smoke – Michael Eats

Tasty Grilled Burgers at Elijah’s Automatic

Published on August 7, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 821 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://elijahsautomatic.com/

I was actually quite excited to try Elijah’s Automatic, the newest venture from Shant Mardirosian of Burger’s Priest fame. It’s been a while, but when Burger’s Priest first opened and had just the one location on the east end, it was something special. Their burgers were upsettingly good. Basically perfect. That’s not to mention the fact that they pretty much single-handedly ushered in the smashed burger trend that swept through the GTA over the last decade or so.

A new burger place from the brains behind that operation? Yeah, that’s exciting.

Smartly, Elijah’s Automatic isn’t making the griddled burgers you can get at roughly a billion other burger joints in the city; they’re grilling them. It’s kinda funny that, pre-Burger’s Priest, it was hard to find a non-fast-food burger that wasn’t grilled. Now it seems like a delightful change of pace.

I ordered the Automatic with Cheese (“Two flame broiled beef patties with cheddar cheese, pickle, charred onion, mustard and ketchup”) and the beef fat fries.

It’s a solid burger. And when they say it’s grilled, it’s grilled. The smoky, charred flavour is actually a bit overwhelming. I think this style of burger might be better suited to one big patty rather than two smaller ones, which would provide a better balance between the flavour of the beef and the flavour from the grill.

It’s a shame; this article says they’re using dry-aged ribeye fat to give the burgers more flavour, but you’d never know. All you can taste is the grill.

That’s not an unsatisfying flavour, of course. I enjoyed it. My burger blog is basically defunct at this point, but if I were reviewing this there, I’d give it a solid three out of four. It’s slightly on the dry side and probably a bit too finely ground, but it’s quite pleasant. It’s more along the lines of a fast food burger on a good day than something you should go out of your way for, but it’s a tasty burger.

As for the fries, they’re battered, which isn’t my favourite style of fry, but for what they are, they’re very good.

An Amazing Breakfast Sandwich at Hot Pork

Published on May 11, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 932 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/hotpork.to/

I think the Smoked Beef Brisket sandwich at Hot Pork might be the best breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had? If it’s not the best, it’s right up there, that’s for sure.

It’s the beef brisket. Good lord, that brisket. You’re basically cheating when you make a sandwich with brisket that good. You could put that brisket in/on anything, and it will suddenly be one of the best versions of that thing that you’ve ever had.

It’s just perfectly prepared, with a great level of smokiness that puts literally every BBQ joint in the GTA to shame, and an unctuous tenderness that’s seriously satisfying.

It’s otherwise a very simple sandwich, with just mayo, BBQ sauce (which is glazed right onto the brisket, which is griddled to caramelize the sauce), and an egg on a toasted English muffin.

The toastiness of the English muffin adds some nice texture to the tender brisket and the creamy egg, and the egg is perfectly cooked (normally I’d prefer a runny yolk, but on a sandwich like this I think the more solid texture works).

And the egg/brisket combo works so well (but again, that brisket would be delicious with basically anything).

It’s a phenomenal sandwich.

Barbecue Meets Pizza at Conspiracy Pizza

Published on July 3, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 858 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto
Website: https://www.conspiracypizza.ca/

Though Conspiracy Pizza started out as a pop-up inside of the infamous (and defunct) Adamson Barbecue, they’ve since cut ties and have their own space (which they share with Churnt Up, an ice cream shop, and Phamily Eats, which sells patties).

They’ve still got a bit of a barbecue theme, however — their namesake pie, the Conspiracy, comes topped with “white sauce, emmental cheese, brisket, red onion, jalapeno, barbecue sauce.”

It’s an odd pizza, but it absolutely works. In particular, the chunks of brisket are shockingly good — they’re nice and tender, and they’ve got a distinctly smoky flavour. It makes me wish they served a sandwich, because it’s top-notch BBQ brisket.

But then the whole pizza is pretty great, with pops of heat from the jalapenos, a satisfying richness from the white sauce and the cheese, and with the barbecue sauce bringing it a nice zippy sweetness to cut through the meat and cheese. The crust is quite good too, with a super crispy exterior and a fluffy interior.

I also tried the Government Cheese, which comes topped with “mozza, cheddar, emmental, provolone, manchego, oregano.”

It takes a lot for me to say that a pizza is too cheesy, but… this one was too cheesy. It’s overwhelming. It also kinda reminded me of a Costco pizza (the cheddar, maybe?). It’s not bad — a huge pile of gooey cheese is never going to be all bad — but I can’t say I’d ever order it again.

Decent Ribs at Brickyard BBQ

Published on September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 120 North Queen Street, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.brickyardbbq.ca/

Brickyard BBQ is a ribfest vendor with a permanent location (or semi-permanent at least — I can’t imagine they’ll still be around once winter hits), so if you’re in the mood for a mini ribfest experience, it should hit the spot. There’s even a Tiny Tom’s truck parked across from it, but alas, it was closed when I visited.

They have the usual assortment of ribs, pulled pork, and chicken, though ribs are obviously their specialty (they have a huge sign boasting about their “legendary ‘double-smoked’ ribs”). I ordered a third rack with coleslaw and baked beans on the side (rice and peas is also a choice).

It was fine. I’ve never had ribs from a ribfest that particularly blew me away, and these were far from the best ribfest ribs I’ve had (how many times can I say ribs in a sentence?? Ribs ribs ribs). They weren’t smoky at all, and they had a mildly leftovery flavour, but mostly they were decent enough. The texture was okay, with a nice bite that wasn’t overly tough.

The most noteworthy thing about them was the sauce they had slathered them in — the spicing was quite unique, with a really distinctive flavour that was unlike any BBQ sauce I’ve had before. It’s different enough to be off-putting at first, though it mostly grew on me.

As for the sides, the baked beans had the same distinctive flavour as the sauce, but were otherwise quite good — hearty and not too sweet. And the coleslaw, oddly enough, was the highlight. It’s a pretty by-the-numbers creamy coleslaw, but it’s well executed and tasty (hey, not every dish needs to reinvent the wheel).

Hogtown Smoke

Published on June 14, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: All over the place (check their Twitter account)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/hogtownsmoke

Over the last few years, Toronto’s food truck scene has gone from a handful of trucks selling stuff like hot dogs and fries to something much, much more interesting (there are enough to necessitate a website like this one to keep track of them). It’s certainly been a welcome phenomenon, and has made events like the recent Woofstock much more interesting, food-wise.

On this particular day, Hogtown Smoke had a few interesting looking items on their menu, though I decided to go with the Brisket Po Boy. The sandwich featured a fairly substantial amount of brisket dipped in au jus sauce, cheese, onions (which I honestly couldn’t even taste), and horseradish aioli.

It was a perfectly tasty sandwich, though I kinda wish I had just gone with the plain brisket. Good brisket is hard to prepare; it has the tendency to be a bit dry and tough, but this was moist, with just the right amount of fattiness and a nicely subtle smokey flavour. It was good enough that the other stuff felt more like a distraction than anything else; with brisket this good, all you really need is meat and bread, with maybe a little bit of barbecue sauce for flavour. There were a lot of flavours going on in this sandwich, and ultimately they just took away from the brisket.

The bread was perfect po boy bread — lightly crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. The whole thing was pretty good, but I’ll definitely be going for the plain brisket if I ever find myself back in the vicinity of this truck.