lobster – Michael Eats

Tasty Eats at Wellington Market in The Well

Published on May 30, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 486 Front Street West, Toronto
Website: https://thewelltoronto.com/eat/wellington-market/

When I was invited to a press event at Wellington Market, the new upscale food court in The Well, my first thought was: do I really feel like braving downtown traffic on a random weeknight, only to arrive at a place where I’ll probably have to talk to people?

I’m lazy and antisocial, you see. But also: free food.

Yeah, the prospect of free food got me. The only thing better than food? Food that I don’t have to pay for.

And oh boy, was there a lot of food that I didn’t have to pay for at this event. If you’re unaware of Wellington Market’s whole deal, it’s basically a food court, but filled exclusively with stuff that’s a bit more interesting than standard food court fare. And on this particular night, every restaurant was just handing out free food like candy on Halloween. It was a free food bonanza; I tried a bunch of stuff.

I think the thing I was most excited about was Japadog, the legendary Vancouver chain (sampled by no less than Anthony Bourdain) that specializes in Japanese-influenced hot dogs.

I tried the chili dog, and while I didn’t notice anything particularly Japanese about the flavour, it was a top-notch dog, with a good amount of tasty chili and a satisfyingly smoky wiener (that’s what she said?). It was one of the better things I ate.

There was also Blue Claw, which specializes in lobster rolls. The lobster roll here was probably my least favourite thing that I ate that night, but hey, they can’t all be winners.

(Also, the lights here did something very weird to my phone’s camera, which I’ve never seen before.)

Rosie’s Burgers has a few locations throughout the GTA. They were handing out chicken sandwiches, and yeah, it was a great sandwich. Satisfying combo of crunchiness/juiciness, and a nice zippy sauce to cut through the richness.

There’s also some dessert shops here, including Shake Therapy, which specializes in milkshakes and falooda, a sweet, milky Indian dessert with ice cream.

I tried the rose falooda and thought it was quite tasty, though the texture was odd (it was basically like drinking a sweet glass of milk with a scoop of ice cream in it). Still, I enjoyed it and would get it again.

Back to savoury, there was Doraji, which specializes in Korean bibimbap.

They were handing out samples of the bulgogi beef bibimbap, which you can top with a number of sauces (I went with the old classic, gochujang). This was comparable to the better bowls of bibimbap I’ve had in the GTA; I quite liked it.

There was also La Cubana, a Cuban restaurant with a couple of locations in the city.

They were serving a sampling plate with the classic Cubano, yucca fries, plantain, and a little doughnut hole. Everything here was tasty, though the doughnut was the highlight, weirdly. It had a great lightly crispy/chewy texture, and just the right amount of cinnamon and sugar.

Then there was Samosarie, which, as you’d assume from the name, specializes in samosas.

They have a whole bunch of funky flavours on offer; I was told the tandoori chicken was the most popular, so I went with that.

I enjoyed it (it really nails the tandoori chicken flavour), though it doesn’t have the crispy fried exterior that you’re expecting. I think it’s baked rather than fried, and it reminded me more of a Jamaican patty than a traditional samosa. It’s not bad; it’s just different.

I was getting quite full by this point, but there was still room for a bit more.

This place is called Sam’s Juices. I guess they mostly specialize in drinks, but they do have a “hot & honey” chicken sandwich on the menu.

There was nothing about this that got my heart rate up in any particular way, but I enjoyed it (and it’s quite possible that I would have enjoyed it more if I weren’t extremely full).

I was pretty much ready to tap out, though I did see a place called A La Table handing out what appeared to be fruit cups, which I figured I could handle.

This turned out to have a bunch of cheese and crackers in there, along with the fruit. I’m not sure who would order this or why, but hey, it exists if that’s your thing.

And that was pretty much that. There were a few more places I wish I could have tried (most pressingly: Ryu’s Noodle Bar, which serves some of the best ramen in the city), but alas, I only have so much stomach space.

(I was thinking about making a Schindler’s List “I could have eaten more” joke, but you know what? I’m too classy for that.)

A Decadent Meal at Joe Beef

Published on October 30, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2491 Notre-Dame Street West, Montreal, Quebec
Website: https://joebeef.com/

Joe Beef is frequently called one of the best restaurants in Canada, so if you find yourself in Montreal and you don’t mind splurging a bit (okay, a lot — it’s pricey), it’s a must.

I tried a few things. The first was… some kind of tart? This wasn’t on the regular menu and I forgot to take a picture of the blackboard where they wrote down the specials (I also forgot to take a picture of the inside of the restaurant — I’m really good at blogging, as you can tell).

