Short & Sweet Cupcakes

I've been dying to find a good cupcake place, with consistently good cupcakes.  It's not worth my time to go to a place where I can find ONE good cupcake variety, but all the other ones suck because they're either too dry, too oily, or not enough flavor.  And I'm only talking about the cupcake base.  The buttercream/frosting on the top is something totally different.  The best buttercream that I have tasted has to be from Magnolia Bakery in New York City.  I have yet to find any place in Toronto that makes such a light buttercream, it's always so super heavy and dense, and sugary gritty!

Short & Sweet Cupcakes at least does the base right.  Nice and fluffy without being greasy.  It's not too sweet, so when you do eat it with the buttercream/frosting, it's just the right amount of sweetness.  The chocolate cupcake had just the right amount of chocolate.  The vanilla cupcake had just the right amount of vanilla flavor.  But for some reason the red velvet lacked in chocolate flavor!  I think my favorite had to be the carrot cupcake.

If there are any parents out there that are looking for delicious AND nut free cupcakes, this is where to go.  These cupcakes are not by any means friendly to the wallet, they're $2.90 each.  But if your child is only allowed to bring nut free cakes to school to share with their buddies, this is the place to go.

Short & Sweet Cupcakes

I wish I took a picture before my inlaws attacked the box.  They went right at it as soon as the box hit the kitchen table.  This is what I had left by the end of the night.  :(

Short & Sweet Cupcakes
1945 Avenue Road
Toronto, ON M5M 4A2
Tel: 416-519-6633
http://www.shortandsweetcupcakes.ca

In the fall they will be opening up a location in Vaughan.

Le Cafe Michi

This was the sister restaurant to Sushi Kaji, but now they have separated.  I have yet to try Sushi Kaji.  What's stopping me is the fact that I don't really eat fish, and it costs $120+ per person for their omakase there.  I need to save a few more months before I can bring myself to going.

I have been repeatedly told by a friend that Le Cafe Michi has really fresh fish.  Even though I won't really be tasting much of the fish there, I figured the hubby would enjoy it.  He doesn't get to eat much fish at home, because I don't enjoy the smell of fish.  And we rarely go out to Japanese restaurants, because Japanese restaurants have a limited  selection of non fish items.  This visit I hoped would also be an eye opener for my in laws since they like Japanese food so much, but only eat at AYCE restaurants.  I personally hate AYCE, it's always quantity over quality, and I don't eat much.

On this visit, we ordered the Chicken KatsuDon, Cafe Au Lait Chirashi, Egg & Eel Rice, and the Chyo-Chin Bento.  The KatsuDon came with a normal green salad, the greens were very fresh.  The other meals came with tea or coffee, seaweed salad or green salad, miso soup and a slice of cake from their display by the front door.

Seaweed Salad

Portions here were very large in my opinion.  My KatsuDon was huge.  I couldn't finish it.  I have to say though, that the chicken cutlet could have been a little crispier.

Chicken KatsuDon

I did steal a piece of tuna from the hubby's chirashi.  That was the freshest tasting piece of tuna I've had in Toronto.  Wayyyyy better than Guu!  But not quite as good as in Tokyo :).  I also got to try a piece of karaage from the bento box.  That was just ok.  Guu's karaage was much better.  I was told that the Eel and Egg rice had a large portion of eel.  So i assume that's good?

Chirashi

Chyo-Chin Bento



Eel & Egg Rice

Last but not least, the desserts!  There were so many cakes to choose from!  Half of the cakes are freshly baked by the owner, the other half were La Rocca cakes.  We chose to try the Chocolate Sake cake, Green Tea & Red Bean cake, and Hazelnut cake.  I LOVED the Chocolate Sake cake.  Layers of smooth chocolate mousse with a hint of sake.  The Green Tea & Red Bean cake was delicious too.  Good green tea flavor, I just found the red bean to be a little too sweet for my liking.  The hazelnut cake was my least favorite.  Too sweet. I have a suspicion this was a cake from La Rocca, but the in laws wanted it.....so....they finished it.

Before we left the restaurant, my hubby was already thinking of when we could come back and which one of our friends we were going to ask to join us!  As for the eye opener for the in laws, I have failed.  They just thought this restaurant was ok.  I ddn't realize it before, but I have found out the ONLY fish they eat is salmon.  Next time definitely not bringing them back here again.  Cheaper to take them to their favorite AYCE Japanese restaurant.  But then I would have to suffer by eating subpar food. :( 

This restaurant is very small, if you want to eat here, it's best if you make a reservation.

Le Cafe Michi
1802 Pharmacy Ave
Toronto, ON M1T 1H6
(416) 490-9688

Tue-Sat 11:30 am - 9 pm

Sun 11:30 am - 8 pm

Lola's Kitchen

I've been meaning to try this place out for brunch for the last few months.  So many positive reviews about this place.  But the time that we were THIS close to actually going, good thing we gave them a call and asked about wait time.  They told us to come 3 hours later.  I was hungry, I'm not waiting 3 hours. This time we were smarter.  We made reservations.

Everything on the menu was very typical brunch food.  There were eggs Benedict, brunch bowls, eggs with bacon or sausage or ham.  But what stood out to me most was their cheesecake stuffed french toast.  It sounded super unhealthy, but could be potentially VERY good.  I fought hard to fight the temptation to order it.  In the end I ordered a 'Shroom Benny, most of the table ordered the Brunch Bowl with eggs cooked various ways, and a Croque Lola.

The food came out at varying times.  And it was just warm, not hot.  I like my food hot, so this kind of bothered me a bit.  My 'Shroom Benny reminded me of Eggs Florentine.  But instead of it being on an English muffin, it was on a whole wheat biscuit.  This biscuit was not fluffy, but dense.  I did like their version of a hollandaise.  It had some dill in the sauce.

'Shroom Benny

The Brunch Bowl had sweet potato and regular potatoes, onions, mushrooms, spinach, house made pork sausage, cheese curds and eggs any way you like.  Our table ordered 3 brunch bowls, one with eggs sunny side up, one over easy and one with scrambled eggs.  I guess the in laws like to eat the same thing?  I tried a bit of my hubby's and didn't like it that much.  I found it too salty in some spots and not salty enough in other spots.  Just not very consistent overall.  Also to mention, the sausage was pretty spicy, the mother in law couldn't eat it.

Brunch Bowl

Croque Lola, I didn't get to try.  But there were complaints about it too.  I must have heard "Where's the cheese in this?" several times.  I guess this croque didn't have enough cheese in it.

Croque Lola

After feeling not so satisfied with my meal, I caved and ordered the petite size Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast.  I had high expectations for this dish.  I have only read good reviews about it.  I was expecting warm and soft lemon vanilla cheesecake in between 2 slices of moist on the inside crunchy on the outside french toast.  What we got was dry lemon cheesecake with dry french toast.  I liked the raspberry sauce though!

Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast

I have to say, I was pretty disappointed with this restaurant, especially reading so many good reviews about it.  It's not only the food that disappointed me, but the service as well.  When we were served our coffee, milk and cream was brought over, no sugar, we had to ask for it.  And when the orders for our meal was taken, the server was about to walk away without taking my order.  I'm not sure I would be coming back for a repeat visit especially since there's so many other good breakast/brunch places downtown.  But in case you do decide to make a visit on the weekend, make a reservation because it was super busy when we left.

Lola's Kitchen
634 Church St.
Toronto, ON
416-966-3991
Monday - Friday: 11am - 3pm
Saturday & Sunday: 9am - 4pm