Ice Cream Review – Page 19

Decent Dipped Cones at Chocolats Favoris

Published on August 2, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1440 Major MacKenzie Drive West, Vaughan
Website: https://www.chocolatsfavoris.com/

If you want a dipped cone in the Toronto area, you’re covered. Aside from Chocolats Favoris (which hasn’t expanded to the city quite yet), you’ve got relatively new places like Sweet Jesus, La Diperie, and Hollywood Cone, not to mention old standbys like Tom’s Dairy Freeze and the always-reliable Dairy Queen.

Note to all future restaurateurs: we’re all good for dipped cones. May I suggest you open a frozen custard joint? Or maybe a traditional sundae shop?

Chocolats Favoris (which is a Quebecois import, as you might infer from the name) sells dipped cones with a particular emphasis on the chocolatey dips; they’ve got about a dozen you can choose from, which you can either have as a plain dip, or in one of their customized combinations.

I went with the latter, and got the Hazelnut Praline, featuring vanilla ice cream with a chocolate hazelnut dip, hazelnut pieces, and dark chocolate sauce. It’s garnished with a Ferrero Rocher-esque confection.

The chocolate hazelnut dip was quite tasty, which is good because there was a lot of it. I don’t know if there’s always that much or if the woman behind the counter was just feeling generous, but the sauce layer was about a centimetre thick.

It basically tasted like a slightly sweeter, less hazelnutty version of Nutella. The texture was interesting; it didn’t get quite as crackily as your typical chocolate dip (it might have been laid on too thick to properly harden). It was fudgy and chewy, which actually worked quite well. It’s basically vanilla ice cream with a bunch of Nutella mounded on top. It’s hard to go wrong there.

As for the ice cream itself, it was fine. It was about on par with what they’re serving at Sweet Jesus, which is to say that it was tasty, but nothing special.

A Pleasant Surprise at Sweet Jesus

Published on July 31, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 25 The West Mall, Etobicoke (inside Sherway Gardens)
Website: http://www.sweetjesus4life.com/

I mentioned recently that I like Sweet Jesus, but that it looks better than it tastes. Well, I think that the abysmal soft serve at Kiss the Tiramisu and Loukomania Cafe have completely readjusted the way that I evaluate soft serve. They were a very visceral reminder that bad soft serve can be really bad.

Suddenly, Sweet Jesus is looking pretty good. Because I just went to their location in Sherway Gardens, and I quite enjoyed it.

I got the Oh Hungry, which is similar to the flavour I got last time — vanilla ice cream, caramel and peanut butter sauces, peanuts, chocolate chips, and a chocolate drizzle.

It was shockingly delicious. All of the sauces, nuts, and chocolate went really well together (true to its name, it tasted similar to an Oh Henry bar), and there seemed to be a better ratio of toppings to ice cream. Plus, the vanilla ice cream was rich and creamy. It still didn’t have much of a flavour beyond a general sweetness, but it wasn’t overly cloying and the texture was on point.

I don’t know if the quality has gone up or if my expectations have gone down, but either way, it was good stuff.

Tasty Greek Doughnuts at Loukoumania Cafe

Published on July 24, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3120 Rutherford Road, Vaughan
Website: http://www.loukoumania.ca/

You can’t go wrong with doughnuts. Let’s face it: pretty much any time you fry dough and then add sugar to it, it’s going to be good.

So of course, most countries have their own take on the doughnut, because again: you cannot go wrong. Literally cannot.

Greece’s version is called loukoumades, which is essentially a doughnut hole that’s been tossed in honey and seasoned with cinnamon. It’s great (at least if the version they serve at Loukoumania Cafe is anything to go by).

I actually liked it a lot more than I was expecting to (and I was expecting to like it). The loukoumades were hot and fresh, with a pronounced outer layer of crispiness. The contrast between the crispy exterior and the fluffy, chewy interior was extremely satisfying.

The flavour was great too, with the perfect amount of honey; it’s nice and sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. And the cinnamon takes it over the top. It’s fantastic.

They have various sauces and toppings you can add to your loukoumades, but since they’re so great on their own, this seems superfluous. You also have the option to get them on top of ice cream. I did this (because I can’t say no to ice cream); it was a huge mistake.

I won’t even mince words: the ice cream was flat-out horrible. It was cloyingly sweet and thin, with almost zero creaminess. It was almost as bad as what I recently had at Kiss the Tiramisu, which is saying a lot.

The doughnuts are so good, though. Just skip the ice cream and get more of them.

Roasted Pineapple Ice Cream at Bang Bang

Published on July 21, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 93a Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://bangbangicecream.com/

I’ve already written about Bang Bang a couple of times on this blog, so I sort of figured I wouldn’t be writing about it again. I mean, I could happily make this blog all Bang Bang all the time — it’s the greatest, and anyone who says otherwise is dead to me — but that might get a bit monotonous.

No one needs a few dozen posts that all amount to “hey, this new flavour at Bang Bang, it’s also delicious!”

But… hey, this new flavour at Bang Bang, it’s also delicious!

The roasted pineapple flavour at Bang Bang is so good that I have to post about it. I must. It’s too good.

It’s got the usual creamy, rich amazingness that you expect from Bang Bang’s ice cream, but it’s the flavour that really puts it over the top into crazy good territory.

I normally don’t even like fruity ice cream all that much, but this one is something special. It has such an amazing roasty pineapple flavour; it’s obvious that the fruit has been intensely caramelized. If you’re looking for something light and tart and refreshing, look elsewhere. This has a really deep, rich flavour that’s perfectly balanced by the creamy ice cream. It’s perfect. It’s honestly one of the best scoops I’ve ever had.

Good Quality Ice Cream at Chocolateria

Published on July 18, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 361 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://www.thechocolateria.ca/

Apparently chocolate shops are pretty great at making ice cream, because Soma has some of the best gelato in the city, and Chocolateria on Roncey serves some top-shelf stuff. It’s not “best in the city” good, but it’s a respectable scoop of ouce cream.

They have a handful of interesting flavours; I went with the burnt toffee chocolate, which features a tasty mix of chocolate and burnt toffee ice cream.

It’s high-quality ice cream. The chocolate is satisfyingly rich, and while the burnt toffee could have had a deeper flavour (it basically just tastes like regular caramel), it worked very well with the chocolate.

My only real issue was that the texture was a bit gummier than I’d like, but aside from that it was quite enjoyable.