The Tuesday Taste - Karachi Pizza

 

 

I am

smelling like the rose

that somebody gave me

on my birthday deathbed

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste. 

Sooooooo... yeah. Sometimes a day just doesn't work out for you. 

It's gorgeous outside, you've got a rare day completely free of obligations and intend to adventure somewhere and/or check out a few things... regardless you're quite excited about it. Alas a rain cloud decides to hover over your plans, not reaching a storm or anything, but just enough to dampen the sunny mood. A store you wanted to visit is closed (despite Google saying otherwise), you just miss a train and the next one is jam packed, a drunken e-bike delivery guy runs a red and almost hits you... hell, you hold the door for a stranger and they (while taking their sweet ass time) silently give you a look like you just exposed your crotch to them. That kind of day that isn't exactly bad... but by the end of it, all that enthusiasm is long dry and you're sitting around thinking: "You know actually, that kinda sucked."

That in mind, Karachi Pizza! Karachi is of course the most populated city in Pakistan (a fact I totally knew beforehand... yep) while Karachi Pizza is a little pizza chain here in the GTA that claims to be where Italy meets Karachi. A fusion of cuisines, if you will. At the moment KP boasts eight locations, mostly in either Mississauga (where the first one opened in 2021) or Scarborough, while downtown Toronto has a singular outpost located on Queen West. 

 

 

Disclaimer: my experience with South Asian/Middle Eastern takes on pizza have generally been underwhelming at best (there's another pizza review coming in the near-future related to that). Halal does limit what you can do of course (not to mention pork is pretty damn good on pizza) but places like Pizza Shab, Pizza Pide and 6ix do quite a good job offering a quality pie around those restrictions (not going cheap on the beef also helps). As such, I was quite intrigued to try Pizza Karachi... imagining exotic spices and flavours within the context of a pizza, I had strong hopes this would be exceptionally good. 

 

 

I went to the location on Lebovic Avenue just south of the Golden Mile. The place had nary a soul on 6pm this particular Monday evening, nor did I see anybody else enter during the half hour I was in the area. Not encouraging. Their prices certainly don't do much to appeal to newcomers: a personal sized pizza (probably the size of a 45 record) of any of their "gourmet" pizza options clocks in at over eighteen bucks, while a more standard cheese or pepperoni still comes in well over a dozen before tax. That is seriously no bargain for a pie almost half the size of your typical wood-fired offering, which are generally only a few bucks more. 

Whatever. I was still optimistic at this point (not to mention hungry) that premium price might mean premium quality. I got my little pizza, sat down outside and opened up the box.

 

 

Seeing all the toppings dried out... yeah my optimism quickly vanished into the setting Monday evening sun. This pizza is their "Mirchi Sauga" ("mirchi" meaning "chili pepper" or "hot" in Hindi): with a "special" tikka sauce, chicken tikka, green pepper, roasted green chili, chili flakes, coriander, black pepper and a "spicy cheese mix". This listing is straight from their website.

 

 

So how can a pizza with its own telephone directory of toppings and ingredients taste so goddamn bland and stale? Easy answer: cheap toppings... cheap ingredients... these will dry out very quickly when baked in an oven. You can get away with it, keep some of that necessary moisture, if there's a lot of sauce or the cheese is of a good quality and acts like a shield against that dryness. Nope and nope. Why was this eighteen bucks again? This was the smallest size, don't forget. 

I will always argue that chicken can work on pizza, in the right time and place... but this example is not a good showing for that argument. When you have hunks of chicken that are this stringy and dried out... there's no saving that debate. Your chicken should never be crusty along the edges, folks. 

The fact that all these toppings are so desiccated... well it makes what (in theory) should be big, bold flavours incredibly anemic and muted. There is some okay heat and spice in here (which frankly is the only thing saving this pizza from a complete and total savaging) and even then, it's mostly the kind of heat you get from a reasonable sprinkling of jarred chili flakes. Even the only semi-interesting aspect of this pizza isn't all that unique.

 

        

I mean, come on. Look at this thing. This was only two minutes after I got it.

The cheese is... likewise not of a good quality either. Very much reminded me of that pre-shredded kind you find in the grocery store. Soft enough, but entirely flavourless. Like... seriously. Eighteen bucks. As for the sauce, well you'll probably have as much luck tasting it via looking at that photo as I did actually eating it. A total non-presence beyond the wall of modest heat (which itself did not translate once the pizza cooled off). 

The bread and the dough? Perhaps like a fresh baked naan, or some kind of buttery or light oily texture and taste? Dream on. Cakey, not at all tasting of a bread freshly prepared that day (or month)... just very empty tasting with a bizarre light crunchy chalky texture akin to those frozen Ristorante pizzas. Except those are a notch better than this (and considerably cheaper). A pizza made fresh should not have this kind of stale texture... and my stomach not feeling super awesome after three of these slices also agreed.

As for the dip before we mercifully get out of here... it's a bit like a creamy dill with a loose ranch consistency... although even the freaking dip doesn't have much zip or tang to it either. Honestly, I swear this pizza would probably taste almost the exact same if you had it immediately after a trip to the dentist and your mouth was loaded with novocaine. None of these flavours linger whatsoever. Just sad.

 

 

Overall... no. 

Recently I've been encountering more minor disappointments in places I've tried: things I'm hoping will be extremely good but end up being merely good. Karachi Pizza is much more of a slide than that. Even hungry on my first couple bites I thought "That's it? That's all this is going to taste like?" and it never once even sniffed that low watermark again.

Look, it's far from the worst pizza out there. Is it better than Pizza Pizza or Papa John's? Sure. Maybe. However, I'm far less convinced it's better than say, Domino's. Or Pizza Hut. In fact in the case of the latter, definitely not. Pizza Hut for its own problems at least has a distinctive feel and flavour.

