Allwyn's

Nov 10, 2020 @ 4750 Yonge

Allwyn's at 4750 Yonge had BOGO offers on Ubereats, so we went to try their jerk pork and chicken meals.

Jerk Pork $16.95 and Jerk Chicken $16.95 (x2 not pictured)

The jerk pork was really tasty with juicy meat and a nice spicy rub on the outside (yum!) and I found the creamy and sweet coleslaw made a nice complement to the spicier jerk pork to help cut the heat. 

The jerk chicken was a little dry (the pork was the better of the two), but the chicken wasn't as spicy as the pork. 

Pretty good deal for four boxes of jerk pork, jerk chicken, coleslaw and rice and peas! 

September 29, 2020 @ 4750 Yonge Street, Toronto

Jerk Chicken Sandwich $6.99 and Oxtail with rice and peas $11.85

The jerk chicken sandwich was REALLY good: the chicken was flavourful and there was a lot of really tender and juicy meat; the spice level was great and the skin kept the delicious seasoning. It was a bit on the spicy side, but with the coco bread and coleslaw it balanced out really well since the coleslaw was creamy and sweet. 

The oxtail had lots of meat and sauce and rice and peas (but no coleslaw!). It was good but the meat just wasn't tender enough or cooked for long enough to really absorb the flavour from the sauce. The rice and peas had a kind of clove flavour (?). In terms of value, it was better value than Spice is Rite, but it wasn't as good in terms of flavour and the portion size was also really good here.

December 22, 2018

After a great Jamaican food experience at Sansimian, we wanted to try out some other Jamaican restaurants for research and comparison purposes.

 

Tucked away in a corner of a strip mall on Underhill is Allwyn's Bakery which, according to Blogto, has the best jerk chicken. 

Coco bread with a beef patty

I had no idea this was a thing. I like the coco bread, but it feels kind of weird to have two layers of flaky pastry and bread.

Oxtail and jerk chicken with coleslaw and rice & peas

I like their rice and peas, but the oxtail wasn't as good as Sansimian. The oxtail wasn't as sweet as Sansimian, rather it was more savoury. It's also interesting that they use a different rice for the oxtail and jerk chicken. The jerk chicken was pretty good, but I still think Ritz does a better jerk chicken. The jerk chicken with the coco bread was pretty good since it was like sweet from the bread and spicy and flavourful from the chicken. 

Aleppo Kebab

Nov 8, 2020

We were exploring the options on Ubereats and noticed that Aleppo Kebab was doing BOGO and on top of that Ubereats gave me a 50% off coupon, which worked out to a pretty sweet deal even with the delivery fees. 

 
Half Aleppo Mix $33.99 (it's one tinfoil container not two)

It was a bit more expensive than the in-store price (which was likely due to the Ubereats mark-up), but it was still a lot of meat with lots of pita underneath and sauce containers on the side. It didn't come with rice or fries, but since we also had the mixed plates (below), it worked out to be a lot of food. 

 

Mixed Kebob Plate (BOGO) with Chicken Kebab, Aleppo Kebab, rice or fries (we got one of each), grilled tomato, jalapeno, onion, pita, hummus and salad $18.99

The plate was a lot of food and very flavourful and delicious - it was great value for money since we got two of these plates for $18.99 and it came with so much food!

October 27, 2020

After reading the BlogTo article on Aleppo Kebob last year, I've been meaning to try Syrian food.

I thought the half Aleppo mix would be a good start to try a sample of their kebobs

 

Half Aleppo Mix $29.99 

The platter came with two spicy Adana kebabs, two Aleppo kebabs, one chicken and one beef cube kebab. The Adana and Aleppo kebabs were pretty tasty with a flavourful spice mix (and some extra spiciness for the Adana kebab). The chicken and beef cubes were also marinated and seasoned well with good flavour and nice juicy meat with a slight char on the outside from the grill. 

