noodle soup – Michael Eats

Tasty Noodle Soup at Paddler Thai Boat Noodles

Published on February 8, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1710 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.paddlerthai.ca/

I’m pretty sure this is my first time trying boat noodles, but if this place is anything to go by? Boat noodles need to be a regular part of my life. They’re seriously, seriously tasty.

Here’s how Paddler describes the dish: “‘Kuaytiaw – Rua’ was originated in Thai floating market back in the old days. A dark brown flavorful soup contains Thai herbs, dark soy sauce, coconut milk. Comes with Chinese broccoli, bean sprouts garnished with fresh basil, culantro, fried garlic and pork rinds.”

You can pick from small rice noodles, medium rice noodles, flat rice noodles, or egg noodles (I went with small rice noodles). You can also pick either beef or pork (I went with pork).

Everything here is so good. The soup itself is intensely savoury, with a satisfying tangy brightness and a bunch of depth (sometimes you’re kinda sick of the broth at the end of a bowl of noodle soup, but that definitely wasn’t the case here).

The bowl is absolutely crammed with tasty stuff, from the tender pork, to the pleasantly springy meatballs, to the flavourful herbs and fried garlic. It’s a definite flavour bomb, but in a way that feels very finely tuned. I’d probably go with the medium noodles next time (the small noodles were slightly too thin), but otherwise this was a superlative bowl of noodle soup.

Tasty Noodle Soup at Kuya Don Lomi Batangas

Published on February 1, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1482 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kdlb.ca/

Kuya Don Lomi Batangas is a Filipino restaurant that started in North York and has recently expanded to Mississauga. And judging by the crowds, it’s already a hit — I showed up not long after they opened at 11:00am on a Saturday, and the place was already pretty full. By the time I left, it was packed.

They have a variety of Filipino dishes on the menu, but the specialty is lomi batangas (it’s right there in the name, so obviously you’ve gotta order that).

I can’t say I’ve ever tried (or even heard of) this dish, but I’m always game to try something new. Here’s how the menu describes it: “freshly made miki with caldo, sliced fish ball, boiled egg, pork liver, kikiam, rebusado, bola-bola, and garnish.”

In case you’re as clueless about Filipino cuisine as I apparently am (I understood fish ball, boiled egg, pork liver, and garnish in that description), here’s how that breaks down. Miki is a Filipino egg noodle, caldo means broth, kikiam is a type of sausage, Google is saying rebusado is fried shrimp (there was something fried in the bowl, but it definitely wasn’t shrimp — pork, I think?), and bola-bola is a meatball (which I don’t think was in my bowl? There were crispy pork rinds, however).

Whatever was in here was quite tasty, particularly those fried chunks of pork (?), which were well seasoned, nicely crunchy on the outside, and tender on the inside.

The soup itself has a really deep savouriness that’s quite satisfying, particularly once you add a squeeze of the calamansi they have on the side — this does a great job of adding some brightness to the very rich bowl. The soup is thickened, but not in a way that feels overly goopy. It’s quite good.

My only real complaint is that while the noodles do a great job of soaking up the flavour of the soup, they’re pretty mushy. I’m not sure if that’s the way they’re supposed to be or if something went wrong, but either way, that’s probably my only complaint about an otherwise very tasty dish.

Great Noodles at Gun Gun Rice Noodle

Published on September 21, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 565 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/gungun.noodle/

Gun Gun Rice Noodle is a seriously delightful restaurant near Yonge and Bloor that specializes in noodle soups made with, of course, rice noodles. I heard the crispy pork spicy pickle rice noodle is the thing to order, so that’s what I did.

The menu doesn’t say what the dish is, though it does mention that all the soups come with “tofu skin, tofu puff, kelp, quail egg, chives, bok choy.”

I really enjoyed this. The broth is vibrant and flavour-packed, with a noticeable spicy kick; it’s actually quite addictive. The noodles were maybe a touch on the soft side, but everything else was so tasty that it really didn’t matter.

In particular, the crispy pork that comes on top of the soup is thoroughly delicious, with a perfectly seasoned crispy exterior and nicely tender pork within. The exterior is crispy enough to hold up to the soup for quite a while, but even once it starts to sog up a bit, it absorbs that delicious broth and becomes tastier.

Pho Ngoc Yen Continues to be Great

Published on August 3, 2025 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 1596 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://sites.google.com/orderup.ai/ngocyenrestaurant/home

I went to the original location of Pho Ngoc Yen a few years ago and called it a hidden gem. It’s in an industrial area of Mississauga, and you really have to be looking for it to find it. You’re not going to stumble onto it.

Their second location, on a busy stretch of the Queensway in Etobicoke, is very much the opposite. But it’s still a gem.

I ordered the pho last time, which was extremely delicious, so I figured another noodle soup was a safe bet. I went with the bun bo hue: “beef, pork with vermicelli in spicy lemongrass soup.”

It’s a great noodle soup. Though it’s not particularly spicy, the broth is zippy and flavour-packed, with a meaty and slightly seafoody flavour that’s really satisfying.

It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it’s absolutely crammed with meat. There’s a whole bunch of tender sliced beef, a couple of fairly substantial pieces of tasty pork sausage, and some blood cakes.

The dish cost about 20 bucks, which certainly isn’t cheap, but considering the quantity and quality of stuff in this bowl, it’s hard to say it’s not worth it.

Intense Jiro-Style Ramen at Ramen Tabetai

Published on July 19, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 154 Cumberland Street, Toronto
Website: https://ramen-tabetai.ca/

Ramen Tabetai is the brainchild of chef Masaki Saito, best known for Sushi Masaki Saito, which is noteworthy for having been awarded two Michelin stars (and it’s the only two star restaurant in Toronto, which makes it Michelin’s highest rated restaurant in the city).

I mean, you had me at ramen, but ramen from a Michelin-starred chef?? Yes please.

Tabetai serves a very specific type of ramen known as Jiro-style ramen, which they describe as “garlic heavy, pork fat loaded – no apologies.” It features a very flavourful pork broth topped with thick ramen noodles, a fat slice of chashu (which was oddly lean, given this place’s whole M.O., but still tasty), chunks of unctuous back fat, a whole bunch of raw garlic, and a crunchy veggie mix (cabbage and bean sprouts, I believe).

I’ll admit that while I enjoy this style of ramen, it isn’t my favourite. I think the best bowls of ramen have an amazing complexity, and Jiro-style ramen is kinda just a porky, fatty, garlicky, salty assault.

Don’t get me wrong — I love being assaulted by porkiness, fattiness, garlickiness, and saltiness. Those are all great things! But it’s a lot of in-your-face big flavours, not to mention the intense richness. I probably don’t need to have it more than once every several months, if that.

(I also think that this style of ramen is probably an odd fit for a Michelin-starred chef, as it’s more about blowing out your tastebuds than the type of gastronomical finesse you typically associate with Michelin-caliber chefs.)

To be fair, the restaurant does allow you to adjust your level of back fat, garlic, and salt — I went with the default 100%, though the waitress did suggest that 50% might be advisable for first-timers. So that might feel like less of an assault. But hey, go big or go home, right?