Toronto – Page 7 – Michael Eats

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.

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.

A Tasty, Beefy Sandwich at Giragi

Published on January 4, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 486 Front Street West, Toronto (inside Wellington Market)
Website: https://www.giragito.ca/

Wellington Market at the Well was already one of the better food courts in the city, but the recent expansion — with places like Bear Steak Sandwiches, Chen Chen’s Nashville Hot Chicken, and The Carvery — makes it hard to beat.

Giragi is another one of the newer places in the food court. It’s an offshoot of Taline, a Michelin-noted restaurant, and yeah, they clearly know what they’re doing.

They serve a variety of meats (and falafel) that you can get in a sandwich or a bowl. I went with the davar (beef) which comes topped with “pickled cucumber, hummus, pevaz, toum, chilli, cilantro, parsley.”

It’s a great sandwich. The first bite is pretty much just sauce, but once you get past that, it’s absolutely crammed with good quality beef. It’s basically a steak sandwich with Armenian flavours, and it’s quite delicious.

That beef, in particular, is just right — it’s cut into fairly sizey chunks, but they’re all tender enough, with rosy pink meat within, that this totally works. They also have a very distinctly smoky flavour from the grill. I liked it a whole lot.

Quick Bites: Louf, Luca Pizza, Sidra BBQ & Grill

Published on December 28, 2025December 28, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Hummus bil lahma from Louf

Louf is a Palestinian restaurant near Casa Loma (it’s probably the closest I’ve been to Casa Loma since I was a kid). I went at brunch and tried a few things, though the only dish that really jumped out at me was the hummus bil lahma (“chickpeas, tahina, lemon, ghee, beef, spices, pine nuts”). It’s a solid bowl of hummus, with a satisfyingly zippy, cumin-tinged flavour. And the braised beef on top is perfectly tender. It’s a great combo.

Cheese pizza from Luca Pizza

Luca Pizza frequently comes up in discussions of the best pizza in Mississauga, and I guess I kind of get it. The place opened in 1975, and it looks like not much has changed in there in the intervening decades; it’s definitely got a bunch of old-school charm. And the pizza kind of reminds me of what a place like Pizza Pizza would be serving, if Pizza Pizza weren’t terrible. It’s cheap, cheesy, and filling. I also liked that the crust had a nice exterior crispiness. But I have to imagine that the people calling this the best pizza in the city are coming with a big dose of nostalgia — without that, it’s hard to fully overlook the canned-tasting sauce or the bland crust (it’s the kind of crust that makes you realize why dipping sauce with pizza became a thing). Still, while I’m not going to rush back, it was pretty satisfying for what it was.

Lamb shawarma wrap from Sidra BBQ & Grill

Mostly, I wanted to try Sidra — a shawarma joint in Oakville — thanks to the presence of lamb among their shawarma selections. My understanding is that lamb shawarma is actually quite common in the Middle East, but it’s weirdly rare in the GTA (and if you do find it, it’ll likely be mixed with beef). Sadly, I don’t think the lamb shawarma here was cooked on a vertical spit, which does kind of defeat the point (there were zero crispy bits), and the seasoning was probably a bit too aggressively applied. Still, it was a bunch of tasty, relatively tender lamb in a wrap, so yeah, I enjoyed it. Probably not worth going out of your way for, but if you’re in Oakville already, sure, why not?