Delicious Slices at Sadboy Pizza

Sadboy Pizza
Location
: 51 Main Street South, Georgetown
Website: https://sadboy.ca/

I can’t say I’m in Georgetown often (or ever), but I had heard nothing about good things about Sadboy Pizza and was in the general vicinity, so sure, why not?

All those good things: 100% correct.  Sadboy Pizza serves some top notch slices.

Sadboy Pizza

They have a variety of interesting-looking pizzas, but I’m all about the plain cheese, particularly when I’m first trying a place, so I went with the mozz OG (“fresh and aged mozzarella blend”).

Sadboy Pizza

It’s a great slice of pizza.  In particular, the crust is just where you want it to be, with a perfect amount of exterior crispiness, a tender chewiness within, and a really satisfying flavour.

The combo of fresh and aged mozzarella adds a pop of flavour that you normally don’t get in this type of pizza, and there’s a good ratio of cheese to tasty sauce.

Sadboy Pizza

It’s not one of the bigger slices I’ve ever had, but it was also only five bucks even.  Which means that it was small enough and cheap enough that I was able to justify buying a second slice.  I went with the breakfast4dinner (“garlic cream sauce, crispy diced hashbrowns, bacon, chicken breakfast sausage (halal), sesame seed crust, frank’s maple syrup drizzle”), and yeah, it was just as good.

Sadboy Pizza

I don’t know that I would have guessed the breakfast angle if you hadn’t told me — it tastes like a pretty standard meaty pizza, though the syrup does add a nice sweetness that helps to balance out the saltiness from the sausage and bacon.  Still, whatever it is, it’s quite delicious.

Sadboy Pizza

My only real complaint here is that both slices could have used another minute or two in the oven (they were both a bit lukewarm around the middle), but other than that?  Sadboy totally holds up to any of the top-tier pizza joints in the GTA.  It’s that good.

Tasty Katsu Curry at Hinoya Curry

Hinoya Curry
Location
: 20 Carlton Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.hinoyacurry.net/

Hinoya Curry is a chain that specializes in tonkatsu curry; they’ve got a bunch of locations in Japan and a few worldwide — including, most recently, right here in Toronto.

I actually tried the tonkatsu curry at Hinoya a few years ago in Tokyo and found it to be satisfying, but by Japanese standards, just okay.

Hinoya Curry

By Toronto standards, on the other hand?  Quite good!

I ordered the same dish here, tonkatsu curry, which features a fried pork cutlet on top of rice that’s absolutely doused in a rich, beefy curry sauce.

Hinoya Curry

It’s very tasty.  The menu describes the curry as “sweet first, spicy later,” and yeah, that’s about right.  It’s got a nice balance of sweet and savoury, a pleasant curry flavour, and a lingering heat that’s mild, but definitely present.

It goes very well with the freshly fried tonkatsu, which is nice and tender and retains its crunch, despite being smothered in sauce.

Hinoya Curry

It comes with some pickled radish on the side, which has a vinegary brightness that does a great job of cutting through the dish’s richness.  I wish there were more of it, however; they  put a teeny-tiny amount on the plate, and I could have used about double or triple (it’s in a container on the side in Japan — or at least it was when I visited — which makes much more sense).

Hinoya Curry

Another nice touch: the container with a mix of puffed rice and toasted garlic on the table, which adds more crunch and flavour to the dish.  I’ve never seen this anywhere but here, and I don’t know why — it seems like it would improve pretty much anything.

Top-Tier Gelato at Death in Venice

Death in Venice
Location
: 1418 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://deathinvenice.ca/

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Death in Venice, which I remembered being very good, but perhaps not up there with the best in the city.

Well, clearly I was extremely wrong about that, because the flavour I just had at Death in Venice?  Some of the best gelato I’ve ever had.  Crazy good.

