Filipino food – Michael Eats

Quick Bites: Kumain Kitchen, Kezy Doner, Salad King

Published on October 19, 2025October 19, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Chicken Inasal at Kumain Kitchen

Kumain Kitchen is a “Filipino inspired pop-up” that was in the pop-up space in the Food District at Square One last year (yeah, I have a bit of a backlog). I tried the chicken inasal (“grilled lemongrass chicken served with garlic rice and cucumber salad”) and mostly, it was quite tasty. The chicken was slightly on the dry side, but it was so well seasoned and absolutely crammed with vibrant flavours that this wasn’t a big deal. I really enjoyed it. But I guess they ran out of garlic rice, because it came with plain old rice instead, which was a shame. As for the cucumber salad, it was actually just undressed cucumbers, radishes and tomatoes, along with pickled onion. I actually Googled this to see if that’s just a Filipino thing, but nope — Filipino cucumber and tomato salad is called ensaladang pipino, and it’s definitely supposed to be dressed. Still, that chicken was delicious enough to make up for everything else.

Chicken Wrap at Kezy Doner

The chicken wrap from Kezy Doner was thoroughly okay. Did anything about it stand out? No, not even remotely. But it came up to exactly ten bucks with tax, came crammed with a healthy amount of relatively juicy chicken, and was satisfying enough for what it was. It’s not something you should go out of your way for, but if you’re in the area and you don’t feel like spending too much money, sure, why not? This place is in a food court right near the OCAD campus, and I can definitely see it being popular with broke students.

Lime Leaf Chicken at Salad King

Speaking of restaurants with (relatively) cheap eats that are popular with students… Salad King. This is a Toronto institution (it’s been around since 1981) that I’ve somehow never tried. I got the lime leaf chicken (“Chicken breast slices, snap peas, red pepper, lime leaf, & carrot in a spicy chili sauce with Thai herbs”) and it was perfectly fine. The chicken was a bit dry, but otherwise it was flavourful and satisfying. I’m not exactly going to be dreaming about the place, but I can see why it’s so popular. They are also, famously, not kidding around with the spice here, and yeah. I chose 10 out of 20 on their spice-scale, and it was thoroughly fiery.

Filipino Desserts at Purple Oven Cakes & Pastries

Published on July 24, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 780 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.purpleoven.ca/

Purple Oven is a great little Filipino bakery in Mississagua. It’s one of those hidden gems that you’d absolutely, positively never find unless you’re specifically looking for it — it’s hidden around the corner in a plaza on Burnhamthorpe (I’ve actually been to this plaza a few times, and I didn’t even realize that this part of it existed).

I hope they’re still managing to do okay, because I tried a few pastries and they were all quite tasty.

The most interesting of the three was the cheesy ensaymada, which is essentially a brioche bun topped with buttercream icing and shredded cheese. Salty cheese on dessert is a bit of an odd combo, but it’s got that sweet/salty thing going on and is actually surprisingly delicious.

The ube cheesecake bar was basically like a chewy brownie, but with ube instead of chocolate. It also has a mildly funky flavour (like a stinky cheese?) that was odd, but not unappealing.

The last thing I tried was an ube cupcake, which was similar to the cheesecake bar, but without the funkiness. This was also quite tasty, though the dense cookie on top made it basically impossible to eat without squashing the frosting all over the place.

Delicious Filipino Food at Kusina

Published on May 13, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3024 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558706068051&mibextid=LQQJ4d

Kusina is a delightful Filipino take-out joint with various meaty and seafoody dishes on offer. I’m not incredibly familiar with Filipino cuisine, but the guy in front of me said that the pork hocks are the thing to order, so that’s what I did.

There weren’t any labels on of the items on offer, but based on a quick google search I believe that this is a dish called paksiw na pata, which features slow-cooked pork hocks and banana flowers (which are the blossoms of a banana tree). It comes with a healthy portion of white rice and costs nine bucks, so it’s a great deal.

It’s exceptionally delicious. Pork hocks can be a bit gummy if they’re not cooked well, but these were absolutely perfect, and were abundantly tender. And the flavour was pretty amazing — sweet, savoury, and a little bit tangy. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s giving it that tanginess (the banana flowers, maybe?), but it gave this dish a really unique personality and was extremely tasty.

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.

Tasty Buns at Bao Mama

Published on April 4, 2023April 4, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga
Website: https://baomama.ca/

Bao Mama currently has a temporary pop-up in the Food District at Square One (until April 16th), but if you miss them there, you can check out their permanent location in Scarborough. And you might want to do that, because their Filipino-inspired buns are thoroughly tasty.

The first one I tried was the hip hipon crispy shrimp bao, which features crispy fried shrimp topped with a zingy sauce and “Asian house slaw.” The shrimp was a bit overcooked, but this was otherwise quite satisfying, with a nice contrast between the fluffy bao and the crispy fried shrimp, not to mention the tasty slaw and the slightly sweet sauce.

I also tried the triple B braised beef asado bao, which is stuffed with a generous amount of tender braised beef, and topped with the house slaw and crispy onions. This was easily my favourite of the two; that ultra-tender, very flavourful beef is something special.

They have a tangy, sweet chili sauce you can get on the side, and this stuff is a must — it complements both baos perfectly, and does a great job of amping up the flavours and adding a mild kick.