I'm glad I made the cross-town trip for this one. I didn't think I'd find a place so close to authentic in Toronto. The food will definitely give you an east-coast experience and keep the cravings at bay until your next trip home. That's the short story. Now some nitpicking if you're still interested haha.
The prices weren't bad. I got a small garlic fingers for 5.99, a small donair for 4.99 (plus a little extra for cheese I think), and a can of coke zero for 1.25.
The garlic fingers are so close to right. The sauce is perfect. The crust has the slight undercooked doughy centre like every place I've ever eaten them at in NS. They got the oregano on top that even crappy places on the east coast forget sometimes. The only minor complaint is that the cheese is wrong. They try to give you cheddar, I stopped them on that and got mozzarella. The mozza isn't quite right, though. It is pressed, not stretched. There was enough of it, though, to make that stringy mess I was craving. It was just a slightly different flavour and chew factor.
The donair was a little farther from authentic, but close enough that I'm still giving the place 4 stars. What was right was the basic form. Pita, meat, sauce, onions, and tomatoes with the option of cheese. I'm glad they skipped the lettuce and tzatziki that other imitators try to squeeze in there because those things have absolutely nothing to do with donairs. Breaking down the ingrediants, though, is where the small problems arose. A Greek pita was used. It is supposed to be a Lebanese pita. As I ate I tried to figure out why the substitution. My first guess was it makes it easier to pick up for Torontonians who don't understand this meal isn't meant to be picked up like a sandwich. My second guess was maybe they tried the Lebanese one and it was too tough. If that's the case guys, just wet it and heat it. That'll get it where it needs to be. The sauce was pefect again. The cheese again was not right. Needs Saputo or something similar. The meat had too much oregano, too little cayenne, and I'm pretty sure it tasted of textured soy protein (I've spent years trying to perfect vegetarian donair meat and this was eerily similar). The texture of the meat was about the same as places in NS that bake the loaves instead of roasting on a spit so it's ok. The final thing I noticed was that the donair wasn't put into an oven after it was assembled. This doesn't allow the cheese to melt or the sauce to get to that magical place where it just starts to break (gross, but delicious, trust).
Since I'm being so picky I should probably say I've lived all around Nova Scotia for 28 years and only arrived in Ontario a few months ago so my memories of the real thing are still pretty fresh. Oh, and don't call me Scotian. I hear it like a slur. It's pronounced Nova Scotian. Thanks.