The platter also came with grilled onions, tomatoes and hot peppers. I personally liked the grilled tomatoes, not quite the same as Persian style grilled tomatoes with the tomato cut in half and placed on the grill, but they had the char from the grill and were pretty tasty. I would skip the onions and hot peppers thought (except when eating the onions and parsley mix with the pita and kebabs - because that was delicious altogether). 

 

The sauces:  garlic sauce, babaganoush and hummus

The platter usually comes with hummus and garlic sauce, but they gave us a complimentary babaganoush to try. It had a slightly smoky flavour but the eggplant spread was really nice. The hummus was a little thinner than the hummus at Ghadir and had a slightly smokier flavour as well. The garlic sauce was delicious, but also not quite as good and addictive as the Ghadir garlic sauce. Overall, the sauces still paired well with the meats and it was really tasty! 

Large Rice $6.99

When I ordered, I wasn't too sure what would come with the platter since they only said 6 skewers, so I ordered a large rice to go with it. In hindsight, I probably don't need the large rice since there was so much food with the platter, but the rice was super savoury and flavourful with spiced with saffron and other spices to make you want to keep eating it!  

Website: http://www.aleppokebab.ca/

Yang Teashop

Nov 8, 2020 via Takeout & Ritual Delivery

I got some different sizes to compare.

$5.50 Medium Signature Tea Latte and $6 Large Signature Tea Latte

The sizing at Yang Teashop is super strange - the small is super tiny, the medium is regular and the large is huge. Good to know and keep in mind for the future (their milk tea is so good!)

Nov 6, 2020 via Ritual Delivery

Ritual was running a promotion with Yang Teashop, where they had BOGO and free delivery! So I ordered their iced signature tea latte for $4.50 (excluding tax and tip). I placed the order at 2:29pm and was told to expect delivery by 3:29 (but luckily it arrived before 3pm)

Small iced signature tea latte with less sugar

Their signature latte uses a delicious black tea with hint of lychee flavour and organic milk (which is really deliciously smooth and creamy). The cup sizes were super small when you look at it, but we ended up reheated one cup and adding a bit more water (to dilute the sweetness) and it actually equated to about two normal sized mugs. 

October 28, 2020 @ 5295 Yonge Street

I love BOGO deals so when Yang Teashop was running their BOGO promotion, I decided to try it out.

Marble Boba Milk Tea (regular size)

The drinks turned out to be SUPER small! Wow I was disappointed especially since they were charging about $4.70 for the regular ($5.42 with tax) and it seemed really pricey considering the portion size and there was also a lot of toppings in the drinks (which meant less drinkable milk tea!)

The tapioca was chewy with a nice bite to it, but I don't really like too much tapioca in my bubble tea (I actually prefer just drinking the milk tea without toppings) and the milk tea turned out to be super sweet even with less sugar and less ice. The tea flavour was pretty good and the milk had a nice rich creamy flavour, so I would order it again, but when it's not as expensive. 

Website: https://www.yangteashop.com/

Burger's Priest @ 860 York Mills

Nov 6, 2020

Burger's Priest had BOGO on their Single Priest through Ubereats

Single Priest $7.99

I think of this burger like a high quality big Mac with juicy burgers, yummy sauce (similar to Big Mac sauce, but more onion-y) and I had the option to opt out of pickles and this is all on a delicious fluffy bun that didn't taste artificial! 

Pretty good deal! 

Oct 4, 2020

I wonder if they offered $3 cheeseburgers to compete with the A&W burger deal?

Pretty loaded saucy cheeseburger with mustard, lettuce, ketchup, mayo

The burger was seasoned well and pretty tasty, but it was on the dry side. The sauces seemed like a lot, but it helped compensate for the drier patty.  Overall, it had a good combo of condiments to sauce to burger to bun and it didn't make me super parched after = better than A&W mama burger. 

Website: https://theburgerspriest.com/

Craig's Cookies

Nov 5, 2020 @ 1581 Bayview Ave.

Super excited they opened a Craig's Cookies in Midtown Toronto! The more central location makes for an easier trip than going downtown. 

