fried – Michael Eats

Delicious Empanadas at La Morena

Published on April 30, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1175A Saint Clair Avenue West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/lamorenastclair/

If you’re looking for some very tasty empanadas, I think La Morena is where it’s at. The tiny place was doing very brisk business when I visited on a Saturday afternoon, and it’s easy enough to see why.

I tried a couple of empanadas: Colombian beef (“shredded beef and potato”) and Colombian chorizo (“homemade chorizo and potato”).

Both feature pastry made with corn flour, with a nice crispy exterior and just enough substance to hold up to the tasty fillings.

I was a bit surprised that both fillings tasted basically the same, and were a bit more muted in the flavour department than I was expecting.

But the optional hot sauce — a zingy, vibrant yellow concoction that I want to take home in a jug — brings some serious flavour. I would have enjoyed the empanadas without it, but that sauce really puts them over the top.

Tasty Fried Chicken Sandwiches at Mad Bird Hot Chicken

Published on April 28, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 154 Queen Street South, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/madbird.ca/

There’s certainly no shortage of solid fried chicken sandwiches in Toronto, but Mississauga? That’s a bit more rare. So I was excited to check out Mad Bird Hot Chicken in Streetsville.

They have a variety of sandwiches, wings, and “bird bites” (chicken strips, basically). I went with the Nashville Napalm Sando: “This sando brings serious heat and Southern swagger. Our 48-hour marinated crispy chicken thigh gets baptized in fiery Nashville chili-oil, then stacked with cool Bird’s ranch, crunchy southern slaw, and tangy pickles — all hugged by a buttery brioche bun.”

You can pick your spice level from one to five; the guy behind the counter recommended three, so that’s what I went with.

It’s a tasty sandwich. Nothing about it blew my mind, but it’s nice and crunchy, the chicken is tender, and the slaw and the pickles give it a nice zippiness that cuts through the richness. I’d probably bump up the spice level to four next time, though. The spice level was pronounced, but I want a sandwich like this to really put some sweat on my brow, and this one didn’t quite take me there.

Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich from Jollibee

Published on April 27, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 800 Boyer Boulevard, Mississauga (inside Seafood City Supermarket)
Website: http://jollibeecanada.com/

I’ll give the Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich one thing: they’re not stingy with the avocado. Typically with a fast food sandwich featuring avocado, you need to pull out a magnifying glass to spot the stuff, but there’s actually a generous amount of it here.

As for the rest of the sandwich? Uh…

Here’s how Jollibee describes it: “Our New Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich starts with a crispy, juicy, hand-breaded chicken breast fillet, topped with hickory-smoked bacon, creamy Hass avocado, fresh jalapeños, crisp lettuce, and spicy sriracha mayo, served on a toasted brioche bun.”

It’s fine, mostly, but it’s a bit of a salt bomb. Between the salty chicken and the salty bacon, and with nothing sweet to balance things out, it’s a lot. The chicken was pretty dry, which somehow made the saltiness issue seem more pronounced (the fact that I had to wait 15 minutes in a mostly empty restaurant for this thing, only for it to be clearly not fresh, just added insult to injury).

The sandwich is also not particularly spicy, which is a shame. The spice level is there, but it’s quite mild.

Otherwise, it was okay. The chicken had a nice exterior crunchiness, the combo of bacon and avocado is certainly a tasty one, and the bun was nice and fresh. It’s fine, but I can’t say I’m particularly keen to run out and buy another one.

Also: the sandwich cost $13.99 before tax (!!), which might make it the most expensive fried chicken sandwich in the GTA (at least outside of restaurants with waiter service). Even local joints like PG Clucks and the Michelin-noted Chica’s Chicken are cheaper by a buck or two.

Shake Shack x Pizzeria Badiali

Published on April 13, 2026April 13, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3401 Dufferin Street, North York (inside Yorkdale)
Website: https://shakeshack.ca/

I guess Shake Shack collaborating with a local restaurant is becoming a yearly tradition, because they did it with Mimi Chinese at around this time last year, and now they’re doing it again with Badiali.

(Badiali, in case you’ve been living under a rock, is maybe the best pizza place in the city? Clearly, this is a collaboration I can get behind.)

Up first, the Spicy Vodka Chicken Parm: “Crispy, white-meat chicken breast layered over a Badiali and Shake Shack hot pepper mix, topped with Badiali’s spicy vodka rosé sauce, aged parmesan cheese, sliced mozzarella, and fresh basil on a toasted potato bun.”

This was mostly quite tasty — I mean, you can put Badiali’s rich, creamy vodka sauce on pretty much anything and it’ll taste good, so yeah, of course. The combo of that, the slightly gooey cheese, and the zippy pepper mix is a clear winner.

But the fried chicken itself was overcooked and quite dry — I was honestly having a tough time even biting through it in spots. So that was a shame.

There’s also the Pizza Fries: “Crispy crinkle cut fries dusted with Badiali pizza seasoning and aged parmesan cheese, served with Badiali’s signature housemade pepperoncini dip.”

I’m not sure if the “pizza seasoning” adds a whole lot here (and the teeny-tiny bit of parmesan definitely doesn’t add anything), but the fries are tasty and the pepperoncini dip is zippy and creamy (if a bit more muted in flavour than the version I had at Badiali a couple of years ago).

Finally, there’s the Brio Chinotto Shake: “Vanilla frozen custard blended with Brio’s classic bittersweet Chinotto flavour.”

This was a bit thin (the texture was more like very rich chocolate milk), but the taste was really nice; it has an interesting, almost gingerbread-like flavour and a mild bitterness that helps to round out the sweetness.

Sweet Heat Honey Garlic Chicken Strips from Wendy’s

Published on March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 44 Britannia Road East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

This is going to sound like an insane thing to say about a fast food item that has the words “sweet” and “honey” in its name, but the Sweet Heat Honey Garlic Chicken Strips from Wendy’s? Too sweet.

Yeah, that’s right — I said it.

Here’s how Wendy’s describes them: “100% Canadian, white-meat chicken strips flipped & dipped in a honey garlic sauce with ranch dip. Perfectly sweet with just a touch of heat. Like a good date.”

I should note that I quite enjoyed these things, despite their intense sweetness. As advertised, they’re sweet and garlicky, with just a little bit of spice — it’s enough that you’ll know it’s there, but it’s not exactly going to put any sweat on your brow. They also have a nice tanginess that theoretically should round out the sweetness, but really, nothing can put a dent in how sweet these things are. It’s intense.

They actually reminded me a lot of something you might find at Manchu Wok or Panda Express, like General Tso’s chicken or something along those lines. It seems like the type of thing you should be eating with rice (which would do a nice job of mellowing out its flavour).

They come with ranch on the side; this adds a nice creaminess, but its flavour is mostly obliterated by the intense sweet tanginess of the sauce.

As for the chicken strips themselves, I got lucky with a well-prepared batch — the chicken was nice and fresh and not dry at all. It was sauced to order, which meant that the exterior kept its crunch despite being absolutely doused in the sweet, sticky sauce. Despite my reservations about how sugary these things are, I still quite enjoyed eating them.