Toronto – Page 87 – Michael Eats

Creamy Japanese Pancakes at Fuwa Fuwa

Published on June 27, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 408 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.fuwafuwapancakes.com/

Like Hanabusa Cafe in Kensington Market, Fuwa Fuwa specializes in Japanese souffle pancakes, which are basically like a cross between a pancake and a custardy souffle.

I’ve already talked about Hanabusa Cafe; you can probably just read that post to get a sense of what Fuwa Fuwa is like. They’re very, very similar.

I ordered the cookies and cream, which comes with two pancakes topped with Oreo-cookie-infused cream, a whole Oreo cookie, and a scoop of ice cream on the side.

It’s quite good — the pancakes are light, fluffy, custardy, mildly sweet, and very creamy. The only noticeable difference between this place and Hanabusa Cafe are that the pancakes here are slightly creamier. I couldn’t tell if they were slightly underbaked, or if that was intentional. Either way, they were very tasty.

The cookie-laden cream compliments them well, though the ice cream was overly sweet, with an odd flavour I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

Great Fish Tacos at Seven Lives

Published on June 26, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 69 Kensington Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://sevenlives.restaurantsnapshot.com/

Seven Lives serves what is frequently called the best fish taco in the city, which makes deciding what to order there quite easy. It’s the fish taco. It’s gotta be the fish taco.

I’ve actually been wanting to try this place for quite a while, but it’s popular; the place routinely has a line-up going out the door, and it’s a tiny restaurant. If you don’t get a seat on one of the two benches out front, or at the one table inside, you’re out of luck. You’ll just have to eat and walk, which is a bit of a challenge with their generously-stuffed tacos.

It’s worth the wait and the hassle. It is as advertised: it’s clearly one of the best fish tacos in the city, if not the best.

It consists of a very generous piece of fried haddock topped with cabbage, pico de gallo, and a garlicky sauce. Everything works really well together. The fish, in particular, is delicious; it’s super tender and flaky with a very satisfying crispy exterior that never overwhelms the fish itself.

The toppings are great — the cabbage and the pico de gallo add some nice freshness and crunch (not to mention an acidity that helps cut through the fried fish), and the creamy sauce brings a nice garlicky bite.

My only real issue here are the two corn tortillas, which were a bit stale (corn tortillas are one of those things that pretty much have to be consumed within minutes rather than hours of being cooked — they get stale fast). But that’s a minor complaint for an otherwise superlative taco.

Tarte au Citron at Bang Bang

Published on June 25, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 93a Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://bangbangicecream.com/

I think this is going to be the shortest post I’ve ever written. The tarte au citron flavour at Bang Bang is basically like the best lemon meringue pie you’ve ever had, but as an ice cream.

Lemon meringue pie? Delicious. Bang Bang? Delicious. Cram those two things together? Yeah, it’s delicious. Of course it’s delicious. That’s just math.

The ice cream is creamy and pleasantly tart, with a great lemony flavour. It’s got silky meringue swirled in for some additional creaminess and to help cut the tartness of the ice cream. And then there are buttery, delicious chunks of pie crust.

It’s all just as good as you’d hope it would be.

Tasty Hot Dogs at OHA

Published on June 24, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 21 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/oha_toronto/

Kung Fu Dawg set up shop in a little stand on Ossington last year, and they served up some pretty tasty dogs. Alas, that was a short-lived endeavor; they’ve been replaced by OHA, which describes themselves as a purveyor of “Turkish fusion street food.”

It’s mostly a hot dog stand, however. They have a grilled cheese sandwich and something called a “wet burger” on their menu, but they otherwise serve a variety of hot dogs.

I got the OHA Hot Dog, which comes topped with potato salad and tomato sauce.

It’s a tasty dog. Though it lacks Kung Fu Dog’s nice snappy bite, the all-beef hot dog has a nice meaty flavour and a satisfying smokiness.

It’s topped with a thin tomato sauce that packs a decent amount of tomato flavour (I assumed this would be ketchup-esque, but it’s not particularly sweet or vinegary) and a variation on potato salad called Olivier salad. Potato salad sounds like an odd topping, but its zesty creaminess actually works quite well with the salty and smoky hot dog.

Burnt Marshmallow at Ed’s Real Scoop

Published on June 21, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 189 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.edsrealscoop.com/

I’ve mentioned before that the ice cream at Ed’s Real Scoop can be a bit hit and miss. One of their more consistent flavours, however, is the burnt marshmallow. It’s pretty much always delicious.

I mean, how could it not be delicious? It’s basically sweet cream, which is clearly the best flavour at Ed’s, with a rich, deeply flavourful caramel sauce swirled in. It only just barely tastes like burnt marshmallow (it tastes more like creme caramel to me), but more importantly, it tastes delicious.

And the ice cream itself is nice and creamy, though like all of the ice cream at Ed’s in the last few years, it has a slightly gummy texture that I find marginally off-putting. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s there and it’s unfortunate (I will concede that in this particular case, the gumminess could be attributed to the fact that this is a marshmallow flavour. But it’s there in all of their flavours, sadly).