Japan – Page 3 – Michael Eats

Tasty, Cheesy Pork Katsu at Katsuya

Published on May 26, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1224 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
Website: https://katsuya.ca/

There are very few dishes that wouldn’t be enhanced with the addition of gooey cheese. Think about a dish. Now think about that dish, but with gooey cheese. It’s better, right?

(And if you’re thinking that this isn’t true for dessert, let me tell you: you’re wrong.)

They have a cheese option for the katsu at Katsuya, which finds the traditional pork loin topped with mozzarella cheese before its breaded and fried, and yeah, it’s delightful. The pork is tender, the cheese is delightfully melty, and the exterior is nice and crispy. How could that not be great?

I ordered the Katsuya Original, which comes topped with “Katsuya’s house sauce.” I’d probably order one of their other options next time — the sauce was a bit sweet for me — but the katsu itself was so tasty that this was barely an issue.

Delicious Cakes at Tokyo Cheesecake Cafe

Published on May 20, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 257 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/tokyocheesecakecafe.ca/

Tokyo Cheesecake Cafe was actually a really delightful surprise. I went in thinking I’d just check the place out, and wasn’t necessarily planning on buying anything. Nothing really caught my eye (I was hoping they’d have a Japanese-style strawberry shortcake; they did not), but the store was empty and I felt bad leaving without buying anything, so I got a slice of the original cheesecake.

I figured this would be a fluffy, eggy, soufflé-style cheesecake like you can get at Uncle Tetsu’s. I like that style of cheesecake, but it’s not my favourite.

This actually turned out to be completely different from that, with two layers on a chocolatey crust. The top layer is light and super creamy, and the bottom layer is much more dense, with more of a traditional cheesecake flavour and texture. There’s also a bit of a lemony flavour (lemon zest, maybe?) that complements it quite well. And the chocolate crust has a mild bitterness that does a great job of offsetting the sweetness of the cheesecake.

It’s a seriously delicious dessert. The silky top layer, the rich bottom layer, and the chocolate crust are a boffo combination. They also had a bunch of other flavours of cheesecake, and I (and you!) need to try them all ASAP.

Also: as it happened, I went back a couple of weeks later, and they actually had the Japanese strawberry shortcake I was craving on my first visit. I tried it, of course, and it was just as delicious as the cheesecake, with the cake itself being maybe the lightest, fluffiest cake I’ve ever had.

Solid Noodle Soup at Kenzo Ramen

Published on December 10, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3337 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke
Website: http://www.kenzoramen.ca/

It’s hard to remember this now, but there was a time (not that long ago!) when ramen was actually pretty difficult to find in the GTA. And Kenzo is Toronto’s ramen OG; they opened their first location in 2002, and for quite a while, they were pretty much the only game in town if you wanted to sample ramen in the city.

Of course, these days it’s hard to go more than a few blocks without coming across a ramen joint, but Kenzo’s still around despite all the competition. So they must be doing something right.

And indeed, the bowl I had might not have been up there with the city’s best, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

They have a whole bunch of options, but the waiter mentioned that the King of Kings is their most popular, which is a spicy shio broth with an “assortment of stir-fried vegetables with ground pork, topped with charsu, egg, naruto maki, menma, wakame, green onion, nori.”

You can choose your spice level; I went with the spiciest, and it was indeed quite fiery.

The stir-fried vegetables are actually the most unique part; they give the whole bowl that distinctive stir-fried wok hay flavour, which makes it feel quite distinct. It actually kind of reminded me of a style of ramen called burnt miso ramen that I don’t believe you can find in the GTA.

The noodles were a bit on the soft side, and the broth lacked the complexity you’ll find in the best bowls of ramen, but overall it’s a tasty bowl of noodle soup.

Quick Bites: Barbershop Patisserie, Bloom Cafe, Bang Bang

Published on December 9, 2023October 17, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Raspberry almond bread budding from Barbershop Patisserie

I’m a big fan of Barbershop Patisserie; I’m also a big fan of bread pudding, but alas, the bread pudding at Barbershop isn’t quite as amazing as you’d hope. It’s perfectly tasty (I don’t think Barbershop is capable of making something that’s outright bad), but it has basically no custard flavour, and the level of sweetness is so restrained that it borders on bland. Still, the combo of the almonds and the tart raspberry is a big winner, and it certainly wasn’t unpleasant to eat.

Vanilla Cream Puff from Bloom Cafe

I recently mentioned that the delightful Choux Lab actually reminded me quite a bit of Beard Papa, a Japanese cream puff chain that left the GTA a few years ago, taking a little piece of my heart with it. Well Bloom Cafe is even more Beard Papa-esque; they specialize in the exact type of Japanese cream puffs they used to sell at Beard Papa. Alas, I’ll have to stick with Choux Lab to fill the Beard-Papa-sized hole in my heart (and stomach) — the cream puff here could have been tasty, but it was obviously filled way too far in advance, and was pretty soggy. It didn’t help that it was filled with what tasted like plain sweetened whipped cream instead of delicious custardy cream like BP.

Pumpkin / Cookie Butter from Bang Bang

Let’s end things on a more positive note. I’ve written about Bang Bang many, many times on this blog, so I’ll keep this brief. Bang Bang: still great! The flavour I recently had, which combines pumpkin and Biscoff cookie butter, is legitimately among the best scoops of ice cream that I’ve ever had. The two flavours work so well together, and the ice cream itself is amazingly rich and creamy.

Tasty Japanese Sandwiches at Imanishi Sando Bar

Published on November 9, 2023November 9, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 179 Brock Avenue (inside McCormick Park)
Website: https://imanishisandobar.square.site/

Imanishi Sando Bar is a bit of an odd one — located in an unlabeled shipping container next to a community centre, in an area where you’d absolutely never be able to see it if you were driving by, it’s pretty much the dictionary definition of a hidden gem.

They mostly serve a variety of Japanese sandwiches (or “sandos”), though they do have a few other things on the menu.

I tried the pork tenderloin sando, the aji (mackerel) sando, and the fries; everything was quite good.

Both the pork and the fish are freshly fried, with a delightfully crispy exterior and a perfectly cooked interior. They’re served on sweet, fluffy Japanese milk bread, which complements them both perfectly.

The aji, with its tartar sauce and slice of cheese, is basically like an upscale Filet-O-Fish. Both sandwiches are saucy as hell (the pork has what tastes like the same tartar sauce, along with tangy tonkatsu sauce); they’re a bit of a mess to eat, but they’re extremely tasty.

The fries are quite good too — particularly once you dip them in the sweet honey mustard sauce on the side — though they are fairly standard battered fries.