Nunu Ethiopian Fusion

Nunu Ethiopian Fusion

1178 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON
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6 out of 10

This place was voted Toronto's Best Date Restaurant 2009 by NOW Magazine. Having been there, I'd be inclined to say no to a proposed date here...

Reasons to go to this restaurant (Note: these only work when they are all applicable)
1. You live in the area and do not like transportation, public or otherwise
2. You've never had Ethiopian food before
3. You don't like spicy food
4. You like 'accessible' ethnic food
5. You know nothing about wine
6. You think a good date is one where you sit very, very far apart from each other, separated by a tacky candle centre-piece
7. You think the idea of watching your date stuffing dripping, oil-based stew into his/her own mouth (or your mouth, God forbid) is romantic
8. You like to share...

It should be noted that this is supposedly not a fusion restaurant. For the most part this is accurate. The main dishes are beef tibbs, stewed chicken, and "spicy" lentils. These are served on injera (teff-based sponge bread). This is not gourmet food. So when you make it "fusion" by putting it in a more formal setting, I'm not fooled. The whole concept of Ethiopian food is you share with the people at your table, and I find it sad that when you order a dish just for yourself it comes on a cute, rectangular, long plate, and pieces of injera are wrapped up like cinnamon buns on one side. When you order a platter to share, it comes out more traditionally, on a giant pizza-like plate, where the stews are served directly onto the pieces of injera lining the bottom. The individual dishes are much more attractive, and the traditional dishes look sloppy. This encourages not sharing, sucking all the good qualities of traditions out of th restaurant.

I also just need to take this opportunity to laugh at a comment on another review of this restaurant. Someone who had obviously never had Ethiopian food before said everything was so good and once they'd had this magical dessert made of fresh fruit, custard and whipped cream, they were convinced the kitchen was amazing, and they'd definitely go back again.

This is trifle. Trifle is British. Or Russian, apparently. The French have a version they call "British Soup". Congratulations on being completely food culturally unaware, commenter.

I will stop being such a jerk now. I will not stop laughing.

I would forgive all this (con)fusion if the food stood up for itself, but it just doesn't. I respect the restaurant for sourcing local vegetables, using high-quality products where they can, and even using only olive oil (a ton of it, but no peanut, vegetable, or cheap canola) but the dishes were just lacklustre. Maybe a little less oil and a little more flavour would have helped.


The collard greens were bland and so was the cabbage. Kudos for not using iceberg lettuce in the salad, but it was way too sweet. The yellow split peas were mild, and the spicy ones were too salty, and definitely wimpy heat-wise. The black lentils were the only interesting flavour - mustard - but interesting does not mean good. I wouldn't want more than a few bites of it. The roasted beets were the highlight of the vegetarian platter. They were chewy and dense, and somehow had a meat-like texture. Not too sweet. Oh, and the carrots were also very tasty. Real flavour (hurray local).


Then the meat. The only thing that stood out were the chicken legs with hard-boiled eggs. the berbere spicing was luscious. All the rest of the meat was tough and chewy. I know, I know, it's not supposed to be tender. It's a different tradition, steak-heavy, but it was just not tasty enough to forgive. The lamb had layers of fat, and when you only get a few tablespoons of the dish, it's just not enough meat. The chicken breast was bland. I think the kitchen is scared of adding too much heat. They don't want Ethiopian food novitiates to be overwhelmed. Especially on a date (now that they're the top date place). Well here's some advice: Cut the garlic in the salad and up the chili peppers. Chili peppers will release endorphins, so when you're disappointed by a mediocre meal you can at least enjoy your company.

Then there's the wine list. This is not a date restaurant with a list like this. $8 for Fuzion? Is that a joke? No, really, I mean is it a play on the name of the restaurant?

