Dubai chocolate – Michael Eats

Quality Eclairs at The Happy Chocco

Published on October 23, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive (inside The Food District at Square One)
Website: https://www.thehappychocco.ca/

I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical of The Happy Chocco. They always have a million eclairs on offer, and they never seem to be particularly busy. And I’m like, are these all fresh? Because it seems like they won’t all be fresh. There’s nothing sadder than a stale eclair with soggy pastry.

Well, I just went with two other people, and we all tried different eclairs and found them to be quite fresh (and quite delicious!) so I’m happy to say that I was wrong.

I went with the Dubai chocolate eclair: “classic eclair filled with pistachio pastry cream and Belgian milk chocolate dip with roasted kataifi.”

I really enjoyed this. The choux pastry had a great texture and was clearly not stale at all, the pistachio pastry cream was creamy and delicious (if a bit light on the nutty flavour), there was a decent layer of good-quality chocolate on top, and the roasted kataifi added a nice crispy texture. It’s a quality eclair.

A Delicious Dubai Chocolate Cookie at Andrea’s Cookies

Published on June 1, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 166 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://andreascookies.com/

The last time I tried a cookie from Andrea’s, I’ll admit that I liked it but didn’t love it. I’m just not generally a fan of the type of underbaked-on-purpose cookies that they serve here.

The cookie I just had, however? Phenomenal. Seriously, seriously good.

I got the knafeh, which is basically their take on the Dubai chocolate craze that’s slowly taking over the world (“milk & dark chocolate, phyllo, pistachio cream, pistachios”).

Oof, it’s good. With a chocolatey cookie like this (particularly with all the stuff they’ve crammed into it and onto it), my issues with an underbaked cookie completely disappear. This cookie was pleasantly soft, but had none of the raw flour flavour or gumminess that can plague these types of cookies.

That’s not to mention the the crispy bits of kadayif, which do a great job of bringing the soft cookie some texture.

And of course, the combo between the very chocolatey cookie and the rich pistachio cream is a big winner. It helps that they’re clearly using good quality chocolate, but it’s easily one of the better cookies I’ve had in a while.

Delicious Doughnuts at Fab’s Donuts

Published on April 19, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1618 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fabsdonuts/

Fab’s is in the same spot where Maverick’s Donut Company used to be, which I liked a whole lot. Apparently it’s from the same owners, who decided to strike out on their own. Clearly, they know what they’re doing, because the doughnuts here are very, very good.

They are quite different, however — notably, Maverick’s specialized mostly in cake doughnuts, and as far as I can tell, this is a cake-free zone. All the doughnuts that I tried were classic raised doughnuts.

I tried four: creme brulee, pistachio heaven, Biscoff, and chocolate kunafa.

All were generously filled, and all were thoroughly delicious, though the creme brulee — with its crackly top and tasty custard filling — was probably my favourite.

But then everything was thoroughly tasty, with the doughnuts themselves having a nice chewy texture, and with the flavours being right where they should be. It’s all quite sweet, but not a sugar-bomb. They’re great doughnuts.