There's just no flavour here at all beyond a wall of modest heat and black pepper... the texture isn't great (dry and cakey)... the quality is cheap... plus it's expensive! On pure quality alone, Karachi Pizza is probably a "C--". I did actually finish it eating, which for a pizza to land lower into the 'D' tier usually means I don't even care whether I ever finish it or not (or in the case of Pizza Fiamma, shrugging after dropping half of it on the ground). 

However, Karachi Pizza also felt insulting with it's long list of ingredients and descriptive flair, promising something culturally fused and unique and exciting... when it just ended up being the same basic shit most cheap crappy holes in the wall do, only with some extra cracked pepper and chilies. Don't insult this particular pizza reviewer and don't bother with this particular pizza, either. "D++".

         

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Burnt Ends

Aside from all these food reviews, I've also been slowly working on an article ranking all of Weezer's albums. Which... should be done and posted later this week, so stay tuned! I'm not the biggest Weezer fan (so to say, I'm not a hardcore Weezer guy) but Rivers Cuomo is a fascinating figure in rock music, plus I do like a lot of what they've done over the years. And so diving deeper into their catalogue was... well... you'll have to read my forthcoming piece to find out. 

 

Tuesday Tune

This week's food couldn't even get me bloated (though thankfully not dead either). 

 

 

That's all for this week! Next time hopefully won't be such a disappointment because... man. Until then, stay cool, stay safe and don't spill that mustard.                   

This Week In Pizza: Levetto

 

 

At last, we have an Italian-sounding name for a restaurant that actually doesn't translate as anything! I was going to assume it meant levels (levels, Jerry) or a ladder or something. Something involving elevation? I'm sure you can all tell how monolingual I am... 

Unlike those other restaurants we've covered as well, Levetto doesn't have any kind of family-run origin story either. I'm not even kidding, when you click on the 'About Us' tab on Levetto's website, an empty page with "content coming soon" is all you get. I've heard of wanting your history to be an open book but this takes it to a whole new level... 

Looking elsewhere on the internets, I can surmise Levetto's existence as such: about a decade ago and seeing the emerging popularity of quick Italian pizzas in a casual fine dining environment, Levetto was a corporate/rich investors gambit from the very beginning... going through various name/brand changes, company restructuring and even at one point having the financial backing of former Ontario Premier Mike Harris (but I won't hold any prior affiliation with that motherf-cker against them). 

While the dream of being the next big Italian restaurant sensation was never quite fully realized, Levetto has done well enough to maintain four locations throughout the GTA (Aurora, Waterloo and Vaughan as well as Toronto). They've tried to expand within the downtown core of T.O. (most notably in Chinatown) but as of now, August 2025, only the Liberty Village outpost has enjoyed any sustained success in the 416. 

 

 

Even calling this a "Liberty Village" location is pushing things. It's on Sudbury Street, which is both north of King Street and significantly closer to Queen West, the same stretch of Queen that has the Drake Hotel, The Great Hall and several other bars or destinations of your choice. Admittedly Sudbury Street is a bit of a 'no man's land' as far as what neighbourhood it really belongs to (not to mention fifteen-to-twenty years ago it was an absolute nowhere land on the other side of the tracks, Famous People Players original HQ excepted of course). Regardless, I take exception! 

 

 

I was in the midst of working seven straight days when I ventured off to Levetto's Sudbury Village location on a breezy Friday. The interior of the restaurant is tight and boxy: about ten tables (not counting the patio out front) and a tiny ordering counter directly in sight of the front door. Compared to other full pizzas I've had in 2025, the prices on the menu were steeper than average (ironically BlogTo's Levetto review from a decade previous praises the affordability) but it's far from unreasonable. I made my selection (the "Affumicato", meaning "to smoke" or "smoked") and ten minutes later took it to a nearby public space to chow down before my shift. 

 

 

Behold! Levetto's Affumicato: tomato sauce, smoked-I-mean affumicated mozzarella, mushrooms, bacon and scallions. Plus one of their creamy garlic dips (surely I don't have to explain why). 

 

The most distinctive aspect of this pizza, aside from its rectangular shape (Levetto proclaims their pizzas as Romana style), is its considerable oiliness within the dough. It's a consistency and taste that reminds me of a buttery pastry, though less flaky and more of a bready crunch on the corners of the pie. Kind of like a giant, softer crouton.

It's a very bread-heavy pizza and as such there's a bit of denseness to it especially in the middle bites. That is indeed the worst part of the entire thing... even while still warm the texture of those parts is strangely tough and chewy. The bites around the crust and closer to the edges are definitely much better.

 

   
The overall flavours of the pizza are good. Tomato sauce has some standard zing (a touch of garlic powder in there also) and that dough also has a nice cakey texture to it at times (along with that crunch and butteryness). These mushrooms are nicely baked (still with some moisture) while the big hunks of bacon are... big hunks of bacon. What else do you need? Delicious... though chewy and tender on the less fatty bits. A pizza with solid sauce, good mushrooms and terrific bacon. That's an excellent baseline to start from.

I'm at a loss however with the mozzarella: the name of this freaking pizza is essentially "The Smoked" don't forget... yet beyond the bacon I don't get much smokey flavour from this cheese whatsoever, it just tastes like typical good-ish quality mozzarella. Totally fine objectively, but perplexing from a "your pizza isn't really bringing what you're saying it is" standpoint. 

In fact, most of these flavours seemed a little too... pedestrian as I kept eating. It's good and enjoyable without question, yet I can't help feel that this could be bigger, linger longer on the tongue, really be something vivid and memorable. Like I said the most distinctive element and flavour of this pizza is that buttery crust/dough, because the rest as a whole pizza doesn't do much to stand out beyond being solid-to-good. The heavy breadiness of it doesn't help that either: it takes away/neutralizes those additional hints of cheese and sauce you do get.

