downtown – Page 9 – Michael Eats

(Mostly) Tasty Doughnuts at Cops Doughnuts

Published on January 31, 2023January 31, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 445 Adelaide Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.eatcops.com/

What’s better than a doughnut? A warm, fresh-from-the-fryer doughnut, that’s what.

Outside of a few beverages, Cops does just one thing: Tiny Tom’s-esque mini doughnuts that you can order topped with OG sour cream glaze, cinnamon sugar, or the weekly feature, which was orange sherbet when I visited. I went with an order of six of the feature.

My batch had an unnervingly pale colour, and I thought, uh oh, but maybe they serve a different style of doughnut?

Alas, they do not — the doughnuts were underdone, with an interior that wasn’t quite raw, but that was softer than you’d like.

Still, I didn’t dislike eating them — it’s hard to go wrong with a fresh doughnut, even when it’s not quite fully cooked. The exterior still managed to have a very light crispiness, and while I wish the interior was less mushy and more fluffy, it wasn’t unpleasant to eat.

That’s not to mention the orange sherbet icing, which was fantastic — it had a great balance of sweet and tart, and a nice hit of orange flavour. You could put that on anything and it would be great.

A Solid Wrap at Shah’s Halal Food

Published on January 26, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 65 Duncan Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.shahshalalfood.ca/

Shah’s Halal Food has a pretty straightforward menu; it’s basically just chicken, lamb, and falafel that you can either order on rice or as a wrap. Apparently it’s a chain with a whole bunch of locations in the States and the UK, and yeah, that checks out. It tastes like chain food.

Still, it’s not bad. I went with the lamb gyros, which comes absolutely crammed with lamb, veggies, black beans, chick peas, hummus, and three different sauces: white sauce, hot sauce, and green sauce.

The lamb itself is probably the weakest part of the sandwich; it comes out of a metal warming tray looking like the saddest, grayest cubes of meat that you’ve ever seen, and it has a spongey reconstituted meat flavour. It’s not great.

But the sandwich is so crammed with stuff that this is barely even an issue — I wish it were a bit spicier (it’s basically not spicy at all), but it’s zippy, crunchy, and flavourful, and the soft but substantial pita does a good job of holding it all together.

Tasty Banh Mi at Ca Phe Rang

Published on January 17, 2023January 20, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 147 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://capherang.ca/

Ca Phe Rang is a Vietnamese joint that was opened by celebrity chef Matty Matheson along with his mentor, Rang Nguyen. The menu consists mostly of banh mi and pho (which can be combined by ordering a bowl of pho dipping sauce to go with your sandwich).

I tried a couple of the banh mi, along with the dipping sauce.

First up was the pork (“Roasted and glazed pork. Bánh mì comes with pâté, carrot, daikon, cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro, Thai basil, white onion, spicy chili paste”). I’ll admit that I wasn’t crazy about this. The pork was dry and mostly flavourless, and if there was pate in the sandwich, I couldn’t taste it. The generous pile of zingy veggies and fresh cilantro are quite tasty, but the sandwich really needed some kind of sauce to bring some moisture and flavour.

(There is the pho dip — which tastes like a pretty standard pho broth — which helps quite a lot. But this is an optional $3 add-on, so you’d think the sandwich would be able to stand on its own.)

The brisket (“Roasted and glazed brisket. Bánh Mì comes with pâté, carrot, daikon, cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro, white onion, spicy chili paste”) is substantially better. Again, the pate was either MIA or applied so sparingly that it may as well not be there. But the meat is super tender, and it’s saucy and flavourful enough that the sandwich never feels dry like the pork. It’s actually fairy sweet, but the vinegary bite of the veggies does a great job of balancing this out. This one doesn’t need the dip at all; it’s thoroughly delicious on its own.

A Tasty Egg Sandwich at Egg Club

Published on December 26, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 531 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://eggclub.ca/

As you’d guess from the name, Egg Club is all about egg sandwiches; every sandwich here features a fluffy omelet with various toppings, served on sweet Japanese milk bread. It reminds me a lot of Egg Bae, but I think I like this place better.

You can get sandwiches here with stuff like ham, bacon, or even lobster, but I went pretty simple with the eponymous Egg Club: “Balsamic Onion, Swiss Cheese, Creme Fraiche, Egg Club Sauce.”

Between the silky eggs, the cheese, the sweet brioche-style bread, and the creamy sauces, it’s a very rich sandwich. It’s a bit one-note (this was my biggest problem with Egg Bae as well), but the balsamic onion does a pretty solid job of bringing some sweet acidity that tones it down. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but there’s a generous amount throughout the sandwich, and it’s fairly essential in keeping things balanced.

Amazing Gelato at Mizzica Gelateria & Cafe

Published on September 20, 2022September 20, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 29 McCaul Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/mizzicagelato/

The first thing you see before you enter the door at Mizzica is a big banner with the various awards they won at the Gelato Festival World Masters, which certainly seems like a promising sign.

And then you try the actual gelato, and it’s pretty clear why they won those awards — holy moly it’s good, please give them all the awards.

They have a bunch of delicious looking flavours, but I went with the Cassata Siciliana, which is based on an Italian dessert of the same name (which is basically a boozy cake filled with candied fruit and creamy ricotta).

It’s so good. It’s filled with chunks of cake, dark chocolate, candied fruit, and sweet ricotta, and everything about it is crazy delicious. The balance of all the ingredients is just right, and the gelato itself is super smooth, rich, and creamy. I was wondering if they could keep up that stratospheric level of quality; I’ve been back a few times since this particular visit, and yeah, this place is the real deal. It’s some of the best gelato in the city.