food court – Page 2 – Michael Eats

Tasty Fried Chicken and Curry at Ramen Ryu

Published on November 17, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 486 Front Street West, Toronto (inside Wellington Market)
Website: https://ryusnoodlebar.com/ramen_ryu

I mentioned recently that I tried the ramen at Ramen Ryu at the Well and found it tasty, but not mind-blowing. Well, maybe I just ordered the wrong thing? This place has a “recommendation” board on their menu, and the top choice isn’t ramen at all — it’s karaage & curry.

I ordered it, obviously, and yeah, it’s quite tasty.

It’s a simple dish — rice, a whole bunch of Japanese curry, and three pieces of karaage (i.e. Japanese fried chicken).

The curry is great, with a nice depth of flavour and a mild spicy kick. It’s maybe a touch on the salty side, but is otherwise above average Japanese curry.

The chicken features a nice balance between the crispy exterior and juicy interior, and complements the curry well. And the rice does a great job of soaking up that curry. It’s a very satisfying dish.

Delicious Roast Pork at The Carvery

Published on July 26, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 486 Front Street West, Toronto (inside Wellington Market)
Website: https://thewelltoronto.com/directory/the-carvery/

Wellington Market at the Well recently expanded a bit — they have a handful of new restaurants, including locations of BEAR Steak Sandwiches, Chen Chen’s Nashville Hot Chicken, and the one I checked out, The Carvery.

This is an outpost of a Windsor restaurant that specializes in various roast meats — chicken, pork, lamb, and beef — that you can have in a sandwich or on a plate.

I went with the roast pork plate, which comes with the pork, a crispy piece of crackling, peas, carrots, squash, potatoes, and a dinner roll. At $13.90 for a massive plate of food, it’s an incredible deal.

No, it’s not the most photogenic dish ever — it’s basically just various shades of brown, though there is a generous amount of vegetables buried under there.

But if it tastes this good, I can’t say I’m too concerned about what it looks like.

Most importantly, the roast pork is great — it’s tender and nicely seasoned, with the gravy on top just amping up its flavour. There’s also the ultra-crunchy piece of crackling on top, and yeah, that’s good stuff.

As for everything else, the vegetables are all cooked perfectly (the potato has a satisfyingly crispy exterior), and the roll is clearly fresh, with a nicely buttery flavour.

And again: it’s $13.90. It’s an amazing value for the quantity and quality of the food you’re getting here.

Solid Tacos at Azul

Published on April 13, 2025April 13, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 King Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/azulmexicanto/

I think the first thing I should note about Azul is: it’s not easy to find! It’s in the food court at First Canadian Place downtown, except, oh wait, apparently there’s more than one food court in First Canadian Place? I wandered around the one on the lower level for longer than I should admit, and the whole time I’m looking at Google Maps like, it should be right here, what gives?

It turns out there’s a whole other food court on the upper floor, which is not confusing at all. Totally reasonable to have two food courts within a couple of floors of each other.

Anyway, Azul. It’s a Mexican eatery that features various tacos, tortas, and bowls. I tried a couple of the tacos: chilorio (“pork shoulder – marinated and slow cooked, pickled onions”) and Baja (“fish – battered and fried, cabbage slaw, lime mayo”). You also get a little tub of salsa on the side that can be mild, medium, or hot. I went with hot.

The tacos both come on blue corn tortillas that are reasonably fresh and have a decent amount of heft to them (both tacos were crammed with stuff, and the tortillas held up nicely).

Neither knocked my socks off, but both were quite tasty — particularly the chilorio, which features a generous amount of tender, meaty pork. The fish was a bit dry, but it’s topped with so much stuff that it barely matters. For something from a food court, you could do much worse.

Quick Bites: Sun’s Kitchen, Bei Wei Ju Dumpling House, Perkins

Published on July 22, 2024July 22, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Noodles with Spicy Pork from Sun’s Kitchen

Sun’s Kitchen is (was?) my favourite restaurant in the Pacific Mall food court, but sadly, it seems that they’ve gone downhill. I pretty much always order the same thing here (noodles with spicy pork), and mostly, it was just as tasty as ever. But the real attraction of this place are the delightfully chewy noodles that they hand-pull on site, and on this particular visit they were shockingly mushy. My dining companion said he had the same experience a few months ago, so I’m not even sure if this was a one-time mistake. They’ve also stopped serving the soup and soy milk that used to come on the side (and the bowl now comes with an egg), so I wonder if there was a change of ownership. Either way, I can’t imagine I’ll be back anytime soon, sadly.

Crispy shrimp and pork dumplings from Bei Wei Ju Dumpling House

Speaking of the Pacific Mall, I also tried these fried dumplings from Bei Wei Ju Dumpling House, and they were quite satisfying. The filling could have been a bit more generous (there was a marble-sized ball of meat in the centre of each dumpling, which was otherwise all wrapper), but the exterior had a nice balance of chewiness and crispiness, and the whole thing was very tasty.

Southern Fried Chicken Biscuit Breakfast from Perkins

I was actually pretty excited to try Perkins, an American chain with a menu that reminds me of places like Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel (both of which have zero locations in Canada, sadly). I ordered the Southern Fried Chicken Biscuit Breakfast, and while the whole thing wasn’t unpleasant to eat, I think I could have had roughly the same experience (at a fraction of the price) by going to the supermarket and buying a Hungry Man dinner.

Dave’s Genuine Deli at the Waterworks Food Hall

Published on July 14, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 50 Brandt Street, Toronto (inside the Waterworks Food Hall)
Website: https://www.davesgenuine.ca/

I’m a sucker for a good smoked meat deli sandwich, so it bums me out that there are so few great ones being served in the GTA. There’s SumiLicious and Centre Street Deli and… that’s about it?

Well, you can add one more sandwich to that list: Dave’s Genuine Deli. I actually went to the original location a year or so ago and the sandwich was just as good then, so they’re consistent, too.

They have a handful of sandwiches on the menu (including, intriguingly, a couple of southern-style BBQ sandwiches), but of course, I went with the smoked meat, which you can order as a quarter or half pound serving (I went quarter and kinda wished I went with half once I realized how good it was).

It’s so good — super tender, perfectly rendered fat, great spicing, and a very pronounced smoky flavour. That smokiness kind of reminds me of Caplansky’s in their glory days in the Monarch. Great bread, too. It’s a top-shelf smoked meat sandwich.

The only thing I’d change is that I’d order the mustard on the side next time. They were very heavy-handed with it, and on a lesser sandwich I’d be fine with that (it might even be necessary), but the quality of the meat was so good that the aggressive slathering of mustard overwhelmed its flavour and took away from it a bit. Still, that’s a very minor complaint for an otherwise phenomenal sandwich.

I also got an order of the fries, and they were great too, with a perfect crispy/creamy combo and a nice amount of salt.