chocolate – Michael Eats

Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone at Dairy Queen

Published on May 2, 2026May 17, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5369 Dundas Street West, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.dairyqueen.com/en-ca/

Dairy Queen recently came out with a “Breakfast Collection,” which includes a Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard, a Fruity Pebbles Shake, and a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone.

Is a doughnut breakfast? I mean, I guess anything can be breakfast if want it to be, but if you’re regularly waking up and housing a doughnut or two, I’m not sure how many more years of eating breakfast (or just existing) you’ve got left.

But sure, for the sake of this exercise, let’s say a doughnut is breakfast, because that’s the one I tried. The Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard, as per Dairy Queen’s website: “Chocolate frosted donut pieces and DQ Signature Sprinkles are blended with our world-famous soft serve to Blizzard perfection.”

I actually liked this way more than I thought I would. I’m not sure if putting chopped up doughnuts into ice cream would even work (I feel like they’d get too hard and/or their flavour would be lost), but that’s not quite what they do here — instead, there are chewy, cookie-dough-like pieces that actually do a pretty great job of tasting doughnut-like enough that you know exactly what you’re eating.

The sprinkles don’t add much, but there are enough of those tasty doughnut bits to make this a thoroughly enjoyable Blizzard.

UPDATE: I went back and tried the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone (“First, we take our world-famous vanilla soft serve and dip it into a warm, rich cinnamon cereal-flavoured cone coating with crunchy cereal bits. To top it off, we add a generous dusting of sweet Cinnadust”). As usual with a dipped cone, the first bite was the best, but I enjoyed this. It has a pronounced cinnamon/sugar flavour, and does a respectable job of replicating the flavour of the classic cereal.

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: Susie’s Rise & Dine, Dear Grain, The Saj Wraps

Published on March 24, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Mapo Frito Pie from Susie’s Rise & Dine at the Taste of Little Italy

The food at last year’s Taste of Little Italy was a bit of a disappointment — it was mostly an assortment of generic street festival stuff, without a whole lot of local flavour. There were a few gems, however. Most notably: the Mapo Frito Pie from Susie’s Rise & Dine, which consists of a bag of Fritos topped with a seriously tasty chili (that, as the name implies, is infused with mapo tofu flavour). They serve this at the restaurant, and clearly I’m going to have to check the place out.

Buckwheat cookie from Dear Grain

I can’t say I’ve ever had a buckwheat cookie before, but if the one from Dear Grain is anything to go by, I need more buckwheat cookies in my life. It’s basically a chocolate chip cookie, but with a nuttiness and earthiness from the buckwheat. It’s also got a nice sprinkling of salt on top to cut through the sweetness. It’s a very good cookie.

Sujuk saj wrap from The Saj Wraps

I feel like, very broadly, there are two types of restaurants: restaurants you’re happy to go out of your way for, and local joints that are solid, but not exciting enough to warrant any kind of trek (well, I guess there’s also a third kind — a bad one — but I make it a point to not discuss anything I outright do not enjoy on this blog). I’d classify The Saj Wraps as more of a local place — the wrap I tried was solid, but nothing about it particularly jumped out at me.

Top-Tier Gelato at Death in Venice

Published on March 21, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1418 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://deathinvenice.ca/

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Death in Venice, which I remembered being very good, but perhaps not up there with the best in the city.

Well, clearly I was extremely wrong about that, because the flavour I just had at Death in Venice? Some of the best gelato I’ve ever had. Crazy good.

The flavour in question: cheeseboard (“made up of all the ingredients of a classic cheeseboard, brie cheese, white wine, pears, jam, honey and berry jam. Perfect balance of sweet and savoury.”)

I’ll admit that I ordered this because it sounded like a fun novelty — the type of flavour that’s more interesting than delicious. I was 100% incorrect. Dangerous levels of deliciousness.

I thought the savoury flavour of the cheese might be overwhelming (I’ve had blue cheese ice cream that went a bit too hard on the blue cheese, making it somewhat unpleasant) but it all goes together so well. There’s a very, very mild savouriness, but it enhances rather than detracts from the sweet gelato.

I wish I had taken a photo of the gelato once I had started eating it — the photo above makes it look a bit plain, but there was actually a pretty generous amount of tasty jam swirled throughout, not to mention walnut chunks that add some nice texture.

There was a lot going on with the flavour here, but it all works so well. And the quality of the gelato itself was perfectly rich and creamy. Seriously: top five gelato of my life.

I should note that I came back a week or two later and tried the bourbon and smoked chocolate gelato (“For real chocolate lovers… We smoke our dark chocolate and cook it with bourbon. Once we add cream and milk this thick and dense gelato becomes the ultimate chocolate treat”). It was just as good, with an intense chocolatiness, and noticeable pops of flavour from the smoke and the bourbon.

You’d think those other flavours might overwhelm the chocolate, but they complement it so well. Clearly, any ranking of the best gelato in the city that doesn’t include this place is flat-out wrong.

Okay, I’m going to update this one more time, then I should really post it. I came back another couple of weeks later and tried the soft serve, which features two rotating flavours. When I went, one of the flavours was chocolate mousse, and holy moly — it was maybe the best soft serve I’ve ever had? It tasted just like a really great chocolate mousse, but in soft serve form. It had a profound chocolately flavour, and was intensely creamy and rich. Ridiculously good.

Tasty Gelato at Kati Thai Gelato

Published on February 25, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 567 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/katitoronto/

Note: This location has closed since I visited, but you can check their Instagram for other locations.

As you’d guess from the name, Kati Thai Gelato serves gelato that’s infused with Thai flavours. As you probably wouldn’t guess from the name, they also serve a variety of savoury Thai snacks like grilled pork skewers and bao buns.

I stuck to the gelato side of things, and had a scoop of the Milo: “A nostalgic childhood favourite, featuring the rich, chocolatey taste of Milo (chocolate malt powder).”

They certainly have more interesting flavours here, but I have a hard time saying no to anything Milo-related. It’s malty, chocolatey, and delicious.

It’s predictably tasty in gelato form. Why wouldn’t it be? The gelato itself is maybe a bit thin, but it’s very smooth with zero iciness, and has a nice hit of Milo flavour.