I’m not even sure how to describe this thing. It was somewhat souffle-esque, and it was absolutely drenched in an ultra-rich, buttery sauce. It was outstanding. It’s exactly the type of dish you’re hoping to eat at a really nice restaurant; it’s a delightful alchemy of luxe ingredients and high-end techniques that you could never possibly replicate at home, or even in a normal restaurant kitchen. Every bite was pure magic.

Next up was the “côte de veau sauce ‘vieux téléviseur'”, which was a veal chop covered in an ultra-rich, buttery sauce (ultra-rich and buttery is definitely a theme at Joe Beef). This was just as good as the tart, with the tender beef being absolutely jammed with flavour, and with the rich sauce complimenting it perfectly. It seems relatively simple, but holy moly, the extent to which this was better than pretty much any other steak I’ve ever had was insane.

The side was some kind of braised greens (this also wasn’t on the menu, so I’m not sure exactly what it was). This was a pretty standard version of this dish — tasty, but not mind-blowing. My photo of this turned out pretty blurry, so you’ll have to use your imagination. It was just a pile of greens on an oblong plate, so not much imagination is required.

The only big let-down of the night was, oddly, one of Joe Beef’s signature dishes, the lobster spaghetti. This was perfectly delicious, but the heavy cream sauce was one-note rich, and the chunks of lobster were overcooked. It certainly wasn’t unpleasant to eat, but coming from a restaurant of this caliber, it’s a disappointment.

Quick Bites: Nani’s Gelato, Fishman Lobster Clubhouse, and Bakerbots Baking

Published on March 3, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate gelato from Nani’s Gelato

I’ve written about Nani’s Gelato a couple of times for this blog, and it continues to be fantastic. Both flavours were top-notch, and the gelato itself is as rich and creamy as ever. Alas, they’re currently closed for the season; apparently a permanent location might be in the cards, so fingers crossed that they’re able to make this happen. Clearly, gelato of this calibre needs to available all year round.

Lobster mountain at Fishman Lobster Clubhouse

I don’t have much to add about this place since I wrote about it last — but come on. Look at that thing. That’s a photo you have to share. And that’s the impressive thing about this place: it seems like it’s expressly designed to impress on social media (and yeah, it clearly is), but it’s also surprisingly delicious. It’s meaty and perfectly cooked, and the way they fry it makes it a bit more interesting than standard boiled/steamed lobster, but still allows the meat be the star of the show (it’s fried in the shell, so the majority of the meat isn’t battered). It’s so good.

Orange Cardamom ice cream from Bakerbots Baking

Hot tip: Bakerbots Baking serves a decent assortment of Bang Bang ice cream flavours, so if you ever feel like a scoop of Bang Bang without the line, head to Bakerbots. And the orange cardamom was exactly what I was hoping it would be: creamy and orangey like the best creamsicle you’ve ever had, but with a nice hit of cardamom flavour. It’s a quality scoop of ice cream.

Climbing the Lobster Mountain at Fishman Lobster Clubhouse

Published on November 21, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4020 Finch Avenue East, Toronto
Website: https://www.flctoronto.com/

Is it even possible to see the impressively enormous piles of lobster or crab at Fishman Lobster Clubhouse and not want to immediately go there? I don’t think it is!

I’ve been drooling over those piles on Instagram for some time now, not to mention on David Chang’s amazing Netflix show, Ugly Delicious. But you need a big group to really do the place justice, so I had to bide my time until a large enough group could be assembled.

I recently went with a group of ten, and yeah, we did the place justice.

We started with a few different dishes — soup, braised beef, greens, fried rice, noodles — and they were all tasty enough, but that’s not the reason you’re there.

We ordered a twenty pound pile of lobster, which consisted of two enormous beasts that they actually brought to the table before the meal started (a lot of people like to pose for pre-dinner photographs with their lobsters or crabs, which felt like a bit much to me).

Later, the mountain arrives. And it’s an awe-inspiring sight: a seemingly endless amount of deep-fried lobster chunks, a whole bunch of fries, and enough crispy fried garlic bits to launch a vampire genocide.

It’s so good. The lobster is cut up into easy-to-eat chunks; it’s still on the shell, but the meat is accessible without the need for any shell-crunching tools. Which is good, because there’s a lot of lobster there — there’s no time to mess around with cracking shells. There’s a whole bunch of lobster to eat.

It’s more lobster than I’ve ever had in a single meal, and it’s so tasty; the meat is tender, garlicky, a little bit sweet, and has some nice fried crispy bits. That’s not to mention the fried garlic, which is surprisingly addictive (you’re going to reek of garlic for about 24 hours after eating here; deal with it).

I ate an insane amount of lobster. I was so full. It was one of the most memorable meals I’ve had in a while.