Big Smoke Burger (Square One)

Not too long ago we heard about Big Smoke Burger and our immediate reaction was: omg not another burger place!
Anyway, given how much we enjoy trying out new places, we thought why not give it a try, especially since it was highly recommended by a friend. We ordered Crazy Burger (requested halal beef patty) ($14.95 with onion rings and pop) and Spicy Burger (requested halal beef patty) ($14.72). Upon seeing the total ($29.67), we were skeptical and were waiting impatiently for our order to be prepared and for us to dig in.

To our surprise, the fresh beef patty (non-processed) lived up to our expectations and we loved the toppings on both the burgers. Actually one of us loved the Crazy Burger (alapeno havarti, coleslaw, chipotle mayo, bbq sauce, hot peppers & lettuce), whilst the other one thought Spicy Burger (caramelized onions, spicy chipotle mayo, tomato & lettuce) was better.

We thought the fries were quiet good. They were very similar to New York Fries in taste. The onion rings were good as well; just that we personally find it difficult to finish an entire order of onion rings.

We visited Big Smoke Burger’s Square One (Mississauga) location. The sign clearly indicates that you have to ask for halal beef and/or chicken. We wanted to try out their poutine, but we were informed that the gravy on poutine is not halal. We were very thankful for their honesty.

We can’t wait to go back and try other burgers on the menu!

Big Smoke Burger is located in Square One Mall’s food court. For more information, please visit: http://www.bigsmokeburger.com

Pizza Shab

We learnt about Pizza Shab (North York) and have been long wanting to visit it. We happened to be in North York sometime ago and got hungry. The first place we thought of and ended up eating at was Pizza Shab!

Though Pizza Shab is primarily a take-out, there are a couple tables, so we decided to dine-in.

We ordered half Supreme Chicken and half Supreme Beef. We absolutely loved the pizza! It felt very nice and light. We loved the herbs & spices used and the smokey meat taste. It was a good change from the traditional halal pizzas most of us end up eating. In our humble opinion, if you happen to be in town, Pizza Shab is worth a visit. They have an expansive menu; however, we only had limited appetite and didn’t wanna have leftovers. We can’t wait to go back for more pizza and other items on the menu.

For more information, please visit their website at http://www.pizzashab.ca

Paramount Butcher Shop – Fine Halal Meats

Summer is almost here in Toronto and we are sure you are ready to fire up your BBQ. The one place you need to check out this BBQ season is the Paramount Butcher Shop. Not only is this a gorgeous shop, it has a wide selection of meat and related products.

Shiny displays, excellent customer service, free coffee and best of all, 100% halal and hand-slaughtered. This shop really is any North American Muslim’s dream come true. 

They have marinated chicken, beef, lamb of various cuts.  Although these were all raw, the displays were drool worthy!

We regularly buy shish tawouk, chicken shawarma, and kabobs from here. 

They also have a wide selection of deli meats. 
The beef counter. We were amazed at the selection and various cuts of meats that were available.
Be sure to check out this wonderful store this summer and let us know what you tried!

Address:

4646 Heritage Hill Boulevard

Mississauga, ON

L5R 1N4

Phone: 905-890-1700

Website: http://paramountbutchershop.com/

 

Dunk ‘n Dip: Resto & Chocolate Lounge

One lazy Friday night we were in mood for dessert and wanted to try a new place. We remembered our friends telling us about Dunk ‘n Dip so we quickly google-d the location and decided to visit the Mississauga location. We had gotten mixed reviews about this place so we weren’t sure what to expect.

Our first impression was positive. It was a bright and vibrant space buzzing with people and staffed with friendly servers. What caught our eye were the chocolate fountains. Mmm…

We took a look at the menu, which had lots of sweet and savoury options. We were torn between getting waffles or crepes. Although we wanted to try both things, we knew the portion sizes would be large and thankfully decided to share a dessert.

We ordered the Wonder Land Waffle, which had toasted waffles served with a layer of their signature cream garnished with sliced fresh strawberries, and topped with Belgium chocolate. There were four kinds of Belgium chocolate: milk, white, dark or caramel chocolate. We asked them to put all of them!

If this picture looks scrumptious to you, we can assure you it tasted out of this world! The waffles were perfect, the cream was custard-like and the Belgium chocolate was SO good. We wish there was more of it! We also got a scoop of pistachio gelato, which is hidden behind the waffles in this picture. The pistachio gelato was not as good as we had expected.

We also tried the coconut gelato. It was also topped with Belgium chocolate. We enjoyed this flavour way more than the pistachio. Again, the chocolate just made everything finger licking good!

 

We were told by the staff that the menu is fully halal. We loved the dessert at Dunk ‘n Dip and can’t wait to visit again, inshallah!

Address:

241 Lakeshore, Rd East,
Mississauga, Ontario, L5G 1G8, Canada

Phone:

905-990-5522

Website:

http://dunkndip.ca/

Intense Poutine Craving

 

We had the biggest poutine craving a few weeks ago. What triggered our craving were our blog stats, which kept showing people searching for “halal poutine Toronto”. The problem was, we didn’t know where to go. We wanted GOOD poutine; a poutine that would be worth the calories. For someone living in the east end of Toronto, we were surprised that we had such a hard time finding a place. Our options were:

– Crown Pizza

– Affy’s

– Flavour’s Cafe

– Big Moe’s

All three options were a bit of a drive so decided against them. That is where our list ended.  We were certain that there must be more places to grab poutine at but nothing was coming to mind!

After a lot of thought we remembered that Sizzling Skillet has decent poutine. Since we live a few minutes away, we hoped this place would satisfy our craving.

