East Court & Mike’s B.B.Q
4400 Sheppard Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1S 5H9
East Court & Mike’s B.B.Q is a takeout restaurant located in the plaza at the Northwest corner of Brimley and Sheppard. It has been featured on blogTO and Toronto Life and I also keep seeing it on lists of best restaurants in Scarborough so it piqued my interest. Not wanting to pass up discovering another great restaurant with cheap food, my husband and I went to get some takeout from there.
Walking into the restaurant, we saw Chinese barbecued meat hanging on hooks by the front and pictures of party trays you can order on the right. Straight ahead showed pictures of the two styles of whole pig you can get – Chinese style crispy BBQ pork or Filipino style lechon.
The combos of barbecued meat with rice are all under $10. I ordered the Crispy BBQ pork and duck with rice and my husband got the Crispy BBQ pork and BBQ pork (or char siu) with rice. The orders also came with stir-fried vegetables and a piece of fried garlic tofu. It was a lot of food for only $8 each, which is cheaper than most fast food meals nowadays. With the cost of food in Toronto lately, it’s probably also cheaper than cooking at home…
The owner, Jack Tsoi, was friendly and made conversation with us while he was chopping the barbecued meat to put into our takeout containers. He asked us if it was our first time there and if we lived close by. Then my husband asked Mr. Tsoi if he could write the letter “D” on my takeout container so we would know which one had my duck, but due to the language barrier, he thought my husband wanted some duck as well so he gave him a few pieces at no extra charge. That was really nice of him.
After making another stop, we went home to anxiously try the food while it was still warm. The meat was delicious – the Crispy BBQ pork had crispy skin but the meat was tender, and the duck was juicy and flavoured well. I tried a piece of my husband’s BBQ pork and it had the perfect amount of sweetness. Even the stir-fried vegetables and tofu were really good!
I never thought you could taste the difference of quality Chinese barbecued meat until I tried East Court & Mike’s B.B.Q. Instead of getting it from Chinese supermarkets, moving forward, I think I will just go back to pay Mr. Tsoi a visit for some more of his wonderful food. When he had asked us earlier that day to come back again, we had said we would. I want to keep that promise. 😉
