Etobicoke – Page 5 – Michael Eats

Great Shawarma at Leziz Kitchen

Published on May 21, 2024 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 418 Horner Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.lezizkitchen.com/

Look, I’m going to cut right to the chase with this one: you know what shawarma is. I don’t need to sell it to you. And the chicken shawarma wrap at Leziz Kitchen? It’s great. You should try it.

Everything about it just works. The shawarma itself is as it should be — it’s nicely spiced, it’s got a bunch of crispy bits, and the meat is juicy.

The wrap has a nice balance of meatiness and freshness from the veggies (mostly just lettuce and tomato; I skipped the onion), the garlic sauce is flavourful without being a garlic assault, and the hot sauce adds some nice zip. And the pita, which they put on the grill to heat up and get some light toastiness, is fresh and lightly chewy; it does a great job of holding everything together.

It’s definitely one of the better shawarma wraps I’ve had in the Mississauga/Etobicoke area.

Creamy Avocado Ranch McWrap from McDonald’s

Published on May 17, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

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

I’m not really a fan of any of the McWraps, which are generally kind of dry and bland. I think they’re McDonald’s half-hearted attempt to put something “healthy” on the menu, but you know what? McDonald’s shouldn’t be healthy. It should be junk. It should clog your arteries and make you feel bad about yourself. That’s its purpose.

Still, there is a new McWrap, so, sure, I’ll give it a shot.

Here’s how McDonald’s describes the Creamy Avocado Ranch McWrap: “Made with 100% Canadian-raised seasoned chicken topped with creamy avocado ranch sauce, crispy jalapenos, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumbers. All wrapped up in a soft white flour tortilla.”

Like the rest of the McWraps, you can get it with either crispy or grilled chicken; I went crispy. It’s fine. It’s probably one of the better ones, because the avocado ranch sauce is zippy and tasty, and there’s quite a bit of it. Would I have known the sauce had avocado in it if you hadn’t told me (and if it weren’t tinted green)? Absolutely not. It basically just tastes like a zestier ranch, but it’s solid for what it is.

Otherwise, the veggies are all fresh, the chicken is what it is, and the crispy jalapenos add some texture (but zero spice, sadly). I’m not mad I ate it, even if it’s not really what I want from McDonald’s.

Sweet Chili Junior Chicken at McDonald’s

Published on April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

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

The Sweet Chili Junior Chicken is probably the least interesting of the three sandwiches on McDonald’s new Remix Menu, but I’ve tried the other two, so sure — why not?

McDonald’s describes this thing by saying “your tastebuds will be singing a whole new tune with a remixed Sweet Chili Junior Chicken made with Canadian-raised crispy seasoned chicken, topped with crunchy shredded lettuce, tangy sweet chili sauce and mayo-style sauce, all on a toasty bun.”

Spoiler alert: this did not make my tastebuds sing.

The problem is the sweet chili sauce. I really wish it were more chili, less sweet. It’s sweet. Like, dessert sweet. A sauce that sweet basically works as a dip for McNuggets, because you can control how much (or how little) you get in each mouthful. Here, where it’s just globbed into the sandwich, it’s too much. It’s overpowering.

Unless you really love that sauce, there’s zero reason to get this over a standard Junior Chicken.

Chicken Cheeseburger at McDonald’s

Published on April 11, 2024 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

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

I recently wrote about the Surf ‘N Turf Burger, which features a double cheeseburger and a Filet-o-Fish patty crammed into one thing. It’s part of McDonald’s new Remix Menu, which is all about cramming things together to see what happens.

The Chicken Cheeseburger is basically a Junior Chicken and a cheeseburger crammed together. McDonald’s describes it as “a combo of two classics featuring a crispy chicken patty made with Canadian-raised seasoned chicken and a juicy 100% Canadian beef patty, all topped with a slice of melty processed cheddar cheese, a tangy pickle, onions, ketchup and mustard on a toasty bun.”

Like the Surf ‘N Turf Burger, it’s fine. It’s more of a fun novelty than something you’d likely want to go back for, but it’s okay.

The combo of fish and beef in the Surf ‘N Turf Burger was vaguely off-putting, so I guess this one is a bit better in that there’s nothing befuddling about it. The slight crispiness and peppery flavour of the chicken patty complements the cheeseburger reasonably well. But the beef and the chicken both want to be the star — they can’t decide who should be a supporting player, so the whole thing feels a bit neither here nor there.

Surf ‘N Turf Burger at McDonald’s

Published on April 5, 2024 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

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

McDonald’s recently introduced a “Remix Menu,” featuring a few fun combinations of regular menu items. Yes, this is all technically stuff you could have been ordering all along, but that would require either:

Ordering two separate items and then winding up with a bunch of extra bread, or
Trying to explain an unnecessarily complicated custom order to an overworked cashier who has no time for — or interest in — your nonsense.

I didn’t particularly want to do either of those things, so this promo is actually kind of exciting to me.

The new menu consists of a burger/chicken combo, a Junior Chicken with a sweet chili sauce, an apple pie McFlurry, and the one I tried: the Surf ‘N Turf burger, which features all the stuff you’d normally find on a McDonald’s cheeseburger (cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and little onions) with a Filet-O-Fish patty crammed in.

It’s… fine? It’s not offensive to eat, but it turns out there’s a reason the cheeseburger / fried fish combo isn’t a thing. The two items don’t particularly complement each other.

McDonald’s beef isn’t super flavourful, so most of the taste here comes from the Filet-O-Fish patty. But the texture of the burger is much more prominent. So you’re basically eating a sandwich with a beef texture and a fish flavour. It’s weird. And again, it’s not gross, but I can’t see a scenario in which I’d ever want to order this again.