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Fun Fusion Brunch at Curryish Tavern

Published on March 24, 2024March 24, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

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.”

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).

(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.

Solid Noodle Soup at Kenzo Ramen

Published on December 10, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3337 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke
Website: http://www.kenzoramen.ca/

It’s hard to remember this now, but there was a time (not that long ago!) when ramen was actually pretty difficult to find in the GTA. And Kenzo is Toronto’s ramen OG; they opened their first location in 2002, and for quite a while, they were pretty much the only game in town if you wanted to sample ramen in the city.

Of course, these days it’s hard to go more than a few blocks without coming across a ramen joint, but Kenzo’s still around despite all the competition. So they must be doing something right.

And indeed, the bowl I had might not have been up there with the city’s best, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

They have a whole bunch of options, but the waiter mentioned that the King of Kings is their most popular, which is a spicy shio broth with an “assortment of stir-fried vegetables with ground pork, topped with charsu, egg, naruto maki, menma, wakame, green onion, nori.”

You can choose your spice level; I went with the spiciest, and it was indeed quite fiery.

The stir-fried vegetables are actually the most unique part; they give the whole bowl that distinctive stir-fried wok hay flavour, which makes it feel quite distinct. It actually kind of reminded me of a style of ramen called burnt miso ramen that I don’t believe you can find in the GTA.

The noodles were a bit on the soft side, and the broth lacked the complexity you’ll find in the best bowls of ramen, but overall it’s a tasty bowl of noodle soup.

Pretty Good Brunch at Death and Taxes Free House

Published on November 11, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1154 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.freehouse.co/locations/death-and-taxes

I’ll admit that I mostly wanted to go to Death and Taxes to sample one of the cask ales they (are supposed to) have on tap. Alas, they had zero cask ales available on the day I visited.

(For the uninitiated, a cask ale is a type of beer that’s naturally carbonated, unfiltered, and fermented in the cask, giving it a more complex flavour and a more subtle level of carbonation than a typical beer. I was recently in London, where this style of beer is served at basically every good pub; sadly, it’s much trickier to find here.)

I tried the breakfast burrito (“crispy bacon, hash, scrambled egg, feta, spicy mayo, flour tortilla”) along with the BLT (“toasted sourdough, butter, bacon, American cheese, curry mayo, garlic mayo, avocado, tomato, iceberg lettuce”). Both were tasty enough, though the BLT was the better of the two. Avocado is a great addition to the BLT formula, adding a nice dose of creaminess and richness. And the curry mayo is a great addition as well, bringing a ton of flavour to a sandwich that otherwise could have felt pretty routine.

And while the potatoes were under-seasoned and under-crispy (they weren’t crispy at all — intentionally?), they were well cooked and satisfying enough (though they definitely needed the provided cup of spicy ketchup).

Delicious and Unique Ramen at Afuri Ramen + Dumpling

Published on October 29, 2023October 29, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 411 Church Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.afuriramen.com/

There are many, many ramen shops in the GTA, but I can say with a good amount of certainty that what they’re serving at Afuri Ramen is delightfully unique.

Their specialty seems to be the yuzu shio, which the menu describes as “shio tare, chicken broth, bamboo shoot, frisee, chashu, egg, nori, yuzu, thin noodles.”

It’s the yuzu (a clementine-esque fruit from Asia) that sets this apart; the light, chicken-infused broth has a distinctive citrus-zest brightness that really makes it sing (there’s also a tasty browned garlic flavour that rounds things out). It’s leagues apart from the typically heavy tonkotsu ramen that’s so common in Toronto, but no less delicious.

The toppings are (mostly) quite tasty, with the perfectly cooked egg having a delightfully savoury kick, and with the light bitterness of the frisee contrasting nicely with the slightly sweet broth. That’s not to mention the thin, chewy noodles, which complement the bowl perfectly.

The chasu is the one weak point; it’s fine, but it’s a bit tough, and nothing about the flavour particularly stands out. Still, everything else is so good that this barely even matters.

Great Filipino Brunch at BB’s

Published on October 26, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5 Brock Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs/

BB’s is a delightful Filipino joint that’s mostly known for their brunch, though they are open in the evenings on the weekend, serving… not brunch? I don’t know, they don’t have a website. Maybe it’s all day brunch? Who knows; go and find out!

What a useful blog post this is. Not a waste of your time at all.

What I can say with some level of certainty is that if you show up between 11:00am and 4:00pm between Friday and Sunday, you can brunch it up. Even more of a certainty: the food is delicious.

I ordered the BB’s Silog, which the menu describes as “breakfast plate w/ garlic rice, two fried eggs, atsara, & your choice of house made longanisa, corned beef hash, fried milkfish.”

It’s a seriously, seriously tasty breakfast. I went with the corned beef hash, which is exactly what you want it to be: it’s super tender, the flavour is great, and it’s got a bunch of delightfully crispy bits from the griddle. It also has a perfect ratio of perfectly-cooked potato cubes to meat, which is to say that it’s mostly meat, with a few little potatoes interspersed throughout.

I also tried the longanisa, which is basically a Filipino take on chorizo. This was great, with an interesting sweetness and a great meaty texture. I’m a big fan of sausages with a more rustic grind, and that was definitely the case here.

As for everything else on the plate, the garlic rice was, as advertised, extremely garlicky, with an intense browned-garlic flavour and an interesting texture (it’s reminiscent of Vietnamese broken rice). The eggs were perfectly cooked, and the atsara (pickled papaya) was a perfect zingy counterpoint to everything else on the plate.

The only odd note was the big dollop of ketchup, which could not have been more unnecessary or unwelcome here. I tried a bit on its own, and as far as I could tell it was just plain old Heinz. I’m not a ketchup hater, but there was absolutely nothing on this delicious plate that even remotely needed it.