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

Chicken Kothu Roti from Jaffna Street Food
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
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
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.

Tasty Cheese Tarts at Pablo

PabloLocation: 1800 Sheppard Avenue East, North York (inside Fairview Mall)
Website: https://pablocanada.com/

It’s hard to go wrong with a Japanese cheese tart.  It’s basically just a little cheesecake, and it’s delicious.  If you’re a cheesecake fan, there’s absolutely no reason cheese tarts shouldn’t be in your life.

Pablo

The version they sell at Pablo might not be the best one I’ve ever had, but it’s pretty darn tasty.

The filling is sweet but not too sweet, with a rich cheesecake flavour.  I wish it had been a bit creamier, but it’s quite good.

Pablo

The crust could have been a bit more crisp, but again, it’s very good: it’s nice and buttery, with an almost shortbread-like flavour.  The crispy crust and the creamy cheesecake is a fairly irresistible combo.