A quick note on their garlic dip, though... which is in fact really exceptionally good. Like Pizza Pizza's famous garlic dip (which I maintain is the only quality thing they make) in its full-flavoured garlic creaminess, except Levetto has a herbal hint to theirs (oregano?) which elevates it even further. Easily the best thing I encountered here, though some of that bacon comes very close.

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Overall! What we have here is another entirely serviceable, casually hip Italian resto concept that makes food good enough to be enjoyed but not exceptional enough to be remembered or fully recommended. It's the definition of a down the middle "B" for me as far as pizzas go. You won't be disappointed (and the pizzas are a good size for the record) but its far below the newer top tier stuff we now enjoy here in Toronto. Perhaps back in the mid-2010s this level of pie would be a bit more notable.

I also have to mention why Levetto (perhaps for the best in their regard) didn't get a chance on the reheat test. See, I was only able to eat half my pizza before heading to work the Barenaked Ladies concert, so I left my bag (with the remaining slices) outside the lockers (my summer workplace has a ton of employees and some of them like to raid the staff fridge, so I'm told). 

Anyhow, once my shift was over I go grab my bag... only the slices are completely gone! Nothing else was taken (not my headphones or my Left Field sparkling waters) except my three remaining slices of this Levetto pizza. Well, here's hoping that resourceful squirrel or raccoon or whatever lakeshore creature enjoyed it and is writing their own review of it this very moment on West Collier Squeak... 

 

     

The Tuesday Taste - The Real McCoy

 

 

Violins and tambourines 

and this is what

we think they mean

It's hard to say

it's sad but true

I'm kinda dumb and

so are you 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! It's a dandy this week: a Scarborough legend. An east institution for over half a century that found a recent second life, so beloved that its demise was an exceptionally brief one. Most people I've met who grew up in Scarborough seem to very much know what McCoy's is. Heck it even appears in this music video* (around the 2:12 mark) by this very famous band...

 

 

As far as long standing burger joints in Scarborough go, only Johnny's Hamburgers can really compete when it comes to sheer iconic aura... and even then. The Real McCoy first opened its doors in 1969, an era where most of Scarborough was still in the process of transforming from scattered farmland into populated suburb. The Mihail family, primarily father Louie with his brother-in-law, were semi-recent immigrants eager to start their own restaurant business, deciding on hamburgers and pizza for its quick serve simplicity and broad appeal. Fast food at this point in time was still a young growing concept, don't forget... a type of frontier where no one yet was quite totally confident what meals could really appeal to a market and sell. 

Louie Mihail's son George, a grade schooler when The Real McCoy grilled their first burger, gradually became more and more involved with the restaurant as he grew up. Eventually, in the 1980s, George secured enough funding to buy out one of the original founders and become a key owner of the business himself... setting forth notable changes and improvements to the menu and general quality of the food they were serving (such as doing away with their old frozen burger patties for something more homemade). He's been the hands-on face of the restaurant essentially ever since, working long hours behind the counter and conversing with the considerable number of customers that have entered through the doors over the passing decades. 

 

 

It's hard to make it over half a century as a restaurant without making yourself a noted friend of the nearby community, to which The Real McCoy seems to have done exponentially so. In 2022 when the final day for the restaurant was announced as Christmas Eve that same year (the family had known about the looming condo redevelopment of Brimorton Plaza for quite some time before)... there was an enormous public outpouring of love and surge in their business. Hordes of longtime patrons and locals making sure they came back one last time to revisit memories and say goodbye. For the first time in the restaurant's history they even ran out of bacon one day. Alas Real McCoy did shut its doors that December of 2022, never to return to the now-erased Brimorton Plaza.

 

 

In a Hollywood-like twist, however, a pair of investors (Brett Punchand and Saye Sathiyakumar) soon teamed up with George Mihail (who at 60 was not yet keen either personally or financially on heading into retirement) to help find a suitable new location for Real McCoy to reopen. Mihail was adamant any new restaurant remained in Scarborough and no more than eight months later, McCoy was reborn at its new and current home at Lawrence Avenue East and Bellamy Road (only a handful of kilometres away from where the original spot on Markham had been). Sathiyakumar at the opening described how important the restaurant had been to the neighbourhood and to himself during his youth, explaining "we weren't ready to let it go".

Quite a tale, and with an (atypical) happy ending to boot! The Real McCoy is still slinging out "mojo burgers" (long story, something to do with a radio contest) fries and pizza slices to this day, six dates a week. I'd never made it to the original spot (an old work friend and I talked about going for like a year but it never came together)... but on a summer Friday evening I rode up from the Eglinton GO station to at long last give them a look at the new place.

While nothing can replace the storied walls of fifty years, the new McCoy does its best to recapture the simplified and friendly vibe of the old one (even bringing back some the distinctive wood paneling for the front of the counter). On a side wall are framed newspaper articles, published accolades and photographs of various celebrities who have come through over the decades. There's a jovial vibe to the place: George (still working the counter and the phones) and his kitchen staff are exceptionally pleasant, greeting a delivery driver with a familiar "hey Uber!" like they'd been a regular for a decade. Business was fairly slow when I arrived just after 7pm but within fifteen minutes as I was chowing down, the phone was ringing constantly and walk-in orders were flowing in. It would seem the shift in location has done little to diminish their popularity.

The menu is a bit confusing in its minimalist presentation: what the actual difference is between their regular burgers, their "homeburgers" and the "famous Mojo Burger" is left completely unspecified in print. Looking into it after the fact (I hate being one of 'those people' who asks a million questions in the moment) homeburgers are bigger and the "Mojo" is basically a banquet burger... nevertheless I presumed the homeburger would be a better representation of McCoy at their best and so got a cheese one with a side of fries. Like Harvey's (though this place probably well predates** that chain) and many other old school burger spots, you can choose your toppings beforehand... lettuce, relish, mayo and mustard for me.  

 

 

Starting with the fries... you've got a bit of that pre-frozen numbness in the flavour (common among cheap diner french fries) which mutes a lot of the potato taste. Not great... but, the texture and crispiness of these fries is very darn good. They also leave the seasoning up to you (there's a condiment station by the front door) so as is, these fries are just pure fried potato. 

