Tag: Dessert

CAFE BORA

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CAFE BORA

87 Yorkville Avenue | Toronto | https://www.instagram.com/cafebora_toronto/

Who doesn’t love an ultra instagrammable dessert shop? I’ve been a long time creep of Cafe Bora, having locations everywhere (LA, Korea, Thailand, etc.) but Toronto until now. The newly opened cafe in Yorkville is a Korean dessert chain has everything purple sweet potatoes. 

‘Bora’ means purple in Korean which is why I had to order every purple item possible. The space is small and cozy, simple and clean with wood and purple being the major colours of the space.

The sweet potato is not artificial-tasting at all, the natural sweet potato flavour really shines through in each item – some more subtle than others.

Cafe Bora prices: bingsu $9.95, tiramisu $9.95, ice cream $5.95, purple sweet potato lattes $5.95

My favourite items definitely were the bingsu and tiramisu. The bingsu is topped with sweetened evaporated milk and sweet potato purée with extra on the side for you to add more on, creating a stronger sweet potato flavour. The tiramisu consists of layer of vanilla sponge cake, sweet potato purée, a cheesy cream and then topped with yam powder. 

Disclaimer: While the food and drinks are complimentary, opinions expressed are entirely my own.

DIPPED DOUGHNUTS

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Dipped Donuts Inc
161 Baldwin St #1, Toronto, ON

The first time I tried Dipped donuts is when they opened their tiny brick and mortar location at Kensington Market at the end of 2018. Okay, honestly, it’s just a little window with two patio tables in front of the store.

It was instant love, they make amazing yeast donuts that are perfect in everyway. There are no crazy gimmicky toppings or flavours just some well balanced flavours. The dough is soft and airy with a slight chew and the none of the icing flavours are too sweet or artificial tasting.

Each donut is $3 but that’s the norm for some “gourmet” donuts in Toronto.

I can wholeheartedly say that Dipped Donuts is my favourite donut shop in Toronto. Go visit them and thank me later.

DUO PATISSERIE & CAFE

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230 Commerce Valley Drive Unit 4
Markham, ON
www.duo-patisserie.com/

Duo Patisserie & Cafe is probably the best new shop to open up in Markham, a great French patisserie. Duo opened up this past October and it hasn’t had a lot of media coverage yet, their website is still under construction. The cafe is located on Highway 7 and Leslie Street, super convenient for all us uptown kids.

The interior is super clean and modern, the walls and furniture in all white. You can even look into their kitchen to see their production. The duo behind Duo are Rocky and Eric, two best friends. Eric makes the pastries and Rocky is front of house manning the coffee bar.


Their selection of croissants that day were plain, ham & cheese, honey twist, pain au chcolat and almond, the prices range from $2.50 – $3.50.

They have a beautiful selection of plated desserts, everything is made in house and they use the finest ingredients with some products even shipped from France. Duo also sells french  macarons ($3.00 each) with flavours like oolong, matcha, and earl grey. I didn’t have a chance to try any but I’ll probably make another very visit soon.

I got the Mont Blanc and Hazel to go.

 The Mont Blanc ($7.00) was perfect, I’ve never had a Mont Blanc with so much chestnut puree and whole chestnuts. The short bread tart filled with vanilla sponge, a dome of whipped cream and encased in ultra smooth chest puree.
The Hazel ($6.00), chocolate mousse on top of a thin chocolate round and a short bread disk with sesame seeds. The mousse had a super intense dark chocolate flavour, Rocky mentioned that the chcolate was imported from France. I liked the sesame seeds on the short bread, it gave the dessert extra texture and another flavour profile.

I had a bite of the plain croissant and it was flaky and light.

I like how Duo puts a lot of thought into their packaging, instead of using paper bags for their croissants, they opted for wax paper ones to keep that disgusting grease stain from seeping through the bag. I also noticed that they had take away boxes for single desserts and their macaron boxes are awesome as well.

CANOE RESTAURANT & BAR

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66 Wellington Street West | Toronto, ON
http://www.oliverbonacini.com/canoe

Canoe is one of my favourite restaurant in Toronto but sadly my wallet doesn’t always agree with my dining habits. Licious a great way to try higher end restaurants in the city without breaking the bank. Canoe is located on the 54th floor of the TD bank tower and offers amazing views, prefect for when you’re trying to impress someone with great city views and amazing food. The windows wrap around the whole restaurant and the open kitchen makes the whole restaurant larger in size.


We started off with a Sundried Tomato Chickpea Spread with warm bread.


For appetizers Desi and I got the Cured Rainbow Trout with pickled turnips, marinated radish & crème fraîche.