$16 for 6 cookies

At around 6pm, there were about 3 people in line already and the line moved super slow. The selection was also quite different from downtown and there weren't as many varieties here (or maybe it was the time of night)

Clockwise from top left: Glossette Raisins, Bounty, Shortbread, Trail Mix, Brookside Blueberry and Brownie

All cookies here had a salty buttery batter, which basically made all the cookies really weird - they didn't taste like the ones made at Church Street. So I was pretty disappointed with the cookies here.

Glossette raisins: This was one of the better cookies in the batch with a soft and buttery texture and sticky chocolatey raisins. 

Bounty: Salty was my first impression and very different from the ones downtown. I really liked this cookie before at the Church location, but the salty cookie paired with the hard and unmelted bounty bar was rather disappointing. 

Shortbread: The shortbread had chocolate in the middle which was unexpected and kind of nice, but the texture combination was strange because the short bread was hard and crumbly and the chocolate chip cookie outside wasn't that soft either. The double cookie sensation was too odd for me and while it was salty, it wasn't as salty as the rest. 

Trail mix: Salty and sweet with a pretty good cookie, but it wasn't as buttery as usual. 

Brookside blueberry : Super sweet and sticky with the chocolate blueberry. I found it too sweet and not a good pairing in general since the chocolate was super sweet and the cookie was salty. 

Brownie: Another really sweet combination which was even more pronounced with the salty hard cookie. I also found the taste was a bit off since it seemed like the chocolate chip brownies were overbaked and slightly old.

This location is relatively new, so they could be figuring out their recipes, but I think it'll be a long time before I come back. 

June 29, 2020 @ 483 Church Street

I was super lucky this time! There was no line-up to get into Craig's Cookies and they had so many varieties that it made for a great selection. 

Dozen cookies

Clockwise from top left: pop tart, cookies and cream, Nutella, cheesecake, Rice Krispies and mini egg in the middle

The pop tart cookie was a delicious buttery cookie baked with a strawberry pop tart in the middle. I found it really good! I liked that it was different and it was sweet and delicious with jam and the pastry crust.
I was surprised that the cookies and cream cookie had the Hershey's cookies and cream bar inside! I could taste the crunchy cookie bits and I really liked that it wasn't as super sweet as the candy bar.
I also really liked the Nutella cookie, it had a little bit of salt to balance it out and definitely stood out as something different from the sweet cookies. 

The cheesecake in the cheesecake cookie was unexpectedly fluffy, but it didn't have the classic cheesecake crust though: just fluffy sweetened cheese.

I also really liked the rice krispie cookie with a whole chunk of melty marshmallow rice krispy square in the middle. I thought the chewy rice krispy worked well with the buttery cookie.
I really love the mini egg cookie, so I got two this time around. Mini egg chocolates and chocolate chips baked in a yummy buttery cookie - what more could you ask for?

Clockwise from top left: cinnamon bun, mini egg, peppermint patty, PB cup, brownie, Reese's pieces in the middle

The cinnamon bun cookie was super distinctive since it was the biggest cookie in the box and it was also super obvious that it was placed in the middle of the cookie. The cinnamon bun was pretty good (even though it didn't have icing), but it felt like it was a cinnamon bun rather than a cookie. 

The peppermint patty and Reese's pieces are some of my favourite cookies here, so I had to get it again. 

I thought the PB cup was going to be a Reese's peanut butter cup, but it wasn't! Instead it was a different recipe that tasted similar (having the same main ingredients of peanut butter and chocolate), but it wasn't as sweet and it was more salty which made the cookie salty and sweet. 

The brownie cookie was really good - just pure sweet and yummy baked brownies in a cookie (not really fudgy though). 

May 29, 2020 @ 483 Church Street

I've heard so much about Craig's Cookies and when they were featured on BlogTo a few times over the last few months, I've really been craving their mini egg cookie.

