HK Sweets

An Ubereats BOGO feast (with drinks)!

Curry Fish Balls (BOGO total of 16 for $5.99), Golden King Drink ($6.99 for 2), Lychee Green Tea ($5.49 for 2) and Baked Chicken Cheese on Rice ($12 for 2)

The curry fish balls had a sauce that was on the spicier side (tasty, but with a little kick)

The Golden King was a sweet mango sago yogurt drink with popping mango bubbles, mango chunks and sago that was super tasty and not sickly sweet (which is good!)

The lychee green tea, we got a hot and a cold version, and the cold version was definitely the better of the two since the lychee juice held up better than in the hot version (no more hot fruit tea drinks)

The baked chicken with cheese on rice was okay with some black pepper and a ketchup-like sauce, but the chicken was a little dry (maybe from being a little overfried). 

Chatime Bake Code

Jan 4, 2021 @ 4910 Yonge Street

$15 for 6 macarons

Clockwise from top left: Earl Grey, Chocolate Raspberry, Mango, Pistachio, Lavendar and White Sesame (centre)

Earl Grey: sadly no earl grey flavour whatsoever. 

Chocolate raspberry: good raspberry flavour, but the raspberry jam inside wasn't that good. 

Mango: really good macaron with a soft inside and crispy outside and lots of mango flavour. 

Pistachio: super crumbly macaron with decent pistachio flavour

Lavender: excellent floral lavender flavour and it was super fragrant with a cookbook perfect macaron finish

White sesame: good white sesame flavour - distinct Asian flavour (pretty neat)

Overall: These macarons will do in a pinch! But there's definitely better macarons in Toronto. 

Aug 29, 2020 @ 9255 Woodbine Ave

Taro Mini Loaf $6.50

The taro loaf looked pretty nice with all the braids, almond slivers and what looked like coconut shreds outside. 

There was some taro flavour inside with the taro paste, but it was pretty light and it wasn't easy to slice it (so I just ripped some pieces to eat). The loaf was sweet, but it wasn't anything special (and was a little pricey relative to the size of it).

August 8, 2020 @ 9255 Woodbine Ave

Tea of the Month $4.50 for a Large

Oolong Milk Tea!

Strong oolong flavour (which is fantastic for oolong tea lovers) and it was really good without sugar since it has a slight sweetness from the milk

Mille Crepe Cake

Custard-y in between the layers of crepe. I liked this one better than the Earl Grey and it had no powdery stuff on top! 

June 16, 2020 @ 4910 Yonge Street

In the month of June, Chatime was offering a promo code every Tuesday for $3 off order of $15 or more, so I decided to order some croissants and desserts from Bake Code through their online system. 

Unfortunately, my Charcoal Thai Milk Tea croissant got lost somewhere in the order delivery process. It was a bit of a trial getting a refund for it (they say it takes up to two weeks to process the refund, but the store ended up offering me a coupon instead)

Purple Potato Latte $5.30 (a Bake Code specialty)

I was pretty excited about this drink at first since I've really wanted a purple potato/taro/ube dessert for a while. I was rather disappointed with this whole experience since it tasted like purple potato mush mixed with water (or skim milk?) and it was super bland as a drink. I wonder if adding sugar would have helped? I wouldn't order this again.

Vietnamese Coffee Cruffin $4.70 and Ube Croissant $4.50

The croissant baked into a muffin was okay, but definitely mushy in the middle. It had a fantastic strong Vietnamese coffee flavour. 

Ube croissant

The ube filling was more milky flavour than ube and it was really sweet. An interesting French-Asian fusion dessert. 

Charcoal Chatime Roasted Milk Tea Custard Croissant $4.90

The croissant was really flaky and it had a strong roasted milk tea flavour in the custard. It was sweet as well, but I found it slightly better than the ube croissant. I would get this one again. 

Earl Grey Crepe Cake $8.50

I got this mostly for comparison purposes of the Earl Grey crepe cake at Millie Patisserie. I previously got this in January at another Chatime location.

The Earl Grey flavour was pretty good, but not as good as Millie's. I found this cake really sweet and I wasn't a fan of the powdered chocolate on top since it leaves a strong powdery chocolate taste and after-taste. The crepes weren't as good as Millie's either and they were slightly more dried out than Millie. However, it was still a pretty decent crepe cake (and it's not as expensive). 

Website: http://bakecode.com/

Sugar Marmalade

 Sugar Marmalade was participating in the Ubereats BOGO promotion, so I took the chance to try out their promo items: 

Mango coconut sago drink $8.04 and Pork Chop with cheese and black pepper sauce $15.94

The mango coconut sago drink tasted like mostly coconut and came with a lot of coconut jelly and sago. The mango part was more the colouring since the flavour was so light and I was sad it didn't have more mango chunks like the photos on Ubereats - instead it had way more coconut milk. 

The pork chop with cheese and black pepper sauce could be put on spaghetti or rice (so we got one of each) and while cheese on top sounds like a good idea, it can congeal quickly if you're not immediately eating it. It was on the salty side for both the pork chop and the pasta - it also didn't have too much sauce, but it was seasoned with black pepper. 

