Thai – Michael Eats

Satisfying Chicken Rice at Thai Nyyom

Published on May 24, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1419 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.thainyyom.ca/

Thai Nyyom has a delightfully focused menu. Outside of the appetizers and desserts, they serve just three things: chicken rice, khao soi, and a rotating special. The chicken rice and khao soi are both available in vegetarian versions, but that’s it. If you don’t want one of those three things? Too bad, go somewhere else.

Honestly, I wish more restaurants would do this. Just serve a handful of things and do them really, really well rather than spreading yourself thin with a huge, padded-out menu.

I went with the chicken rice, which is an abundantly simple dish, consisting entirely of poached chicken served on top of chicken-infused rice. It comes with a container of hot sauce on the side, but otherwise, this is about as simple as it gets.

It’s really good. In particular, that rice is pretty much perfect, with a really fragrant, chicken-packed flavour that’s profoundly satisfying.

I wish the chicken were a bit better — it doesn’t quite have the silky texture that you’ll find in the best versions of this dish, and has a mildly leftovery flavour — but the rice is so good that it basically didn’t matter.

Plus, any issues with the chicken basically disappear once you add some of that zingy, garlicky hot sauce. That stuff could make anything taste great.

Delicious Noodle Soup at 555 Boat Noodles

Published on May 5, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5308 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://555noodles.com/

I recently wrote about the boat noodles at Paddler Thai Boat Noodles, which were pretty great. Well, the version at 555 Boat Noodles are equally delicious, so clearly, boat noodles deserve to be way, way more popular (I think these might be the only two restaurants in the GTA that serve the dish, or at least the only two that specialize in it).

The boat noodles here (“Chinese Broccoli, Garlic, Coriander, Bean Sprouts, and Onion”) come with your choice of beef, braised beef, or pork, and wonton noodles, rice noodles, or vermicelli. The waiter suggested braised beef and rice noodles, so that’s what I went with.

The braised beef probably could have been braised a bit longer (it was slightly tough), but otherwise this was a fantastic bowl of noodle soup. The broth is savoury and flavourful, with a decent amount of heat, a nice toasty garlic flavour, and a really satisfying tanginess that rounds things out.

And everything else in the bowl (aside from the aforementioned beef) was great, with a really generous amount of noodles, and a nice contrasting freshness and crunch from the veggies.

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.

Tasty Noodle Soup at Paddler Thai Boat Noodles

Published on February 8, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1710 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.paddlerthai.ca/

I’m pretty sure this is my first time trying boat noodles, but if this place is anything to go by? Boat noodles need to be a regular part of my life. They’re seriously, seriously tasty.

Here’s how Paddler describes the dish: “‘Kuaytiaw – Rua’ was originated in Thai floating market back in the old days. A dark brown flavorful soup contains Thai herbs, dark soy sauce, coconut milk. Comes with Chinese broccoli, bean sprouts garnished with fresh basil, culantro, fried garlic and pork rinds.”

You can pick from small rice noodles, medium rice noodles, flat rice noodles, or egg noodles (I went with small rice noodles). You can also pick either beef or pork (I went with pork).

Everything here is so good. The soup itself is intensely savoury, with a satisfying tangy brightness and a bunch of depth (sometimes you’re kinda sick of the broth at the end of a bowl of noodle soup, but that definitely wasn’t the case here).

The bowl is absolutely crammed with tasty stuff, from the tender pork, to the pleasantly springy meatballs, to the flavourful herbs and fried garlic. It’s a definite flavour bomb, but in a way that feels very finely tuned. I’d probably go with the medium noodles next time (the small noodles were slightly too thin), but otherwise this was a superlative bowl of noodle soup.

Unique Thai Brunch at Le Lert

Published on January 9, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 27 Carlton Street, Toronto
Website: https://lelert.ca/

I like brunch — we all like brunch — but sometimes it can get a bit boring. Enter Le Lert, which has a fun brunch menu with a Thai twist.

There’s some tempting stuff on the menu, but I went with the omelette over rice, which you can get with northern style sausage patties, grilled pork jowl, pan-grilled striploin, roasted chicken thigh, or grilled mixed mushrooms.

I got the grilled pork jowl, though I was able to try one of the sausages as well.

It’s tasty stuff. The perfectly-cooked omelette and the fluffy rice make for a great combo, and the unctuous pork jowl is tender and flavourful. As for the northern style sausage patty, it’s just as good, with a great lemongrass-infused flavour. The plate also comes with a little bowl of a thick, zippy sauce that does a great job of jazzing everything up. It’s tasty stuff.