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.

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.

Quick Bites: La Casa Dolce, The Fourth Man in the Fire, Petite Bouchée Patisserie

Chocolate chip cookie from La Casa Dolce
Chocolate chip cookie from La Casa Dolce

I certainly wasn’t in a rush to go back after my last visit to La Casa Dolce, but I was in the area and craving something sweet, so sure, why not?  I went with the chocolate chip cookie this time, because it’s basically impossible to mess that up.  That’s one of those things where even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.  And this one: not bad!  Not great, certainly, but it had a good amount of decent quality chocolate chips (bittersweet, I think), a nice chewy texture, and it wasn’t too sweet.  It felt like something was missing, however (vanilla, maybe?), which held it back from being much better than pretty good, but I still enjoyed it.

Meatball sandwich from The Fourth Man in the Fire
Meatball sandwich from The Fourth Man in the Fire

I’ve written about the pizza from The Fourth Man in the Fire a couple of times on this blog, and in case you don’t feel like clicking on that link: it’s great.  I like it a lot.  So I decided to try their meatball sandwich this time (“Meatballs (Beef and Pork Mix), Povolone. Served on Fresh Baked to Order Bread”), and yeah, it’s good.  In particular, the flavourful, tender meatballs were actually pretty amazing, and the ultra-rich tomato sauce they come with is the stuff dreams are made of.  I want to bathe in the stuff.  Oddly, I was expecting the bread to be the highlight (I like the crust on their pizza quite a lot) and it wasn’t.  It got the job done, but I think it might have been slightly underbaked, with a mildly doughy consistency that I wasn’t crazy about.

Chocolate cake from Petite Bouchée Patisserie
Chocolate cake from Petite Bouchée Patisserie

I picked up a chocolate cake from this place after reading several references to it being the best in the city, and hey, wouldn’t you know it — it just might be.  The cake itself is delightfully tender and fluffy, and the rich and creamy frosting is crammed with a delicious, chocolately flavour.  It’s very sweet, but not in a way that feels overwhelming or cloying.  Immediately after eating it, we were all making plans to order another one.  So yeah, it’s quite good.

Tasty Cheesecake in a Jar at Laila’s Cheesecake Co.

Laila's Cheesecake Co.
Location
: 855 Browns Line, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.lailascheesecake.com/

It’s hard to go wrong with cheesecake, and Laila’s definitely makes a tasty one.  Which is good, because it’s literally all they serve.

Laila's Cheesecake Co.

You can get whole cheesecakes, slices, or individual jars of cheesecake, which seems to be their specialty.  The jars come in two sizes: four ounce or eight ounce.  I found the four ounce serving to be a perfect amount, but eight is there if you really want to cheesecake it up (or if you’re sharing).

Laila's Cheesecake Co.

They have a variety of flavours like salted caramel, blueberry, and cherry; I went with caramel chocolate pecan.

Laila's Cheesecake Co.

It’s really good.  It’s sweet but not too sweet, with a nice balance of flavours between the chocolate, caramel, and tart cheesecake (with another nice dose of texture and flavour from the graham cracker crust at the bottom).  The NY-style cheesecake base is just the right amount of dense and creamy.  It’s a satisfying dessert.

Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald’s

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's
Location
1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke 
Websitehttps://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I recently tried the Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy and found it to be pretty disappointing. It just didn’t particularly taste like Frank’s RedHot, which is odd, considering it’s right there in the name of the sandwich.

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

I figured I’d have a bit more luck with the Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey dipping sauce.  Surely a Frank’s RedHot sauce would taste like Frank’s RedHot?

Yeah, about that.

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

Here’s how McDonald’s describes it: “A dipping sauce with the sweet taste of honey and the heat of Frank’s RedHot® to treat your McNuggets® to a flavour they’ve never experienced before.”

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

The problem here is that the sauce doesn’t really taste like honey or Frank’s RedHot.  It’s just a mildly spicy sweet goo.  I can’t find the ingredients online, but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t mostly corn syrup with a teeny-tiny bit of honey so they can legally put honey in its name.  As for the Frank’s RedHot, the vinegary flavour of the hot sauce is almost completely wiped out by its intense sweetness.

If you like a very (very very) sweet dipping sauce, you might enjoy this — but I can’t say I did.