noodles – Michael Eats

Delicious Hakka Cuisine at Chilli Chicken House

Published on January 27, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4040 Creditview Road, Mississauga
Website: https://chillichickenhouse.com/

I’ve heard people call Chilli Chicken House the best Hakka restaurant in Mississauga; I certainly haven’t tried every Hakka joint in the city, but after eating here, the claim seems extremely plausible. It’s great.

I tried a couple of things. First up is the chilli chicken, because if you go to a restaurant called Chilli Chicken House and you don’t order the chilli chicken, what are you even doing with your life?

You can get this either dry or with gravy; I went with the gravy option, which features chunks of tender fried chicken tossed in a really tasty sauce that’s a bit sweet, very savoury, and has a nice kick (particularly in the mouthfuls with the green chilis, which are delightful spice bombs).

If you want to kick things up even further, there’s a jar of tangy chili sauce on the table, along with a jar of vinegar with a whole bunch of fiery chilis floating on top. Both are very tasty.

I also tried the Hakka chow mein, which is a stellar noodle dish with a generous amount of shrimp and chicken, just the right amount of greasiness, and a really satisfying smoky flavour from the blazing hot wok.

Delicious Soupless Ramen at Kajiken

Published on December 14, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4850 Yonge Street, North York
Website: https://kajiken.ca/

Kajiken is a Japanese ramen chain that opened in Toronto a couple of months ago to quite a bit of fanfare. I drove by a few weeks ago around lunch and there was a line going around the block.

I figured things had probably mostly cooled down by now, but just to be safe, I showed up around 10 minutes before they opened at 11:30. There were maybe a dozen people in line, and by the time I left, the line was smaller, but still there. So yeah, popular place.

Does it justify the crowds? Yes, yes it does.

They specialize in abura soba, AKA soupless ramen. The menu lists their three most recommended dishes, and number one is the homura abura soba: “homura spicy minced pork, spring onion, chives, egg, nori, fish powder, bamboo shoots.” The egg comes either raw, onsen (“lightly poached”) or ajitama (“seasoned boiled egg”). The waiter recommended onsen, so that’s what I went with.

The dish comes with everything on top of the noodles and some sauce at the bottom of the bowl, and the idea is that you mix it all up until it becomes one cohesive whole.

It’s extremely tasty. The flavours here are definitely reminiscent of what you’d find in a standard bowl of ramen, with a really addictive savoury punch and a nice kick of spiciness. And the waiter was definitely right about the onsen egg; its silky texture means that it blends right in with the noodles and the sauce, giving everything an extra richness.

The thick noodles are perfectly chewy, and if you feel like jazzing things up, each table has a variety of condiments like toasted sesame seeds, chili oil, and vinegar.

Yeah, that’s worth waiting in line for.

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?