Neo Coffee Bar - Japanese Roll Cakes

Neo Coffee Bar
161 Frederick Street, Unit 100
Toronto, ON M5A 4P3
http://www.neocoffeebar.com

Japanese roll cakes are the newest Japanese inspired desserts available on the Toronto cafe scene.  Opened a week ago, Neo Coffee Bar specializes in coffee as their name would imply, but for me, the sweet treats make this coffee bar a draw.  I was happily rewarded for my lunchtime trek with a deliciously light and well flavoured roll cake. 

What I had:  Shingen: roasted soybean cream, organic red beans, and gyuhi rice cake (softer kind of mochi).

Shingen Roll Cake

Although they had a matcha roll and a matcha cookie, which were hard to pass up, roasted soybean is not often found in dessert shops and I really like the taste of kinako (roasted soybean flour).  Their website lists a host of other flavours that weren't on dispaly so I assume not all flavours are available daily.  The Shingen roll was really good!  Luv! Cake was light and moist, the roasted soybean cream had just the right amount of roasted sweetness and the rice cakes were soft and although not as chewy as the usual mochi, I still enjoyed the texture contrast. Often kinako is used to coat mochi so I can see the connection.

Aside from coffee, Neo also offers tea.  Two speciality teas and basic teas from Sloane Teas which I've noticed on many of the menus of cafes I've visited recently.  Sloane Teas have been around for a number of years (and it appears they are doing quite well) but I've only had a taste of their tea at a food show many years ago and don't remember much about that experience except the beautiful tea cannisters.  So, I decided to try it out and paired my cake with the Sloane Signature Black Tea - a blend of Darjeeling and Assam leaves and it went quite well with the cake.  I preferred no milk or sugar in my tea, but do take the tea bag out after a few minutes.

Service was nice and the room is quite spacious with individual seating at the front and larger tables at the back.  Quite minimalistic, but the warm cognac colour of the leather seating making it quite inviting - loved it.  In terms of atmosphere, the only thing I think they still need to establish is their own cafe vibe...they just opened so it will take time to develop.

Would definitely say it could be rated 5/5 based on the roll cake alone but I'm always hesitant to give perfect until I've tried a bit more of their offerings.  An additional note, they have a stamp card, buy 9 drinks and the 10th is free.