Oakville – Michael Eats

Tasty Noodles at Wu Ji Xi’an Foods

Published on August 1, 2026August 1, 2026 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 117B North Service Road East, Oakville
Website: None

Wu Ji Xi’an Foods is probably the hole-in-the-walliest hole in the wall I’ve visited in quite a while. It’s take-out only, with the extremely no-frills interior being about the size of a walk-in closet.

I actually wasn’t even able to get a photo of the interior, because as soon as you walk in, you’re face-to-face with the proprietor. Taking out my phone and trying to snap a photo felt like it would have been awkward overload, especially since the woman behind the counter seemed to speak minimal English (their card machine was down, and she had to tell me they were cash only via hand gestures).

They have a few things on the menu, but their specialty seems to be a cold noodle dish called liangpi, so that’s what I went with. It’s $7.50 for a pretty hearty serving, so it’s a great deal.

The dish comes with rice noodles, some sliced cucumber, a few chunks of seitan, and four sauce packets: sesame paste, soy sauce / vinegar (I think), garlic water, and chili oil.

It’s really good. The broad noodles are nice and chewy, the seitan has a satisfyingly meaty bite, and it’s seriously flavourful. This is definitely not a dish that’s subtle in the taste department; it’s savoury, tangy, garlicky, and a little bit spicy, with all the flavours working really well together.

My only real complaint is that with the generous amount of chili oil, I figured this was going to be spicier than it was, and it was surprisingly mild. A bit more kick would have been nice, but everything else was so satisfying that I can’t really complain.

Quick Bites: Tatin Bakehouse, Mi’Hito Sushi Laboratory, Breakfast ING

Published on January 11, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Custard tart from Tatin Bakehouse

I figured Tatin Bakehouse was probably worth checking out after reading about their Michelin connection in Toronto Life, and yeah, it’s a delightfully unique little bakery. I tried the custard tart, which is impeccably made, with ultra-rich custard, a delicate brûléed top, a tasty layer of chewy black rice, and a perfect crust. But between its slight salty kick and ultra-restrained sweetness, it’s right on the line between sweet and savoury, and barely feels like a dessert. To be fair, I had just blown out my palate somewhat with a garlicky shawarma wrap, so it’s possible that this was my fault, but I appreciated this more than I enjoyed it.

I actually checked out the bakery a second time a few weeks later and tried the chocolate croissant, and I will admit that it left me wondering if I gave the bakery too much credit on my first visit; it looked good, but it was dry, had almost no buttery flavour, and had such a stingy amount of chocolate that you could barely taste it.

Sushi burrito from Mi’Hito Sushi Laboratory

I’m sorry, Mi’Hito Sushi Laboratory, but your flagship product should not exist. Sushi should not be a burrito. To be fair, the stuff they serve here is less of a burrito and more of an oversized, uncut maki roll. And it was totally fine — eating it wasn’t an unpleasant experience. I ordered the Rising Sun burrito (“tuna, lettuce, cabbage, avocado, tempura crunch, tobiko, carrot, crab meat, green onions, and spicy mayonnaise dressing”) and it was tasty enough. There was a decent amount of good quality tuna, and the other fillings were solid. But it’s so fat that you can never really get a satisfying bite; sometimes you get mostly tuna, and other times, mostly plain veggies. That’s not to mention the nori, which was oddly difficult to bite into. It was all basically enjoyable enough, but I would have much rather just been eating normal sushi.

Malaysian Sandwiches at Breakfast ING

I tried a couple of sandwiches at Breakfast ING, a small Malaysian restaurant inside a bubble tea joint: the house special (“pork loin marinated with house special recipe, fried egg, cabbage, and peanut butter”) and Malaysian street style (“4oz ground beef with a taste of M’sian spice, tomato, fried egg, lettuce and sweet & spicy sauce”). Neither sandwich particularly blew me away (the third slice of bread feels superfluous in both, and only serves to dry out the sandwich), but they were both pretty tasty. The fact that they were nine bucks each for a couple of reasonably hefty sandwiches certainly doesn’t hurt.

Tasty Shawarma at Shelby’s

Published on January 6, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1289 Marlborough Court, Oakville
Website: https://www.shelbys.ca/

I could have sworn I had already written about Shelby’s for this blog, but when I went to look for the post, I couldn’t find it. It turns out I actually blogged about Tahini’s, not Shelby’s.

