Tag: Brodflour

Quick Bites: Brodflour, Harry and Heel’s California Donuts, Super Serve

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Steak sandwich from Brodflour
Steak sandwich from Brodflour

Brodflour sells the best sourdough sandwich bread in the city; that’s just a fact (though a lot of bakeries that might have been in contention for this crown take themselves out of the running by refusing to slice their bread, which is just baffling to me).  I was in the bakery to pick up a loaf and saw a pile of steak sandwiches that I couldn’t resist.  I mean, if you can see this display and not immediately demand to eat one of these sandwiches, you and me are very different people:

Steak sandwich from Brodflour

This isn’t on the regular menu, but I wish it was.  It’s a top-notch steak sandwich, crammed with a whole bunch of great-quality beef and a zippy, garlicky sauce that complements it perfectly.  And, of course, the sourdough flatbread that it’s served on is very good.  The steak was slightly tough in spots, but this was otherwise a seriously tasty sandwich.

Sour Cream Glazed from Harry and Heel's California Donuts
Sour Cream Glazed from Harry and Heel’s California Donuts

I love a good sour cream glazed doughnut, and this was a tasty one.  I kinda wish they had an unglazed option (it’s very, very sweet), and I could barely taste the chocolate on top, but the doughnut is crispy, cakey, and delightful.  I quite enjoyed it.  Harry and Heel’s specializes in raised doughnuts rather than cakey ones, so I’m going to have to go back at some point to try one of those.  I should note that if you’re looking for this place, it doesn’t have its own storefront — it’s inside Fourth Man in the Fire, a pizza joint.

Strawberry Sundae from Super Serve
Strawberry Sundae from Super Serve

If you’ve been missing Sweet Jesus, which has lost all but a handful of its locations over the years, you’ll be happy to hear that Super Serve is very, very similar.  They have a few sundaes on the menu, along with the option to customize your own.  I went with “Serve 3,” which is a chocolate/vanilla twist that comes topped with cookie crumbs and strawberry sauce.  It’s tasty enough, though the quality of the soft serve is only about on par with what they have at Dairy Queen or McDonald’s (to go back to the Sweet Jesus comparison, their ice cream is noticeably richer and creamier).

Great Baked Goods at Brodflour

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Great Baked Goods at Brodflour
Location: 8 Pardee Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://brodflour.com/

Brodflour is a delightful little bakery in Liberty Village that sells sandwiches, pastries, and outstanding loaves of sourdough bread.  They might actually sell my favourite loaf of bread in the city — it’s thoroughly delicious, and unlike a lot of other bakeries that sell higher-end sourdough loaves, they actually offer to slice it.

Great Baked Goods at Brodflour

(Yes, surprisingly enough, there are an unnerving number of fancy bakeries in the city that sell $10+ loaves of bread and refuse to slice them for you.)

Great Baked Goods at Brodflour

I tried the smoked salmon sandwich (“Jerusalem bagel, house-made labneh, capers, pickled onions, salt and pepper, tomatoes”), which is tasty.  The bagel is maybe slightly too dense, but they’re clearly using good smoked salmon, and all of the ingredients work really well together (I’m normally not a fan of onion with smoked salmon, but pickling them takes away most of that raw onion harshness).  It’s not a mind-blowing sandwich, but it’s quite good.

Great Baked Goods at BrodflourWhat was mind-blowing was the cardamom knot.   Oh man this thing was tasty.  It’s sweet but not too sweet, the pastry has a really great chewy texture that’s not too dense, and the sugar on the outside gives it a nice texture that contrasts with the chewy interior.  That’s not to mention the cardamom flavour, which is delightfully intense.  It’s a great, great pastry.