sweet – Michael Eats

Sweet Heat Honey Garlic Chicken Strips from Wendy’s

Published on March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 44 Britannia Road East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

This is going to sound like an insane thing to say about a fast food item that has the words “sweet” and “honey” in its name, but the Sweet Heat Honey Garlic Chicken Strips from Wendy’s? Too sweet.

Yeah, that’s right — I said it.

Here’s how Wendy’s describes them: “100% Canadian, white-meat chicken strips flipped & dipped in a honey garlic sauce with ranch dip. Perfectly sweet with just a touch of heat. Like a good date.”

I should note that I quite enjoyed these things, despite their intense sweetness. As advertised, they’re sweet and garlicky, with just a little bit of spice — it’s enough that you’ll know it’s there, but it’s not exactly going to put any sweat on your brow. They also have a nice tanginess that theoretically should round out the sweetness, but really, nothing can put a dent in how sweet these things are. It’s intense.

They actually reminded me a lot of something you might find at Manchu Wok or Panda Express, like General Tso’s chicken or something along those lines. It seems like the type of thing you should be eating with rice (which would do a nice job of mellowing out its flavour).

They come with ranch on the side; this adds a nice creaminess, but its flavour is mostly obliterated by the intense sweet tanginess of the sauce.

As for the chicken strips themselves, I got lucky with a well-prepared batch — the chicken was nice and fresh and not dry at all. It was sauced to order, which meant that the exterior kept its crunch despite being absolutely doused in the sweet, sticky sauce. Despite my reservations about how sugary these things are, I still quite enjoyed eating them.

Top-Tier Gelato at Death in Venice

Published on March 21, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1418 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://deathinvenice.ca/

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Death in Venice, which I remembered being very good, but perhaps not up there with the best in the city.

Well, clearly I was extremely wrong about that, because the flavour I just had at Death in Venice? Some of the best gelato I’ve ever had. Crazy good.

The flavour in question: cheeseboard (“made up of all the ingredients of a classic cheeseboard, brie cheese, white wine, pears, jam, honey and berry jam. Perfect balance of sweet and savoury.”)

I’ll admit that I ordered this because it sounded like a fun novelty — the type of flavour that’s more interesting than delicious. I was 100% incorrect. Dangerous levels of deliciousness.

I thought the savoury flavour of the cheese might be overwhelming (I’ve had blue cheese ice cream that went a bit too hard on the blue cheese, making it somewhat unpleasant) but it all goes together so well. There’s a very, very mild savouriness, but it enhances rather than detracts from the sweet gelato.

I wish I had taken a photo of the gelato once I had started eating it — the photo above makes it look a bit plain, but there was actually a pretty generous amount of tasty jam swirled throughout, not to mention walnut chunks that add some nice texture.

There was a lot going on with the flavour here, but it all works so well. And the quality of the gelato itself was perfectly rich and creamy. Seriously: top five gelato of my life.

I should note that I came back a week or two later and tried the bourbon and smoked chocolate gelato (“For real chocolate lovers… We smoke our dark chocolate and cook it with bourbon. Once we add cream and milk this thick and dense gelato becomes the ultimate chocolate treat”). It was just as good, with an intense chocolatiness, and noticeable pops of flavour from the smoke and the bourbon.

You’d think those other flavours might overwhelm the chocolate, but they complement it so well. Clearly, any ranking of the best gelato in the city that doesn’t include this place is flat-out wrong.

Okay, I’m going to update this one more time, then I should really post it. I came back another couple of weeks later and tried the soft serve, which features two rotating flavours. When I went, one of the flavours was chocolate mousse, and holy moly — it was maybe the best soft serve I’ve ever had? It tasted just like a really great chocolate mousse, but in soft serve form. It had a profound chocolately flavour, and was intensely creamy and rich. Ridiculously good.

Tasty Scoops at Misfit Ice Cream

Published on March 15, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 10 Stephanie Street, Toronto
Website: https://misfiticecream.com/

Misfit Ice Cream is a new ice cream spot that’s right across the street from where Mizzica used to be on McCaul. It’s currently listed as “Misfit Ice Cream Pop Up” on Google, so I guess they won’t be sticking around (Update: I was correct about this — since the time I wrote this, they’ve closed, but will hopefully be reopening elsewhere at some point. Keep an eye on their website, I guess) . Based on the scoop I had, I hope they find a permanent location soon.

They describe what they’re selling as “French custard ice cream,” and yeah, it’s definitely got a custardy flavour.

I got their most popular flavour, sweet cream creme brulee (“creamy custard with crunchy brûlée bits”).

The quality of the ice cream itself is quite high; it’s nice and creamy, and the aforementioned custard flavour is thoroughly satisfying. It probably could have used more of the crunchy bits, but it’s clearly an above average scoop of ice cream.

More Tasty Eats at Do West Fest

Published on March 8, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

I found the Do West Fest to be quite enjoyable in 2024, and yeah: the 2025 version was still quite enjoyable. It’s probably one of the better street festivals in the city, though clearly I’m not the only person who thinks that because it is packed.

Still, if you don’t mind braving the crowds, there are some tasty eats to be had.

I tried a couple of sandwiches from Dam Sandwiches: the chopped cheese, and the spicy chicken. I’ve been meaning to check out Dam Sandwiches for a while; clearly I need to hurry up and visit their actual restaurant, because both of these sandwiches were very good.

In particular, the chopped cheese — with its tasty combo of nicely browned beef and melty cheese — was better than the version I recently had in NYC, its birthplace. But the spicy chicken was very tasty as well, with a nice zingy flavour and a decent amount of kick. Both were served on a sesame seed bun that was clearly fresh and well above average.

I also had a tahini ice cream bar from Smilk Bars, which had a very pronounced, nutty flavour from the tahini and was maybe the most tahini-ish tahini dessert that I’ve ever had.

The ice cream itself was a bit thin (I assumed maybe the name meant this was made entirely with milk rather than cream, but that doesn’t seem to be the case), but otherwise I quite enjoyed this.

Finally, I had a coconut brigadeiro from Padaria Toronto, which was filled with a generous amount of dulce de leche and had a great coconut flavour.

Tasty Gelato at Kati Thai Gelato

Published on February 25, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 567 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/katitoronto/

Note: This location has closed since I visited, but you can check their Instagram for other locations.

As you’d guess from the name, Kati Thai Gelato serves gelato that’s infused with Thai flavours. As you probably wouldn’t guess from the name, they also serve a variety of savoury Thai snacks like grilled pork skewers and bao buns.

I stuck to the gelato side of things, and had a scoop of the Milo: “A nostalgic childhood favourite, featuring the rich, chocolatey taste of Milo (chocolate malt powder).”

They certainly have more interesting flavours here, but I have a hard time saying no to anything Milo-related. It’s malty, chocolatey, and delicious.

It’s predictably tasty in gelato form. Why wouldn’t it be? The gelato itself is maybe a bit thin, but it’s very smooth with zero iciness, and has a nice hit of Milo flavour.