GTA – Page 36 – Michael Eats

Amazing Mexican Food at Puerto Bravo

Published on August 29, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1425 Gerrard Street East, Toronto
Website: https://puertobravo.ca/

When you’re eating a place that’s been featured in the Michelin Guide, it kinda elevates your expectations a bit. Not that Michelin is an infallible arbiter of taste, but generally speaking, the restaurants they highlight are above average.

Well, Puerto Brave has a “Bib Gourmand” designation from Michelin, my expectations were quite high, and even still, I was pretty blown away by how good everything was.

I tried a few things. I started with the guacamole (“Avocado, Lime, Cilantro, Jalapeño, Chips,”) and it was fantastic. A lot of guacamole tends to be a bit too oniony for me, with their harshness overwhelming the relatively delicate flavour of the avocado. Here, instead of mixing onions right in, they add zippy pickled onions on top, which is a huge improvement that lets the flavour of the creamy avocado shine through. And the tortilla chips on the side are way above average, with a hearty crunch and a nice toasty corn flavour.

Up next was the carne asada taco (“Grilled Beef, Asadero Cheese, Onions, Cabbage, Radish, Avocado Salsa, Red Salsa”). Every element here just works, with a nice balance of flavours and some seriously tasty grilled beef (a lot of the time with a taco like this, the flavour of the beef is buried by other stuff, but here it’s clearly the star of the show (and extremely delicious)).

Last and definitely not least was the Wera tostada (“Octopus, Shrimp, Macha Mayonnaise, Pico de Gallo, Avocado, Salsa Macha”). Wow this was good. The contrast between the crunchy tortilla, creamy avocado and meaty octopus and shrimp was so satisfying (the octopus, in particular, was almost improbably tender). I think this was my favourite of the three, and that’s saying something because everything was extremely delicious.

Tasty Cake Doughnuts at Maverick’s Donut Company

Published on August 28, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1618 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://mavericksdonuts.com/

Maverick’s is an Ottawa-based doughnut chain that opened their first location in Toronto last year. You might be thinking that we have enough doughnut joints in the city, but you’re wrong and here’s why: Maverick’s specializes in cake-based doughnuts. Most doughnut places will have a cake doughnut or two on the menu, but here it’s pretty much all of them.

I tried six: cherry glazed, pecan pie, maple bacon, double chocolate, lemon ricotta, and chocolate coconut.

They were all quite delightful. The cake is dense but not too dense, they’re not overly sweet (aside from maybe the maple bacon, which I still quite enjoyed), and they have a light crispiness on their exterior. They’re top quality doughnuts.

And the flavours were all great, though if I had to pick a favourite, it might be the nutty pecan pie. Or the double chocolate, which had a really satisfying chocolate flavour. Or the cherry glazed, which tasted like a doughnut and a maraschino cherry had a baby. Or the lemon ricotta, which had a nice tartness and a satisfying creaminess. Or the maple bacon, which had satisfying pops of saltiness from the bacon to offset the sweetness of the maple. Or the chocolate coconut, which is always a tasty combo.

Oh, I just named all the doughnuts, didn’t I. Well you know what? I liked all of them. They’re all my favourite. Deal with it.

Big Arch at McDonald’s

Published on August 27, 2024 by Michael Nusair5 Comments

Location: 1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The Big Arch is kind of a big deal for McDonald’s. They’re making a pretty big deal about it, at least, and apparently it’s going to be rolling out internationally soon, though right now it’s limited to a few countries.

The idea was to make a bigger, “more satiating” burger, and they’ve certainly succeeded on the size front. It’s a big boy, that’s for sure. Just looking at it, it’s substantially heftier than your typical McDonald’s fare.

(For comparison’s sake, the Big Arch is 1065 calories, the Big Mac is 570, and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese is 530.)

