Toronto – Page 5 – Michael Eats

Matty Melt Sandwich from KFC x Matty Matheson

Published on January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1610 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

KFC is making a pretty big deal out of their collaboration with celebrity chef Matty Matheson. At the location I went to, there was signage all over the restaurant, and even the bag was emblazoned with Matheson’s name. It’s in the news. People are excited!

And sure, it is kinda exciting. An ostensibly talented chef teaming up with a fast food joint? Yeah, I’m all over that.

There are three new items in this promotion: the Matty Melt Sandwich, the Matty Melt Slider, and the Matty Mega Melt Poutine. Hilariously, that poutine weighs in at a whopping 2390 calories (??), which seems like it’s probably too many calories? I briefly considered ordering this just for the novelty of it, but I just don’t think I’ve reached the level of self-loathing required to want to consume a 2400 calorie poutine from KFC. Sorry.

So I went with the Matty Melt Sandwich: “The Matty Melt Chicken Sandwich features our signature triple-breaded chicken fillet layered with cheese sauce, sweet caramelized onions, and creamy mayo, all stacked on a potato bun.”

I did not enjoy this sandwich. It’s that “cheese sauce,” which has zero cheese-like properties and is mostly just one-note salty in an oddly unpleasant way. If you served this to me blind, I never in a million years would have guessed that it was supposed to be a cheese sauce.

KFC doesn’t mention this in their description, but the only flavour there (aside from the vaguely off-putting amorphous saltiness) is truffle oil. I might be wrong, but there’s either truffle oil in there, or something that tasted a lot like truffle oil to me. I’m not particularly crazy about truffle oil, so can’t say I enjoyed this. Your milage may vary if you like the stuff more than I do.

The only other thing that differentiates this from a standard KFC sandwich are the caramelized onions. Some sweetness actually would have been nice, considering how salty the sandwich is, but I can’t say the onions added much.

It probably didn’t help that the chicken itself had obviously been sitting out for quite a while, and was dried out and chewy around the edges. This is partially my fault — the last time I visited this particular KFC location, I had a bad experience and someone commented that it was “the worst KFC in the GTA.” But that was a few years ago, and I had hoped things had gotten better since then. Clearly not! Oh well.

A Great Slice at Maker Pizza

Published on January 19, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 59 Cameron Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.makerpizza.com/

I was surprised to see I haven’t written about Maker Pizza on this blog since trying their Reuben pizza several years ago (which I didn’t particularly care for, and which is no longer on the menu).

I’ve been back several times since then, and the pizza is always stellar.

On this visit, I got a slice of the pepperoni with spicy vodka sauce, and yeah, they continue to serve very good pizza. The slice had a decent amount of good quality pepperoni (the type that curls up and becomes a grease goblet — the best kind), a nice ratio of cheese and sauce, and a good amount of flavour and a mild spicy kick from the spicy vodka sauce.

Of course, a pizza lives and dies by its crust, and the crust here is stellar — great blistered edges, crispy enough to hold up to the toppings and the sauce (but not overly crunchy), and a good amount of chew. It’s a top-notch slice.

Tasty French/Diner Fare at Le Swan

Published on January 17, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 892 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://leswan.ca/

Le Swan is interesting. It’s a cross between a French bistro and an old-school diner, with the menu literally being split in half between “French” and “Diner.”

I tried a few things, and everything was thoroughly tasty.

First up was the smoked trout rillette. No description in the menu, but Wikipedia describes rillettes as “a preservation method similar to confit where meat is seasoned then submerged in fat and cooked slowly over the course of several hours.” It’s generally classified as a spread, and this was substantially chunkier than that; it was more like a smoky tuna salad, with big chunks of fish and onion. Whatever it was, it was quite satisfying (I’m normally not a fan of raw onion, but the onion here was extremely mild, and added more texture than anything else).

Up next was the hot chicken sandwich, which features a whole bunch of very tender chicken and peas served on toast and smothered in gravy, with creamy mashed potatoes underneath. This was pretty much the definition of comfort food, with the flavour-packed gravy really making the dish sing.