Not amazing but entirely decent thanks to that oily crispiness and texture, particularly when fresh from the fryer. They even reheat semi-okay (in an air fryer) also. 

 

 

Quite certain my first thoughts were: "wow, this is a big honking burger" as I'd temporarily become a 1950's era cartoon character apparently.

I confess to carrying some serious trepidation going into this particular cheeseburger. See, while I love the charm and perseverance of these old school burger joints... I also have to be honest in these reviews about whether the food is actually any good. Indeed, I actually tried Johnny's Hamburger's for the first time last autumn and well... there's a reason I never wrote that review. All I'll say is... it's good that such a classic place is beloved even though it may very well be for the wrong reasons. 

So yeah. I was a bit nervous Real McCoy would also fall into that category and... well...

 

 

...fortunately, this burger is indeed a couple notches or so above that. 

Getting into it, this burger really reminded me of a neighbourhood/family backyard cookout... you've got a good amount of char flavour from the grill (like you can still taste the flame in the meat) the toppings are fairly standard stuff but do the job of not taking anything away from the beef, plus the damn thing is enormous. I hadn't eaten much all day and was coming off a bike ride from the Pickering waterfront... I did not think one burger like this would make me as full as it did. 

The texture and taste of the beef has a bit of a meatloaf thing going on... quite thick and finely blended, although still juicy enough to avoid any dreaded dry chewiness. It's not exactly a mind-blowing burger or anything, but it is genuinely tasty from start to finish... an impressive feat considering its size and inevitable coldness once you get to the end. 

My biggest complaint is the cheese: you don't get much (if any) of that taste or presence in here at all. Possibly because the burger and bun themselves are simply too big for that little slice of fake American cheese... whatever it is, calling this a 'cheese'burger gets close to being a misnomer (while eating it I'd almost forgotten there was even cheese on here at all).  

All in all though... it's actually a perfectly decent burger. There isn't much else to it really, very simple stuff... but it works and is generally satisfying. Phew! I can exhale now, no need to slag a beloved iconic (and extremely likeable) Scarborough flagship.                  

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Real McCoy also does pizza, which while tempting... that's a lot of food for one day. I mean, a giant burger, fries, and a whole pizza in one order? Surely it would take some kind of madman... a true pizza reviewing maniac so obsessed with trying every single pizza he or she can find... to actually order an entire pie in addition to all that food already on the table and yeah here's the picture already:

 

 

Something happened here which I did not anticipate the possibility of even slightly: I actually liked the pizza considerably more than the burger. The burger like I said was perfectly fine, something I would order again if feeling a certain craving (and actually lived in the area)... but this pizza was legitimately good. Perhaps I was expecting a fairly thrown together "we offer pizza for the sake of offering pizza" novelty type offering, which is not this at all. You can tell this was made by pizza cooks who know and care what they're doing here.

It is extremely doughy (some spots in the middle maybe even a tad undercooked) and cheesy, so if softer pizzas aren't your thing you might not enjoy this as much as I did. I'm not picky when it comes to style though and I thought this pizza had terrific balance between those layers: not too much cheese or bread to totally dominate the texture, and a good amount of sauce to offset both anyhow. For a doughy pizza to work, you need both that balance and for the bread itself to taste fresh and soft even once cold... which this indeed does. 

 

          

Pepperoni was my solo topping of choice and I must note how these slices of pepperoni are much larger circumference-wise than your typical pepp: these seemed more like thick mini-salamis than anything. No complaints on that, as they were quite tasty, mild in spice and gave very little grease or aggressive saltiness. I am pleased the cheese is also of a solid quality, not going dry and plasticky once cooled off (it even regains some of its wonderful gooeyness on the reheat in the toaster oven!). 

While a healthy amount of tomato sauce is always a good thing in my books, this tomato sauce is on the sugary sweet side with very little acidity... not really my thing (and often a hallmark of cheaper canned sauces). Still, the rest of this pizza has goodwill to spare and it's hardly a critical flaw. My best description of Real McCoy's pie is that... it tastes like really, really good school cafeteria pizza. Imagine it's a fresh slice, the school had extra cheese they had to get rid of so they threw it on there...

 

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Overall! I can summarize the three items I tried thusly: fries "meh", burger "solid", pizza "good!". Again I was very surprised the pizza ended up being the true star of the occasion, while I'm most of all relieved that any of this was indeed quite good at all. Like I said... it's such a heartwarming story and I'd hate to be that guy saying "true, but..." 

Would I recommend The Real McCoy? Absolutely. Not just as a legendary spot in Scarborough history (which is a load bearing part of its charm) but the burgers are worth a try as far as old fashioned style burgers go, while the pizza checks even more boxes. I'll give the pizza a strong "B-" for the record, which seems fair considering the flavours aren't exceptional but as a simple pie it all just works together quite nicely and it reheats excellently... very similar to Il Paesano on the exact opposite side of town, now that I think of it. 

A terrific experience all told. Here's hoping they've found a home at Bellamy/Lawrence for another half century.                 

 

  

*Bruce Cockburn's original version of the song still remains significantly better

**it actually doesn't! The first Harvey's opened up in Richmond Hill in 1959

 

Tuesday Tune

Seemed fitting considering the place we reviewed this week, plus this is just one of my very favourite Hip songs regardless. When the mystic varies thus...

 

That's it for this week! Until next time, stay cool (seriously it's blazing out there) stay safe and most of all...

.......don't spill that mustard. 

The Tuesday Taste - Toronto Food Truck Festival

There's a secret, stigma

reaping wheel

Diminish 

a carnival of sorts

Chronic town, poster torn

reaping wheel

Stranger

stranger to these parts 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! We've got a change of pace in this post-August Long Weekend edition: rather than a deep dive into a single establishment, this past weekend I was able to check out a few of the selections at the Toronto Food Truck Festival in Woodbine Park. 

