sweet – Page 5 – Michael Eats

Mike’s Hot Honey Sandwich from KFC

Published on February 20, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 156 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

I mentioned recently that KFC has really been leaning into wacky novelty items of late, which I quite enjoy. Mike’s Hot Honey Sandwich, on the other hand? Pretty standard stuff. It’s just a generic fried chicken sandwich that’s a little bit sweet.

Not the most exciting thing ever, but I guess they can’t all be delightfully weird.

The sandwich, as per KFC’s website: “The Mike’s Hot Honey® Sandwich features our triple-breaded chicken and is topped with signature Mike’s Hot Honey® – crafted from 100% pure honey and chili peppers. It’s also topped with crispy jalapenos for the perfect blend of sweetness and heat.”

(The website doesn’t mention it, but the sandwich also has pickles, and a decent amount of a mildly zippy mayo-based sauce.)

It’s… fine? Like I said, it’s a pretty standard sandwich, though the slight sweetness from the honey does work pretty well. I was afraid it was going to be too sweet, but it was actually pretty subtle. Plus, the zippy pickle slices do a good job of balancing out the honey’s sweetness.

As for the heat, it’s mildly spicy, but nothing that’s going to get anyone too hot and bothered. Even McDonald’s recent attempt at a spicy chicken sandwich, the McSpicy, is hotter.

Mostly, it’s a solid sandwich. Mostly. This is a luck of the draw thing, but the chicken itself was pretty dry and tough. I know they can’t do this (because it would acknowledge that the current way they do things sucks), but if you’re not in a rush, I really wish they’d let you wait for piece of chicken that’s freshly fried, rather than getting one that’s been drying out in a drawer. Oh well.

Quick Bites: Brodflour, Harry and Heel’s California Donuts, Super Serve

Published on February 2, 2025February 2, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Steak sandwich from Brodflour

Brodflour sells the best sourdough sandwich bread in the city; that’s just a fact (though a lot of bakeries that might have been in contention for this crown take themselves out of the running by refusing to slice their bread, which is just baffling to me). I was in the bakery to pick up a loaf and saw a pile of steak sandwiches that I couldn’t resist. I mean, if you can see this display and not immediately demand to eat one of these sandwiches, you and me are very different people:

This isn’t on the regular menu, but I wish it was. It’s a top-notch steak sandwich, crammed with a whole bunch of great-quality beef and a zippy, garlicky sauce that complements it perfectly. And, of course, the sourdough flatbread that it’s served on is very good. The steak was slightly tough in spots, but this was otherwise a seriously tasty sandwich.

Sour Cream Glazed from Harry and Heel’s California Donuts

I love a good sour cream glazed doughnut, and this was a tasty one. I kinda wish they had an unglazed option (it’s very, very sweet), and I could barely taste the chocolate on top, but the doughnut is crispy, cakey, and delightful. I quite enjoyed it. Harry and Heel’s specializes in raised doughnuts rather than cakey ones, so I’m going to have to go back at some point to try one of those. I should note that if you’re looking for this place, it doesn’t have its own storefront — it’s inside Fourth Man in the Fire, a pizza joint.

Strawberry Sundae from Super Serve

If you’ve been missing Sweet Jesus, which has lost all but a handful of its locations over the years, you’ll be happy to hear that Super Serve is very, very similar. They have a few sundaes on the menu, along with the option to customize your own. I went with “Serve 3,” which is a chocolate/vanilla twist that comes topped with cookie crumbs and strawberry sauce. It’s tasty enough, though the quality of the soft serve is only about on par with what they have at Dairy Queen or McDonald’s (to go back to the Sweet Jesus comparison, their ice cream is noticeably richer and creamier).

Tasty Ice Cream at Moonmilk

Published on January 7, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1695 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://moonmilktoronto.com/

I’ve had the ice cream at Moonmilk once before, and I thought it was quite good. I just tried another scoop, and it was even better; clearly, Moon Milk has got the goods when it comes to top-notch ice cream.

Moon Milk serves about a dozen flavours of ice cream, along with a few cakes and pastries (I tried one of the cakes during the most recent Du West Fest and quite enjoyed it). On this particular visit, I had the Jelly Donut ice cream.

It’s seriously good. And the extent to which it’s able to recapture the flavour of a jelly doughnut is actually quite impressive; there are swirls of sweet jelly throughout, and the ice cream itself actually does have a doughnut flavour. I have no idea how they’re able to capture that flavour in ice cream form, but they’ve done it.

And the quality of the ice cream is great, with a very rich, smooth texture. It’s a seriously delicious scoop.

Quick Bites: Slow Jams, Emmer, Mascot Brewery

Published on January 1, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Fried chicken sandwich from Slow Jams

Slow Jams is a pop-up that specializes in Filipino BBQ and fried chicken; I tried their fried chicken sandwich (“coconut & lemongrass brine, spicy banana ketchup & soy pickled cucumbers”) at last year’s Taste of Little Italy street festival, and it was quite tasty. The bright red sauce its slathered in kinda tastes like the stuff you’ll find on sweet and sour chicken balls; it’s a bit overly sweet, but the pickles do a pretty good job of balancing things out. Otherwise, it’s nice and crunchy, and the dark meat within is pleasantly juicy. It didn’t rock my world, but it’s a solid fried chicken sandwich.

Pistachio Croissant from Emmer

The pistachio croissant is probably the thing that Emmer is the most well known for, but every time I’ve gone, it’s been sold out. They had just put out a fresh tray of them on my most recent visit, and yeah, of course I got one. It’s good! And it certainly looks impressive, with the generous layer of crushed pistachios on top. The croissant was maybe a bit overbaked (it was slightly dry) and I think inherently, a pistachio croissant will never be as good as an almond croissant. But I still quite enjoyed this; it’s got a nice pistachio flavour, a good balance between the croissant and the filling, and its sweetness was very well balanced.

Buffalo Wings from Mascot Brewery

Mascot Brewery, nestled away in an industrial area of Etobicoke, is a definite hidden gem. They’ve got a nice patio, a decent selection of sharable snacks and sandwiches, and — as you’d expect from a brewpub — a bunch of interesting beer on tap. I had the Buffalo wings (“Honey Buffalo Sauce, Buttermilk Ranch”), and they were quite tasty. I didn’t particularly notice any sweetness (they tasted like pretty standard Buffalo wings to me), but these were otherwise quite tasty, and the buttermilk ranch was a definite upgrade over the standard jarred stuff.

Another Delicious Doughnut at Dipped Donuts

Published on December 24, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 161 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.dippeddonuts.ca/

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Dipped Donuts, and I figured another visit was probably in order. Every other doughnut I’ve had from this place has been great, and hey, guess what? It’s still great.

I’m a big fan of the flavours here, which manage to be unique without ever coming off as gimicky. Whoever’s coming up with the doughnuts clearly knows what they’re doing.

On this visit I got the saffron pistachio: “filled with pistachio pastry cream and topped with rich saffron glaze, pistachios and rose petals.”

It’s so good; the pistachio filling is creamy and packed with pistachio flavour (and it tastes like real pistachio, not pistachio extract), and the glaze gives it a really nice floral hum that complements the nuttiness perfectly. It’s sweet, but doesn’t punch you in the face like so many doughnuts do. It’s great.

And of course, the doughnut itself is as tasty as ever. Is Dipped Donuts the best doughnut shop in the city? It might be.