Ice Cream Review – Page 3

Quick Bites: Crumbl, Tom’s Dairy Freeze, Lola’s

Published on November 10, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Chocolate chip cookie from Crumbl

Crumbl is an American cookie chain that opened in Mississauga earlier last year with a ton of hype. I actually tried to go around when they opened, and the line was so intense that I wound up skipping it altogether. Things have calmed down quite a bit (the place was empty on my recent visit), so I was finally able to try the chocolate chip cookie (they have a rotating menu of six cookies, but the chocolate chip is what made them famous). The cookie seemed like it should have been pretty decent; it’s not too sweet, and it’s clearly made with good quality chocolate. But the cookie was way, way underbaked, with a pronounced raw flour flavour and a middle that was more gummy than chewy. I’m assuming this was partially on purpose, to create a softer cookie, but they clearly went a bit too far (it probably doesn’t help that the cookie is enormous, which makes it harder to underbake without having a fully raw middle).

I should note that I originally wrote this a few months ago (I have a bit of a backlog). I recently tried Crumbl’s second location in Mississauga, around Dixie and Dundas, hoping that the first cookie was just a mistake — surely it’s not supposed to be that underbaked? I had the exact same experience. I also overheard a family in line raving about how much they love the cookies here, so clearly this place has its fans. I am not one of them.

Strawberry sundae from Tom’s Dairy Freeze

I just checked — this will be my seventh time featuring Tom’s Dairy Freeze on this blog, and you know what? I regret nothing. The place continues to serve the city’s best soft serve, so why shouldn’t I write about it on a semi-regular basis? It’s my duty. I got the strawberry sundae on this particular visit, and it was, of course, delicious. I find the sauces here tend not to be nearly as good as the ice cream itself, but this one was great — in particular, the huge chunks of strawberry complemented the creamy ice cream perfectly.

Chocolate gelato from Lola’s Gelato

Speaking of amazing ice cream, every time I check out Lola’s, I’m like “is this the best gelato in the city??” Certainly, they’re neck-and-neck with Mizzica (Nani’s used to be a contender, but my last few visits have been surprisingly poor). I got plain old chocolate on this particular visit, and while it was maybe a touch too sweet, it had a great chocolate flavour and the texture was perfect: super rich and creamy, and served at the right temperature (e.g. not as hard as a brick).

Delicious Soft Serve at Butter Baker

Published on October 16, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 140 Amber Street, Markham
Website: https://butter-baker.com/

The last time I tried Butter Baker, I had a croissant that I wasn’t particularly crazy about. I figured I’d try the soft serve this time, and it was thoroughly delicious. So clearly, that’s the thing to order.

I think the flavours rotate, but when I visited, they were serving a swirl consisting of plain frozen yogurt and a sorbet with passionfruit and… some other stuff. The guy described the flavour to me, and I immediately forgot. I know, I know — great blogging, very helpful. You’re welcome.

Whatever it is, it’s quite good, with the slightly tart sorbet balancing quite nicely with the sweet yogurt. That sweetness is maybe a bit too amped up, but that’s a minor complaint.

Quick Bites: Barbershop Patisserie, Bloom Cafe, Bang Bang

Published on December 9, 2023October 17, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Raspberry almond bread budding from Barbershop Patisserie

I’m a big fan of Barbershop Patisserie; I’m also a big fan of bread pudding, but alas, the bread pudding at Barbershop isn’t quite as amazing as you’d hope. It’s perfectly tasty (I don’t think Barbershop is capable of making something that’s outright bad), but it has basically no custard flavour, and the level of sweetness is so restrained that it borders on bland. Still, the combo of the almonds and the tart raspberry is a big winner, and it certainly wasn’t unpleasant to eat.

