fried – 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.

Spicy Chicken Sandwich at Aloette Go

Published on November 13, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 171 East Liberty Street, Toronto
Website: https://aloettego.com/

I’ve had a couple of things from Aloette and thought they were both pretty great. Well I just tried the Spicy Chicken Sandwich (“Crispy buttermilk fried chicken, Aloette hot sauce, Go sauce, & shredded lettuce”), and hey, what do you know? It’s great as well.

It’s a really, really good fried chicken sandwich. The chicken itself is ultra-tender thigh meat, and the crispy exterior? Perfection. It’s got a great level of crunch without being overly substantial, and it’s nicely seasoned.

It’s topped with hot sauce and “Go sauce” — it doesn’t look all that saucy from the photo (sadly, I wasn’t able to cut it in half), so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was saucy and delicious. The hot sauce / Go sauce combo is basically Aloette’s version of Buffalo sauce and ranch, which is a classic combo.

The heat level is somewhere between medium and hot — it’s certainly not the spiciest thing you’ll ever eat, but it’s satisfying.

And the bun was soft and fresh, and held up to the saucy chicken quite well (again, you can’t tell, but I assure you that it was saucy). It’s a stellar fried chicken sandwich.

Tasty Rice Bowls at Omai Rice Bar

Published on October 21, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 21 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://omairicebar.com/

Omai Rice Bar is a spin-off of Omai, a high-end Japanese restaurant. The rice bar is much more on the casual end of things — they serve a selection of six rice bowls that are all around 15 bucks, and it’s take-out only (they also have a few benches on a patio out front).

I went with the Oh-My Fried Chicken: “Korean fried chicken, garlic yuzu glaze, wasabi cucumber, kimchi slaw and pickled daikon. Every bowl comes with our signature Omai salad on a bed of steamed white rice.”

I liked everything about this. The fried chicken was fresh, crispy, and tender, and was tossed in a tasty sauce (that was maybe a touch too sweet — my only complaint). Everything else in the bowl complemented it perfectly, with a whole bunch of bold, zippy flavours.

Even the salad on the side was a noticeable upgrade from the standard vinaigrette-tossed greens, with a nice citrusy punch that was really satisfying.

It’s all served on a bed of fluffy white rice, and it’s great. I wish I lived closer to this place, because I feel like I need to try every bowl on the menu.

Hot Ones Darin’ Dab Ghost Wings from Popeyes

Published on October 1, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 7080 Saint Barbara Boulevard, Mississauga
Website: https://www.popeyeschicken.ca/

Things have gotten a bit better over the last few years, but generally speaking, if a fast food joint claims that they’re serving something spicy, it’s probably mild at best. But given that this is a collaboration with Hot Ones, I was excited that this would be a bit spicier than the norm.

They have a couple of Hot Ones items on the menu, but the spiciest is supposedly the Darin’ Dab Ghost Wings: “Classic wings (bone-in) dusted with a bold ghost pepper dry rub, served with a Hot Ones Last Dab Ranch dip cup.”

(You can also supposedly buy a little packet of the notoriously fiery Last Dab hot sauce, though I think this might not be available in Canada — I tried a couple of locations, and no one seemed to even know what I was talking about.)

The wings themselves are only mildly spicy, but the Last Dab Ranch dip actually does have a nice kick (and otherwise tastes like pretty standard ranch). I was kinda hoping for it to blow my face off, and it wasn’t even remotely that hot, but it was almost certainly the spiciest thing I’ve ever had from a fast food chain.

Otherwise, the wings were fine. They were maybe the teeny-tiniest wings I’ve ever had, but they were hot and fresh and had a nice crispy exterior.

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.