Location: 257 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/tokyocheesecakecafe.ca/

Tokyo Cheesecake Cafe was actually a really delightful surprise.  I went in thinking I’d just check the place out, and wasn’t necessarily planning on buying anything.  Nothing really caught my eye (I was hoping they’d have a Japanese-style strawberry shortcake; they did not), but the store was empty and I felt bad leaving without buying anything, so I got a slice of the original cheesecake.

I figured this would be a fluffy, eggy, soufflé-style cheesecake like you can get at Uncle Tetsu’s.  I like that style of cheesecake, but it’s not my favourite.

This actually turned out to be completely different from that, with two layers on a chocolatey crust.  The top layer is light and super creamy, and the bottom layer is much more dense, with more of a traditional cheesecake flavour and texture.  There’s also a bit of a lemony flavour (lemon zest, maybe?) that complements it quite well.  And the chocolate crust has a mild bitterness that does a great job of offsetting the sweetness of the cheesecake.

It’s a seriously delicious dessert.  The silky top layer, the rich bottom layer, and the chocolate crust are a boffo combination.  They also had a bunch of other flavours of cheesecake, and I (and you!) need to try them all ASAP.

Also: as it happened, I went back a couple of weeks later, and they actually had the Japanese strawberry shortcake I was craving on my first visit.  I tried it, of course, and it was just as delicious as the cheesecake, with the cake itself being maybe the lightest, fluffiest cake I’ve ever had.