The Danforth – Michael Eats

Amazing Gyros at Souv Like

Published on March 22, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 708 Pape Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://souvlike.ca/

Souv Like has a reputation for serving some of the best gyros in the GTA. All it took was one bite to confirm this to be true. Heck, I knew it was probably true just by looking at it, with all those gloriously brown crispy bits.

They have a handful of things on the menu, but I think the pork or chicken gyros are where it’s at.

I went with the pork, which is a pretty no-frills wrap, coming stuffed with meat, tomatoes, onions (which I skipped), fries, and secret sauce. I should also note that the grizzled man behind the counter assembled this thing with remarkable speed; I think he shaved the meat off the spit and put the wrap together in something like thirty seconds. And yet nothing about it felt haphazard, with a good proportion of meat to toppings to sauce. The guy’s clearly been doing this a while.

It’s an amazing wrap. The pork is pretty much exactly where you want it to be, with an abundance of crispy bits, a nice tender texture, and a great flavour. It’s maybe a touch on the salty side, but that’s balanced out nicely by the slightly sweet secret sauce. The perfectly cooked fries are a good addition, and the fresh, slightly chewy pita works well.

I also like that the wrap is heavy on meat, and light on everything else. A lot wraps like this are so overloaded with veggies that the meat almost feels like an afterthought. Clearly, that’s not the case here.

Tasty Fried Goodness at Len Duckworth’s Fish & Chips

Published on June 18, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2638 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://lenduckworthfishandchips.ca/

Whenever I see that a restaurant has been around for decades, my first thought is, “well, they must be doing something right.” Len Duckworth’s Fish & Chips has been around since 1929 (!), and yeah, they’re clearly doing something right.

Even setting aside the quality (which is quite high), if you come at lunch, you can get a fantastic deal: a four ounce piece of haddock, fries, and a drink, all for a delightfully affordable $8.50.

I’m not sure if you get a good sense of scale from that picture (I think the big, chunky fries make the piece of fish look smaller than it is), but it was actually a decent size.

And it was really, really tasty. My problem with a lot of fish and chips in the city is that they go a bit overboard with the batter, with a thick, overly crunchy layer that completely overwhelms the delicate fish. That’s absolutely not the case here, with batter that’s thick enough to give you a satisfying crispiness, but thin enough to let the fish be the star of the show.

And the fries were just what you want them to be, with a crispy exterior and perfectly creamy interior.

The fish was slightly on the dry side (potentially because the lunch piece is smaller than the standard), but this was otherwise a stellar plate of fish and chips. Bonus: the zippy tartar sauce is quite tasty, and they give you a whole bottle of it instead of the stingy little cup that a lot of places offer. As someone who likes to dip his fries as well as the fish into the tartar sauce, this was appreciated.

Crispy Pork Gyros at Alexandros

Published on October 15, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 484 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://alexandros.ca/

I knew as soon as I looked at my wrap from Alexandros that it was going to be tasty. It’s a pork gyros wrap (chicken is also an option), and I mean, come on. Look at that. Look at those crispy bits.

And yeah, it was good. Again: look at it.

It was maybe even too crispy? They clearly waited a bit too long to carve it; some of the pieces were dried out. But that’s a minor complaint.

Mostly, the meat is fairly tender, with a decent amount of fat, and — of course — a substantial amount of flavour and texture from the deeply browned exterior.

The bread wasn’t anything too special, nor was the tzatziki, but the pork was tasty enough to make the whole thing worth eating.

Sweet Greek Doughnuts at Lukumum

Published on October 4, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 484 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.lukumum.com/

The Greek doughnuts (a.k.a. loukoumades) they serve at Lukumum are intensely sweet. They’re also extremely delicious.

I tried loukoumades at Loukoumania Cafe in Vaughan last year; the ones at Lukumum are twice as sweet. Three times as sweet? They’re way sweeter.

I tried a couple of varieties. I went with the classic, which is soaked through with syrup and topped with honey and cinnamon, and the hazelnut, which is soaked with syrup and topped with Nutella and hazelnuts.

Both were delicious, though I preferred the classic. Despite being soaked through with syrup, the exterior remains pleasantly crunchy. The inside is completely suffused with syrup, but it’s not mushy. It’s great. The honey adds even more sweetness, and a nice floral note that goes very well with the cinnamon.

The Nutella variety is tasty as well — Nutella makes anything delicious — but the original is more unique.

Surprisingly Tasty Vegan Cinnamon Rolls at Cinnaholic

Published on December 4, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 319 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.cinnaholic.ca/

The cinnamon roll from Cinnaholic is shockingly good. Not that it’s the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had, but it’s vegan. You’re bracing for the worst when you hear that a traditionally dairy-heavy dessert has been made vegan. How could that possibly end well?

Cinnaholic, somehow, pulls it off.

It’s an interesting set-up; they have a few dozen different frosting and topping choices (if there’s a dessert topping you can think of, they probably offer it here). I wanted to see what the deal was with the roll itself, so I went as simple as possible with the “Classic Old Skool Roll,” which is topped only with vanilla frosting.

I won’t lie: I was expecting it to be dense and dry and weird, but it was pleasantly light and fluffy, with a nice cinnamon flavour and a great level of sweetness. It’s very, very sweet, but it’s not quite the throat-burning assault of sugar that you’ll get with something like Cinnabon.

The frosting is quite tasty, too — it’s rich and creamy, but also incredibly soft and light. I have no idea how they achieve that texture without dairy (I’m assuming margarine is involved), but whatever it is, it tastes pretty darn good.

That’s the surprising thing about it. Yes, it’s vegan, but it’s not good for a vegan dessert; it’s good, period.