Vanilla Cream Puff from Bloom Cafe

I recently mentioned that the delightful Choux Lab actually reminded me quite a bit of Beard Papa, a Japanese cream puff chain that left the GTA a few years ago, taking a little piece of my heart with it. Well Bloom Cafe is even more Beard Papa-esque; they specialize in the exact type of Japanese cream puffs they used to sell at Beard Papa. Alas, I’ll have to stick with Choux Lab to fill the Beard-Papa-sized hole in my heart (and stomach) — the cream puff here could have been tasty, but it was obviously filled way too far in advance, and was pretty soggy. It didn’t help that it was filled with what tasted like plain sweetened whipped cream instead of delicious custardy cream like BP.

Pumpkin / Cookie Butter from Bang Bang

Let’s end things on a more positive note. I’ve written about Bang Bang many, many times on this blog, so I’ll keep this brief. Bang Bang: still great! The flavour I recently had, which combines pumpkin and Biscoff cookie butter, is legitimately among the best scoops of ice cream that I’ve ever had. The two flavours work so well together, and the ice cream itself is amazingly rich and creamy.

Pizza and Gelato at Eataly in Sherway Gardens

Published on November 3, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 25 The West Mall, Etobicoke (inside Sherway Gardens)
Website: https://www.eataly.ca/stores/eataly-sherway-gardens/

The Eataly in Sherway Gardens has just opened, and while it isn’t quite as impressive as the downtown location (it’s roughly half the size at 25,000 feet, as per Toronto Life), it’s still an absolute must-visit for anyone who’s even vaguely into Italian food.

The selection there is absolutely massive, with all kinds of pantry items, fresh pasta, cheese, meat, and prepared foods. The prices, however, are serious business — looking at the price tags on the prepared foods, in particular, is not for the faint of heart. It’s all a bit below restaurant pricing for stuff you have to bring home and heat up yourself, so I guess it’s not too crazy if the food is really good. But I will admit that paying 16 bucks for one small serving of cold lasagna just feels wrong on a very fundamental level, even if it’s delicious.

(Or maybe I’m just a cheapskate.)

I tried a couple of things. They have a decent selection of pizza slices that you can either eat in the restaurant (though there are only a handful of tables at the moment) or take out. It’s a thick crust, Roman-style pizza, which is ideal in a grab-and-go setting since it reheats quite well. I got the margherita, and while nothing about it particularly stood out (the crust, in particular, is pretty bland), it’s a solid slice of pizza.

They had eleven flavours of gelato on offer; I went with the old standby, pistachio, and it was fine. This is a thoroughly insufferable complaint, but I was recently in Italy and was eating gelato on a daily basis, and what they’re serving here is basically trash compared to that.

That’s not fair, of course, but even compared to what’s available in Toronto, the gelato here is good, but not great. The pistachio flavour was a bit off (it definitely tastes like they’re using real pistachios, but I think they might be using flavouring as well), and the texture wasn’t quite as creamy as it should be.

Decent Ice Cream Sandwiches at Ernie’s Icebox

Published on October 27, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 403 Jane Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.erniesicebox.com/

Fact: there is no such thing as a bad ice cream sandwich. Cookies + ice cream = delicious. That’s just science.

Which is to say that Ernie’s Icebox specializes in ice cream sandwiches, and they are, of course, good.

Unlike a place like Bang Bang that makes everything to order, the sandwiches are pre-made and kept frozen. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but holy moly do they ever freeze the hell out of these things. When they serve it to you, it’s the most frozen thing you’ve ever seen. It’s an impenetrable brick; basically impossible to eat.

I let it stand for about 15 minutes, and it was still rock hard. So I waited yet another 15 minutes, which was probably five to ten minutes too long; it was a bit drippy.

I ordered the peanut butter and jam, which features raspberry (I think?) jam-infused ice cream with chewy peanut butter cookies.

And again, it was good — scientifically, it was an inevitability — but I can’t say anything about it jumped out at me. The ice cream was a bit thin, and nothing about the PB and J combo particularly popped. It was tasty, but both the peanut butter and jam flavours were a bit too muted.