There's a whole history of obstacles and regulations prohibiting Toronto food trucks that I won't get into here, although it is why Toronto's food truck scene is still a relatively young one. I will mention the organization of Canadian Food Truck Festivals (CFTF), which operates not just this Toronto one but others in Hamilton, Pickering, Burlington and Brampton. From what I can gather via their fundraising efforts for Sick Kids Hospital, CFTF has been a thing since 2013 although whether the Toronto one has been happening that entire time I can only speculate (I've seen at least a few years of biking past their signs around Woodbine Park).

Anyhow, enough backstory. Lets sink our teeth into some of these meals on wheels. The festival ran four days (August 1st-4th) and seeing how admission was free (my favourite price) I was a multiple time visitor.

DAY 1

It worked out rather nicely that a friend of mine wanted to meet up in this Friday evening in Woodbine Park anyhow... so after catching up (he'd recently returned from a family trip to Spain) we wandered into the festival and explored around a bit. He commented on the Rebozos truck (more on them later) being a place near his sister's house, however neither of us were feeling tacos and so went another direction.

While the food trucks were the main attraction, festivals such as this tend to have a few other events or features to pull/keep people inside. There were various vendors, ranging from farmer's market/homemade wares to brand giants like Vitamin Water, selling their goods under tents or stands. Adult beverages were also for sale (meaning my friend had to stash his Creemores in a bush near the entrance) at predictably inflated prices... and this is coming from someone who serves the stuff at concert venues. Some bouncy balloon spots for kids (admittedly I was very very tempted to try the balloon basketball one, just for a second) and several scheduled eating contests for kid-like adults (glad my timing was on point to miss witnessing those). 

   

However, it wouldn't be a summer festival without some live cover bands, now would it? Headlining this Friday night was The Hip Experience, a tribute to... you can probably guess. My buddy and I could hear them before we entered the grounds and I was struck by how much the singer was nailing the late great Gord Downie's vocal tics... like the impersonation was nearly flawless. Once we could see the stage, sure enough the dude also had the same style of hat Downie would wear during their final tours... not to mention moving and dancing around the stage the exact way he did as well. Someone did their homework! I almost expected him to break into sporadic stream-of-consciousness poetry at some point too. It got eerie at times.

I'm glad to say that overall, the band did a fine job rocking out these classic Tragically Hip tunes. Maybe lacking some of the intangible soul and crunch of the originals, but a good mix of the older and newer hits played adeptly. As far as faithful covers go, these at least kick the s**t out of Weezer's Teal Album (eeeech).

My buddy got himself this jerk poutine from Coal Pot Jerk, which he was kind enough to let me sample some of (makes me feel rather jerkish myself for getting an unsharable sandwich as my choice).

This is a case of two things that can in theory work well together... but only one does. The jerk chicken aspect of this? Terrific. It's got some sneaky heat to it, lots of flavour in the sauce (a thick brown sugar hint, sliced peppers and a bit of sour I can't identify). All that stuff is great. The poutine half of this... well as I've mentioned many times, my experiences in Montreal have made me a serious poutine snob and it's extremely rare that I've found anything outside of Quebec worthy of even sniffing a worthy comparison. That said, just as fries and cheese this is on the weaker side. The fries just aren't crispy whatsoever and have too much of an undercooked floppiness to them. A bit like the cheap fries you get from the food trucks usually sitting outside City Hall (or the UofT campus).

A shame because with even average-to-good fries this dish would be a total winner. The flavours again are great, earthy and sharp... even some crunch from those orange peppers. It's that texture of a lesser french fry that drags it down somewhat. Still, I'd get this jerk chicken (without fries) any day.

 

I likewise got chicken only of a different variety and region. This is the chipotle honey butter fried chicken sandwich from Los Vietnamita Taquerita, with some slaw, an adobo aioli (I think) and a lot of cilantro. 

Los Vietnamita is meant as a fusion of Mexican and Vietnamese cuisines and while a fried chicken sandwich isn't quite an even example of that mix (their huge single tacos lean much more into that shared lane) this is still an extremely tasty sandwich nonetheless. Not much spice (the adobo aioli is a bit lost in here) but there's an incredibly fresh and herbal flavour coming from the slaw/cilantro mix (it's all very similar to the dressings of a banh mi sandwich). 

The chicken portion is sizeable with a honey-like sweetness glaze (an incredibly sticky one to eat!) The crunch is great too: airy without being dry with a buttery cream within the batter itself. Definitely a hearty hunk of chicken as well. Tender, juicy with plenty of it on nearly every bite. Combined with a lightly toasted soft bun... this is definitely a fried chicken sandwich I'd come back for. I would've liked a bit more zing to the sauce to really complete things... but overall the mix of honey sweet, buttery and leafy flavours is quite enjoyable. Not your typical fried chicken and I like that also.

DAY 2

Following an afternoon spent in Hamilton I returned to Woodbine Park with my guitar and appetite right as the sun was starting to set. The band onstage this particular night was a tribute to grunge/early 90s rock and well... I didn't know you could kill the Cranberry's "Zombie" (isn't it already dead?) but these guys found a way.  For the most part they were actually okay-ish (I chuckled when they played "Alive" since my Hamilton bandmate is such a Pearl Jam head) except for that one number which was a rough listen. 

 

  

For round 2 we've got an "Island Carbonara" fries from Twisted Gourmet & Co, a sister truck of Los Vietnamita (look closely and you'll see it has the same branded paper underneath). Fries, crumbled bacon, more jerk chicken, carbonara sauce, pecorino romano and some green onions.

Upon the first few bites... I wasn't all that impressed. Once again we've got several limp, undercooked fries (these are especially bad) that mess up the texture of those bites (fried potatoes should not have the consistency of an apple). While waiting for the order (and suffering through that cover) I noticed they poured the entire dish from a pan into the box for my order, fries and sauce and all... which well sure is one way to soften up those potatoes and get a consistent flavour throughout... but good luck getting any crispiness from those fries. 

