smoked meat – Michael Eats

Tasty Sandwiches at The Carbon Snack Bar

Published on November 8, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 460 King Street West, Toronto
Website: https://thecarbonsnackbar.ca/

I’ll admit that when I walked into The Carbon Snack Bar — a casual, take-out version of The Carbon Bar around King and Spadina — I almost walked out. All the sandwiches are pre-made and sitting behind glass looking sad and clammy, and I thought, well, nuts to this.

But hey, I’m here, so… sure, why not? I went with the pastrami on rye (“Thin-sliced pastrami, pommery aioli, pickles, sauerkraut, rye”) which the woman behind the counter popped into an oven of some sort to heat up.

I don’t know what kind of magic that oven was doing; it couldn’t have been in there for longer than a couple of minutes or so, and yet it came out fully warmed through and toasty on its exterior.

It’s a quality sandwich. It’s a bit more heavily-topped than I normally prefer for pastrami (with good quality smoked meat like this, all you really need is a bit of mustard), but I can’t deny that it’s tasty. It’s got a nice richness from the meat and the cheese that’s cut nicely by the pickles and sauerkraut, with an extra punch of flavour from the zingy, garlicky aioli.

As for the pastrami, it’s tender, well-spiced, and has a noticeable smoky flavour. I wish that they served a simpler sandwich with the stuff, but this one is tasty enough that I can’t complain (too much, at least).

Quality Pastrami at Linny’s Luncheonette

Published on May 18, 2025May 18, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 174 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://linnysluncheonette.com/

Whenever there’s a new deli specializing in pastrami or Montreal smoked meat, I sit up and take notice. We have a handful of quality restaurants like this in the GTA, but not nearly enough. There should be one on every block, and there’s what? Like maybe five or six?

The menu here is extremely simple. They serve pastrami, a couple of other sandwiches, and a few sides. It’s also take-out only, so if you don’t get one of the two small picnic tables out front, too bad. Take your food and walk.

The pastrami is quite tasty. The spicing on the meat is weirdly restrained, though, which dials down the flavour and holds the sandwich back from greatness. But otherwise, everything here is exactly where it should be, with thick, hand-cut slices of ultra-tender beef on perfectly-fresh rye bread with just the right amount of mustard (I find a lot of places tend to over-mustard their sandwiches, overwhelming the beef, but here it’s just right).

I will say that although the borderline bland spicing is a bummer, the meat has a distinctly smoky flavour that goes a long way towards mitigating this. And it’s still a great sandwich — it’s just that everything else about it is so stellar that its lack of seasoning stands out more than it would otherwise.

I also got a side order of the coleslaw, which is a great zippy counterpoint to the very heavy sandwich (albeit a little too heavy on the onions for my personal preferences).

Tasty Sandwiches at Centre Street Deli Express

Published on March 9, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 995 Bay Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.centrestreetdeli.com/

I’ve written about Centre Street Deli before; I’ve been going there for as long as I can remember, and they continue to serve some of the best smoked meat sandwiches in the city.

They recently expanded to a new location at Yonge and Bloor. It’s substantially smaller than the original location (they call it “Centre Street Deli Express”), but still has a few tables if you want to eat in. And, of course, they’re still serving the same menu.

I got the Old Fashioned sandwich, and yeah — it’s just as tasty as ever. It’s nicely spiced, tender, and delicious.

Is it the best smoked meat in the city? No, probably not — newer places like SumiLicious and Dave’s Genuine Deli would probably take that crown. But for a place that’s been around for decades and is now starting to expand, it’s still very good; they haven’t lost a step.

Dave’s Genuine Deli at the Waterworks Food Hall

Published on July 14, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 50 Brandt Street, Toronto (inside the Waterworks Food Hall)
Website: https://www.davesgenuine.ca/

I’m a sucker for a good smoked meat deli sandwich, so it bums me out that there are so few great ones being served in the GTA. There’s SumiLicious and Centre Street Deli and… that’s about it?

Well, you can add one more sandwich to that list: Dave’s Genuine Deli. I actually went to the original location a year or so ago and the sandwich was just as good then, so they’re consistent, too.

They have a handful of sandwiches on the menu (including, intriguingly, a couple of southern-style BBQ sandwiches), but of course, I went with the smoked meat, which you can order as a quarter or half pound serving (I went quarter and kinda wished I went with half once I realized how good it was).

It’s so good — super tender, perfectly rendered fat, great spicing, and a very pronounced smoky flavour. That smokiness kind of reminds me of Caplansky’s in their glory days in the Monarch. Great bread, too. It’s a top-shelf smoked meat sandwich.

The only thing I’d change is that I’d order the mustard on the side next time. They were very heavy-handed with it, and on a lesser sandwich I’d be fine with that (it might even be necessary), but the quality of the meat was so good that the aggressive slathering of mustard overwhelmed its flavour and took away from it a bit. Still, that’s a very minor complaint for an otherwise phenomenal sandwich.

I also got an order of the fries, and they were great too, with a perfect crispy/creamy combo and a nice amount of salt.

Halal Deli Sandwiches at East Meats West

Published on April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2399 Cawthra Road West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.facebook.com/emwhalal/

East Meats West specializes in halal deli meats; they mainly sell various cooked and uncooked meats that you can buy and take home, but they also have an assortment of sandwiches for take-out.

One of their specialties is Montreal smoked meat. I’m never going to say no to a Montreal smoked meat sandwich, so obviously that’s what I ordered. I went with the small size, which comes with a decent amount of meat, and rings in at a delightfully cheap eight bucks. Can’t go wrong there.

The woman behind the counter asked if I wanted “everything,” which turned out to be quite a lot. The sandwich comes topped with lettuce, pickles, mustard, mayo, and one more sauce (Russian, I’m guessing).

The meat here was thinly sliced and a bit more on the chewy side than somewhere like Sumilicious, which means the extra condiments were probably necessary. The spicing is also a bit more subtle than the norm, so again, the many condiments aren’t unwelcome.

It’s certainly not the best Montreal smoked meat sandwich I’ve ever had, but it’s tasty enough, and it’s hard to deny that it’s a great deal.