Box of Dozen Cookies $28

Clockwise from top left: Mr. Big, Mini Egg, Cookies and Cream, Reese's Pieces (middle), M&Ms, Mars

Crispy Crunch, Bueno, Bounty, Peppermint Patty

The cookies were all so GOOD! It was super hot outside, so the cookies melted a little faster (especially those with chocolate), but they maintained their shape and flavours pretty well. 

The mini egg cookie was everything I wanted (and I got the very last one they had at the time). Crispy mini egg chocolates baked into a yummy buttery cookie made it perfect! 

Some other highlights of the dozen were the peppermint patty with the minty fresh dark chocolate inside, bounty with coconut and milk chocolate bar baked in the middle and Mr. Big with wafer, caramel, peanuts and rice crisps and chocolate - the Mr. Big was a nice combination of salty and sweet. 

The Reese's pieces and M&Ms were really colourful and fun! I liked the Reese's Pieces better with the peanut butter flavour.  The cookies and cream, Mars bar and Crispy Crunch were on the sweet side and had lots of buttery cookie. I thought I'd like the Bueno a lot more since I like the Bueno bars, but I found that in comparison with the other cookies, the two stacked Bueno bars baked in the middle weren't as interesting. 

Website: https://craigscookies.com/

Patisserie la Cigogne

Nov 5, 2020

Croissant $2.65

This was half the price of the pistachio croissant nearby at Bomou, and I really liked this one since it was super soft, fluffy and a little flaky with a delicious buttery taste! Also would come back for this croissant - Yum!

Bacarra Cake - Pistachio cake and hazelnut mousse $7.50

The overall impression of the cake when I was eating it was that it was sticky. There was a lot of glaze and the mousse inside was on the harder side and the thin layer of apricot jam in the middle was sticky too - I wonder if it's because it's been sitting out all day (or for longer) and everything just hardened. 

Nov 23, 2018

Bacarra cake

Somehow this just didn't have the same impact it had before. The cake was a little dry and stale and the chocolate layers were kind of sticky. The apricot layer was also strange. It seemed like there was more hazelnut cream than any pistachio flavour, I don't think it's the same anymore.

November 2, 2014

I can't help it - I had to go back for the Bacarra

Bacarra, Pear Sabayon Tart and Tiramisu

The Bacarra was just as delicious and heavenly as I remember it. YUMMY!

The pear tart and tiramisu were really good too...but the highlight of the day was the Bacarra for sure. 

October 31, 2014

Wow, I can't believe it's been two years since I've last had one of Patisserie la Cigogne's cakes (I guess this is one of the reasons why I still keep blogging haha). 

It's so weird because every time someone asks me for a cake recommendation - the first place that comes to mind is "Patisserie la Cigogne - it's a little far from the downtown core, but it's worth the trip!". It also helps that there's the Danforth location now - which is where I sent my friend recently for their amazing pistachio cakes. 

Croq-Pistache (x2), Opera, Mikado, Prince Noir and Symphony

The Croq-Pistache was just as good as I remembered it with the crunchy & crispy layers in the cake. However, I was a little sad I couldn't get the Bacarra (which is my new favourite cake). Instead, we got these other cakes to make up for it. 

Opera was a mocha butter cream and chocolate cream layered with Joconde biscuit with a chocolate glaze. I liked the mocha and chocolate cream with the crispy biscuit, but after all the pistachio desserts - this seemed a little too simple for me. It's classic and delicious - but I appreciate innovative desserts and cakes more. 

Mikado was another choice made with lemon madeleine sponge and lemon mousse with strawberry filling. The tart lemon made the white chocolate stand out more and made the cake overwhelmingly sweet. I would have liked if they used something else to balance the sweetness like a dark chocolate instead of white chocolate.

Next, the Prince Noir (I think?) with crispy praline crust, roasted hazelnut coffee butter creme and chocolate mousse finished with a dark glaze. The hazelnut mousse really stood out to me - it was so rich in nutty flavour and the cake had all these great textures. I would definitely order this again.

