French – 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.

An Amazing Croissant at La La Bakeshop

Published on August 6, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3272 Midland Avenue, Scarborough
Website: https://www.lalabakeshop.ca/

La La Bakeshop is a thoroughly delightful bakery that melds French and Vietnamese flavours, mostly through its assortment of Asian-inspired croissants (though they do have several other cakes and desserts, and everything looked great).

I went with the condensed milk croissant, which certainly isn’t a taste combo that I would have thought of. But oh man. It was insanely delicious.

Mostly, it’s the croissant. There are roughly a billion bakeries in the GTA where you can find a croissant, but most of them aren’t much better than okay. Frequently, the texture isn’t quite right, or they’re not buttery enough, or they’re not fresh enough, or they’re just… not good.

The croissant here was remarkable. Perfect texture — it’s super flaky and crispy, with just the right level of tenderness and heft on its interior. Great buttery flavour. Legitimately one of the best croissants I’ve had in the GTA.

It’s filled with a pretty generous amount of gooey, oozy condensed milk, and you’d think it would be too sweet, but somehow, it isn’t. The croissant and the condensed milk work so well together that I’m shocked I’ve never seen this combination before. It would be a tasty combo with even a lesser croissant, but with a croissant of this quality? It’s a contender for the best pastry in the GTA.

Satisfying French Tacos at Brick ‘N’ Cheese

Published on June 9, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 678 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://brickncheese.com/

Brick ‘N’ Cheese specializes in French tacos, which is basically a French burrito that’s crammed with meat and pressed flat in a panini press.

There used to be a great restaurant in the city called Mister Frenchy that served these things; alas, that place shut down. So if you’re looking for a French taco in the GTA, I think Brick ‘N’ Cheese might be the only game in town.

The menu at Brick ‘N’ Cheese is pretty customizable; you can either make your own creation by picking from an assortment of meats and sauces, or you get get one of six of what they call “premade bricks.” I went with the original premade brick: “extra lean ground beef & chicken, ketchup, cheddar, and pickles” (the menu doesn’t mention it, but there are fries in there as well).

Nothing about it particularly blew my mind, but it’s a satisfying wrap. It’s meaty, cheesy, and rich. I couldn’t help but compare it to the French taco I had at Mister Frenchy, which was greatly enhanced by a delicious, zippy sauce that helped to cut through the richness of the wrap. I wish they had something like that here (and the fries tasted like stale fries that had been dunked in oil prior to assembling the wrap, which meant that they were roughly a trillion times hotter than the other fillings), but this was otherwise a solid wrap.

Quick Bites: Churnt Up, Nord Lyon, Canada’s Wonderland

Published on July 27, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Cinnamon Toast Crunch ice cream at Churnt Up

I decided recently that if I eat something I don’t particularly enjoy, I’m not going to write all that much about it — I think there’s enough negativity in the world, and I’d rather spend my energy focusing on stuff I like rather than stuff I don’t. That being said, I’ll say that Cinnamon Toast Crunch is a great flavour for ice cream, and I’ll leave it at that.

Strawberry croissant at Nord Lyon

The strawberry croissant at Nord Lyon is named after the bakery; it’s always a safe bet to order a restaurant’s namesake dish, and in this case, the croissant has a nice buttery flavour and a healthy amount of sweet strawberry jam. It was pretty stale when I tried it, but maybe you’ll have better luck?

Funnel cake at Canada’s Wonderland

It turns out that Canada’s Wonderland is actually pretty boring for food — at least half of the eateries are locations of Pizza Pizza or Subway, and the rest all serve stuff like burgers and chicken strips, with almost none of the over-the-top carnival-style fun you might expect. But! They still serve funnel cakes — topped with soft serve and a chunky strawberry sauce — and they’re just as good as you remember. No… better. If there’s a better combo than fresh fried dough, creamy ice cream, and sweet strawberry sauce, I’d like to hear about it.

Top-Notch Pastries at Bomou Artisanal Bakery

Published on July 6, 2022July 6, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1636 Bayview Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.bomou.ca/

Though I’m not entirely sure that this stretch of Bayview particularly needed another fancy French bakery (Patisserie la Cigogne is just a few stores down, and Rahier Patisserie is, according to Google, a one minute walk away), but sure, why not? If the area can sustain multiple French patisseries, then go for it, particularly if the pastries are as tasty as they seem to be here.

I tried a couple of things. The first was a ham and cheese quiche in a croissant-like crust. I don’t think anyone is going to lose their mind over this one, but aside from the pastry being a bit soggy, it’s rich and creamy, and it has a good amount of ham and cheese.

I also tried the pistachio croissant, which was a clear winner — the croissant was buttery, flaky, and delicious, and the generous pistachio filling was sweet without being overwhelming.

My only complaint is that it didn’t have a particularly strong pistachio flavour (I’m guessing there’s a mix of almonds and pistachios), but the combo of the top-notch croissant and nutty filling was so tasty that it doesn’t particularly matter.