fried dumplings – Michael Eats

Tasty Eats at IBUND Classic Shanghai Potstickers

Published on November 8, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5457 Yonge Street, North York
Website: https://ibund.net/

It’s always nice when the name of the restaurant tells you exactly what to order. IBUND Classic Shanghai Potstickers (there’s a name that just rolls right off the tongue) has a pretty broad menu of Shanghai classics, but obviously, you’ve gotta try the potstickers.

There’s no description for anything in the menu, but everything you need to know about the Juicy Pork Potstickers is right there in the name — they’re stuffed with a generous amount of nicely-spiced pork, and they are indeed quite juicy. They’re almost at soup dumpling levels of juiciness, and they’re really satisfying.

There isn’t a single thing about them that I’d change — the wrapper isn’t too thick and has a great texture, they’re perfectly fried with a nice crispy bottom, and the pork inside is thoroughly tasty. They’re the restaurant’s specialty, and you can tell. Seriously good.

I also tried the Shanghai Style Pork Mooncake, which the menu notes is recommended. Between the flaky dough and the ground meat filling, this kinda felt like a Chinese version of a Jamaican patty. I enjoyed it, even if it’s not quite on the level of the potsticker (but then what is?).

Finally, I tried the Shanghai Eight-Treasure Spicy Noodles, which you can get dry or with soup (I went dry). Oddly, it’s not spicy at all, but otherwise this featured chewy, pleasantly salty noodles (I’m pretty sure the dry noodle base is their scallion oil noodles) topped with a slightly sweet, meaty topping. I legitimately have no idea what that meat was (or if it even was all meat — some of the pieces seemed like they weren’t?), but it was tasty.

A Satisfying Meal at Hancook Cheese Dakgalbi

Published on November 30, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 605 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.hancookcanada.com/

It’s always nice when you go to restaurant and know exactly what to order. In the case of Hancook Cheese Dakgalbi, that’s an extremely easy decision: it’s gotta be the Hancook cheese dakgalbi.

Dakgalbi is a Korean dish that consists of stir-fried chicken, rice cakes, and veggies in a sweet, gochujang-infused sauce. You can get it without cheese, but why would you? The richness of the cheese actually complements the zingy dish quite well.

It’s seriously tasty. It’s kind of like an amped-up version of tteokbokki, with the tender chicken being a great addition to the sweet/spicy sauce and the chewy rice cakes.

You can order it at a spice level from one to four; I went with three, and it was pleasantly spicy but not overwhelmingly so. I’d probably get four next time, but it certainly wasn’t lacking in spice.

I also got an order of the fried vegetable dumplings. Nothing about these particularly blew me away, but they’re nicely crispy on the outside and come with a creamy dipping sauce that’s thoroughly delicious and surprisingly fiery.

Tasty Korean Food at Sinjeon Topokki

Published on November 21, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 712 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://sinjeoncanada.ca/

Sinjeon Topokki is a Korean chain that’s recently been expanding in the GTA — this is their third location. As you’d imagine from the name, they specialize in topokki (more commonly spelled “tteokbokki”), a dish that features chewy rice cakes in a spicy sauce.

They have a few different types of topokki — I went with the original, which is the classic version of the dish. You can pick your spice level from one to three. I went with the second level, which is legitimately fiery.

It’s quite tasty, with a very pleasant chewiness on the rice cakes and with a whole bunch of the sweet, savoury, and spicy sauce. The rice cakes are basically swimming in sauce, which is good because you can use it as a dip for the other stuff you order.

I also tried the fried combo, which comes with an assortment of fried fish cakes, dumplings, and other fried goodness. This stuff is tasty on its own, and even tastier when you dip it in the topokki sauce.

Kimbap (which is kinda like a Korean sushi roll, but filled with non-sushi ingredients) is another specialty here; I went with the Sinjeon cheese kimbap, which is filled with kimchi and gooey cheese. This one was a bit dry, but a dunk in the topokki sauce makes quick work of that.

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.

Mediocre Dim Sum at Planta Queen

Published on October 22, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 180 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.plantarestaurants.com/

I just talked about Shanghai Dim Sum, a dim sum restaurant in Richmond Hill that’s both delicious and delightfully affordable.

Well, Planta Queen serves dim sum on the weekends, and it’s the complete inverse of that — it’s ridiculously expensive and thoroughly mediocre.

I managed to try a few things, and while nothing was outright unpleasant, everything I tried was an inferior version of something you could get at a dim sum joint or elsewhere. The dumplings were probably the worst offenders — the various fillings were fine, but the wrappers were flabby and overcooked.

Adding insult to injury? They all ranged from 13 to 15 bucks for an order of four. For 15 bucks, I could get 60 soup dumplings from Shanghai Dim Sum (well, I’m sure they have a limit per table, but you get the idea) — and those dumplings were about a million times better than any of the dumplings here.

The other things I tried — a dosa, fried mushrooms, dan dan noodles — were all decent enough, but again, they were crazy expensive and thoroughly inferior to the real deal.

The best thing I had — by far — was the chocolate cake. The pastry chef here is clearly the real talent in the kitchen, because the cake was abundantly satisfying. It was rich, fudgy, and slightly fruity, with a deep chocolately flavour. It was amazing.