One word for the poutine: awesome! It doesn’t get any better than waffles fries smothered in gravy and cheese. They sprinkle red pepper on top which really elevates this french fry dish.

So the next time you are in the east end and are craving poutine, visit Sizzling Skillet.

Address: 

2290 Markham Rd

Toronto, ON M1B 2W4

Phone: 

(416) 321-9991

Website:

https://www.facebook.com/sizzlingskillet

Momofuku Milk Bar

Momofuku Milk Bar is located on the second floor of Momofuku Noodle Bar beside Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Toronto. The Milk Bar is tiny. To give you guys an idea of how small it is, it can be best described as a walk-in fridge. A maximum of 5-6 people can fit in there at one time. You grab a basket outside the Milk Bar, pick your goodies, and go downstairs to pay for them.

We tried the Compost Cookie, B’day Truffles and the Crack Pie.

The Compost Cookie had interesting ingredients such as pretzels, potato chips and coffee beans along with the regular ingredients such as oats, butterscotch and chocolate chips. One of us liked the cookie and the other one not so much. The cookie had a strong coffee flavour, which masked everything else.

 

The B’day Truffles had rainbow cake, white chocolate and sprinkles. They were scrumptious and melted in our mouths. They are very similar to cookie dough based desserts.

 

The Crack Pie was the most amazing treat ever! It is a toasted oat crust with butter filling. It sounds very simple and it is indeed simple, but the taste is out of this world. It is very sweet, so it may not be liked by everyone but it is definitely worth a try.

If you happen to be in the downtown Toronto area, drop by the Momofuku Milk Bar and give yourself a treat!

Address:

2nd Floor
190 University Avenue
Toronto, ONM5H 0A3

Marrakech Restaurant

Check out our review of Marrakech Restaurant on Halal Foodie.

Click here to read the article. 

 

Brunch at Spice Shack

This restaurant has closed down as of March 14, 2015

Breakfast is our favourite meal of the day. So any chance that we get to make this meal grand and fancy, we jump to it. Upon learning that Spice Shack has introduced a brunch menu, we knew we had to try it. Currently, the brunch starts at 11am but the staff told us that they may start it earlier, which is great because we like to eat our breakfast early! We ordered the Nutella Banana Crepes and the Eggs Benedict. We thought the crepes would be overly sweet but to our surprise, the sweetness was not overwhelming at all. We highly recommend trying this item.     The Eggs Benedict were delicious as well. We asked them to remove bacon because one of us does not like it too much. The eggs were perfectly poached and seasoned well. The spicy, South Asian style side of potatoes brought in the fusion element that we like so much at Spice Shack. Yum yum yum! Happy brunching! Address: 308 Painted Post Drive Scarborough, ON. M1G 2M3 Phone:  647 748 0786 Website:  http://www.spiceshack.ca

Fry Haus

Halal German Food? We don’t think we have ever seen those three words together. So when we found out that Fry Haus serves halal meat, we ran (literally) to check it out. Newly opened on the intersection of Gerrard and Parliament in downtown Toronto, Fry Haus is serving up German fast food.

The first thing we noticed was how tiny this take-out joint was. There were a few seats inside to wait while you order but no seating otherwise. The next thing we noticed was the menu, which was rather confusing. Our eyes couldn’t settle on any particular item on the menu boards because of the German names and terminology that was used.

After taking a good 10-15 minutes, we decided to order the Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich and Fries with 5 Pepper Ranch Dip. We had really wanted to order one of specialty french fry dishes but were too overwhelmed to decide on which one to get. So we stuck to getting regular fries instead.

Chicken Schnitzel is basically pounded chicken that is battered and deep fried. For the Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich, we got to pick our toppings and sauces. We got onions, pickles and some special kind of special coleslaw, along with the Haus Burger Sauce and the 5 Pepper Ranch Sauce. Again, there were so many different sauce options that we just randomly picked a few.

And voila! This is what our sandwich looked like. 

Although it looked mouth watering good, we honestly thought that it would be on the bland side. We are relieved to say that we were wrong. The sandwich was SO good…like SOO good! Sorry for the lack of adjectives but that’s the best way to describe it. This was one good deep fried piece of chicken and went so well with the sandwich and toppings. The chicken was crispy and tender and om nom nom delicious! The sandwich was quite big considering it was only $5. We highly recommend trying this.

We had heard a lot of their fries. Even the regular fries are supposedly special because they are double fried and what not. However, we thought the fries were pretty standard. They were comparable to fries at other fast food joints. We dipped our fries in the 5 Pepper Ranch Dip, which made the fries more enjoyable. Again, we regret not ordering their speciality french fry dishes. We ran into to some friends who ordered the Currywurst mit Fritten, which had fries, sausage and curry gravy and they were raving about it. They also tried the burger and said it was one of the best burgers they have ever tried.

Do we recommend you try Fry Haus? Most definitely! Their food is best enjoyed fresh so try to eat it right away. We did bring one sandwich home and by the time it got home, the chicken was no longer crispy. So try and find a spot nearby to sit and munch of the delicious food.

Address:

296 Gerrard St E

Toronto, ON

M5A 2G5

Phone: (416) 901-3100

Max’s Chicken & Seafood

Check out our review of Max’s Chicken & Seafood on Halal Foodie.

“Naturally, we compared the food at Max’s to the food at this same establishment. We feel that comparing Max’s to them is like comparing apples of different kinds: Gala vs. Macintosh.  Even though the apples look similar, they have different tastes.”

Click here for the full review.