sandwich – Page 27 – Michael Eats

Style over Substance at Maha’s

Published on December 11, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 226 Greenwood Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.mahasbrunch.com/

The Mind Blowing Chicken Sandwich at Maha’s is one of those dishes you see and immediately want to eat. No, scratch that — need to eat. I mean, look at that thing.

But then, that’s kind of the problem, isn’t it? It’s a tasty dish, but it also feels very much like something that was created to be a stunner on Instagram, with the actual flavour being secondary.

Maha’s Mind Blowing Chicken, per the menu: “Maha’s sacred marinate, tossed with parsley, onions and tomatoes, served on a toasted egg bun with tomeya, homemade mayo and tehina.”

The very generous pile of chicken is nice and moist, with a very unique and distinctive spicing that makes it stand out. The sauces, too, compliment it quite nicely, and the onions and tomatoes add some welcome freshness and crunch.

But it’s a very assertively-flavoured dish, and I’ll admit that by the end, it was getting to be a bit much. It really needed something on the side to help round things out and add a little variety. There’s so much of that chicken; it starts out delightful, but eventually turns one-note and tiresome.

It doesn’t help that the bun is all wrong. Its fluffy lightness is completely lost among the chicken’s very assertive flavours, and the bottom bun (yes, there is a bottom bun underneath that pile) turns into complete mush.

We had ordered some of the balady pita bread on the side, and it worked so much better — it has a nice chewy texture that holds up to the saucy chicken, and a nutty flavour that complements and helps to mellow out the assertive spicing. I wish it had come as a wrap in that bread, but then that wouldn’t be quite the showstopper on Instagram, would it?

I also tried the falafel, which was unambiguously delicious, and maybe the best falafel in the city. It’s crispy, fluffy, and delightfully herby. I couldn’t help but compare it to the stuff I recently had at Paramount, and it was night and day. It’s almost a completely different dish.

A Sandwich with Issues at Parka Food Co.

Published on December 4, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 424 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.parkafoodco.com/

I don’t know what it is about “plant-based” restaurants serving sandwiches with overly dense buns, but I had that issue at Planta, I had it at Fresh, and now it’s happened again at Parka Food Co.

Is it the plant-based thing? The lack of dairy? Or is it a coincidence I’m reading too much into? I don’t know.

(Also, whichever marketer came up with the term “plant-based” to make veganism sound more hip and healthy: kudos to you. You have succeeded beyond your wildest dreams.)

I tried the broccoli sandwich at Parka Food Co., which comes with “lightly battered broccoli, cashew cheese sauce, dill pickles, sauteed onions, roasted garlic, lettuce, parka aioli,” and it was mostly decent enough — but then there was that bun.

It’s all about Newton’s third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The bun is so firm and dense that the force of you holding it and biting into it has nowhere to go but down into the components of the sandwich. A normal bun would absorb some of that force, but not this one.

Instead, everything gets squished out within a couple of bites. I had to eat the sandwich with a fork and knife. It’s not a big deal, but I kinda wanted to eat my sandwich like a sandwich.

Aside from that, it wasn’t bad. The broccoli has a nice crispy, battered exterior, and the inside is perfectly cooked — it’s tender but not mushy, with a satisfying bite.

The cashew “cheese” sauce is basically just a thick, gooey paste, without a whole lot of cheese-like properties. But it’s fine on the sandwich.

And the sweet aioli and the pickles do a nice job of cutting through the richness of the fried broccoli and the “cheese.” It’s a pretty good sandwich… or at least it would be if you could eat it like a sandwich.

Upgraded Street Meat at Nobs’

Published on November 28, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 505 University Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/nobsofficial/

Nobs’ is a street vendor with a really interesting setup; it looks like a hot dog cart, but you won’t find a dog or a sausage on the menu. Instead, they serve a variety of meaty sandwiches (and mushroom for the vegetarians) that are cooked sous vide and finished on the grill. Ideally, this means that the meat will be perfectly cooked, with a nice smoky crust from the fire.

And yeah, that’s what happened.

I ordered the AAA Canadian Blade Steak Sandwich, which comes topped with greens, chimichurri, mayo, and pickled onions.

The steak was perfectly tender, with a good amount of exterior texture from the grill. The rest of the sandwich is quite tasty, too, with the vibrant, garlicky chimichurri matching well with the creamy mayo.

The bread is also great — it’s fresh, with a nice crispy exterior, and enough heft to hold up to the very substantial sandwich.

But the flavours are overwhelming. In particular, the garlic in the chimichurri packs an absolute wallop. It’s intense. It’s delicious, mind you, but it’s basically all you can taste. The beef is mostly just there for texture; the flavour is completely annihilated.

The whole thing is really good; I just wish I could have tasted more of the steak (or any of the steak).

A Simple but Tasty Sandwich at Cluny

Published on November 13, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 35 Tank House Lane, Toronto
Website: https://clunybistro.com/

Cluny is a French bistro in the Distillery District that also has an attached bakery where they sell various pastries and sandwiches.

The bakery has the requisite sweets, of course, along with a handful of tasty looking sandwiches and savoury pastries (the quiche looked good, as did the tourtiere). I went with the ham and brie sandwich.

I got it toasted, though I think untoasted might be the better option. Toasting gets the bread a little too crunchified, and melts the fat in the ham, making the sandwich a drippy, greasy mess.

Even so, it’s a tasty sandwich. The bread, even in its over-crunched form, is top-notch, and the speck ham and brie work nicely together. It’s a simple sandwich, but if you’re dealing with high quality ingredients that compliment each other well, further ornamentation is unnecessary.

A Lauded Veal Sandwich at Kantene

Published on October 25, 2019October 29, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1059 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
Website: https://kantene.com/

The Veal Supreme at Kantene was recently named the best veal sandwich in Ontario by a group including John Cattuchi (of You Gotta Eat Here and Big Food Bucket List fame). If that’s not a reason to check the place out, I don’t know what is.

The sandwich consists of “Grilled Eggplant, melted Bocconcini in a fresh tomato based basil sauce with melted Provolone and crispy Parmesan on a soft bun.”

It’s a solid veal sandwich. The breading is nicely seasoned and has the perfect amount of crunch, and the veal is nice and tender (if a bit dry).

The sauce doesn’t quite have the oomph you’ll find in the best veal sandwiches, but it’s certainly tasty enough. And of course, tender eggplant and veal are best friends.

The bocconcini wasn’t quite melted all the way through, but for the most part it was gooey and satisfying. As for the crispy Parmesan, it’s a great idea in theory, but it had a profoundly burnt, bitter flavour that was actually quite unpleasant.

You can get the sandwich mild or spicy; the spicy version features pickled peppers that do a nice job of cutting through the richness of the sandwich. They’re quite mild, however, and I missed the intensely spicy bite of the un-pickled peppers you normally find in a sandwich like this.

The bread is great, with a lightly crispy exterior and a fluffy interior that holds up admirably to the very saucy sandwich.

Its a tasty sandwich — but I don’t think it’s the best in Mississauga, let alone all of Ontario.