food – Page 15 – Michael Eats

Quality Eclairs at The Happy Chocco

Published on October 23, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive (inside The Food District at Square One)
Website: https://www.thehappychocco.ca/

I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical of The Happy Chocco. They always have a million eclairs on offer, and they never seem to be particularly busy. And I’m like, are these all fresh? Because it seems like they won’t all be fresh. There’s nothing sadder than a stale eclair with soggy pastry.

Well, I just went with two other people, and we all tried different eclairs and found them to be quite fresh (and quite delicious!) so I’m happy to say that I was wrong.

I went with the Dubai chocolate eclair: “classic eclair filled with pistachio pastry cream and Belgian milk chocolate dip with roasted kataifi.”

I really enjoyed this. The choux pastry had a great texture and was clearly not stale at all, the pistachio pastry cream was creamy and delicious (if a bit light on the nutty flavour), there was a decent layer of good-quality chocolate on top, and the roasted kataifi added a nice crispy texture. It’s a quality eclair.

Delicious Sandwiches at Sammie’s

Published on October 17, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 594 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.alwaystastysandwiches.com/

What’s this? A new sandwich shop in Toronto that isn’t selling Italian cold cut sandwiches on some kind of focaccia-type bread? Is that even allowed??

(They actually do have a few cold cut sandwiches, but it’s all served on hoagie rolls, so it feels a bit different from the many Italian sandwich joints that have sprung up in the last several months.)

I tried a couple of sandwiches. First up: the Brisket Philly Cheese (“chopped Brisket in gravy with melted cheese and sautéed onions; our take on the famous sandwich”).

I think calling this a Philly cheesesteak is a bit of a stretch. The sandwich contains beef and cheese, and… the similarities end there. But you know what? If you’re serving something this delicious, you can call it whatever the hell you want.

The combo between the ultra-tender brisket, the gooey cheese, and the silky caramelized onions just works. I know this sounds vaguely like a Philly cheesesteak, but the gravy-soaked slow-cooked brisket has a very, very different (but no less delicious!) personality from the griddle-cooked beef in a cheesesteak.

The menu doesn’t mention that the brisket is smoked, but there’s a distinct smoky flavour here that makes me think that it might be.

I also tried the Meatball (“Beef meatballs/Tomato sauce/shredded cheese/and diced jalapeños”).

This was just as tasty as the brisket, with a generous amount of tender, flavour-packed meatballs, more gooey cheese, and hot peppers for some nice pops of spice.

Not much more to say about this one. It’s everything you want a meatball sandwich to be: great quality meatballs, rich tomato sauce, melty cheese.

And the bread is quite nice; it’s fresh and fluffy, and it holds up well to the very saucy sandwiches. It doesn’t have a ton of personality, and is really just there to highlight the various fillings; I like a nice tangy sourdough as much as the next guy, but sometimes you want the bread to just get out of the way and be a vehicle for some tasty, meaty stuff.

Tasty Conveyor Belt Sushi at Tora

Published on October 5, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3401 Dufferin Street, North York (inside Yorkdale Mall)
Website: https://www.aburitora.com/

Tora is a conveyor belt sushi place, which is mostly a gimmick, but a fun one. They have a million of these in Japan, but they have yet to take off in Toronto for some reason.

(There’s been a few over the years, but I believe this is the only one that’s currently open.)

I should note that there isn’t any pre-made sushi going around on the belt that you can pick up — there’s a tablet at every table, and you order on the touchscreen. A few minutes later (it’s very quick), the sushi zips along on the conveyor belt and stops at your table.

The sushi itself isn’t going to blow anyone’s mind, but it’s all solid. Everything I tried was pretty decent, with the exception of the tuna nigiri, which was a bit fishy.

One of the specialties here is aburi sushi, which is a style of sushi that’s torched on top; a card on the table noted that the aburi ebi oshi, which features shrimp and a mayonnaisey sauce, is one of their most popular dishes. And yeah, that was probably the highlight of the bunch, with a decent smoky flavour from the torch and a nice zippiness from the mayo.

Quality Italian Sandwiches at Uncle Pete’s

Published on September 30, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 161 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://unclepetes.ca/

Uncle Pete’s is a new sandwich shop in Kensington Market (unaffiliated with Sleepy Pete’s, a breakfast sandwich joint around the corner — I think?) that specializes in Italian cold cut sandwiches on house-made focaccia.

The delightfully pared-down menu actually only has two sandwiches on it: the OG (“Our fresh-baked rosemary focaccia, whipped lemon ricotta, mortadella, prosciutto, chili crisp, arugula topped with balsamic glaze”), and the Pesto Pete, which features tomato and pesto.

I ordered the OG, and it’s a great sandwich. It’s getting so that you can’t go more than a few blocks in the city without stumbling across a new place serving Italian cold cut sandwiches. It’s safe to say that this trend is getting a bit played out, but even still — this place justifies its existence.

That focaccia really makes it. It’s nice and fresh, flavourful, and has a great crispy/chewy contrast. It’s the perfect vehicle for the tasty mortadella and prosciutto.

Everything else works really well together, with some nice creaminess from the ricotta, and a mild kick and a garlic-tinged savoury punch from the chili crisp. That’s not to mention the sweet balsamic glaze, which does a fantastic job of balancing out the salty cold cuts.

Tasty Pastries at Bartholomew Bakery

Published on September 29, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 467 Edgeley Boulevard, Vaughan
Website: https://www.bartholomewbakery.com/

Bartholomew Bakery does well. I showed up early on a Saturday afternoon and the place was absolutely packed, with a line out the door and a huge crowd inside. I almost left when I saw how busy it was, but there’s something about a line for food that calls out to me. What do those people know that I don’t?? I need to find out.

Anyway, it didn’t take much longer than 15 minutes to get to the front of the line, so it wasn’t too bad.

Bartholomew specializes in various croissants, along with sourdough bread. I got a pistachio croissant along with a loaf of sliced sourdough.

I neglected to take a photo of the bread, which is a shame because that was probably the highlight. All they had when I visited was the honey oat; I almost didn’t order this, because I was afraid it would be too sweet, but I’m glad I did. It is indeed a bit too sweet, but it’s nicely balanced out by the tang of the sourdough. The bread is dense, but not overly so, with a satisfying level of heft and chewiness. It’s a solid loaf of bread.

The pistachio croissant was quite good, but not on the level of the bread.

The pistachio filling had an eggy flavour that I wasn’t particularly crazy about, but otherwise had a great level of sweetness and was absolutely crammed with pistachio flavour. I wish they weren’t so generous with it, though; there’s just way, way too much of it, and it completely overwhelms the croissant itself. I think it was a good-quality croissant (albeit slightly lacking in its crisp-factor), but the deluge of pistachio filling makes it impossible to tell.