GTA – Page 4 – Michael Eats

Delicious Hakka Cuisine at Chilli Chicken House

Published on January 27, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4040 Creditview Road, Mississauga
Website: https://chillichickenhouse.com/

I’ve heard people call Chilli Chicken House the best Hakka restaurant in Mississauga; I certainly haven’t tried every Hakka joint in the city, but after eating here, the claim seems extremely plausible. It’s great.

I tried a couple of things. First up is the chilli chicken, because if you go to a restaurant called Chilli Chicken House and you don’t order the chilli chicken, what are you even doing with your life?

You can get this either dry or with gravy; I went with the gravy option, which features chunks of tender fried chicken tossed in a really tasty sauce that’s a bit sweet, very savoury, and has a nice kick (particularly in the mouthfuls with the green chilis, which are delightful spice bombs).

If you want to kick things up even further, there’s a jar of tangy chili sauce on the table, along with a jar of vinegar with a whole bunch of fiery chilis floating on top. Both are very tasty.

I also tried the Hakka chow mein, which is a stellar noodle dish with a generous amount of shrimp and chicken, just the right amount of greasiness, and a really satisfying smoky flavour from the blazing hot wok.

Great Buns at Mom’s Pan Fried Bun

Published on January 26, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 780 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: https://momspanfriedbun.com/

Mom’s Pan Fried Bun is a popular place. The first time I tried to visit, it was packed, with a mob of people waiting for a table. I showed up a few weeks later — earlier this time, at around 10:30am on a Saturday. I got a table right away, but by the time I left, it was packed, with a mob of people waiting for a table.

I tried a couple of things, and yeah — I get it. It’s quite good.

Of course, you’ve gotta try the pan-fried buns. They have a couple of varieties on the menu: braised pork, and fresh pork. I went with the braised pork, which was really, really tasty. The pork is flavourful, the filling has a good amount of moisture without being overly soupy, and the bun itself is perfectly fluffy and fresh.

That’s not to mention the delightfully crispy bottom, which adds some great texture and contrasts nicely with the soft pastry and the tender filling.

I also tried the braised pork, a delightful Taiwanese dish in which ultra-tender chopped pork is served in a savoury sauce on top of rice. This was fatty, tender, saucy, and delicious, with the zingy pickled mustard greens on the side doing a great job of cutting through the dish’s richness.

Tasty Slices at Di’s Pizza Pies

Published on January 25, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 115 St. Paul Street, St. Catherines
Website: https://www.dispizzapies.com/

Yeah, Di’s Pizza Pies is in St. Catharines and is a bit of a trek from the GTA, but if you’re in the area or passing by, it’s worth stopping in.

They had a few slices on offer; I went with the pepperoni (“Red Sauce, Mozzarella, Battistoni Cup and Char Pepperoni, Pecorino”).

The pizza is interesting. I sort of assumed this was going to be the usual thin crust, NYC-style pizza that you can find at so many pizza joints in the GTA. But the focaccia-like crust is actually quite different from that style of crispiness and chewiness, with a crunchy exterior and a fluffy, bready interior.

It definitely works, with the more substantial crust doing a great job of holding up to the flavourful sauce, salty peperoni, and generous amount of cheese. It’s a great slice.

Decent Wraps at Shawarma Kingdom

Published on January 23, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 377 Burnhamthorpe Road East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.shawarmakingdom.ca/

Shawarma Kingdom is totally fine. It’s fine! It’s shawarma. It’s good. You don’t need to go out of your way for it, but it’s acceptably tasty.

I mostly wanted to check this place out because they have beef and lamb on the menu. I’m of the opinion that lamb shawarma is the best shawarma — and yet it’s almost impossible to find in the GTA. When you do see it, it’s mixed with beef like it is here (and in most cases, the mix leans much more towards beef than lamb). It’s a shame.

You can get the wrap either in a pita or saj (for a few bucks more). I went with saj and stuck with the default toppings, which are tahini sauce, tomato, onion, parsley and pickles (okay fine, I lied — I skipped the onion, as I tend to do).

They definitely don’t skimp on the meat; the wrap is absolutely crammed. They don’t skimp on the sauce, either, making this a bit of a mess. The saj was over-toasted, which meant that the wrap was very brittle, with its structural integrity being extremely questionable; it basically exploded, and I had to eat most of it with a fork and knife.

It’s a satisfying enough wrap, with the meat being fairly tender and flavourful, and with the generous amount of parsley giving it an interesting herby kick. I wish the tahini sauce were a bit zippier, and I wish the meat had more of the crispy bits you’re looking from shawarma, but it’s a solid wrap (figuratively, not literally — again, it fell apart basically instantly).

Matty Melt Sandwich from KFC x Matty Matheson

Published on January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1610 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

KFC is making a pretty big deal out of their collaboration with celebrity chef Matty Matheson. At the location I went to, there was signage all over the restaurant, and even the bag was emblazoned with Matheson’s name. It’s in the news. People are excited!

And sure, it is kinda exciting. An ostensibly talented chef teaming up with a fast food joint? Yeah, I’m all over that.

There are three new items in this promotion: the Matty Melt Sandwich, the Matty Melt Slider, and the Matty Mega Melt Poutine. Hilariously, that poutine weighs in at a whopping 2390 calories (??), which seems like it’s probably too many calories? I briefly considered ordering this just for the novelty of it, but I just don’t think I’ve reached the level of self-loathing required to want to consume a 2400 calorie poutine from KFC. Sorry.

So I went with the Matty Melt Sandwich: “The Matty Melt Chicken Sandwich features our signature triple-breaded chicken fillet layered with cheese sauce, sweet caramelized onions, and creamy mayo, all stacked on a potato bun.”

I did not enjoy this sandwich. It’s that “cheese sauce,” which has zero cheese-like properties and is mostly just one-note salty in an oddly unpleasant way. If you served this to me blind, I never in a million years would have guessed that it was supposed to be a cheese sauce.

KFC doesn’t mention this in their description, but the only flavour there (aside from the vaguely off-putting amorphous saltiness) is truffle oil. I might be wrong, but there’s either truffle oil in there, or something that tasted a lot like truffle oil to me. I’m not particularly crazy about truffle oil, so can’t say I enjoyed this. Your milage may vary if you like the stuff more than I do.

The only other thing that differentiates this from a standard KFC sandwich are the caramelized onions. Some sweetness actually would have been nice, considering how salty the sandwich is, but I can’t say the onions added much.

It probably didn’t help that the chicken itself had obviously been sitting out for quite a while, and was dried out and chewy around the edges. This is partially my fault — the last time I visited this particular KFC location, I had a bad experience and someone commented that it was “the worst KFC in the GTA.” But that was a few years ago, and I had hoped things had gotten better since then. Clearly not! Oh well.