fried pork – Michael Eats

Great Noodles at Gun Gun Rice Noodle

Published on September 21, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 565 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/gungun.noodle/

Gun Gun Rice Noodle is a seriously delightful restaurant near Yonge and Bloor that specializes in noodle soups made with, of course, rice noodles. I heard the crispy pork spicy pickle rice noodle is the thing to order, so that’s what I did.

The menu doesn’t say what the dish is, though it does mention that all the soups come with “tofu skin, tofu puff, kelp, quail egg, chives, bok choy.”

I really enjoyed this. The broth is vibrant and flavour-packed, with a noticeable spicy kick; it’s actually quite addictive. The noodles were maybe a touch on the soft side, but everything else was so tasty that it really didn’t matter.

In particular, the crispy pork that comes on top of the soup is thoroughly delicious, with a perfectly seasoned crispy exterior and nicely tender pork within. The exterior is crispy enough to hold up to the soup for quite a while, but even once it starts to sog up a bit, it absorbs that delicious broth and becomes tastier.

Tasty, Cheesy Pork Katsu at Katsuya

Published on May 26, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1224 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
Website: https://katsuya.ca/

There are very few dishes that wouldn’t be enhanced with the addition of gooey cheese. Think about a dish. Now think about that dish, but with gooey cheese. It’s better, right?

(And if you’re thinking that this isn’t true for dessert, let me tell you: you’re wrong.)

They have a cheese option for the katsu at Katsuya, which finds the traditional pork loin topped with mozzarella cheese before its breaded and fried, and yeah, it’s delightful. The pork is tender, the cheese is delightfully melty, and the exterior is nice and crispy. How could that not be great?

I ordered the Katsuya Original, which comes topped with “Katsuya’s house sauce.” I’d probably order one of their other options next time — the sauce was a bit sweet for me — but the katsu itself was so tasty that this was barely an issue.

Tasty Japanese Sandwiches at Imanishi Sando Bar

Published on November 9, 2023November 9, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 179 Brock Avenue (inside McCormick Park)
Website: https://imanishisandobar.square.site/

Imanishi Sando Bar is a bit of an odd one — located in an unlabeled shipping container next to a community centre, in an area where you’d absolutely never be able to see it if you were driving by, it’s pretty much the dictionary definition of a hidden gem.

They mostly serve a variety of Japanese sandwiches (or “sandos”), though they do have a few other things on the menu.

I tried the pork tenderloin sando, the aji (mackerel) sando, and the fries; everything was quite good.

Both the pork and the fish are freshly fried, with a delightfully crispy exterior and a perfectly cooked interior. They’re served on sweet, fluffy Japanese milk bread, which complements them both perfectly.

The aji, with its tartar sauce and slice of cheese, is basically like an upscale Filet-O-Fish. Both sandwiches are saucy as hell (the pork has what tastes like the same tartar sauce, along with tangy tonkatsu sauce); they’re a bit of a mess to eat, but they’re extremely tasty.

The fries are quite good too — particularly once you dip them in the sweet honey mustard sauce on the side — though they are fairly standard battered fries.

Japanese Domination Continues at Koi Koi Sake Bar

Published on July 30, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 170 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.koikoibar.com/

Joining places like Little Pebbles, Sakoshi Mart, and Millie Creperie, the Japanese domination of this stretch of Kensington Market continues with Koi Koi Sake Bar, which features a tasty selection of Japanese eats. I, for one, welcome our new Japanese overlords.

I tried a few things. First up was a nice little snack that every table gets by default. I meant to ask what these were and completely forgot, but they were crunchy, savoury, and a little bit sweet.

Next up was the katsu sando, which is a fried pork sandwich topped with a generous amount of mayo and tangy tonkatsu sauce, with some romaine lettuce for added crunch and freshness. It’s a solid sandwich, though the pork was overcooked (I had a hard time even biting through it in parts).

The miso nasu followed, which is a dish consisting of grilled, miso-glazed eggplant. It feels like it’s missing something (a crunchy counterpoint to the soft eggplant, perhaps?), but it’s enjoyable enough; it basically tastes like they distilled the flavour of miso soup into a glaze and then brushed it onto an eggplant.

The last dish was the bacon fried rice, which food writer David Ort called “possibly the best fried rice [he’s] ever had.” This is mostly what made me want to come here.

I’m not sure if it’s the best I’ve ever had, but it was definitely top-shelf fried rice, with a nice meatiness from the generous bacon and a satisfying level of crispiness from the fried garlic slices. The creamy mayo on top was a nice touch.

Crispy Fried Goodness at Mr. Tonkatsu

Published on May 8, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 520 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.mrtonkatsu.com/

Tonkatsu is one of those dishes that’s very difficult to dislike. You can coat pretty much anything in panko breading and then deep fry it, and that thing is going to be tasty. A fried, panko-breaded pork cutlet? Served with rice and a delicious dipping sauce? Yeah, it’s hard to go wrong there.

And while Mr. Tonkatsu doesn’t serve the best tonkatsu I’ve ever had, they certainly do a solid job with it.

They have a couple of different pork options on the menu — loin and tenderloin, with the latter being an extra dollar. I went with loin, which comes with a bowl of rice, tonkatsu sauce, shredded cabbage, and miso soup.

The panko breading on the tonkatsu had an absolutely perfect texture — it was golden and lightly crispy, with just enough heft to make its presence known, but not enough to overwhelm the meat. But it was way underseasoned; it was actually pretty bland.

Thankfully, the tonkatsu sauce very thoroughly solves that problem. I normally like that stuff — it’s kind of like a Japanese take on HP sauce — but the version here was something special, with way more complexity than the norm.

It’s good that the sauce was so delicious, because the meat needed a lot of it. Aside from the distinct lack of flavour, the pork itself was overcooked and extremely dry. A prodigious application of the tasty sauce goes a long way towards fixing those problems, but they are problems nonetheless.

Everything else was quite good. The dressing for the cabbage was the usual sesame-infused concoction you’d expect; it was quite satisfying. And the miso soup had a mildly fishy funk that I found to be delightful.