soft serve – Michael Eats

Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard at Dairy Queen

Published on May 2, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5369 Dundas Street West, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.dairyqueen.com/en-ca/

Dairy Queen recently came out with a “Breakfast Collection,” which includes a Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard, a Fruity Pebbles Shake, and a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dipped Cone.

Is a doughnut breakfast? I mean, I guess anything can be breakfast if want it to be, but if you’re regularly waking up and housing a doughnut or two, I’m not sure how many more years of eating breakfast (or just existing) you’ve got left.

But sure, for the sake of this exercise, let’s say a doughnut is breakfast, because that’s the one I tried. The Choco Frosted Donut Blizzard, as per Dairy Queen’s website: “Chocolate frosted donut pieces and DQ Signature Sprinkles are blended with our world-famous soft serve to Blizzard perfection.”

I actually liked this way more than I thought I would. I’m not sure if putting chopped up doughnuts into ice cream would even work (I feel like they’d get too hard and/or their flavour would be lost), but that’s not quite what they do here — instead, there are chewy, cookie-dough-like pieces that actually do a pretty great job of tasting doughnut-like enough that you know exactly what you’re eating.

The sprinkles don’t add much, but there are enough of those tasty doughnut bits to make this a thoroughly enjoyable Blizzard.

Biscoff McFlurry at McDonald’s (The International Menu Heist)

Published on June 29, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Montreal
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The International Menu Heist continues! Seriously: I love this. Can we just make this a permanent thing? One new menu item a month from an international McDonald’s location? Forever? Yeah, let’s go ahead and do that, McDonald’s. Thanks.

I recently tried the McPizza Bites from Italy, which I thought were pretty decent. Up next: the Biscoff McFlurry from Belgium (“Think creamy vanilla soft serve swirled together with Biscoff cookie crumbs. Now you can picture yourself wandering cobbled streets of Bruges while tucking in to this deliciously sweet treat”).

Do I need to describe this? If you’ve had Biscoff cookies and you’ve had vanilla soft serve, then there are no surprises for you here. It’s crushed up Biscoff cookies in soft serve. It tastes exactly what you think that’s going to taste like, which is to say: quite delicious! I’m a big fan of Biscoff’s distinct spiced caramel flavour, so yeah, I enjoyed this.

Also: I had this on a layover in the Montreal airport, and I don’t know if the soft serve at McDonald’s is tastier in Quebec or if it’s just better than I remembered, but it was creamy and satisfying. It was a great McFlurry.

Quick Bites: Brodflour, Harry and Heel’s California Donuts, Super Serve

Published on February 2, 2025February 2, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Steak sandwich from Brodflour

Brodflour sells the best sourdough sandwich bread in the city; that’s just a fact (though a lot of bakeries that might have been in contention for this crown take themselves out of the running by refusing to slice their bread, which is just baffling to me). I was in the bakery to pick up a loaf and saw a pile of steak sandwiches that I couldn’t resist. I mean, if you can see this display and not immediately demand to eat one of these sandwiches, you and me are very different people:

This isn’t on the regular menu, but I wish it was. It’s a top-notch steak sandwich, crammed with a whole bunch of great-quality beef and a zippy, garlicky sauce that complements it perfectly. And, of course, the sourdough flatbread that it’s served on is very good. The steak was slightly tough in spots, but this was otherwise a seriously tasty sandwich.

Sour Cream Glazed from Harry and Heel’s California Donuts

I love a good sour cream glazed doughnut, and this was a tasty one. I kinda wish they had an unglazed option (it’s very, very sweet), and I could barely taste the chocolate on top, but the doughnut is crispy, cakey, and delightful. I quite enjoyed it. Harry and Heel’s specializes in raised doughnuts rather than cakey ones, so I’m going to have to go back at some point to try one of those. I should note that if you’re looking for this place, it doesn’t have its own storefront — it’s inside Fourth Man in the Fire, a pizza joint.

Strawberry Sundae from Super Serve

If you’ve been missing Sweet Jesus, which has lost all but a handful of its locations over the years, you’ll be happy to hear that Super Serve is very, very similar. They have a few sundaes on the menu, along with the option to customize your own. I went with “Serve 3,” which is a chocolate/vanilla twist that comes topped with cookie crumbs and strawberry sauce. It’s tasty enough, though the quality of the soft serve is only about on par with what they have at Dairy Queen or McDonald’s (to go back to the Sweet Jesus comparison, their ice cream is noticeably richer and creamier).

Quick Bites: Crumbl, Tom’s Dairy Freeze, Lola’s

Published on November 10, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Chocolate chip cookie from Crumbl

Crumbl is an American cookie chain that opened in Mississauga earlier last year with a ton of hype. I actually tried to go around when they opened, and the line was so intense that I wound up skipping it altogether. Things have calmed down quite a bit (the place was empty on my recent visit), so I was finally able to try the chocolate chip cookie (they have a rotating menu of six cookies, but the chocolate chip is what made them famous). The cookie seemed like it should have been pretty decent; it’s not too sweet, and it’s clearly made with good quality chocolate. But the cookie was way, way underbaked, with a pronounced raw flour flavour and a middle that was more gummy than chewy. I’m assuming this was partially on purpose, to create a softer cookie, but they clearly went a bit too far (it probably doesn’t help that the cookie is enormous, which makes it harder to underbake without having a fully raw middle).

I should note that I originally wrote this a few months ago (I have a bit of a backlog). I recently tried Crumbl’s second location in Mississauga, around Dixie and Dundas, hoping that the first cookie was just a mistake — surely it’s not supposed to be that underbaked? I had the exact same experience. I also overheard a family in line raving about how much they love the cookies here, so clearly this place has its fans. I am not one of them.

Strawberry sundae from Tom’s Dairy Freeze

I just checked — this will be my seventh time featuring Tom’s Dairy Freeze on this blog, and you know what? I regret nothing. The place continues to serve the city’s best soft serve, so why shouldn’t I write about it on a semi-regular basis? It’s my duty. I got the strawberry sundae on this particular visit, and it was, of course, delicious. I find the sauces here tend not to be nearly as good as the ice cream itself, but this one was great — in particular, the huge chunks of strawberry complemented the creamy ice cream perfectly.

Chocolate gelato from Lola’s Gelato

Speaking of amazing ice cream, every time I check out Lola’s, I’m like “is this the best gelato in the city??” Certainly, they’re neck-and-neck with Mizzica (Nani’s used to be a contender, but my last few visits have been surprisingly poor). I got plain old chocolate on this particular visit, and while it was maybe a touch too sweet, it had a great chocolate flavour and the texture was perfect: super rich and creamy, and served at the right temperature (e.g. not as hard as a brick).

Delicious Soft Serve at Butter Baker

Published on October 16, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 140 Amber Street, Markham
Website: https://butter-baker.com/

The last time I tried Butter Baker, I had a croissant that I wasn’t particularly crazy about. I figured I’d try the soft serve this time, and it was thoroughly delicious. So clearly, that’s the thing to order.

I think the flavours rotate, but when I visited, they were serving a swirl consisting of plain frozen yogurt and a sorbet with passionfruit and… some other stuff. The guy described the flavour to me, and I immediately forgot. I know, I know — great blogging, very helpful. You’re welcome.

Whatever it is, it’s quite good, with the slightly tart sorbet balancing quite nicely with the sweet yogurt. That sweetness is maybe a bit too amped up, but that’s a minor complaint.