Getting deeper into the dish, however, is where the appeal does unveil itself. That's where the chicken, the large crumbles of bacon and most importantly, the carbonara sauce, are all hiding. At this point the pecorino has melted somewhat as well, acting like a drier more firm cheese curd substitute for this Alice In Wonderland style poutine. 

The mix of flavours is definitely different: rich and creamy meets gritty and earthy, an almost chimicurri kick to the seasonings, with a hint of saltiness from the bacon... if not for those uninspired fries this would be truly delicious. Entirely possible this is a combination that might clash for someone else's tastebuds but to me this was like having a decadent savoury pasta dish with a favourful spiced up chicken piece on top. Not a whole lot of heat to the "jerk" element of the chicken either... just a slight tingle but nothing more... which is totally fine since there's a lot going on here when you get a lot of that sauce.

Overall a mixed bag: I'd say beyond the exceptional carbonara sauce the general quality of what's in here is pretty average. The chicken itself is tasty/juicy enough and so is the bacon... but it does taste of pre-packaged in bulk type of fare. Hey, it's a busy weekend I get it... and aside from those pitiful high volume fries this all makes for a fairly tasty and different snack best shared rather than solo. 

DAY 3

At this point I wondered if the security dudes checking bags at the entrance would recognize me by now. "It's that weird guy again who keeps stashing his non-alc drinks in the bush over there!" 

On my third visit to the festival I'd essentially given up on anything involved with french fries. Having just worked a shift at the pesky third job and serving one table an order of fish tacos... tacos were especially on my mind this particular afternoon. Time to try Rebozos, a Mexican family-run taqueria and churro joint (churroeria?) up on Rogers Road that opened up in 2004... joining the food truck game to make their tacos mobile just the past decade. I was a bit excited for this one, having seen said food truck before throughout the years at various spots... although sadly they were not offering a fish taco this day.

On the menu were their "pastor" tacos which you see here... marinated spit-grilled pork plus some diced onions, pineapple, cilantro. Not particularly large tacos (you can see via the quite average sized lime wedge for contrast) resulting in even three of them amounting to a pleasant (slightly filling) large snack... for me anyway. 

 

That pork is the main attraction and is certainly no let down (and hangin around). I quite like the spice on here: modest heat, slightly vinegary red pepper taste... pairs well (perhaps even amplified a bit) with that bit of squeezed lime. The meat itself is tasty as well... occasional fatty bits and mostly tender with the right amount of chew. 

The soft chunks of pineapple on here, juicy and covered in the same juices as the pork, are indeed an inspired addition. A great pairing. I quite like the tortillas (white corn?) also: there's a thickness to them able to hold all this in (rather than shred and collapse) but they're still quite soft all throughout without any stale edges (an issue I often encounter when warming tortillas at home). 

Frankly, these Pastor tacos are quite simple but extremely tasty. I wanted to eat more of them but alas my wallet was already feeling the emptiness of visiting this festival three straight days.

DAY 4

I was in St. Catharines so I didn't go. Obviously would've been a bit out of the way. 

--

   

Overall... a worthwhile culinary venture and experience trying out these various trucks. That said, this was also a fairly expensive experience sampling all these items... to which on a scale of 'money spent' to 'level of food satisfaction achieved' I have some critiques. I get that it's a food festival and such events are generally going to have inflated prices... but 22 bucks (tax and tip in) for three fairly small tacos is tough, my friends. 

That in mind, I also have to say that nothing I tried really blew me away all that much. Everything was good-ish to pretty good, with the fried chicken sandwich from Los Vietnamita coming the closest to a true "wow". So in this regard, the level of quality here didn't exactly match the premium price tags. Kind of like paying a player the going rate for an all-star but he or she is really just a good starter/regular. 

That critique aside, I overall enjoyed checking out the Toronto Food Truck Festival and would happily do so again. While I sampled a good amount there were still intriguing trucks I didn't go try (I'm not made of airports) such as Tornado Fries, Greta or We Burger... not to mention any of the more dessert focused options out there. 

The festival itself also wasn't all that crowded, the wait times/lineups for food were mostly reasonable and they did a good job keeping the park clean and presentable all three days I was there. Compared to my experience at this year's Beaches Rib Fest (waiting 45 minutes for chewy ribs tends to make you not come back again the rest of the weekend) this was a blast. 

I believe CFTF have a couple more events happening this summer, one in Pickering (this very weekend) and in Brampton (end of August) so check them out if you happen to be in the area and admission remains free. It is pricey but not completely obscenely so (maybe half-obscene) and there is some pretty good stuff from what I encountered... just don't expect much from the fries. 

Tuesday Tune 

Once again I can't believe I never knew this existed (or that this EP was their first official release). Great song, awesome energetic jangle pop.

 

That's all for this week! Until next time... stay safe, stay cool and most of all... don't spill that mustard.

     

This Week In Pizza: Crudo Pizza and Panuozzo

 

 

Ah bugger, it's time for a crud pizza... at least the place is warning me about the level of quality to expect here and... oh wait, that's not quite right...

"Crudo" from Italian (and Spanish) translates as "raw", usually meaning a dish of raw ingredients and dressings commonly involving seafood. Another example of a restaurant name sounding much more appealing when in a different language: not sure if "Raw Pizza, opening soon!" would garner quite the same amount of buzz...

Raw Crudo Pizza and Panuozzo (which advertises itself as the GTA's first Panuozzo) is a little sandwich shop/restaurant tucked away in a plaza off of Royal York Road just a notch north of Eglinton. Despite the rather obscure location (just a whole lot of houses and wide open space on this north stretch of Royal York) Crudo is a verified sensation, with considerable lineups and wait-times even during the normally lulled hours of mid-afternoon. 