Death in Venice

The flavour in question: cheeseboard (“made up of all the ingredients of a classic cheeseboard, brie cheese, white wine, pears, jam, honey and berry jam. Perfect balance of sweet and savoury.”)

I’ll admit that I ordered this because it sounded like a fun novelty — the type of flavour that’s more interesting than delicious.  I was 100% incorrect.  Dangerous levels of deliciousness.

Death in Venice

I thought the savoury flavour of the cheese might be overwhelming (I’ve had blue cheese ice cream that went a bit too hard on the blue cheese, making it somewhat unpleasant) but it all goes together so well.    There’s a very, very mild savouriness, but it enhances rather than detracts from the sweet gelato.

I wish I had taken a photo of the gelato once I had started eating it — the photo above makes it look a bit plain, but there was actually a pretty generous amount of tasty jam swirled throughout, not to mention walnut chunks that add some nice texture.

There was a lot going on with the flavour here, but it all works so well.  And the quality of the gelato itself was perfectly rich and creamy.  Seriously: top five gelato of my life.

Death in Venice

I should note that I came back a week or two later and tried the bourbon and smoked chocolate gelato (“For real chocolate lovers… We smoke our dark chocolate and cook it with bourbon. Once we add cream and milk this thick and dense gelato becomes the ultimate chocolate treat”).  It was just as good, with an intense chocolatiness, and noticeable pops of flavour from the smoke and the bourbon.

You’d think those other flavours might overwhelm the chocolate, but they complement it so well.  Clearly, any ranking of the best gelato in the city that doesn’t include this place is flat-out wrong.

Death in Venice

Okay, I’m going to update this one more time, then I should really post it.  I came back another couple of weeks later and tried the soft serve, which features two rotating flavours.  When I went, one of the flavours was chocolate mousse, and holy moly — it was maybe the best soft serve I’ve ever had?  It tasted just like a really great chocolate mousse, but in soft serve form.  It had a profound chocolately flavour, and was intensely creamy and rich.  Ridiculously good.

Tasty Sandwiches at Dear Grain

Dear Grain
Location
: 48 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://deargrain.com/

Mostly, Dear Grain is a bakery that sells some seriously tasty sourdough loaves.  But they also have a variety of sandwiches and pastries, and yeah, those are quite good, too.

Dear Grain

I had the roasted turkey sandwich (“brie, brown butter and chutney”), and it was very tasty.

Dear Grain

They toast the sandwich until the bread is crispy and the brie is melty, and the combo of that creamy, slightly nutty cheese and the meaty turkey works very well.  The chutney is cranberry-sauce-esque, which works for obvious reasons.  And, of course, the bread is great.  It’s a stellar sandwich.

Dear Grain

I also tried a sesame cookie; I found the texture to be a bit cakier than I normally want in a cookie, but it’s not too sweet and has a very pronounced roasted sesame seed flavour.  It’s quite good.

Tasty Scoops at Misfit Ice Cream

Misfit Ice Cream
Location
: 10 Stephanie Street, Toronto
Website: https://misfiticecream.com/

Misfit Ice Cream is a new ice cream spot that’s right across the street from where Mizzica used to be on McCaul.  It’s currently listed as “Misfit Ice Cream Pop Up” on Google, so I guess they won’t be sticking around (Update: I was correct about this — since the time I wrote this, they’ve closed, but will hopefully be reopening elsewhere at some point.  Keep an eye on their website, I guess) .  Based on the scoop I had, I hope they find a permanent location soon.

Misfit Ice Cream

They describe what they’re selling as “French custard ice cream,” and yeah, it’s definitely got a custardy flavour.

I got their most popular flavour, sweet cream creme brulee (“creamy custard with crunchy brûlée bits”).

Misfit Ice Cream

The quality of the ice cream itself is quite high; it’s nice and creamy, and the aforementioned custard flavour is thoroughly satisfying.  It probably could have used more of the crunchy bits, but it’s clearly an above average scoop of ice cream.