bakery – Page 2 – Michael Eats

Quick Bites: Jaffna Street Food, The Keg, Sheliss Bakeshop Cafe

Published on May 2, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Chicken Kothu Roti from Jaffna Street Food

I’ll say this about the chicken kothu roti at Jaffna Street Food: it’s a great deal. If you come on a Friday, you can get that dish for a cool ten bucks, and considering the hefty portion, you can’t go wrong there. Was it the best kothu roti I’ve ever had? No, it was pretty dry and nothing about the flavour really popped. But it was perfectly okay. For the price, I absolutely can’t complain.

Steak at The Keg

Generally speaking, the quality of the food at Canadian casual chain restaurants ranges from “passable, I guess?” to “are you sure this is food?” But whenever The Keg comes up in discussions online, people tend to be pretty complimentary about it. I just checked the place out for the first time in like twenty years, and yeah, I get it. I tried the escargots, a steak, and a slice of the famous Billy Miner pie, and they were all solid. Nothing here blew my mind, but everything was well-executed and tasty. I can definitely see why people are fans of this place (especially given the competition).

Cheese tart from Sheliss Bakeshop Cafe

It’s rare that I get to try a pastry that I’ve never even heard of, but it recently happened at Sheliss Bakeshop, a delightful Mexican-influenced bakery on St. Clair. The pastry in question: the cubilete de queso, or cheese tart, which they describe as “creamy cheese filling in a buttery pastry shell.” It’s great. What I really liked about this is how restrained the level of sweetness is, with the dense but creamy filling tasting kinda like a cross between a custard and a cheesecake. And the shortbread-esque complements it well. It’s a tasty dessert.

Chocolatey Amazingness at Blackbird Baking Co.

Published on April 12, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 172 Baldwin Street, Toronto
Website: https://blackbirdbakingco.com/

I’ve written about Blackbird several times (tl;dr — it’s great and you should go there), so my inclination is to just write a Quick Bite review about this. But the chocolate cork at Blackbird? It needs its own post. It’s too good to share space with anything else

It’s phenomenal. Legitimately one of the best pastries I’ve ever had. It’s kinda like a really great cakey brownie, but also stuffed with delicious chocolate mousse.

The chocolate flavour here is intense. If you like chocolate (or things that are delicious) then you owe it to yourself to try this.

I don’t have a whole lot more to say about this. But I feel very strongly that everyone needs to know how great it is.

Quick Bites: Slow Jams, Cotolet, Bakerbots Baking

Published on April 10, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Smoked pork sandwich from Slow Jams

Slow Jams is a Filipino pop-up shop that you can find at various street festivals. I previously tried their fried chicken sandwich, and between that one and the smoked pork sandwich (“tamarind & sweet soy sauce, spicy pickled cabbage”), they clearly need to get their own location ASAP. The sandwich features a very generous amount of pork that’s meaty, tender, and satisfyingly smoky. The slightly sweet, squishy bun suits it perfectly. Between the strong vinegary punch of the sauce and the cabbage, it’s kinda acid overload, but the pork is tasty enough that this is only a minor complaint.

Pork loin katsu with brown demi-glace sauce from Cotolet

You can’t go wrong with a good pork katsu. I mean, you can’t go wrong with basically anything that’s breaded and fried, but there’s something about katsu that’s particularly magical. And the version at Cotolet? Quite good! The pork was maybe a bit on the dry side, but the panko-breaded exterior was perfectly crispy, and the brown demi-glace sauce (“made with various fruits and vegetables”) has a very nicely balanced fruity sweetness that’s a bit different from any katsu sauce I’ve had before.

Pecan sticky bun from Bakerbots Baking

Yep, Bakerbots is still chugging along, serving some of the tastiest baked goods in the city. I’ve written about them a few times before, so I don’t need to dwell here, but I do feel like it’s my duty to tell you that their sticky bun is very good. Sweet but not too sweet, nice texture on the bun itself, gooey but not complete mush like certain national chains that sell sickly sweet cinnamon buns… it’s very tasty. But then I’ve never had anything that was less than delicious here, so I guess that goes without saying.

Tasty Sandwiches at Dear Grain

Published on March 20, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

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.

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

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.

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.

Amazing Cookies at Bakery Pompette

Published on February 22, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 655 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.pompette.ca/bakery

I’ll admit that I hadn’t heard of Bakery Pompette prior to Toronto Life ranking them number four on their list of the best new cookies in the city. Which is crazy, because based on how good the cookie is, I feel like everyone should be talking about this place. You’ve all failed me.

The pecan caramel cookie (“pecan chocolate chip cookies topped with coffee caramel and pecan praline”) is pure magic. It’s basically a chocolate chip cookie, but greatly enhanced with the addition of pecans and the two sauces on top.

It’s cookie perfection, with a great crispy/chewy texture, a generous amount of good-quality chocolate chips, and a nice nuttiness from the pecans.

You’d think the caramel sauce on top would be overkill, but the pleasantly mild bitterness from the coffee does an amazing job of cutting through the cookie’s sweetness.

Every element here just works. It’s a seriously, seriously good cookie.