Manal got Butternut Squash & Ginger Soup with Peekytoe crab, tarragon yoghurt & rye croutons.


Everyone else got the Pressed Maple Braised Willowgrove Pork with heirloom beans, wild mustard & puffed wild rice.

For our entrees Zoe and I got the Torched Heritage Salmon with dinosaur kale, pickled peppers & ancient Algonquin grits.


Jo and Desi both got the Ontario Strip Loin Short Rib with gherkin sour cream & cheesy alliston spuds.


I decided on the Wild Rice Pudding with poached apricot, rose vanilla sauce & pistachio for dessert.


Everyone else got the Three Milk Cake with vanilla mousseline, caramel cream & kernal peanuts.

Overall the meal was fantastic, everything was well cooked and seasoned. My favourite appetizer was the Pressed Maple Pork, it was flavourful and hearty. My cured trout was beautifully presented but lacking in some seasoning. My salmon entree was one of the best Licious entrees I’ve never had, the salmon sweet and savoury but I wish I got more of the “grits”. The Strip loin, in my opinion, was the best entree of the night, tender and the short rib was super rich. I loved my rice pudding dessert.
Canoe is one of my favourite restaurants and I had another fantastic OB meal experience.

Canoe Restaurant & Bar on Urbanspoon
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LUMA

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350 King St W | Toronto, ON
http://www.oliverbonacini.com

This was my first time at LUMA and I was surprised by how nice and elegant the space was. I’m not sure what I was expecting but the interior cozy, warm, and classy. LUMA is located at the TIFF lightbox right above their sister restaurant, the Canteen.

We got to nibble on some warm bread with white bean and hummus dip while looking through the menu. The hummus was addictive, I finished all of it.

For my appetizer I got the 100km Celery Root Soup with maytag blue cheese, apple and bacon compote. The soup was creamy and velvety, it had a nice flavour without having too much of a off-putting celery flavour. I love the sweetness of the apple compote with the savouriness of the soup.

Philip got the Fregola & Mixed Bean Salad with a 62.5° celsius hen’s egg, charred treviso, onion, chilies and anchovy lemon dressing. He really enjoyed the dish, no complaints from him.

I got the Roasted Trout with glazed roots, puffed wild rice and brown butter bay scallops for entree. This was hands down my favourite dish of the night, everything was perfect. My trout was perfectly cooked with an incredibly crispy skin. The puffed rice gave the dish a nice crunchy texture with every bite and the beets were light and refreshing contrast to the butter scallops.

Philip got the Braised Willowgrave Pork Shoulder with shiitake mushroom pilaf, green mango pickle, rice paper crunch and honey truffle sauce. The pork was tender and delicious.

I got the Steamed Banana Pudding with burnt marshmallow ice cream for dessert. I was somewhat disappointed with the dessert, I wasn’t expecting a banana muffin let alone a dry banana muffin. The ice-cream made up for the dryness of the cake but wasn’t anything special.

Philip got the Chocolate Espresso Budino with an almond biscotti. Incredibly rich and intense with chocolate flavour, a coffee is a must with this dessert to cut the richness.

Overall I had a great experience at LUMA, great food and good service. I loved the atmosphere and a perfect location for date night without breaking the bank. I would definitely try to come back for their regular menu.

Luma on Urbanspoon

LA CARINTA

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501 College St | Toronto, ON
http://lacarnita.com

La Carnita is one of my favourite restaurants in Toronto, I’m never disappointed when I visit.

Mexican Street Corn (2pc) Mexican crema, queso anejo, arbol & ancho chili powder. The corn is a must order, corn is on my top 5 favourite vegetable and La Carnita takes it to another level.


Tortilla Chips w/ ancho chili powder & Guacamole

I love how the tortilla chips are seasoned, they even taste good by themselves.


Beef Cheek Ancho braised cheek, lime avocado, green cabbage, pickled jalapeño & crispy shallots


In Cod We Trust: voltron sauce, lime crema, pickled red cabbage, green apple & cilantro


Crispy Avocado & Frijoles Beans: crispy avocado, chipotle sauce, queso fresco & cilantro

Chorizo: Chorizo, mango salsa, pickled onion, queso cotija &cilantro

My favourite taco of the night was the Cod taco, perfectly fried cod with an extremely crispy batter. The pickled cabbage and apple cut through the richness of the crema and the fried batter, SO perfect.

For dessert we got two orders of Churros with house made cajeta (caramel) 

Tres Leche Cake Served with Ontario fruit which was strawberries that night.

I’ve been to both La Carnita and Grand Electric and I must say La Carnita is my go to taco joint!
From the atmosphere, service, lighting, seating and food, La Carnita wins by a land slide.

