Tasty Gelato at Kati Thai Gelato

Kati Thai Gelato
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.

Kati Thai Gelato

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.

Kati Thai Gelato

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.

Tasty Slices at Revolver Pizza

Revolver Pizza
Location
: 388 Royal York Road, Etobicoke
Websitehttps://revolverpizza.com/

Revolver Pizza is clearly doing quite well.  They now have four locations, and when I visited on a weekday afternoon, the place was packed.

Revolver Pizza

And yeah, I get it.  I got the margherita (“sauce, fresh mozzarella, fior di latte, and basil”), and it was a solid slice of pizza.

I wish the slice had been a bit crispier on the bottom (or crispy at all — it had a softer texture, closer to Neapolitan than New York style), but otherwise, I quite enjoyed this.

Revolver Pizza

I think the prodigious amount of cheese might have something to do with the crust’s lack of texture — I’m certainly not going to say no to a lot of cheese on a pizza, but there probably could have been a bit less here.

Revolver Pizza

Still, the overall quality is pretty high, including a good amount of flavour and a nice chewiness on the crust.  I don’t know if it’s up there with the best in the city, but it’s a top-shelf slice of pizza, that’s for sure (bonus: it costs about five bucks for a pretty sizable slice).

Amazing Cookies at Bakery Pompette

Bakery Pompette
Location
: 655 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.pompette.ca/bakery

I’ll admit that I hadn’t heard of Bakery Pompette prior to Toronto Life ranking them number four on their list of the best new cookies in the city.  Which is crazy, because based on how good the cookie is, I feel like everyone should be talking about this place.  You’ve all failed me.

Bakery Pompette

The pecan caramel cookie (“pecan chocolate chip cookies topped with coffee caramel and pecan praline”) is pure magic.  It’s basically a chocolate chip cookie, but greatly enhanced with the addition of pecans and the two sauces on top.

Bakery Pompette

It’s cookie perfection, with a great crispy/chewy texture, a generous amount of good-quality chocolate chips, and a nice nuttiness from the pecans.

Bakery Pompette

You’d think the caramel sauce on top would be overkill, but the pleasantly mild bitterness from the coffee does an amazing job of cutting through the cookie’s sweetness.

Every element here just works.  It’s a seriously, seriously good cookie.

A Gigantic (and Delicious) Shawarma Wrap at Flaming Stove

Flaming Stove
Location
: 21 Davisville Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://flamingstove.com/

Flaming Stove is one of those places that seems to perennially come up in conversations about the best shawarma in Toronto, and having just tried it, yeah.  Yeah, that’s accurate.

Flaming Stove

I got the chicken shawarma wrap, and basically everything about it was spot-on.  The house-made saj bread they wrap it in is nice and fresh, with just the right amount of substance and  chewiness to hold up to the very generously-stuffed wrap.  And it’s nicely toasted on its exterior — a must.

Flaming Stove

The wrap features a healthy amount of meat that’s well-balanced by the various  pickles/veggies; I know it looks overstuffed, but the chicken remains the star.

My only real complaint is that the meat has been shaved in advance and is slightly dryer than it should be, and has lost the delightful crispiness that makes top-tier shawarma so great.  But everything else here is so good that this never seems like a huge deal.

Flaming Stove

In particular, they add several sauces to the wrap — tahini, garlic, amba, and hot sauce — and it’s an absolute taste explosion.  The combination of those sauces is magic; it’s tangy, garlicky, savoury, and thoroughly delicious.  You could put those sauces on basically anything, and it would be amazing.

Flaming Stove

Also: this might have been the biggest shawarma wrap I’ve ever had?  It comes cut in half, with each half wrapped separately, presumably because it would be too unwieldy if they tried to wrap them together.  Each half is about the size and heft of a large burrito.  It’s insane.

It costs 15 bucks, which seems a bit pricey until you take a look at it and realize that it can (and should!) be shared among two people.

A Tasty Veal Sandwich at Buon Giorno Caffe & Panini

Buon Giorno Cafe
Location
1134 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Websitehttps://www.buongiornocaffe.ca/

The last time I visited Buon Giorno Caffe, I was specifically there to try the veal, but was sidetracked by the cold cut sandwich (which was thoroughly delicious — I regret nothing).  I finally came back to try the veal sandwich, and yeah, it was worth the wait.

You can have the sandwich topped with mushrooms, onions, hot peppers, or sweet peppers (cheese is also available for a bit extra).  To me, all a good veal sandwich needs is some spice, so I went with the hot peppers and left it at that.

Buon Giorno Cafe

I used to have a pretty hardline opinion that the veal in this type of sandwich needs to be freshly fried and sauced on the spot so that it stays at least a little bit crispy.  But I’ve come around to the pleasures of the hot table version of this sandwich, which they serve here, where the sauce has had time to really soak into the nooks and crannies of the veal.

It gives you a soft, silky texture that you couldn’t get from a freshly-fried version.  It’s different, but if done right, still very tasty.

Buon Giorno Cafe

Spoiler alert: they did it right here, with a generous amount of tasty veal, a whole bunch of rich and flavourful sauce that really sings, and a nice kick from the hot peppers.

The texture of the veal was great; it wasn’t so tender that it was just mush — it still had some bite to it — but wasn’t tough at all.  And the hearty bread is the perfect match for the saucy sandwich, retaining its texture and chew even under the deluge of sauce.