Petit Potato

Dec 8, 2020 @ Finch & Leslie

Petit Potato had some BOGO offers on Ubereats:

Black Garlic Sliced Pork Ramen $16.25 (x2)

We got both thick egg noodles and thin egg noodles (and preferred the thick noodles). The broth was pretty good, but it did taste like it had a bit of msg though. The pork belly was more fatty than lean meat, but worked well with all the other ingredients like bamboo shoots, fungus, corn and ramen egg half.

I loved this dual compartment for the takeout ramen - top layer was all the toppings and bottom layer was the pork and noodles. I think this is so genius!

Sous Vide Chicken Breast Omurice with Black Pepper Sauce $17.50 (x2)

The omurice (which is rice wrapped in an egg omelette) was okay - I liked that they used a heavier strong flavoured sauce like black pepper with the chicken to give the whole dish a better overall impression (since chicken and scrambled egg don't have strong flavours). The sauce was definitely very peppery and was quite good with the egg omelette around slightly seasoned rice (it wasn't just white rice, but it wasn't fried rice either). I think it was pretty interesting overall. 

Oct 27, 2018 @ Finch & Leslie

Red bean and soy milk

House Special Soya Bean Jelly with Coconut milk with red bean, taro, sweet peanut, taro Q ball, sweet potato Q ball, sesame dumpling, tapioca

There were a lot of things going on in this dessert - definitely ambitious. Some things were really good like the taro ball, but other things were a bit of a miss for me like the sesame dumpling. 

August 10, 2017

I've walked by Petite Potato a few times, and I thought it had a really interesting menu. My friend said the food was pretty good here, so we went for dinner here. 

Spicy grilled eel bibimbap with fried egg $14.25

It was an interesting fusion and actually pretty tasty. 

Sliced beef teppan pasta $9.99

This seemed really interesting with your choice of meat, pasta, sauce and/or toppings. 

It was a little strange though when we got beef with fettuccine and then curry sauce. I wouldn't really recommend that combination again. 

House Special Grass jelly with coconut milk 7.99

There was so much in this: red bean, peanut, taro, grass jelly, sweet potato q ball, taro q ball and tapioca. It was pretty good, but it was so much food for two people! 

Marshmallow custard toast $5.99

I also wanted the toast experience (even if we couldn't handle the golden toast series), so we split a marshmallow custard toast (which was okay). 

Overall: Fun experience at Petit Potato - there's a lot of interesting combinations and menu items here. It's pretty good for a meal or dessert and they have so many items to choose from. 

Website: https://www.petitpotato.com/

Chi Patisserie

I was hoping Chi Patisserie would have their cakes available for sale on walk-in,  but they only had cake in boxes which were selling for $10 each and slightly discounted if you bought more.

Pretty small boxes, but they had some interesting flavours. 

Lychee Rose Petal Cake in a Box

The lychee and rose made a very floral combination and made a pretty tasty cream. The dessert was really sweet and it was mostly cream rather than cake, the sweet lychees on top were pretty good too and there was lychee jelly, as well as orange and red jelly in the middle of the cake box. 

Taro Cake in a Box

The cake layer and taro layer were pretty distinct even as seen outside the box. The taro was more grainy in texture and there were coconut milk jellies in the dessert as well - as part of one of the layers of the cake box. It had more of the true taro taste than the artificial taro flavour. 

Website: https://chipatisserie.ca/

Fragrant Bakery

Since we discovered Cakeview Bakery's egg tarts, we've been meaning to compare them to our other favourite egg tart places like Les Chateaux and Fragrant Bakery.

Fragrant Bakery's egg tart (no cookie pastry - only flaky pastry)

The egg tart had a lighter eggy taste and it was sweet but not overly sweet. It had a slightly watery soft custard compared to others. 

The darker yellow egg tart below is Cakeview's egg tart with the cookie crust. The egg tart from Cakeview had a stronger eggy flavour and custard and it was sweeter than Fragrant Bakery's egg tart. 

Snacks & Food @ C&C Supermarket

Aug 25, 2020

The Cherry Blossom flavour Lan Fong Yuen milk tea was on sale a few weeks ago at C&C, but I didn't find it until much later at another Chinese grocery store. 

 

Sakura Flavour

The drink was kind of flowery, but it wasn't immediate when you smelled it. The milk tea was smooth and super sweet - it was really sugary (I probably wouldn't get it again unless they make a no-sugar version). 

August 18, 2020

Near the end of the day, the sushi at C&C Supermarket goes on sale. I managed to pick up a black dragon roll for $3.99:

Pretty good for the price since it had lots of eel with a yummy sauce and the roll had fake crab, fried shrimp and a lot of avocado. 

Also picked up some fried sesame balls with red bean (which were okay, but they lost their shape and were a little dry), youtiao (which were pretty good despite it being part of their end of day sale), spring rolls (skip that - they weren't very good) and Shanghai noodles with vegetable and meat (not that great since the flavour wasn't very strong). 