Last, the Symphony with a combination of dark, white and milk chocolate mousse filled with fresh raspberries with a pink sparkly glaze on top. The flavours seemed like it would work, but I feel like la Cigogne is known for their rich vibrant flavours that stand out (at least that's the case with bacarra and Prince Noir) and I felt the raspberry and chocolate flavours were a little lost in this cake since there was too much going on with all three chocolates.

Up close and personal pictures...

Working those camera shots and angles (LOL)

September 9, 2012

Tarte Flambée $11.49

Alsatian style thin crust pie with bacon, chopped onion and cream cheese baked in stone oven. 

The tarte flambée is also named flammekueche  in the Alsace region of France (Flammekuchen in German). 

Delicious! It was like a thin-crust creamy alternative to pizza. The cheese, chopped onion and bacon combination on the thin bread was scrumptious! Patisserie la Cigogne only serves tarte flambées on Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 3pm and it's definitely worth the trip!

And then there are the cakes:

From top (clockwise): Ba-Ba au Rhum Cake, Bacarra, Apricot Almond Pie, Pinacolada, Croq Pistache and Raspberry Cheesecake in the middle.

My top 3 cakes are: Bacarra, the Apricot Almond Tart and the Croq Pistache. (I may be biased towards pistachio cakes)

Apricot almond pie: sweet crust filled with almond cream topped with sliced apricots and finished with apricot glaze and it was absolutely heavenly! This tart could totally give Clafouti tarts a run for their money. I also really liked that they added fresh raspberries to the tart to give it a tangy taste.

Pinacolada: coconut mousse & light pineapple mousse with dark chocolate cake soaked in rum. It was really different and the pastry chef stayed true to the pinacolada taste. Light, tasty and summery. 

Ba-Ba au Rhum Cake - It looked very pretty and light, but it had a heavy rum flavour and it was a little overwhelming.

Raspberry Cheesecake: sweet crust filled with white chocolate, cream cheese and fresh raspberries

Despite being a cheesecake, I found it rather fluffy and light. It was a simple and nice cheesecake, the downside was that the cookie didn't hold up too well.

Croq-Pistache: sweet crust filled with almond cream and crunchy hazelnut, finished with pistachio mousse

Wow - what a combination of flavours and textures with the crunchy hazelnut filling, soft airy pistachio mousse and the slightly chunkier almond cream filling. The flavours of the hazelnut and almond stood out more than the pistachio. It was a really unique cake.

Bacarra: crunchy pistachio, dark chocolate ganache and light caramel cream filled with peaches

This is my favourite dessert here! It just works wonderfully together with the pistachio, dark chocolate, peaches and dried apricot on top. Before this, I had no idea that these ingredients would even work together - but the chef has made a masterpiece with pistachio. Every bite is a delight!

Overall: One of my favourite cake places in Toronto! The service might be a little slow sometimes, but they consistently put out great desserts (especially pistachio ones) and food. On a weekend, the tables fill up with customers enjoying their coffee and patisseries similar to a cafe in France.

October 12, 2011

 For my brother's birthday, instead of buying one cake - we bought a selection of cakes (well it was also because our favourite cake at Patisserie la Cigogne [the Croq Pistache] wasn't available and the selection that night that was available wasn't super appealing to us). So instead, we grabbed the Bacarra, Exotic Flower, the Harmony, St. Eve, Louis XIV and Treasure Island (clockwise from the triangle at the top). We've had the Bacarra before and loved it - the patisserie chef at Patisserie de la Cigogne is amazing with pistachio desserts! We've had the best pistachio desserts here. The rest were really interesting, the Exotic flower was good and we thought the St. Eve was very nutty at first, but it grew on us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The rest of the desserts were good - but I think once was good enough for us.

Since I love macarons, we also decided to pick up a box. The pink ones were rosewater (which is not a favourite flavour of mine), but we really enjoyed the yellow and orange ones. The brown and green ones weren't as good. It's quite hard finding really good macarons in Toronto. So alas, the search continues...

Website: http://patisserielacigogne.com/