dessert – Michael Eats

Quick Bites: Emmer, Dear Grain, Craque de Creme

Published on May 13, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Peanut Butter Miso Cookie from Emmer

Toronto Life recently called the peanut butter miso cookie from Emmer one of the best new cookies in the city, so obviously I needed to try it. And yeah, it’s fantastic, with a really addictive crispy/chewy contrast and a deep savouriness from the miso and the generous amount of salt on top. The level of sweetness here is very, very restrained, which seems like it maybe shouldn’t work, but it absolutely does.

Blueberry Scone from Dear Grain

I feel like I can’t bring up Dear Grain without grumbling about their refusal to slice most of their (very delicious!) bread (unless you buy it frozen), so: what’s the deal with that?? With that out of the way, I’ll say that their blueberry scone is absolutely fantastic. Seriously, seriously good. The exterior is nice and crispy, it’s sweet without being too sweet, it’s got a nice blueberry punch, and the texture of the scone itself is perfect. It also comes with a little cup of tasty lemon curd, and its pleasant tartness really takes things over the top. It’s so good.

Canele from Craque de Creme

Speaking of tasty pastries, the canele from Craque de Creme is thoroughly tasty, with a rich custardy flavour and a restrained sweetness that I found to be quite delightful. The overly crunchy exterior does hold it back from canele perfection, however. I love a nice crisp, caramelized exterior on a canele, but this one takes a step or two (or three, or four) too far. The rock hard exterior here kinda shredded the inside of my mouth.

Delicious Wheel Cakes at Mister Wheel

Published on May 10, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5317 Yonge Street, North York
Website: https://www.instagram.com/misterwheel_toronto/

Mister Wheel is a Taiwanese wheel cake chain that recently opened in Toronto to a decent amount of hype, and having just tried it: yeah, I get it. They serve some top-notch wheel cakes.

The nice thing about this place is that all the cakes are made to order — there’s a note on the counter saying that all cakes are a 15 minute wait — so you know they’re going to be fresh.

I tried two of the classics, red bean and custard, and both were absolutely stellar, with a lightly crispy exterior, and perfectly cooked pancakey pastry within.

As for the fillings, both were above average. The red bean had a pleasantly chunky texture and a restrained level of sweetness that I really enjoyed. And the custard might have been even better — I normally prefer red bean, but the custard here was just so good, with a rich, creamy texture and a thoroughly satisfying flavour.

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.

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.

Delicious Cream Puffs at Ian Cakery

Published on April 26, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1100 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: https://www.iancakery.ca/

I’ve mentioned before that, even now — years after they closed their only location in the city — I still regularly think about Beard Papa and their delicious Japanese cream puffs. Tragically, they used to at least have locations in Vancouver, but they’ve now apparently vacated Canada altogether.

(They are, however, still alive and well in Japan and elsewhere in the world — just not here, for some reason?? Come on, man.)

There are a few places serving a similar style of cream puff in the GTA, but I think the one at Ian Cakery might actually be the closest to what Beard Papa serves.

They have a few different flavours — I went with the classic vanilla, and man, it was good. The choux pastry has a nice crispy exterior, and the very generous amount of custardy cream within is seriously delicious.

I’m still longing for the day Beard Papa makes its triumphant return to the GTA (it’s gotta happen eventually, right???), but until then, I’m glad that Ian Cakery exists.