Louis XIV

Sweet sweet Louis.

After eating at Ruelo, we walked around Time Square and stumbled upon a lil cake shop called Louis XIV. With the cake display still embedded in my head, I finally returned and bought a couple of desserts to try out.

Uptown All Day Dim Sum

Me and my cousin were craving for some dim sum. Problem was that it was after 3pm. Most dim sum places end their dim sum around that time. I didn't know of any all day dim sum places uptown so I asked a friend who lived in the area if he could recommend any restaurants. He suggested Richmond Court at Times Square so off we went.

Patisserie La Cigogne

Here's a quick post.

After some serious shoe shopping, I decided to take my friend to Patisserie La Cigogne.

This is the first thing you see when you enter, a whole array of pretty lil cakes. I was drooling at the display. My friend tells me we have to eat real food first before buying cake. Fiiiine I say.

Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches

Yes. I said MACARON ICE CREAM SANDWICHES!!!

Like that isn't good enough already, we got it for freeeeeeee^_^

Capriccio Cafe

I want dessert and I got me some desserts:)

I was craving for some sort of cake so decided to try out Capriccio Cafe. I've only been here once and all I grabbed was a bag of caramel popcorn. I know what was I thinking when there was a whole array of decadent cakes and other goodies on display. Well what can I say I eat whatever I feel for at that moment. Not that the caramel popcorn was really special or anything. I just walked in and saw popcorn so decided I want to eat that instead. Yea I'm weird like that.

Any hoot. Capriccio is a really cute space. When you walk in you can see the variety of sweet confections available. Once you pick out your delight there's a seating area which looks like a lil girls tea party room with white chairs and tables and some splashes of color here and there of merchandise.

I spotted this cup on my way out think I might return and buy it. It's so cute.

My Baked Goods from La Boheme

I had a tweetup at Jedd's but we were suppose to bring baked goodies. Since I don't bake I decided to grab some treats from La Boheme.

Brunch Tweetup @ La Bamboche

Did you know that La Bamboche now serves brunch? I am already in love with their macarons and to discover that they now serve brunch I couldn't wait to try it out.

Stonefire

This was the first thing that caught my eye when I entered the restaurant. I was tempted to snatch the plate and run right back out but my stomach whined for real food instead.

Prince Noir from Amadeus

On Friday night, I went over to my inlaws for dinner and my only job was to bring over the dessert.

Mission accomplished.

We always grab cakes from Amadeus.

The last 2 we had were the Caramel Crunch and some coffee one I can't remember the name of.

At the shop there was a dispute between me and my boyfriend as we were arguing over whether or not we have tried the cake called Prince Noir. It consisted of flourless hazelnut meringue topped with dark chocolate mousse, layer of coffee cream mixed with caramelized hazelnuts.

I said it sounded familiar and that we did try it already. He disagreed.

The verdict.

We did eat it already. I was right.

Regardless, it was still yummy the second time around. I love the cakes at Amadeus I can never get enough of it.

We also bought 2 croissants to snack on since we couldn't wait till dinner.

My boyfriend had a cheese croissant and he did not like it at all. He said he wasn't cheesy enough.

I had the almond croissant and I liked it. It was full of flaky almond goodness. It was difficult taking a picture in the car while trying not to shake at the same time. Also the glaring sun didn't help either but this was all I could manage.

Next time I think I might try the Marzipan cake or maybe the Tiramisu. Mmmmmm...

TOTAL BILL $45...EAT HERE NEXT!!!

Cake Balls

OH-MY-GOD!!!

For the Love of Cake now sells cake balls. It is un-freakin-believable.

They are pieces of cake covered in chocolate. At first glance I thought it was truffles but after discovering it was filled with cake in the centre I simply had to try one out. I sampled the grasshopper flavor and it was fantastic. A burst of chocolatey mint flavor with a moist creamy chocolate cake in the middle. It was so smooth and creamy that I couldn't even tell it was cake.

My friend tried the red velvet cake ball and she loved it as well.

Of course we couldn't help ourselves we split a cupcake as well. We got the cupcake flavor of the month which was chocolate cake with banana and peanut butter. Utterly delicious:)

TOTAL BILL $8...EAT HERE NEXT!!!

La Bamboche

Although there was a beautiful array of cakes on display I came specifically for the macarons today.

Hidden on a side street off of Yonge, La Bamboche Patisserie is another hidden gem in midtown Toronto.

They also have another location on Avenue Road as well.

La Bamboche offers a wide range of items from their home made jams to fresh quality made quiches to high-grade organic coffees.

There was this variety pack for $37. It seemed quite a bit to dish out at the moment especially since I should be saving money rather than splurging on these sugary confections so I decided to get a few flavors that were appealing to me.

There are a total of 12 flavors to choose from. I chose pretty much half the flavors available.

Amaretto, caramel sea salt, pistachio, creme de cassis which is black currant, ume & sake and mango green tea.

The ume & sake macaron is suppose to be pickled Japanese plum, sake and buttercream. It was delish.