The green beans were pretty simple; they were tossed in some kind of tasty vinaigrette and were served with toasted almonds for crunch. They were nicely cooked, with a satisfyingly tender (but still firm) texture.

Last but not least: the corn dogs, which are topped with some kind of mayonnaisey sauce and slices of pickled jalapenos, and are stuffed with cheese along with the expected hot dog. These were a little different than the norm, with the batter being more like a pancake than a traditional corn dog, and with no exterior crunch. I thought I’d miss that, but the pickled jalapenos do a good job of adding the texture that you’re looking for.

Delicious Hot Turkey at White Lily Diner

Published on January 16, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 678 Queen Street East, Toronto
Website: https://whitelilydiner.ca/

I tried the meatloaf sandwich at the White Lily Diner a few years ago and found it to be thoroughly tasty. I recently went back, and I’m happy to report that the place is still cranking out delicious food.

That meatloaf sandwich is tough to beat, but I think the hot turkey (“stuffing French toast + smoked turkey + gravy + chutney + maple butter”) might just do it.

The idea of making French toast that tastes like stuffing is actually fairly ingenious, and works perfectly with the smoky turkey. The rich gravy soaks into the French toast and amps up the flavour from the turkey, and the creamy maple butter on top cranks the richness up to 11.

It’s a dish that could very easily be too rich, but the sweet, tangy cranberry chutney does a great job of ensuring that this never happens. It’s a fantastic dish.

Quick Bites: Tatin Bakehouse, Mi’Hito Sushi Laboratory, Breakfast ING

Published on January 11, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Custard tart from Tatin Bakehouse

I figured Tatin Bakehouse was probably worth checking out after reading about their Michelin connection in Toronto Life, and yeah, it’s a delightfully unique little bakery. I tried the custard tart, which is impeccably made, with ultra-rich custard, a delicate brûléed top, a tasty layer of chewy black rice, and a perfect crust. But between its slight salty kick and ultra-restrained sweetness, it’s right on the line between sweet and savoury, and barely feels like a dessert. To be fair, I had just blown out my palate somewhat with a garlicky shawarma wrap, so it’s possible that this was my fault, but I appreciated this more than I enjoyed it.

I actually checked out the bakery a second time a few weeks later and tried the chocolate croissant, and I will admit that it left me wondering if I gave the bakery too much credit on my first visit; it looked good, but it was dry, had almost no buttery flavour, and had such a stingy amount of chocolate that you could barely taste it.

Sushi burrito from Mi’Hito Sushi Laboratory

I’m sorry, Mi’Hito Sushi Laboratory, but your flagship product should not exist. Sushi should not be a burrito. To be fair, the stuff they serve here is less of a burrito and more of an oversized, uncut maki roll. And it was totally fine — eating it wasn’t an unpleasant experience. I ordered the Rising Sun burrito (“tuna, lettuce, cabbage, avocado, tempura crunch, tobiko, carrot, crab meat, green onions, and spicy mayonnaise dressing”) and it was tasty enough. There was a decent amount of good quality tuna, and the other fillings were solid. But it’s so fat that you can never really get a satisfying bite; sometimes you get mostly tuna, and other times, mostly plain veggies. That’s not to mention the nori, which was oddly difficult to bite into. It was all basically enjoyable enough, but I would have much rather just been eating normal sushi.

Malaysian Sandwiches at Breakfast ING

I tried a couple of sandwiches at Breakfast ING, a small Malaysian restaurant inside a bubble tea joint: the house special (“pork loin marinated with house special recipe, fried egg, cabbage, and peanut butter”) and Malaysian street style (“4oz ground beef with a taste of M’sian spice, tomato, fried egg, lettuce and sweet & spicy sauce”). Neither sandwich particularly blew me away (the third slice of bread feels superfluous in both, and only serves to dry out the sandwich), but they were both pretty tasty. The fact that they were nine bucks each for a couple of reasonably hefty sandwiches certainly doesn’t hurt.