dessert – Page 4 – 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.

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.

Delicious Gelato at Moss Park Espresso

Published on April 16, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 185 Queen Street East, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/mossparkespresso/

A random coffee shop in a vaguely sketchy part of town seems like an odd place to find some of the better gelato in the city, but that’s exactly what you’ll find at Moss Park Espresso.

They only had a handful of flavours on offer when I visited; mostly standard-issue stuff. I went with the pistachio — always a good test of a gelato joint’s quality.

And this place? They passed that test with flying colours. It’s great quality gelato — it’s super creamy, with a really nice flavour that’s clearly from actual pistachios, not pistachio extract. And I appreciate that they serve it at the perfect temperature, which highlights the great flavour and creaminess.

It also comes in a glass bowl with silverware — I noted this in my On Third Thought review, but there’s something about eating ice cream out of a real bowl (rather than the standard paper cup) that’s surprisingly delightful.

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.