My favorite out of the bunch is the pistachio. It was yummy in my tummy:)

For my next trip I want to try their ham & cheese croissant with smoked Virginia ham, Swiss cheese and bechamel sauce. Writing this is already making me itch to head back down there.

TOTAL BILL $15...EAT HERE NEXT!!!

La Boheme

La Boheme serves some of the best French pastries in the city.

Since they don't have a kitchen at the cafe all their items are brought over from Jules Cafe located along Mount Pleasant. There it is baked fresh on a daily basis.

This little cafe patisserie has one of the yummiest apricot tart I have ever tasted. It is not overly sweet. Just perfect. The two other flavors for this tart were apple and pear.

I want to try their quiche and croissants next time.

TOTAL BILL $5...EAT HERE NEXT!!!

Ruelo Patisserie

Macaron galore.

I never tried a macaroon before. The only one I knew of was the coconut one. The American version. Yuck! I hate coconut for one so coconut macaroon was not for me.

But then I discovered there was another type of macaroon. The French variation called macaron with only 1 "o". Oh my god have I been missing out.

It's not a cookie. It's something even better. Basically it's two pieces of almond meringue with a creamy filling in the centre. They are so cute and pretty. They look like a bunch of colorful oreos.

I read on Yelp that Ruelo Patisserie was on the top list for best macarons in Toronto so I decided to give it a shot.

My boyfriend picked out the 5 flavors and bought 2 of each flavor. I didn't want pairs of the same flavor but he didn't want to share lol. So doubles it was. We got balsamic vinegar, raspberry, strawberry, expresso and peppermint. I wanted to try the wasabi grapefruit but my boyfriend made a face. Since we bought quite a few already I figure it was enough for now. I didn't even know if I would like it or not so didn't want to have too much of something I disliked. I didn't even notice that the price varied between $2.25 - $3 until I looked at my picture. I thought it was quite expensive but then again I don't even know what is considered regular price. In the end, the sweet confection was worth every bite. Even my boyfriend liked it and he's not really a big fan of sweets. Only once in a blue moon he will indulge unlike me, I can eat it all day everyday. I actually wanted to eat it all in the car on the way home unfortunately my boyfriend stopped me and told me to save some for the next day knowing I will crave for sweets again. Well, he was right because the next day I finished it all.

As for the cakes there wasn't that many of a selection to choose from. Originally I wanted to try the molten chocolate cake however it took 15 minutes to prepare. We didn't want to wait so we settled on what was being offered on display.

Once again I let my boyfriend decide since the majority of the cakes had mousse and I didn't care for it. He ended up choosing one chocolate banana and one hazelnut. The chocolate banana was made of Jivara milk chocolate mousse, caramelized bananas, banana mousse and crispy praline. The hazelnut cake consisted of Jivara milk chocolate mousse, praline mousse, double crispy praline and hazelnut daquoise. Honestly I don't even know what half of it means. All I can say is it was delightful. I am not a big fan of mousse but this changed my whole perception of it. Mousse is good.

Another thing that caught my eye is that they offer afternoon tea which is like high tea I assume. For $16.99 you get to eat some macarons, scones/biscuits, some finger sandwiches and drink some tea. It sounded like a great deal. But the place is really tiny so there might be a bit of a wait. It's available on a daily basis from 2pm-6pm.

I might try that out next time when I go for my next round of colorful treats. This time I am grabbing that wasabi grapefruit.

TOTAL BILL $34...EAT HERE NEXT!!!

Ruelo Patisserie

550 Highway 7 East, Unit C73

(Times Square)

905-762-1500

Novello Desserts

Upon entering Novello Desserts, me and my girlfriend were just standing there staring in awe salivating at all the goodies on display.

After much deliberation we decided to purchase the gingerbread cookie, some hazelnut pastry, cannoli with vanilla filling and carrot cupcake.

My favorite was the cannoli. My friend tried to break it in half and well didn't succeed. It was hilarious as she was breaking the cannoli the powdered sugar flew straight up and it looked like it had snowed all over the table. For a moment we just stared at the after effects and was slightly confused and shocked at what had happened. Note to self. Never split a cannoli again.

The carrot cupcake was cold since it was refrigerated so it wasn't fluffy but it tasted good. I'm pretty sure if it was straight out of the oven it would've tasted even better.

The hazelnut pastry had some sort of hazelnut filling inside as well and it was a delight.

Wish I could say the same for the gingerbread cookie. This I did not like at all. It was dry and had no flavor whatsoever. It was like all the ginger flavor was sucked right out of it and this was the final result, a bland tasteless cookie. It was a huge disappointment.

After we finished our first round of treats we couldn't help ourselves we wanted gelato as well. Especially since we were seated right next to the counter. It was just staring at us in the face and taunting us. We got the hazelnut gelato and another cannoli but this time with ricotta filling since our server told us it was the most popular cannoli. We ate the gelato first since we didn't want it to melt. It was creamy and full of nutty flavor. So good. The cannoli was good as well although since we had the gelato first I think it kinda ruined our palette a bit. I couldn't really taste the ricotta filling at all. Think I was all sweetened out from everything.

