Monday’s Munchies: Slice of New York – Review

A few years ago, the sisters and I were routinely checking Zabihah.com when we came across Slice of New York. A Halal joint, with good reviews, that sells stromboli’s and hoagies – we knew we had to go! I’ve been to Slice of NY around 4 times and here are my thoughts:

Halalness
Authorized Halal by an Islamic organization. Even their cheese is Halal 🙂

Location
In the downtown core – right after Yonge & Dundas. It’s proximity to Ryerson University means that you’ll find lots of students around lunch time.

Customer Service
Amazing – the brothers working behind the counters are super friendly and nice.

Ambiance
It’s a small, fast-food joint so please don’t go in expecting fine dining experience. It can seat about 20-25 people at the most and it’s all self-serve (duh).

Price
Slightly pricey for fast food ~ $10ish per person if you include a side and drink.

Food
This place is more suited for meat-lovers than vegetarians. There is a large variety of food options – Shawarma, Stromboli, Pizza, Burger, Hoagies, Fries, etc

• Fries: I love their fries – they have just the right amount of crunch and softness. Yum, yum, yum!
• Pizza: Pizza is definitely good although I do prefer more sauce (I’m more of a Mamma’s Pizza kinda girl rather than Pizzaiolo). They always have around 6-7 different types of pizza’s ready so I do like that they have variety.
• Hoagies:
  – My veggie hoagie was alright – nothing great. It had tomato sauce, green peppers, onion, mushrooms (I think) and cheese. You have the option of choosing a tomato or cream based sauce. While the hoagie was good, I felt like it lacked something – roasted red peppers or something would’ve added a yummy kick to the flavour.
  – Nouman’s Philly Cheese Steak was great according to him.
• Stromboli: The sisters love it – they’ve had the Manhattan and Italian. The older one especially likes the Manhattan – it has the perfect combination of meat and cheese; she really likes the sausage in it.

Veggie Hoagie + Philly Cheese Steak

Veggie Hoagie

Veggie - it was good but I prefer a little more sauce

Italian Stromboli

If you’re in the area and craving Halal fast food, I’d definitely give this a try.

Monday’s Munchies: Paramount Fine Foods + Birthday Burgers

Finding Halal restaurants in the GTA is not a hard task, it’s actually quite easy. Finding a good Halal restaurant, that’s another story.

Over the weekend we went to Paramount Fine Foods – a Lebanese restaurant in Mississauga. This is one of our go-to restaurants for Arabic food; the food is yummy and the portion size is huge. Can’t go wrong with that, can you? 🙂

Food Items Not To Be Missed

• Manakeesh: This is similar to pizza – dough topped off with cheese and other toppings such as ground beef, herbs, tomato, etc. Paramount has the most yummylicious Manakeesh around the GTA
• Hummus: yum, yum, yum!
• Pastries and Other Sweets: Hands down, the freshest Baklawa around – some of the cookies are divine too

Vegetarians
Although I get the falafel almost every time I go here, it’s not that great. I have yet to eat amazing Falafel in Toronto – why are they always so heavy and dense? I’d recommend getting a couple of different types of Manakeesh instead.

I’m not going to write much – the pictures can do the talking today.

Appetizer: Khubz avec Hummus

Beef and Cheese Manakeesh

Cheese and Zataar Manakeesh

Mine: Falafel Plate

Mixed Grill Plate with Rice

Mixed Grill Plate with Fries... and obviously alot of ketchup!

Chicken & Beef Shawarma with Fries... obviously Nouman loves ketchup too!

Kafta Plate with Fries

All done!

It was my birthday over the weekend and as per tradition, Nouman and I got birthday burgers for lunch. We went to Big Smoke Burger (formerly Craft Burger) and it was delish as usual. I ordered the Crazy Burger with a Veggie Patty and Nouman got a Red Burger with Halal Chicken. Yes, they have Halal Chicken! I emailed their main office and received confirmation that their chicken is Halal – however, since they do not advertise it, they can change their chicken supplier at any time without informing their customers – so always call and verify before eating the chicken!

His & Hers

Crazy Burger with Veggie Patty

Red Burger with Halal Chicken

Check out my review of Big Smoke Burger.

JFK Lounge: Review

I thought I’d post about FOOD to get us through Monday morning 🙂

JFK is close to our house and is one of our regular “go-to” places. I can’t tell you how most of the food at JFK tastes (mainly caters to non-pescetarians) – but whatever I have tried, I have loved. Same with the sisters, they like most of the food they’ve had at JFK.

Veggie Burger
So yummy! I usually prefer a real veggie burger – one where you can taste the veggies as opposed to the soy patty. This one is actually pretty good. The burger is flavourful and not dry. The toppings are just right – sauteed mushrooms, pickles, tomatoes, onion and lettuce. And the fries? I LOVE the fries at JFK.

Veggie Burger

Fish and Chips
The easiest way for me to eat fish is in this form. The fish and chips at JFK are surprisingly good – crispy but not overdone, the tartar sauce has just enough zing, and the fries (again) are made to perfection.

Fish and Chips

Below are pictures of dishes that I’ve never had but my sisters really liked.

Chicken Wrap - Sundried Tomato Wrap

Roast Beef Dip - Roast Beef on a toasted Ciabatta bun

Portobello Mushroom Chicken - in a Reggiano Cream Sauce. Nouman got it with mashed potatoes

 

Grilled Chicken Samwich in a Honey Garlic Sauce

Some things that aren’t the greatest (according to my sisters):

Swiss and Mushroom Chicken
Chicken breast stuffed with mushroom and Swiss cheese; served with rice and veggies. I’ve heard from a few people that the chicken is really dry.

 

Swiss and Mushroom Chicken

 

Meat Loaf
Ground beef meat loaf; served with mashed potatoes and veggies. Little one said she didn’t like it much because it was dry; she is also not a huge meat-eater so that might have made her a little biased.

 

Beef Meat Loaf

Steak Sandwich
Again, too dry.

Steak Samwich

Nachos
The nacho’s are pretty meh. We’ve only ordered this once and probably will never order it again. Do yourself a favour and serve some tortilla chips with cheese, olives, peppers and salsa. You’ll get the same effect and save money at the same time.

Nachos Supreme

Overall – it’s a good option for Halal comfort food. Their sandwiches/burgers are especially yummy  – including the veggie burger.