The Big Arch, per the McDonald’s website: “Two quarter pound 100% Canadian beef patties, layered with three slices of white processed cheese, and topped with crispy onions, slivered onions, pickles, lettuce and delicious Big Arch sauce, served on a toasted sesame and poppy seed bun.”

I should note that I got lucky. My burger was well assembled, and the patties were fresh and a little bit juicy (a juicy burger? At McDonald’s??). As always at a fast food joint, your mileage may vary. But I really enjoyed this thing.

The element that stands out the most is the Big Arch sauce. It’s similar to Big Mac sauce, but like five or six times zestier. It’s got an almost citrusy brightness to it that actually does a pretty great job of cutting through the richness of the patties and the cheese. It’s quite tasty, which is a good thing because this is a saucy burger; they put two napkins in my bag and that was just barely enough.

Everything else works quite well. I’m normally not a fan of raw onions, but here there’s so much stuff going on that you can barely taste them. They mostly just add crunch (and the crunchiness from the fresh onions and crispiness from the fried ones are a nice combo).

I liked this way more than I thought I would. It McDonald’s-y in all the best ways. I guess the idea is that this will become a permanent part of the menu, and I hope that’s the case. It feels like it could happily live alongside McDonald’s classics like the Big Mac and the Quarter Pounder.

Solid Ramen at Midori Ramen

Published on August 26, 2024 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 412 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://midoriramen.com/

Ramen: it’s the best. I’ve said it on this blog before, and I have no doubt I’ll say it again. Even a mid-tier bowl of ramen is better than a great version of most other things.

Case in point: Midori Ramen. Is it the best bowl of ramen in the city? No, absolutely not. Is it tasty? It absolutely is.

Their specialty is tori paitan ramen, which is like the tonkotsu that’s so prevalent in the GTA, but made with chicken instead of pork. The best versions of this have an addictive roasted chicken flavour, and while this one was creamy and nice, it didn’t have much of a flavour outside of a pleasant, rich saltiness.

You can choose between thin, thick, and kale (??) noodles; they recommend thin. Like the broth, the noodles are pleasant, but they lack the toothsome chew that makes the best ramen noodles so special.

The toppings are all great, however. It comes with tasty pork chashu, a ridiculously tender slice of chicken, and a great ramen egg with a perfectly jammy yolk.

Tasty Korean Fusion at Oddseoul

Published on August 25, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 90 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/90oddseoul/

I know some people are down on the whole small plates format, but I like it. It’s always nice to try a variety of stuff. I guess the main complaint is that you wind up paying more for less food, but that’s not an issue here; with a couple of exceptions, pretty much everything on the menu is in the low- to mid-teens, and the portions are surprisingly generous.

I tried a few things. First up is the spicy scallion and avocado slaw: “mixed greens, cabbage, pickled chilies, bell peppers, crispy shallots, sweet and spicy sesame dressing.” This was a fantastic salad — it’s got a great variety of textures (crispy, crunchy, and creamy) a zippy dressing, and nice pops of acidity from the pickled chilies.

Up next was the squash poutine: “tempura squash, cheese curds, curried gravy, roasted kimchi, pickled onions.” This has very few poutine-like properties (the gooey cheese is fully liquefied, the gravy — while delicious — tastes nothing like a traditional gravy, and the squash can’t really be compared to fries), but whatever it is, it’s very tasty. I wish the squash were a bit crispier, but I’d happily order this again.

The loosey (“Korean Big Mac, served on Texas toast”) was the closest thing to a miss, and even it was tasty enough. The beef was too tightly packed and a bit tough, and none of the flavours struck me as particularly Korean or McDonald’s-esque. Still, it’s a decent enough burger.

Last but not least was the bulgogi cheesesteak (“sliced marinated steak, American cheese, sambal mayo, toasted baguette”). Crossing bulgogi and a Philly cheesesteak is actually kind of ingenious, and the bulgogi here is super tasty. I wish it had been a bit cheesier (it had one thin slice of partially melted American), but it’s still a great sandwich.