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Tasty Sandwiches at Gus Tacos

Published on November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 1546 Dupont Street, Toronto
Website: https://tacosgus.ca/

I recently had a couple of tacos from Gus Tacos; I enjoyed them enough that I figured I should come back and try some other stuff. Well I just tried the carnitas torta, and yeah, this place is the real deal.

The menu describes the torta as coming topped with “beans, cheese, guacamole, chipotle mayo, onions, cilantro and your choice of protein.” I skipped the onions, though if you can handle raw onions, I’m sure their crunchiness would enhance the sandwich.

It’s a top notch sandwich. It’s served on a fresh, fluffy bun, and all of the flavours are exactly where they should be. The carnitas (which is basically like pulled pork) is super tasty, with a nice porky flavour and a great texture.

I asked for the sandwich spicy, and it came with a little container of zingy hot sauce on the side. Once I added this to the sandwich, things really came alive — it made a very good sandwich even better.

Torteria San Cosme, a thoroughly delicious torta place in Kensington Market, shut down during the pandemic, which seriously bummed me out. I don’t know if the torta here is quite at that level of amazingness, but it’s close enough.

Decent Noodles at Lion City

Published on April 23, 2023April 23, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1177 Central Parkway West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.lioncityrestaurant.ca/

It’s odd — Singapore’s cuisine is incredibly delicious, and yet there’s maybe like half a dozen Singaporean restaurants in the entire GTA? If that? I feel like there should be one in every neighbourhood, but at least we’ve got a few of them.

One of those few restaurants is Lion City in Mississauga, which serves a diverse menu of Singaporean classics that, alas, were mostly unavailable when I visited. I guess they were having kitchen issues?

The laksa was one of the few dishes that was available, and hey, I’m never going to be mad about having to order laksa.

The style of laksa they serve here features a really tasty, curry-and-seafood-infused broth that’s made luxuriously creamy thanks to coconut milk, and that comes with a generous amount of thick rice noodles.

It was far from the best laksa I’ve ever had, with a flavour that was a bit too muted, and with slightly overcooked noodles, but it was still tasty. The various toppings — shrimp, fish cakes, chicken, tofu — were all well prepared and complemented the soup quite well.

This is going to make me sound like a maniac, but there’s a type of instant laksa you can find at Asian supermarkets from a Singaporean company called Prima Taste, and… I honestly think it’s a little bit better than the version they’re serving here, with a more vibrant flavour and a better texture on the noodles.

I know that recommending instant noodles, of all things, over a restaurant dish sounds like a food crime, but trust me: try those noodles. They’re so much better than any other instant noodles you’ve ever had.

Chewy Korean Noodles at Cho Sun Ok

Published on January 3, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 7353 Yonge Street, Thornhill
Website: http://www.chosunok.ca/

Cho Sun Ok does well. I showed up at around 6:00 on a Friday, which you’d think would be early enough to beat the crowds, but nope — the place was already packed. Always a good sign.

And yeah, it’s quite good. While they have a fairly extensive menu of Korean standbys, everyone seems to agree that the cold naengmyun noodles are the thing to order.

I went with the mool naengmyun: “Thin, chewy arrowroot noodles topped with our homemade red pepper sauce, sesame seed oil, pickled daikon, slivers of cucumber, a slice of pear and a hard-boiled egg in our flavourful beef based icy broth.”

The style of noodles here are so immensely chewy that they have to be cut with scissors before you start eating them, and combined with the zippy pepper sauce and the beefy, salty cold broth (not to mention the crunchy veggies), it’s a very satisfying dish. It’s easy enough to see why the place is so popular.

A Mind-Blowing Burrito at Comal y Canela

Published on November 27, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1692B Jane Street, York
Website: https://www.comalycanela.com/

I’m a bit late to the party here, but I feel like there was a time on Instagram recently where every other post was someone dipping a beefy taco into a cup of soup.

I’m talking about birria tacos, a dish in which braised beef and cheese are crammed into a tortilla, dunked in a beefy soup, griddle-fried, and then served with even more soup for dipping.

You can get this at Comal y Canela, and yeah, it’s good. How could it not be? Tender beef, gooey cheese, flavourful soup? It’s like a French dip sandwich but better, with amplified flavours and textures that are an absolute delight to eat.

The really surprising thing, however? The birria tacos weren’t even the highlight of the meal.

I also tried the michoacano burrito, which the menu describes as “giant flour tortilla with a cheese crust, black bean puree, braised pork, onion, jalapeno, avocado, crema fresca and queso fresco.”

Good lord, that burrito. I don’t want to overstate this, but I think this might have been the best burrito I’ve ever had? I’m skeptical that a better burrito exists. Okay, maybe I’m overstating it a tad, but I really, really enjoyed this burrito.

Every part of it works so well, though that cheese crust (I’m guessing they just take a pile of cheese and let it brown on the griddle) is downright genius. The combination of the gooey, crusty cheese and the ultra-tender pork (not to mention the creamy avocado and literally every other ingredient in this thing) is pure magic. I guess I could do without the raw onions, but there’s so much else going on here that they really just add some crunch.

It’s hard for me to say that this is the best burrito I’ve ever eaten, because I’ve had quite a few burritos in my lifetime, but I can honestly say that I cannot remember eating a better one. It’s that good.

Tasty Sourdough Pizzas at The Hole in the Wall

Published on November 6, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2867A Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://theholeinthewallto.ca/

The Hole in the Wall is a delightful little spot in the Junction (with a fairly generous streetside patio) that specializes in various sourdough shenanigans: they’ve got sourdough loaves, sourdough bagels, and what I ordered — sourdough pizza.

I tried a couple of pizzas: the margherita (“fior di latte, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, tomato sauce”) and the cacio e pepe (“white base, zucchini, pecorino, black pepper”).

They were both delicious. As you’d expect from a place that specializes in sourdough, the crust was stellar — it’s got a great balance between fluffiness and chewiness, and a nice sourdough flavour that really pops. It’s a crispier than a standard Neapolitan-style pizza, but it totally works.

It’s also very aggressively charred, but it never crosses the line into burnt territory. The char adds a subtle bitterness that contrasts nicely with the more flavourful dough.

As for the pizzas themselves, they were both great (and translating the creamy, peppery bite of cacio e pepe to a pizza is actually fairly ingenious), though not surprisingly, I preferred the margherita. I’ve said it many times before — I think a good margherita pizza is a perfect food, and this was a very good one.