August 5, 2020

After watching a ton of historical Chinese dramas, I've really wanted to try their pretty flower cake snacks. Luckily C&C Supermarket was having a sale on their Osmanthus and Taro rice cake snacks for $1.68 per box - so I thought this would be a good opportunity. 

Osmanthus flavour and Taro Flavour (and what it actually looks like)

This is definitely a case of buyer beware - the pictures were definitely different from the actual rice powder cakes inside. It was super powdery, not pleasant tasting and had a weird grainy texture. The osmanthus had a flowery perfume flavour and the taro had a weird lingering after taste - definitely skip this (it was terrible). 

We also saw this on sale from the famous Lan Fong Yuen Milk tea place in Hong Kong

$1.99 for a cup of their Hong Kong style milk tea

The milk tea was really sweet but very smooth and it worked out to about 2 cups worth when reheated with more water to dilute the sweetness. It has the classic Lan Fong Yuen super silky texture and excellent flavour. There was also the silk milk tea flavour (which was also really smooth and very sweet). 

July 15, 2020

I was wandering around C&C Supermarket when I saw this on sale for $3.99: 

Snack size baumkuchen! 

The Marukin baumkuchen cakes were pretty good! They were sweet, buttery and still a bit moist with the baumkuchen layers like circular tree rings.The layers kept their shape as opposed to other pre-packaged baumkuchen which is usually just pound cake. I was pretty happy with this snack from Japan at the supermarket!

Snacks @ T&T Supermarket

August 21, 2020 @ 9255 Woodbine Ave, Markham 

In my search for 'Chinese drama cakes' (aka the desserts the actors eat in the historical Chinese dramas I've been watching lately), I found these frozen mung bean cakes with red bean inside at T&T and thought these might be good. 

Around $10-$15 for the box

Wow, I did not expect them to be so tiny and with one red bean inside. The mung bean cake was okay (if a little grainy and powdery), but overall this was super disappointing compared to the advertised picture on the box. 

Cakeview Bakery & Cafe

August 15, 2020

Egg Tarts (flaky pastry and cookie crust)

Yummy egg custard flavour and not too sweet with a perfect cookie crust. The cookie crust version is my favourite egg tart right now.

Durian Tart $4.50

So much durian with a nice flaky pastry crust

It was pretty smelly, so I ate it outside picnic style. 

July 16, 2020

The fresh mango cakes were really popular here, so we pre-ordered a 6 inch cake a day in advance for pickup. 

 

Fresh Mango Cake ($30)

The cake looked beautiful! There were tons of fresh ripe mango slices on top of the cake and lots of mango inside the cake between the cake layers with whipped cream. Deliciously sweet mangoes and fluffy light cake with whipped cream made for a yummy cake. I was kind of expecting a mango mousse somewhere, but it didn't have any mango mousse. 

Durian pastry and Taro pastry ($2 each)

Both pastries had a flaky outside layer with paste inside. I really liked the durian pastry, it had great durian flavour (it was smelly but not too smelly) and there was a lot of filling inside. The taro pastry didn't have as much flavour and it had a bit of a lingering sugar taste after I finished it. I'd probably skip the taro, but go for the durian pastry in the future. 

Good cookie crust egg tarts! 

June 14, 2020

Egg tart with cookie crust $1.40

The egg tart was pretty good with more egg flavour than Les Chateaux bakery. The cookie crust just wasn't firm enough, but it was still delicious and slightly cheaper than Les Chateaux. Egg tarts with flaky crust are slightly more expensive at $1.50

Les Chateaux Bakery

August 15, 2020

I've been noticing a lot of these almond cookies lately and I saw that Les Chateaux red bean almond cookies which seemed interesting - it was also strange that they were more black in colour than red (we asked for help from an employee to identify the flavours of almond cookies.

Red bean almond cookies $6.75 and one cookie crust egg tart and one flaky crust egg tart ($3.55 for 2)

The red bean almond cookies were quite firm with good texture. They were very solid with almond slivers throughout the main section of the cookie and also had crumbly edges which was nice. I found that flavour wise, they didn't really taste like almond or red bean which was odd. 

The other items I bought were egg tarts since this used to be my favourite egg tart shop. The egg tarts were sweet and had good egg flavour, but the cookie crust wasn't great since it was really loose and crumbly and I prefer a firm solid cookie crust.

 

March 15, 2020

Egg Tarts: 3 with cookie crust and 3 with flaky crust

The cookie crust (which is my favourite) has gotten a lot better, but I think it'd taste even better if it was baked longer to be more firm. The egg custard is really yummy here! 

Feb 22, 2014

Hidden inside the New Kennedy Square Mall at Highway 7 and Kennedy is Les Chateaux Bakery:

The egg tarts come in two kinds of crust: cookie crust and flaky crust.

I love egg tarts, and I was spoiled last year in Hong Kong.

Sadly, these were nothing close to the delicious egg tarts I had before. However, I will say that Les Chateaux Bakery is probably one of the better egg tart places in the GTA. The egg custard is relatively firm, but the quality of the crust just isn't consistent. Oh well, the search continues...