Cafe Fiorentina - Low Key Brunch on the Danforth

Brunch is one of those meals that you can spend hours chatting and whiling away the time with your close friends or significant other (which I love); unfortunately quite a luxury these days.  However, the thing I dislike about brunch is the long wait if you don't get up early enough to snag a table.  So, I set out to find a place that offered great food, takes reservations, and also is convenient to get to.

Cafe Fiorentina popped up.  Now, convenience is subject to where you live, but for me it was a lot more convenient to get here than to Queen West where a lot of the popular brunch places are located.  It's close to the DVP if driving and right near Broadview Station if taking public transportation (but recently they posted that they are moving more east, closer to Chester Station).  Reservations are only taken for their first seating at 10am.

Another thing worth noting is that they aim to create and cook food that uses local produce, humanly raised animals, sustainable seafood and heritage eggs.  I'm not too concerned with these things when choosing a place to eat, but I do think it's important to think about these things and while they aim to maintain these values, their menu is simple with unique touches and quite reasonably priced.

One of my friends ordered the french toast (decadent, the toast tastes like creamy custard)...

Another, the quiche (which was very light and fluffy!)...

And the duck eggs benedict which was served with tuna instead of the usual peameal bacon.

I had the Croque Madame which was very delicious; bread was nice, thick and crispy with ham and Gruyere cheese and sunny-side up eggs.

We all chose salad as our side but they also offer potatoes.

At the back there is a table of baked goods but they were selling fast throughout the morning so I would advise going early!

They have a small display of pastries which I considered but then I saw...

...these beignets and couldn't resist.  Essentially they are like donuts, but I was just drawn to them for some reason.  Also picked up a croissant which was well made too, buttery and flaky and a very good size!

At home, I enjoyed the light fluffy dough filled with a rhubarb strawberry filling.

Loved this place for the food and the comfortable feel of the place and staff.  I also hear that they do a wonderful prix-fix dinner.  Hoping to check out their new location in the fall and hope they maintain the cozy feel!
很愛這個餐廳/咖啡店 的餐和舒服的感覺.  聽說他們也有很棒的 prix-fix 晚餐.  希望秋天可以到訪他們的新店, 也他們能保持舒適的feel!

Cafe Fiorentina

new location to be open in the Fall of 2016

463 Danforth Ave.

Toronto, ON

http://cafefiorentina.com/

Why the occasional duplicate sentence written in Chinese?  

One of my goals starting in 2016 is to improve my Chinese language skills so this is one way I'm going about it.  
Please comment if you noticed I've totally messed up!  Thanks!

DT Bistro - Afternoon Tea

Beautiful pastry/dessert counter

DT Bistro is a wonderful little patisserie and lunch/dinner spot on Harbord Street in the Annex.  Simple yet elegant decor, it's a lovely spot for catching up with friends, a leisure meal, or just dessert and tea.  I had gone to an event here many years ago and had always wanted to come back.   A couple of weekends ago, I finally did for afternoon tea and my friends and I had a wonderful time!

幾個周末前, 我終於拜訪 DT Bistro, 喝下午茶.  大家都吃得非常暢快!

Ordered the Crown Ceylon tea.  Light astringency so I didn't need any sugar or milk.

Started with the savory items at the bottom tier and the mushroom soup was recommended first since it was warm...rich and full of flavour, loved it.  

$30 per person, minimum 2 persons for afternoon tea

The spring rolls and mango salsa was balanced and the smoked salmon croissant was so flaky and good.

The braised short rib, tender and with a spicy kick to it.

Scones were light and buttery...and ohhh the devonshire cream, heavenly!  Lemon curd and house made jams were also enjoyable.

Goat cheese onion confit crostini, good strong flavours.



Top layer was a variety of desserts we shared.  Enjoyed the raspberry macaron and the tiramisu in chocolate cup; nice and light.

We all were completely stuffed!

Service was so patient as we had several questions, took a while to decide, and some of my friends ended up ordering other items besides afternoon tea like desserts from the display case or brunch items. (They raved about the Veal Curry and the Ahi Tuna Sandwich.) I thought it was also good that they also do a half-tea option where you only get the desserts if you're not a big eater, but I would really recommend the whole afternoon tea as the savory items were all flavourful and well made.  When we also left, there was another table that forgot their leftover dessert and the server ran outside after them!

Quite the enjoyable afternoon!

Ceiling decor, stunning!

First floor seating area

There were also these fruit shaped marzipan creations.  So cute!  I bought one for a friend's party we were going to that night.  Contains walnut and sugar, unfortunately I don't know how it tasted.  

DT Bistro
154 Harbord St.
Toronto, ON M5S 1H2
T: 416-916-8155
www.dtbistro.com

Why the occasional duplicate sentence written in Chinese?  

One of my goals starting in 2016 is to improve my Chinese language skills so this is one way I'm going about it.  
Please comment if you noticed I've totally messed up!  Thanks!

Nadege - Financial District

I've heard good things about Nadege but have never been to any of their outlets, so when I wanted to pick up a snack I decided to try them out.  The financial district location in the Richmond Adelaide Centre (underground PATH) is a bit of a walk for me, but I figured I needed the walk.

Nice large and open space for downtown. 

After much perusing, I ended up getting a chocolate praline croissant which was pretty tasty.  Good dark chocolate flavour and the layers of laminated dough were good, crispy on top and slightly denser than your traditional croissant which I liked.  The praline didn't play a starring role though.

Pastry section with entrements/tarts was okay looking but nothing enticing enough to buy that day.  I got a chocolate macaron to sample and was a bit disappointed.  The chocolate filling was not very uniform, a bit dry in parts and not really a dark chocolate flavour, more milk chocolate.  The outside did not have as nice a crisp as others. Maybe this was an off day or something because I have heard good things about their macarons.

Had an iced tea (ginger lemon green tea) which was brewed from the brand Kusmi Tea (a French tea brand).  It was okay.  The cup was a bit leaky at the top though and I think the hot cups were a little nicer.  Service was efficient and friendly though.

 

Other offerings include sandwiches, a variety of sweets for gift giving, and chocolates; more specifically Alphabet Chocolate which caught my eye, the P for parmesan chocolate sounded interesting.  Despite the macaron, I'd go back again to give a few other things a try as I did enjoy the croissant or maybe I'll stop by one of their other locations. 

Nadege
THE PATH - Richmond Adelaide Centre
120 Adelaide St. W.
Toronto, ON M5H 1T1
416-368-2009