I'd been first told about Crudo last year by a baseball friend and fellow pizza adventurer... and seeing how they are located somewhat close to where we indeed play on Saturdays, clearly my plan became self-explanatory. I gave myself plenty of extra time and made my way through a sweltering sunny afternoon to find this popular joint. At last, on the eastern side of Royal York Road, I found this:

 

 

Success! I walked inside and found myself... inside a Caldense Bakery. Huh? Confused, I went outside, made sure I'd entered through the right door (again hot day, hard to think) and tried again. It was still a bakery, unsurprisingly. 

Quite a quandary. Was this their old location and Google Maps hadn't yet updated it? Had they shut down but recently enough that their sign was still up (more on that later)? Was Crudo a side business operating out of the bakery? Is there a hidden door and this was a "say the secret password" type of situation? All sorts of possibilities ran through my mind. Not wanting this detour before my ballgame to be for nothing, I thought I'd enter through the next door and take a look through, eventually wandering down a long white hallway leading to a back parking lot behind the plaza.

Sure enough, Crudo is actually situated at the rear of the building... with a proper entrance (plus a side one through that same white hallway) and even a decently sized outdoor patio overlooking the, um, parking lot. The inside of the restaurant itself, featuring about a dozen tables, was jam-packed (not the best boost of confidence for my 'finding things' ability) with a substantial lineup of folks waiting just for takeout. 

The atmosphere has a very indoor market/busy bakery kind of vibe: simple tables and chairs, various cutesy decorations on the walls, one long counter where people order on one side while you can watch the cooks up close carve and prepare those enormous sandwiches... plus a general murmur of conversation and movement one gets in such a busy place on a hungry Saturday afternoon.  

I made my order, was informed it would be about half an hour (thankfully I'd given myself considerable buffer time before my game) and seeing no room to even really comfortably stand inside the restaurant, I waited by the curb outside. The timing was starting to pinch me a bit but I managed to sample some of my food (and take some quick notes) before riding quickly to the park. 

 

 

Going in and knowing arancini was on their menu, I knew I had to try some of that. Three fried orbs (plus a portion of marinara sauce) filled with mozzarella, ground beef, peas and carrots... clocking in at a reasonable six bucks.

We need to talk about that marinara because it is bold and beautiful. Bright, lively tomato flavour... finely blended and a little bit chunky in spots. Absolutely exceptional stuff: you can often tell when a place makes something from scratch in-house and I'd be stone cold shocked if Crudo didn't make this fresh semi-daily. 

 

 

The arancini is likewise very tasty. I didn't get much of the beef or peas in here... but definitely plenty of the cheesiness and corny rice all mashed inside, with a pleasantly crunchy light shell of fried rice as an exterior. Sadly I only had time to sample one of these fresh (stupid baseball gam-I-mean go team) and they did not keep the same magic reheating them several hours later in the toaster oven (that once crispy rice shell had become just a bit too stale). Nevertheless these were real damn good on those first much earlier bites. 

 

 

Onto the pizza of Crudo's namesake "Pizza and Panuozzo". "Panuozzo" if you don't know (I didn't) is a term for an Italian sandwich that uses pizza dough as the bread... which certainly seems a rather tidy way to operate a pizza and sandwich place, doesn't it. 

This pie with the pepperoni spilling out from on top of it is cheekily called the "Americana", featuring just fior di latte cheese, tomato sauce and enough pepperoni to rebuild a hog. 

 

 

While an absurd amount of pepperoni no doubt (you can see stacks upon stacks of it here) it is also extremely tasty pepp at that. Not overly salty or spicy, minimal oiliness or grease, it's thinly sliced yet quite tender for what it lacks in crispy edges... and while the sheer quantity of it dominates every bite the flavour of it is much more willing to allow the cheese and sauce into the spotlight as well. A sign of a good pepperoni is when you see this much on here and yet it still feels a tragedy when a couple slices fall off your slice. Frankly, it tastes more like pepperoni one would want on a sandwich than a pizza (though it still very much works on the latter).

 

 

The tomato sauce, like it's marinara counterpart, has an irresistible brightness to its flavour that I quite like... though with a bit more light sweetness. The mozzarella is pretty much your standard 'quite good' mozzarella: melts very well, stays semi-soft throughout and there is just enough of it to be a presence on every bite but not too much to make the pizza a goo-fest. None of that cheap "becomes plasticy-hard once cold" stuff here either. Very nice. 

You get some nice char to the crust, plus the bread (while fresh from the oven) is quite pillowy and soft. Smells awesome too. Flavour-wise, I got a bit of a dry dusty flavour among the flour and corn base. This was more an issue on the reheat as so much of what makes this pizza very good is that fantastic dough baked in-house. It loses a lot once that freshness departs and that dry flavour is amplified once the crust gets more stale. Still totally fine (just dip it in some hummus or whatever) but when fresh it truly is something else on the enjoyment meter.

 

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Overall! Sadly between the time I made my visit (mid-July) to the weeks later I'm finally publishing this, Crudo has temporarily closed due to an unspecified incident. By the sounds of it everyone is okay and I won't speculate any further, hopefully they can reopen soon. 

Anyhow, it is extremely good pizza. Very simply done: there isn't a whole lot of nuance to these flavours... the pepperoni is pepperoni, cheese is cheese and the tomato sauce is bright but not hitting your tastebuds with any garlic or oregano and such. It does become a repetitive flavour sure once that second slice comes in, but doesn't lose any of its tastiness. 

While it's far too good to ever become boring, it does lack the extra "ooomph" you find among the truly elite pizzas I've encountered. As is, I'd still recommend checking them out. The texture of the pizza is fabulous because of that wonderful dough baked in house and those simple stripped down flavours are still highly enjoyable. I'll give them a modest "B++" grade, which probably lands them somewhere in the lower back half of Toronto's Top 50.                             

