King Street – Michael Eats

Tasty Sandwiches at The Carbon Snack Bar

Published on November 8, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 460 King Street West, Toronto
Website: https://thecarbonsnackbar.ca/

I’ll admit that when I walked into The Carbon Snack Bar — a casual, take-out version of The Carbon Bar around King and Spadina — I almost walked out. All the sandwiches are pre-made and sitting behind glass looking sad and clammy, and I thought, well, nuts to this.

But hey, I’m here, so… sure, why not? I went with the pastrami on rye (“Thin-sliced pastrami, pommery aioli, pickles, sauerkraut, rye”) which the woman behind the counter popped into an oven of some sort to heat up.

I don’t know what kind of magic that oven was doing; it couldn’t have been in there for longer than a couple of minutes or so, and yet it came out fully warmed through and toasty on its exterior.

It’s a quality sandwich. It’s a bit more heavily-topped than I normally prefer for pastrami (with good quality smoked meat like this, all you really need is a bit of mustard), but I can’t deny that it’s tasty. It’s got a nice richness from the meat and the cheese that’s cut nicely by the pickles and sauerkraut, with an extra punch of flavour from the zingy, garlicky aioli.

As for the pastrami, it’s tender, well-spiced, and has a noticeable smoky flavour. I wish that they served a simpler sandwich with the stuff, but this one is tasty enough that I can’t complain (too much, at least).

Tasty Hand Rolls at Hello Nori

Published on December 29, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 648 King Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.hellonori.com/

Hello Nori specializes in hand rolls — basically loosely constructed , uncut maki rolls –that they make in front of you and serve immediately. You wouldn’t think that would make that much of a difference, but the fact that the nori is still crispy when they give it to you is actually quite delightful.

It kind of reminds me of the onigiri they serve at variety stores in Japan, where the nori is wrapped on both sides to prevent contact with the rice until you eat it. Crispy nori and fluffy sushi rice turns out to be a great combo.

You can either order the rolls on their own (most of them are between six and nine dollars) or as a combo. I went with the four roll combo, which costs $23 and comes with negitoro (minced tuna and green onion), ora king salmon, snow crab, and spicy shrimp.

The negitoro was a bit oniony for me (raw onions are for jerks), but otherwise these were all thoroughly enjoyable. The rice was underseasoned, but then they do have soy sauce right in front of you at the bar; I think the expectation is that you’ll be dipping the rolls.

The salmon — which features big chunks of tasty fish — was probably my favourite of the bunch, but I liked them all.

I was worried four rolls might not be enough, but it was actually a pretty decent portion, at least for lunch.

Solid Ice Cream at 00 Gelato

Published on September 16, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 370 King Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/00gelato/

Not everything needs to be (or can be) a home run. Sometimes it’s fine for a dish to be solid — perfectly tasty, but nothing too mind-blowing.

That’s 00 Gelato in a nutshell. I don’t think anyone’s going to call it the best gelato in the city, but it’s quite satisfying.

The place is a bit odd. It’s in a closet-sized spot on King, and it’s basically just a gelato counter in a doorway. It seems super makeshift, but it’s been popping up for the last few summers, so it’s permanent enough.

I had a scoop of the Ferrero Rocher, and it’s good. The gelato itself is rich and creamy, and the flavour is quite nice. It’s a bit too sweet, but it otherwise does a great job of capturing the Ferrero Rocher flavour, right down to the crispy wafer bits.

A Delicious Veggie Sandwich at Forno Cultura

Published on July 4, 2019July 10, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 609 King Street West, Toronto
Website: https://fornocultura.com/

I recently had a seriously tasty meal thanks to Toronto Life’s list of the 25 best sandwiches in the city. So it seemed like a safe enough bet to try another entry from that list: the melanzana from Forno Cultura, a great Italian bakery on King Street West.

It’s a roasted eggplant and zucchini sandwich with fior di latte (AKA mozzarella), Emmental cheese, and arugula.

I was tempted by the very tasty looking meatball sandwich, but I stuck with the list, and I’m very glad that I did. The list is on a roll. It’s an amazing sandwich.

The eggplant and the zucchini are both super tasty — they’re meaty and tender, with a very herby, garlicky flavour. The two cheeses balance quite well, with a nice soft creaminess from the fresh mozzarella, and a sharper cheesy flavour from the Emmental. Add in the peppery bite from the arugula, and you’ve got a tasty sandwich.

Though as good as the various fillings are, it’s the sesame-studded focaccia that’s the real star of the show. It’s crispy, fluffy, and amazing.

The sandwich is also exceptionally oily — basically as soon as you pick it up, your hands become slick with grease. Normally this might be a bit much, but I think that oil was also a vehicle for the aforementioned herby, garlicky flavour, because the whole sandwich was tasty and amazing. It never feels overly oily.

I should have left it at that, but I made the mistake of getting the cornetto cioccolato for dessert. It looked so good!

It tastes absolutely nothing like it looks. It was barely sweet at all, and the texture was oddly crunchy and dry. It was, weirdly enough, very similar to a pretzel. Not a warm, fresh pretzel; the dry kind from a bag. I don’t know if that was intentional, but I’m guessing it wasn’t because it was blatantly unappealing. It was quite saltine-esque.

Still; it’s hard to stay mad a place that serves a sandwich that delicious.

Mediocre Tacos at Wilbur Mexicana

Published on August 28, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 552 King Street West, Toronto
Website: http://wilburmexicana.com/

Wilbur is one of those places with a perpetual line out the door, and having just tried it for the first time, I’m not sure why.

That’s not to say it was bad. I just had two tacos, and they were both fine. But in a city as suffused with taco joints as Toronto, “fine” isn’t much.

I will say that their hot sauce selection is impressive. They have a few dozen bottles to choose from, not to mention a bunch of homemade sauces as well. If you want to add some spice to your taco, I can guarantee you’ll find something that strikes your fancy.

I tried a couple of tacos: al pastor (“pork, grilled pineapple, onion, cilantro”) and bulgogi (“Korean beef, cabbage, pear, sriracha, sesame seeds”).

I was most excited to try the al pastor, which is essentially Mexico’s take on the shawarma. But there were none of the crispy bits you associate with shawarma; it was just dry, personality-free lean pork brought to dessert levels of sweetness thanks to whatever they marinated it in and the pineapple.

It came on a corn tortilla that was dry, crumbly, and stale. A note to all restaurants serving corn tortillas: cook them fresh or GTFO.

The bulgogi, surprisingly enough, was way better. It was also quite sweet, but it had some savoury complexity to round things out. The beef was a little bit dry, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the pork.

The tacos came with a handful of tortilla chips on the side. They were a huge upgrade over store-bought; they were way better than the tacos.