Here are some other pictures I took. Here is the store front. I can't remember what shop was next to it. Then again I don't think there is much in the area to begin with.

Here are some pastries and tarts. At first my friend had her eye on the red velvet cupcake but we settled on the carrot since it was their regular cupcake. The red velvet was a new flavor they were testing out.

Here are some cookies although I'm not sure what kind of cookie they were. I wished they labelled everything so it would make things a lot easier.

Here is the display of gingerbread cookies. See why I had to buy one. They looked so delish. Sadly, it was a failure.

Here is the display of gelato that kept calling out to us.

Everything is freshly prepared at the back of the store. They even serve some sandwiches, pasta, and some other food as well.

TOTAL BILL $10...EAT HERE NEXT!!!

JUMP Cafe

I was craving for chocolate cake so after searching on the yelp site I saw several reviewers recommending the SOMA molten chocolate cake at JUMP Cafe. It was one of the Oliver & Bonacini restaurants and it definitely did not disappoint.

Located in the Commerce Court along Wellington I got a friend of mine to join me on my sweet indulgence.

We were given complimentary bread basket and some sort of garlic tomato dip. It was yummy. I loved the huge tortilla chip.

My friend was hungry so she ordered the truffle ricotta gnocchi with wild mushrooms in a porcini cream sauce. It was fantastic although it doesn't look appealing here in the picture.

Finally the main event, my sweets.

We ordered the SOMA molten chocolate cake and the white chocolate cheesecake double-baked in phyllo pastry with a biscotti crust.

We started off with the cheesecake since we wanted to save the sweetest for last. O-MY-GOD it was the BEST cheesecake EVER. It was light and pillowy soft and not sweet at all. Normally with cheesecakes I take one bite and I am done however, with this one I just couldn't get enough of it. It was simply irresistible.

Now onto the finale.

Sadly it wasn't as what I had expected. The molten cake was fluffy but too sweet for me. One bite and I was done. I can see why the scoop of vanilla ice cream was there. It did help tone down the sweetness still it did not satisfy my craving.

Funny how I came specifically for the molten cake but ended up falling in love with the cheesecake. It was truly worth the trip. Although I didn't get what I came for nevertheless I did discover another sweet treat. I would definitely JUMP to this cafe again.

TOTAL BILL $46...EAT HERE NEXT!!!

Sen5es finally awoken MY senses

This holiday I'm sooooo poor. I'm so broke I can't even go out out to eat hence not much to blog about lately since I've been hibernating at home.

The only place I went to recently this month was Sen5es.

Last time I went for lunch at the bakery location and it was horrendous. This time I tried the restaurant location and it wasn't a complete disappointment. Unlike my first experience this time I was much more happier when I left.

Here we were given complimentary bread and some sort of fruit salsa.

For the starter I had my eye on the truffle spaghettini with lobster bolognaise, summer truffle and chervil. It was truly exquisite and a complete tease. It was so yummy but so little that I wanted more. It was a great start to the meal. So far I was impressed.

For the entrees me and my friend ordered the crispy duck breast with king oyster and shiitake mushrooms and the sea bass with risotto. The duck wasn't crispy at all. The first few bites were good but after a while it tasted a bit too gamey for me. The fish and risotto were perfectly cooked but could use a tad more seasoning.

Since Senses is known more for its desserts we had our eye on the molten chocolate cake. Man oh man was it a perfect sweet ending to our meal.

The chocolate cake was amaaaazing with the chocolate oozing out of the cake. It would have tasted even better if the cake itself was fluffy but the filling more than made up for the lack of fluffiness.

Overall, the food was good but pretty overpriced. One thing I do have to complain about is the service. Our waitress only appeared at our table twice throughout the entire meal. First was to take our order and the last was to give us our bill. I noticed she was much more attentive to the other tables and when it came to our table she was a bit on the snooty side. The manager/supervisor checked on us more than the waitress. It wasn't even busy either so there was no excuse for the poor customer service level.

The only reason I would return would be for the truffle spaghettini and the chocolate cake.

What a combo lol.

TOTAL BILL $94...EAT HERE NEXT!!!

Orgasmic Chocolate Cake...Round 2

I finally made my second trip for that orgasmic flourless chocolate cake at Terroni. This time I went to the Adelaide location instead of the midtown location. The place was enormous. Three times bigger than the previous location I went to.

I brought a friend along and it was her first time trying it. We ordered my favorite cake and also tried the special, the chocolate tart with Grand Marnier. Yes we are addicted to sweets. Although it's a restaurant with plenty of food options on the menu we were there primarily for the cake.

The tart was too rich for me. One bite and I was done. It just didn't stand up to my cake.

My chocolate cake was delicious and did not disappoint at all. My only criticism was not enough white chocolate other than that the cake was super fluffy and mmm mmm goooood.

Wished I order 2 of my cake instead.

At least I satisfied my craving so I was very happy:)

TOTAL BILL $18...EAT HERE NEXT!!!