La Carnita on Urbanspoon

DESSERT KITCHEN

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3623 Highway 7 East, Unit 106 | Markham, ON

This Asian dessert spot just hit the heart of Markham, right at Highway 7 and Warden, the menu consists of modernized traditional Chinese desserts.
The desserts we got were the green tea brûlée, steamed egg custard, Mango Fever (mangos, coconut ho fun, sago and mango sauce) and baked taro sago.

My favourite was probably the baked taro sago, rich and cream but really heavy.
Dessert Kitchen is a nice change from bubble tea or your traditional Chinese dessert places but also a little pricey.

Dessert Kitchen on Urbanspoon

LA BAMBOUCHE

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1712 Avenue Road | Toronto, ON
http://labamboche.ca/

I know I’ve been neglecting my blog for a while now but with the holiday season over I finally have time to update and get my eat on again! I’ve been crazy busy with baking and family this past Christmas so I haven’t even had time to go out to any new restaurants but here it is, I finally made my way to the famous La Bambouche!

I got three macarons: blood orange, pistachio and strawberry champagne. La Bamboche serves up one of the best macarons I’ve ever had and my favourite was the pistachio one, it was packed full up pistachio flavour and it even had some pistachio paste in the filling.

The strawberry champagne was light in flavour but still absolutely delicious. The macarons are well priced at $2.35 each.

As for the cakes I got something with green tea mousse, a chocolate raspberry mousse dome, and their mont blanc.
My favourite was the Raspberry Chocolate, it was tangy and sweet at the same time.

Definitely going to try to visit La Bamboche more often!

La Bamboche on Urbanspoon

CAFFE DEMETRES

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90 Allstate Parkway, Suite 102 | Markham, ON
https://demetres.com/

I’ve blogged about the amazing chocolate cake Demetres has here but this time we went for what Demetres is famous for, their crepes and waffles!


This place gets super packed on the weekends and you’ll probably have to wait for about 15 – 20 minutes for a seat but it’s sure worth the wait.


(That pump is a gigantic scoop of ice cream, they never skimp on the ice cream here.)
Jessica and I shared the Moo La La cause I can never finish one myself. It had Nutello iced cream, sliced almonds, sliced bananas and chocolate sauce. We finished it at a pretty impressive speed.


Cherry got the Strawberry Shortcake, she said it was alright but she likes the one at Destiny’s better. I try it but I’ll take her word for it.


Sau shared a the Life Sentence waffle with her friend Kelly. Peanut butter ice cream, brownie chunks, slices of banana on a waffle!? What more could you ask for?


This is what Harriet got, I’m not sure what it was called but I know it had mocha ice cream, Oreo crumbs and chocolate sauce.

I love Demetres and will always be a go to place for dessert!

Caffe Demetre on Urbanspoon

PATISSERIE HEAVENLY DELIGHTS

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8992 Yonge St. (Scott & Yonge) | Richmond Hill, ON
http://www.heavenlydelights-patisserie.com/

Found this neat little bakery while I was urbanspoon-ing, I would definitely say this bakery is a hidden gem. I wouldn’t have known this bakery was here if we didn’t have to look for it…and even when I was looking for it, I passed it unknowingly. We walked in and was greeted by the owner, she was super nice, friendly and explained almost all the cakes to me and what was in them.


All the little pasties & cake slices.


Some of the whole cakes.


Just some of the cookies.

We got take out, this bakery is not a cafe by any means, there is one little coffee table and two sofa chairs.


This is the first thing I picked out cause as soon as she said “it was like Piña colada flavour”, I was set. It was moist, not too sweet or rich and full of flavour! With chunks of pineapple mixed throughout the filling in between the layers of coconut sponge cake. 
It was both our favourites! Super yummy!


This is the “Walnuti Pastry” which is basically a walnut cake with chocolate mousse finished with a chocolate ganache glaze. I got this cause the owner said it was her signature cake, how could I not get it? I loved the walnut pieces in the sponge, an added bonus of texture. I would recommend to all the chocolate/nut combination lovers out there.


This is the pomegranate cake (I’m not sure what it’s actually called because there weren’t any signs in the display case) but for now, I’ll just call it the pomegranate cake. My boyfriend loves pomegranate anything so as soon as he say this, he had to get it. It wasn’t my favourite because the sponge cake is quite dry but the icing had a nice hint of tartness, full of pomegranate flavour.  This one was our least favourite out of the bunch but it was still delicious.

The owner rang us up and the bill came up to just under $7, both Satya and I were surprised on how cheap the cakes were.

Will definitely be back, actually I was planning on going back this weekend!

Heavenly Delights on Urbanspoon