In my defense, the two chains are quite similar: both are chains with a similar name and logo, and both serve a similar menu of saj-wrapped shawarma topped with a pomegranate-infused sauce.

Also: both are surprisingly tasty. Shelby’s, despite being a chain with a couple dozen locations, probably outclasses a decent amount of the independent shawarma joints in the GTA.

I ordered the Shelby’s Wrap: “freshly baked saj bread stuffed with lettuce mix, fries, pickles, turnips, tomatoes, sumac onions, tahini, hummus, and regular or spicy garlic.” I got it with beef and lamb shawarma, spicy garlic, and skipped the onions.

It’s a great wrap, with the slightly chewy and nicely toasted saj wrap being a nice vehicle for the generous amount of tasty meat and veggies/sauces. It’s mildly spicy, zippy and garlicky (my wrap didn’t say it came with pomegranate molasses, but I’m pretty sure I tasted its slightly tart flavour, which worked well), and the shawarma is tender, with a decent amount of crispy bits. I didn’t get much lamb flavour, but the whole thing was tasty enough that this didn’t really matter.

Quick Bites: Louf, Luca Pizza, Sidra BBQ & Grill

Published on December 28, 2025December 28, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Hummus bil lahma from Louf

Louf is a Palestinian restaurant near Casa Loma (it’s probably the closest I’ve been to Casa Loma since I was a kid). I went at brunch and tried a few things, though the only dish that really jumped out at me was the hummus bil lahma (“chickpeas, tahina, lemon, ghee, beef, spices, pine nuts”). It’s a solid bowl of hummus, with a satisfyingly zippy, cumin-tinged flavour. And the braised beef on top is perfectly tender. It’s a great combo.

Cheese pizza from Luca Pizza

Luca Pizza frequently comes up in discussions of the best pizza in Mississauga, and I guess I kind of get it. The place opened in 1975, and it looks like not much has changed in there in the intervening decades; it’s definitely got a bunch of old-school charm. And the pizza kind of reminds me of what a place like Pizza Pizza would be serving, if Pizza Pizza weren’t terrible. It’s cheap, cheesy, and filling. I also liked that the crust had a nice exterior crispiness. But I have to imagine that the people calling this the best pizza in the city are coming with a big dose of nostalgia — without that, it’s hard to fully overlook the canned-tasting sauce or the bland crust (it’s the kind of crust that makes you realize why dipping sauce with pizza became a thing). Still, while I’m not going to rush back, it was pretty satisfying for what it was.

Lamb shawarma wrap from Sidra BBQ & Grill

Mostly, I wanted to try Sidra — a shawarma joint in Oakville — thanks to the presence of lamb among their shawarma selections. My understanding is that lamb shawarma is actually quite common in the Middle East, but it’s weirdly rare in the GTA (and if you do find it, it’ll likely be mixed with beef). Sadly, I don’t think the lamb shawarma here was cooked on a vertical spit, which does kind of defeat the point (there were zero crispy bits), and the seasoning was probably a bit too aggressively applied. Still, it was a bunch of tasty, relatively tender lamb in a wrap, so yeah, I enjoyed it. Probably not worth going out of your way for, but if you’re in Oakville already, sure, why not?

Asian Fusion Sandwiches at Just Braise

Published on January 8, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 515 Dundas Street West, Oakville
Website: https://www.justbraise.ca/

The Pho Beef Banh Mi at Just Braise in Oakville is pretty much exactly what you want it to be; it is the Brundlefly version of a bowl of pho and a banh mi, and it’s delicious.

Here’s how the menu describes it: “braised beef, pho sauce, pickled veg, cucumber, garlic mayo, hoisin+sriracha, cilantro.”

The combo of the beef and the pho sauce does a great job of capturing the flavour of that particular soup. The only issue: the beef was actually pretty dry, which holds the sandwich back from greatness.

Everything else was quite tasty — the pickled veggies and the crunchy cucumber add a nice bright counterpoint to the savoury beef, and the garlic mayo / hoisin / sriracha combo compliments the beef very well.

It helps that the bread is perfect; it’s lightly crispy on the outside, with a great fluffy interior. It’s a tasty sandwich.