pastry – Michael Eats

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.

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: The Pie Hut, Mr. Yummy, Falafel World

Published on March 14, 2026March 14, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Pork, Apple & Fennel pie The Pie Hut (inside Good Behaviour)

It’s hard to find all that much information on it online, but the Queen Street location of Good Behaviour serves up a variety of tasty pot pies (along with the usual sandwiches and ice cream). I went with the pork, apple & fennel, and enjoyed it quite a lot. The crust is flaky and satisfying, it’s filled with a generous amount of tender pork, and the addition of apple adds a little bit of sweetness that helps to round things out. Bonus: it’s somewhat more svelte than the gut-busters they serve at a place like The Pie Commission, so if you’re looking for a pot pie where you don’t have to take a nap after, this is your spot.

Stir-fried vegetables and steamed rice with tofu at Mr. Yummy

I checked this dish out after Karon Liu wrote about it in an article about tasty eats for under $10, and indeed: it is tasty, and it is a steal at under ten bucks. Should you go out of your way for it? No, there’s nothing particularly exciting about it. But it’s got a decent kick, a nice contrast between the fresh crispiness of the veggies and the soft tofu, and again: it’s under ten bucks. If I lived near this place, I’d be a regular for sure.

Falafel plate from Falafel World

I don’t know if anyone else does this, but sometimes I’ll click on random restaurants on Google Maps to see if I can find anything interesting and/or well-regarded. That’s how I found Falafel World, a great little place on Bloor near Jane station. I got the falafel plate (I mean, what else are you going to order at a place called Falafel World?) and everything on the plate — hummus, salad, tabule, and three pieces of falafel, with pita bread on the side — was very tasty. The falafel was maybe a bit dense, but was otherwise fresh, herby, and tasty, with a nice crispy exterior.

Quick Bites: Brodflour, Corleone’s, Villa Madina

Published on January 28, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Pain Suisse from Brodflour

I’ll admit I hadn’t even heard of pain Suisse (which is similar to a chocolate croissant, but with pastry cream and chocolate chips) before seeing it at Brodflour, so I was excited to try it. And yeah, it’s good. I mean, look at it. Of course it’s good. The combo of the gooey chocolate chips and the slightly sweet pastry cream is a clear winner, and the croissant itself — as you’d expect from Brodflour — is stellar.

Veal sandwich from Corleone’s

Corleone’s sells a variety of Italian sandwiches like veal, meatball, and eggplant. I tried the veal, and it was totally fine. Nothing about it particularly jumped out at me (and the bun was a bit gummy) but it’s a solid sandwich. There are a couple of things that stand out about this place, however. One is that they offer a “junior” version of their sandwiches; most places like this sell massive gut-busters that pretty much demand that you take a nap afterwards, so I appreciated that the smaller sandwich here is satisfying without being comically oversized. The other thing I appreciated is that the spiciest version of the sandwich is legitimately fiery, with a generous amount of a legitimately hot pepper paste spread on top.

Chicken shawarma wrap from Villa Madina

Is the shawarma from Villa Madina the best you’ll ever eat? No, absolutely not. But it’s actually pretty decent, and for a eatery from a mall food court, that’s enough. The shawarma has a decent amount of crispy bits and is relatively juicy, and the wrap itself is saucy and tasty. It’s very middle-of-the-road, but it gets the job done.

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.