East Court & Mike’s BBQ — Restaurant in Toronto

TL/DR: Good food, horrifically bad food safety handling you’ll probably get food poisoning.

Crispy pork is pretty good and price is decent. The pork is cold already but that’s expected as I came just before closing, although they could have heated the racks.

My biggest concern with this place is the guy was touching other things like the dirty table and then touching my food directly. When I called him out on it, I don’t know if there was a language barrier or he just really didn’t care as he just brushed off my concern. Granted many pork places are like this but please exercise good food handling practices.

Edit:

My initial rating for this place is 4/5 stars. However, after going here a second time, I am downgrading my rating to 2/5 stars.

The reason for this is because the guy (probably the owner) has shown zero concern for proper food handling process. When I bought my food from him, he didn’t wash his hands after helping the previous customer. He proceeded to touch my food with his bare hands to chop and prepare it. My food was also touching the sides of the dirty table as he was chopping it.

When he finished chopping my food, he touched the register with his bare hands, inputting the amount in the till, then touched my food again to wrap it up. He then took my cash with hands still greasy and gave me my pork-greased change back. I don’t know how it is in countries outside of Canada, but Canada has food safety handling standards and this isn’t it. I literally had to fry my food at home to avoid food poisoning.

I still give 2 star as the food is not bad.

Please practice even the most basic food...

This place is totally overrated. I decided to drop by to see what the fuss was all about based on a write-up from that pretentious hippie website called blogTO and my first impression was the place was filthy and run down. I saw 2 party trays of roast pork sitting by the window labeled for customer 6pm pickup that was not fully covered and had flies circling around it (and I went there on a 2pm Saturday, why leave it out so early for the meat to rot?). Surely this cannot be sanitary nor safe for customers in a warm humid day? So the first immediate impressions was negative, and then I ordered a roast pork and duck combo and....well for $10.75 it was pricey compared to their competition, and when I opened the container my piece of duck was all bone and no meat, and then the roast pork was very dry and the skin not crispy - like it was picked from a pile of leftovers (even though there was a fresh pig hanging from the window and they could have cut from there...what were you saving that pig for? your dinner?) It was disgusting and a rip off. I was so disappointed that I went to Lung Tung BBQ, which is a nearby BBQ place in the Midland Court Plaza, and had a nice piece of roast pork and duck from there for $10 that comes with soup. I would avoid this place as there are better options nearby. I would ask Mike the owner, do you care about your customers or just publicity? Eventually people will realize what a fraud this place is and...

This IS the place for bbq pork, roast pork and duck.

The owner Jack Tsoi, has been serving up high quality meats, perfectly roasted, for more than 30 years! We used to visit his older location at Sheppard Avenue East and Glen Watford Drive, before he moved to 4400 Sheppard Avenue East. The hard work and pride that goes into these specialty meats shows – the meats are succulent, salty and perfectly crispy. The skin on the roast pork and duck is absolutely addictive!

I normally order lunch boxes, but decided to splurge and get a pound each of bbq pork, roast pork and half a duck. I like to chop it myself at home, and the meats were nicely wrapped. The leftovers are excellent for making fried rice, or adding to homemade noodle soup!

Roasted whole pigs/lechón are very popular, and an excellent choice for ceremonies and parties; ranging in size from baby (25-35 lbs) to medium (40-90 lbs).

They also serve Filipino dishes, and Sweet & Sour Pork, which is one of my childhood favorite dishes. I don’t know why I haven’t tried their version yet?!

What is interesting and amazing to note is how friendly the staff are. Each time I have called or visited, the interactions have been professional, courteous and appreciative. Chef Jack is always pleasant, and he is never in a rush to chat. He refers to me as his “old” customer, so this is the only time I don’t mind being called old … lol

So many reasons to support local owned businesses,...