The Tuesday Taste - Matt's Burger Lab

 

 

Lovely lady

mystifying eyes

Lovely lady

She don't tell me no lies

I know I'll never leave ya

I'm never gonna leave ya

anymore

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! The Unofficial Month of Burgers concludes with our entry this week, a science-meets-culinary (culincience?) franchise with three locations throughout Toronto called Matt's Burger Lab.

As far as I can tell, all three MBL locations opened up sometime between 2019 and 2021... with the multi-floor flagship-like Parkdale one at Queen and Dufferin likely being the first. The internets are stingy on further backstory, although the concept does appear born from co-owner/chef Matt Vilmaz's combining his love of science and food. It is also Halal, and there was a Hamilton location that opened in 2020 (after serious hurdles, unsurprisingly) but seems to have since bitten the dust. 

This does give me some space and excuse to talk about Queen and Dufferin, an intersection that has undergone a massive transformation in the past twenty years. In the mid-late 2000s as a wee lad I was working at the Drake Hotel nearby and always found it so bizarre how Dufferin Street would suddenly end for a block and then restart southward from Queen Street. It made the already brutal rides on the 29 bus all the more colourful. 

Right around the time I left the Drake in 2009, the city had begun correcting this odd quirk. The underpass from the train tracks remained of course, but now there was a north road underneath the bridge connecting the south stretch of Dufferin (rather than just untamed urban wilderness). This, combined with the old plaza on the southwest corner being ripped out around this same time... has made Queen and Dufferin a very strange and unfamiliar intersection. It's been almost fifteen years in its current form and yet to me (an east ender now for the majority of that period) this all feels new and curious.

 

 

Replacing that old plaza is a low-rise building which houses the very Matt's Burger Lab location I visited on a blistering, sunny and windy Sunday afternoon. See, sometimes my long winded rambles actually do tie back together! 

 

 

As mentioned the location is a multi-floor open space flooded with an abundance of natural light (as will happen when most of your walls are windows). Adding to the semi-laboratory test chamber feel of the place are the science-y black and white mural sketches by local artist Mike Parsons throughout. The counter from which to order is upstairs on a little lookout terrace, with a couple of stools directly in front of the air conditioner (you can presume correctly I took a full dose of that on this particularly sweaty day). 

While known for their (quite Instagramable) burger "experiments", MBL also offer a variety of daily specials... the Sunday one being their cheese smash with fries, a drink and two dips. While their Hawaiian smash burger did tickle my curiousity with its spicy BBQ and grilled pineapple... I thought it best to keep things simple for my review intentions. I made my order, chilled in front of that air conditioner and then quickly rode off to work a Cyndi Lauper concert (couldn't leave those girls who just wanna have fun hanging now, could I). 

 

 

Fries and dip! It was so hot this afternoon that these dips were quite warm once I was able to stop and get them out of this silver paper bag. I elected upon their "Lab Sauce" and Rosemary Garlic as my selections. 

The Lab Sauce is... a fairly classic and typical burger sauce. Very mayo and ketchup forward, which is fine (those two do mix very well) without much mustard or peppery sting to it. Sweet and a thicker creaminess. Their Rosemary Garlic dip, however... absolutely stellar. There aren't any bits of rosemary in the dip but the essence of it is completely there, that refreshing fragrant taste matching with a rich garlicky undercurrent very nicely. It's a bit different and absolutely terrific: this would be welcome on any sandwich or as a compliment to any french fry in my humble household. 

 

 

As for the fries themselves... the flavour is absolutely on point but the texture is somewhat lacking. Definitely loaded with terrific potato taste and the seasoning is heavy but simple and not overwhelming. The sweet spot as far as salty fries go. But that texture... sadly these aren't all that crispy and there's a slight firm floppiness to them. 

The fact that they taste so much of real potato definitely saves them. These are fine as far as french fries go but I definitely prefer at least a little bit of crispiness. It gets everything else right.

 

    

It looks less like a burger and more like a floating bun in a sea of beef patty! Visually I'm reminded of a schnitzel sandwich where the circumference of schnitzel is nearly double that to the nucleus of bread.

 

 

Just a simple smash cheeseburger. Pickle, cheese, lettuce. The edges are more crumbly than oily or crispy, the potato bun soft and squishy, with the sauce and melted cheese dripping and plentiful. 

The burger itself is also truly excellent. That crumbly beef is well cooked but has enough moisture not to be all that chewy... while the flavour is just beef, salt and pepper lingering nicely on the tongue. With the good burgers that's all it needs. 

Even once cold (I only had time for a few bites before my shift started) it loses none of it's wonderful taste or texture. A burger like this just tastes like southern California: sunshine, a beach, maybe a surfboard and one of these. That combination of flavours... melted fake cheese blanketed over the crumbly beef patty with the dripping ketchup/mayo... lettuce giving a minor crunch and pickle an occasional zing... it's a classic for a food reason. Extremely enjoyable and, because there's so much flattened beef on this thing... quite satisfying also.

 

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Overall! While I was torn on whether or not to recommend the decent-ish Burgers N' Fries Forever... this occasion requires no such deliberation. Matt's Burger Lab is indeed worth checking out if you're craving a smash burger that really brings that extra "oh yeah" (for lack of a better term). Even a single patty has an absurd amount of beef (a sea of beef!) and the seasoning on the burger is spot on. As I find myself often saying in these burger reviews... you know it's a good one when the last bite is as enjoyable as the first.

I was less impressed with the fries, despite tasting pretty good... but they don't call themselves "Matt's French Fry Lab" so it's far from a deal breaker. With all the data collected and tests complete, I think we can call this project a success and inform the public. Check it out!

 

 

Tuesday Tune

RIP to the Prince of Darkness.

 

 

That's all for this week! Like I said, July ended up being an accidental burger month (surely one of the better kinds of accidents). Will August continue the trend? Who knows! I don't! Until then... stay safe, stay cool out there and don't spill that mustard.