Hakka – Michael Eats

Tasty Crispy Beef at Faley Restaurant

Published on July 23, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 42 Rexdale Boulevard, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.faleyrestaurant.com/

I’ve been meaning to check this place out since reading about it in Corey Mintz’s list of the 50 best restaurants under $50, which was published way back in 2018. Yeah, I’ve got a bit of a backlog of places to check out — I have a custom Google map that I keep updated with all the restaurants I want to try, and it’s currently sitting at over 400 places scattered throughout the GTA.

Well, I’m glad I finally made time for Faley Restaurant, a Hakka joint in Etobicoke — it’s good.

The dish that Mintz singled out is Faley’s Special Gan-Ben Beef, which he described as being “embedded in [his] brain’s craving centre.”

It’s a crispy fried beef dish tossed in a sweet, slightly spicy sauce, and yeah, it’s tasty. In particular, the crispy fried coating on the beef is extremely satisfying, with the beef itself remaining nice and tender.

It is aggressively sweet, however. I found it a bit cloying, but when you combine it with the other dish I ordered, Manchurian style vegetables (a stir-fried vegetable dish with a deeply savoury, mildly spicy sauce), it tempers the sweetness and rounds things out. Both of those dishes are solid on their own, but together, they really come alive.

A Tasty Meal at Angara Indian & Hakka Cuisine

Published on February 12, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5555 Eglinton Avenue West, Etobicoke
Website: https://angararestaurant.ca/

Angara is a great Indian restaurant in Etobicoke that recently opened a second location downtown. I checked out the original, and yeah, I get it — there’s clearly a reason that they’re doing well enough to expand.

I tried a couple of things. First up was the Chef Special Bombay Paneer: “Paneer prepared dry with red onion, green chilli, and curry leaves.” This was basically like a fried chicken dish, but with paneer subbing in for chicken; it’s battered and crispy, and tossed in a tangy, mildly spicy sauce.

You can also get this with chicken, which I’d imagine would be even better, but the dense, meaty paneer actually does a pretty solid job of subbing in for chicken. It’s a tasty dish.

Up next: Chef Special Lamb Angara (“Spicy yet creamy curry with homemade chef special spices served in a sizzling plate”). This was seriously good, with a generous amount of tender chunks of lamb in a rich, creamy, and ultra-savoury sauce. The sizzling plate it comes in kinda caramelizes the sauce around the edges. It’s delightful.

I also got an order of freshly-baked naan, which has the crispy bottom and chewy interior that you’re looking for. It, like everything else here, was seriously good.

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.