Yonge and Eglinton – Page 2

More Dipped Cones at Les Epicuriens

Published on July 29, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2109 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.facebook.com/indulgeyourtastebuds/

Hey, it’s yet another place doing dipped cones. Hooray?

Look, I can’t say no to ice cream, but as I mentioned in my review of Chocolats Favoris last year, we’ve got a lot of places that serve dipped cones in Toronto. It’s a crowded field.

So does Les Epicuriens stand out? I dunno, not really? I mean, they have a lot of dip options (a dozen when I visited), but then most of these places have a lot of dip options. They also have a handful of toppings (various nuts, candy pieces, etc.), but that’s also par for the course.

I went with the “special vanilla” ice cream (vegan chocolate is also an option) with a pistachio dip.

The ice cream is really good. It’s very rich and creamy with a nice, clean flavour. I’d say it’s about on par with Tom’s.

The dip was fine, though it was aggressively sweet and had only a mild pistachio flavour. It basically tasted like white chocolate with a vague whiff of nuttiness. I’d probably try a different dip next time, or just get the ice cream on its own.

Creamy Japanese Pancakes at Fuwa Fuwa

Published on June 27, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 408 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.fuwafuwapancakes.com/

Like Hanabusa Cafe in Kensington Market, Fuwa Fuwa specializes in Japanese souffle pancakes, which are basically like a cross between a pancake and a custardy souffle.

I’ve already talked about Hanabusa Cafe; you can probably just read that post to get a sense of what Fuwa Fuwa is like. They’re very, very similar.

I ordered the cookies and cream, which comes with two pancakes topped with Oreo-cookie-infused cream, a whole Oreo cookie, and a scoop of ice cream on the side.

It’s quite good — the pancakes are light, fluffy, custardy, mildly sweet, and very creamy. The only noticeable difference between this place and Hanabusa Cafe are that the pancakes here are slightly creamier. I couldn’t tell if they were slightly underbaked, or if that was intentional. Either way, they were very tasty.

The cookie-laden cream compliments them well, though the ice cream was overly sweet, with an odd flavour I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

(Mostly) Tasty Wheel Cakes at Formocha

Published on December 26, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 55 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto
Website: https://www.formochabubbletea.com/

They sell Taiwanese-style wheel cakes at Formocha (which are essentially pancakes that are cooked in a circular mold with a sweet filling) and they’re mostly pretty good. But there are a couple of issues.

The first (and biggest) issue? Red bean wasn’t a filling choice, at least when I went. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to deduct about a million points for its absence. I mean, come on. It’s the classic filling. Red bean or GTFO.

I wound up trying custard, and Oreo custard. They were both tasty enough, but (and here’s the second issue) the custard tasted off. There was something weird about it, with an almost fruity flavour that was vaguely off-putting.

The Oreo was much better — rather than the chunks that you might expect, it was filled with an entire cookie, which was surprisingly delightful.

Plus, the cakes themselves were super fresh (they cook them to order), with a slightly crispy exterior and a fluffy interior. They were good, but… come on. Red bean. Give it to me.

Rich, Chickeny Ramen at Touhenboku Ramen

Published on December 20, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2459 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: http://www.touhenboku.ca/

The ramen at Touhenboku is a little bit different than the norm. Most of the ramen shops in Toronto serve tonkotsu-style ramen, in which pork bones are boiled for hours and hours until you wind up with a very rich, porky broth.

Touhenboku, on the other hand, subs out the pork for chicken, and yet still manages to retain that intense richness that you associate with tonkotsu.

If your average bowl of chicken soup is the soup equivalent of white meat (lighter, with a more restrained flavour) then what they’re serving at Touhenboku is more like dark meat, with a really intense flavour and a fattier texture.

In fact, the soup might be a bit too fatty, with a heavy oiliness that’s borderline too much. I’m certainly not going to complain about a very rich bowl of ramen, but this one was slightly too greasy.

I ordered the sea salt ramen (a.k.a. shio ramen) from the “Tomo’s favourite” section of the menu. It’s a pretty standard bowl, with the usual assortment of veggies, an egg, and chasu.

It’s (mostly) quite good. The noodles were a bit too thin (thick is also an option, however — I think that’s the one to go with), and the flavour was slightly one-note in its rich chickeniness (chickeniness… that’s a word, right?), but it was a satisfying bowl of soup.

Most notably, the very intense chicken flavour is pretty remarkable, and the thinly sliced chasu was ultra-tender and perfectly seasoned, with a great porky flavour. The egg was also perfectly cooked, with a great gooey yolk, so there’s definitely more good here than bad.

Fake Burgers and Real Onion Rings at Fresh

Published on November 30, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto
Website: https://freshrestaurants.ca/

The original plan was to review the veggie burger from Fresh for my burger blog. But then I actually ate it, and to be honest… I didn’t want to.

It’s not a burger. They call it a burger, and it basically looks like a burger, but the taste and the texture both contain zero hamburger-like properties. I only post a review on Tasty Burgers every couple of weeks, and it just didn’t feel right wasting one on something that absolutely, positively isn’t a hamburger.

We started with the much-lauded onion rings, which are frequently called the best in the city. And yeah, they’re good — maybe not best-in-the-city good, but they’re quite tasty. They actually reminded me a lot of what they serve at A&W — they’re similarly hearty, with a crispy breaded exterior encasing a perfectly cooked onion.

They were slightly underseasoned, however, and a little bit greasier than you’d like (which is particularly odd given the restaurant’s health food pedigree). I think I like A&W’s version slightly more, especially given how crazy expensive the ones at Fresh are (eight bucks for five substantial rings).

As for the “burger,” I ordered the banquet burger, which features fake bacon and fake cheese on a fake hamburger patty.

It’s fine. It’s actually not bad for what it is, but as I mentioned earlier, it’s not going to satisfy anyone’s hamburger cravings. The taste and texture are quite falafel-esque (but without the crispy exterior). Like most veggie burgers, it’s on the mushy side — a problem that’s compounded by how incredibly dense the wheaty bun is. It’s so unforgivingly brick-like that it’s actually quite difficult to eat, but I got through it.

The fake cheese is basically a thick, salty paste, and the fake bacon literally could not have tasted less like bacon. It was sweet and vaguely plantain-like. It wasn’t bad, but comparing it to bacon is absurd.