with Canada’s so-called hottest burrito, I found myself craving extreme spice. That burrito was a complete buzzkill. You can’t get me all hyped up to eat something stupidly spicy and then serve a regular burrito with a little bit of hot sauce on the side. That’s not cool.

The ~~Very~~ Extremely Spicy Noodles at Momofuku Noodle Bar was just what the doctor ordered.

I knew it would be; I tried it a couple of years ago and found it to be quite tasty, but spicy enough that I needed a year or two to want to eat it again (especially when there’s so much good stuff on the menu at the Noodle Bar). But enough time had passed for me to go for round two.

It is definitely as advertised. It’s extremely spicy, but not so ridiculous that it’s inedible. It’s a very, very spicy dish, but it’s clearly designed to be delicious, and not to be something you’d only eat on a dare.

It’s an explosion of flavours; it’s spicy, garlicky, fermented, and funky. It also has that numbing heat from Sichuan peppercorns, which helps to balance out the extreme spice.

The explosive sauce and the chewy noodles are a great combo. Assuming you have a decent tolerance for spice, it’s seriously delicious (and the glass of soy milk that comes on the side does a decent job of cooling down the inferno in your mouth).

I also tried the hot cocoa soft serve, which the menu describes as “chocolate, coffee, ancho, cocoa cookie”; this wasn’t quite as good.

I think the main issue is that it’s clearly mislabeled — it tastes way more strongly of coffee than chocolate. It’s basically coffee ice cream with mild chocolatey undertones, and a surprisingly restrained level of sweetness.

I don’t particularly like coffee, but if you do I’m sure you’ll find this delicious. The ice cream has an amazingly smooth and creamy consistency, but the coffee flavour was way too intense for me.

Authentic Ramen at Hakata Ikkousha Ramen

Published on November 18, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 247 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.ikkousha.ca/

I tend not to mention my travels too often on this blog, because:

That would get insufferable fast.
It’s generally not fair to compare a version of a dish in Toronto to its legit counterpoint thousands of miles away. There are so many reasons why it’s hard to perfectly replicate a dish outside of its home country, from the availability of ingredients to the pool of local chefs. That’s not to mention the psychological aspect; there’s something about being in a place that makes the food taste better. Of course the croissant you just had in Toronto isn’t as good as the one from the charming little bakery in Paris. That would be an uphill battle in so many ways.

However, in this case it can’t be helped; I’ve eaten the ramen at the original location of Hakata Ikkousha Ramen in Fukuoka, so it’s impossible for me not to make a very direct comparison.

Ikkousha serves Hakata ramen, a particularly rich variety of tonkatsu ramen that’s served with ultra-thin noodles.

Shockingly enough, the bowl they’re serving here is basically indistinguishable from the one I had in Fukuoka. I didn’t love it there and I don’t love it here, but the quality is about the same.

Don’t get me wrong — it’s quite tasty. But it’s a bit one-note in its porky intensity. Still, it has a somewhat roasty flavour that keeps things interesting.

The secret to this type of ramen (unless it’s exceptional, and this place isn’t exceptional) are the condiments. Particularly: pickled ginger and spicy pickled mustard leaf. Adding a generous amount of both of these condiments gives the bowl a nice zippiness that cuts through the rich broth quite nicely.

The rest of the bowl is (mostly) quite good. The egg is a $2 add-on, but it’s totally worth it; it’s perfectly cooked and very flavourful. The noodles, despite being very thin, have a nice bite to them and compliment the creamy soup perfectly. And the chashu was nice and tender, though it did have a mildly gamy/leftovery flavour.