Kensington Market – Michael Eats

A Top Notch Sandwich at Otto’s Berlin Doner

Published on October 20, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 256 Augusta Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://ottosdoner.com/

I tried Otto’s Berlin Doner around when it first opened and quite enjoyed it; I’m happy to report that not only has the place not missed a step, I think they’ve actually gotten better. I just had the veal and lamb doner, and I was pretty blown away by how good it was.

Every element works so well — it’s got that great bread, which is delightfully crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, and it’s got the perfect balance between tasty meat and fresh veggies, with the sauces all complementing it so well.

You can choose between garlic, yogurt, and hot sauce — or you can do what I did and get all three, which is definitely what you should do because it’s a very tasty combo (the hot sauce isn’t hot at all, but it’s hard to complain when it’s all this tasty).

But it’s the veal and lamb that really makes the sandwich sing. It’s super tender, with a great meaty flavour from the lamb and a punch of rosemary-tinged herbiness. And it’s absolutely crammed with the crispy bits that make a sandwich like this so addictive.

I mean, look at this picture. Look at the crispy bits. That’s a thing of beauty.

You can also add feta cheese and/or fries to your sandwich for a buck a piece, and again, you should definitely do that. The fries add more delightful savoury crispiness, and the feta brings creamy pops of saltiness that really rounds out the sandwich.

An Interesting Flavour at Boho Gelato

Published on August 29, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 160 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/boho.gelato/

Kensington Market seems like the kind of area that should have a whole bunch of ice cream shops, but it’s surprisingly slim pickings. There’s a location of Dolce Gelato, a temporary outpost of Good Behaviour, and now this place — but that’s about it.

(There have been other shops over the years, of course, but the turnover in this area is bad even when there isn’t a pandemic to deal with.)

Boho Gelato has a pretty standard assortment of flavours, though there are a couple of unique ones. Rosewater particularly caught my eye; I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in gelato before. It’s a common ingredient in Middle Eastern desserts, with a very unique flavour that’s somewhat of an acquired taste (I hated it with a passion as a kid, but it eventually won me over).

The gelato itself is definitely above average, though it didn’t knock my socks off. But that rosewater flavour is clearly a winner. I got it with a scoop of pistachio, and not surprisingly, the two flavours go perfectly together.

Decent Mexican Food at Tacos 101

Published on August 12, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 178 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.facebook.com/tacos101toronto/

After a long hiatus (their original location on Dundas East shut down three years ago), Tacos 101 is back, this time in Kensington Market.

I don’t think I ever visited the original location (or if I did, it wasn’t memorable enough to stick in my brain) so I can’t comment on how it compares to the Dundas location, but it’s a decent enough addition to the area.

Their specialty is al pastor, a style of taco that’s filled with pork cooked over a rotating spit, shawarma-style.

Mostly, it’s pretty good — the various sauces are zingy and tasty, the pork is nicely seasoned, the pineapple adds a brightness that contrasts nicely with the savoury pork, and the two corn tortillas are fresh and hold up very nicely to the overstuffed taco. But the pork is almost entirely lacking in the crispy bits that makes this style of cooking so delightful, and it’s crazy dry. They’re supposedly using pork shoulder, but the meat has the texture of the driest piece of pork loin that you’ve ever had.

Everything else about the taco is tasty enough that this isn’t a huge issue, but it’s a shame nonetheless.

I also tried the tortilla chips with refried beans and guacamole — both dips were quite tasty, though the refried beans were a bit underseasoned, as were the chips themselves.

In the case of the chips, apparently the lack of seasoning is on purpose to highlight the flavour of the dips, and, uh, I don’t think that’s the way food works? All of the elements of a dish need to be seasoned or the whole thing will lack flavour (this is why, for example, you have to aggressively salt your pasta water, even if you’re going to toss the pasta in a flavourful sauce).

A Great Ice Cream Pop-up at Good Behaviour

Published on August 8, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 189 Augusta Avenue, Toronto (inside Egg Bae)
Website: https://www.gbicecream.ca/

There are very few good things that have come out of the last year and a half, but one of the few is the explosion of ice cream shops in the GTA. Yes please to more delicious ice cream. There’s no such thing as too many ice cream shops, especially if it’s as good as what they’re serving here.

Like a lot of the new ice cream shops in the city, Good Behaviour started out selling pints to go, but they’ve very quickly expanded to three pop-up scoop shops: one on Christie, one on Bloor, and the one I visited, inside Egg Bae in Kensington Market.

I tried Chocolate Moose Track, which the menu describes as “dark chocolate base, chunks of chocolate peanut butter cups, & ribbons of chocolate fudge.”

I don’t think I got any peanut butter cups, and whatever they sprinkled on top was completely superfluous and actually kinda detracted from the ice cream, but otherwise this was top-notch stuff.

Normally the lack of advertised PB cups would have vexed me, but the ice cream itself was so crazy good that I honestly did not care at all. The chocolate flavour was delightfully intense, and the ice cream base was perfectly rich and creamy. It’s way above average.

Tasty Turkish Flatbread at Best Istanbul Restaurant

Published on January 15, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 235 Augusta Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://bestistanbul.ca/

I recently had a pide at Byblos Uptown that was good but not great; now here comes Best Istanbul Restaurant to show them how it’s really done.

I tried a couple of pides, and they were both seriously delicious. There was the Sucuk Pide (“Turkish flatbread with mozzarella, sucuk meat and eggs”) and the Veggie Pide (“mozzarella, spinach and feta cheese”).

Both were quite good, though the sucuk was my favourite of the two. If you’re unfamiliar with sucuk (which is sometimes spelled sujuk), it’s a really tasty, intensely-spiced sausage that’s kind of like a turbo-charged version of pepperoni. It’s so good.

It works perfectly on the pide, with its assertive flavour matching perfectly with the mild, gooey cheese. The crust is great too, with a nice exterior crispiness and a satisfyingly chewy/fluffy interior. I didn’t notice the egg, however; either they forgot about it (the picture on the menu shows a full egg yolk on the pide), or they mixed it right in with the cheese (though it didn’t taste like they did).

The Veggie was quite tasty as well, though the crust was slightly thinner and crispier, which wasn’t quite as satisfying as the other one. It was also a bit underseasoned, though a spritz from the accompanying lemon wedge easily took care of that problem.