The prices are also confusing. You can get a vegetarian platter for $13, a meat platter for $15, but you get a mixed platter for $17...This doesn't make a whole lot of sense. the vegetables cost less than the meat, so adding them to the meat should make the whole dish cost less. As in $14. It didn't take an hour to cook the food, so it's not a labour issue since you're making more dishes. In fact you can order, say, a two-person meat platter and a one-person vegetable platter and end up with just about the same thing. All the same dishes (in fact, all the dishes on the entire menu...) for less than if you order a three-person mixed platter. Figure that one out...

So, don't go here if you want the best Ethiopian food in the city. Don't go here if you like tender meat. Don't go here if you like your water glass re-filled promptly when you're thirsty from all the salt. Don't go here if you are a romantic.

Go here if you appreciate good intentions enough to support a couple of restauranteurs who are simply trying to share the basics (not the best) of Ethiopian cooking with a city that appreciates fake upscale dining. Oh, and word to the wise: On a date, some like it hot...

Best Bet: Doro Wat (Chicken legs), Roasted Beets
Expect to Pay: $11-$16 for individual orders, $16-$21 each for a mixed platter, including tax and tip
Hours: Daily, 11am-12pm
(647) 351-6868
www.nunuethiopian.com

Distribution Alimentaire Aubut

Distribution Alimentaire aubut
3975, rue Saint-Ambroise
Montreal, QC

This place makes me uneasy. It’s a big warehouse, open to the public, but mostly serving restaurants, caterers and other food service industry people. For the most part things come in bulk, like the huge containers of pickled peppers you see at Shawarma places (or hot dog carts, for all you Torontonians). My least favourite company has its products everywhere in this store; CLIC canned and dried beans are everywhere. This is a representation of what this entire store is to me. Nothing is particularly good, but it’s all very, very convenient and relatively affordable. There aren’t really sales. Things might be priced slightly lower than retail, and when you buy in bulk that may make a difference for a restaurant, but this place is not about quality. There is actually a section of the store that sells only specialty products. A small selection of organics, honeys, mustards, paté, cutely wrapped up in Grandma-style packaging. But you turn around and there’s 10 times as much powdered soup base. I’m thinking those get bought a whole lot more often. There is also absolutely zero mark-down on any specialty items.

It gives me the creeps. Like walking into a place where food goes to die. To think that all these enormous packages of processed junk goes into people’s stomachs, and they pay for it! Okay, so you can get enormous blocks of cheese, imports, frozen fish and meat at the lowest prices in town, but that blue marlin someone just bought is endangered, and the duck legs were pulled from an overfed, extremely reluctant duck.

On the one hand, this is a magical store; it forms the beginning of delicious recipes at many of the city’s respected establishments. On the other hand, I never want to eat anything pickled that comes in a jar or can or plastic container again. Ever. I will walk to my neighbourhood Atwater Market with a re-usable grocery bag, instead of driving up to the warehouse, placing a bulk order, and having it packed promptly into my gas-guzzler. Keep your spreads, your sauces, and your preservative-laden fake food. Keep, even, your pesticide-sprayed ‘fresh’ produce. There are greater evils, and lots of other places are just as bad, but when you get slapped in the face with a place like this, you don’t just stand there and not react. This place is the best justification for the entire local food movement. It should go the way of the blue marlin. See how it feels to be bullied.

Distribution Alimentaire Aubut

514-933-0939

From Montreal With Love: A Gourmet Toronto Homecoming

I'm going back to Toronto today! And of course, I have grand eating plans. To give you an idea what I'll be writing about for the next while, here's a list of the places I want to review. There's a running theme of what restaurants and neighbourhoods have changed, what food trends are growing, and how the Toronto dinig scene compares to Montreal. Not so much a competition between the cities. Mostly a love story. Call me a romantic.

1. A comparison review of Hiro Sushi and Ame Sushi. Ame Sushi has taken over the space where the restaurant Rain used to be. The owners have not changed, but they are presenting a very different kind of culinary experience. I never went to Rain but I knew it was one of the swankiest places in town. It'll be fun to compare both the high quality of fish and the different styles of Japanese cuisine at both Ame and Hiro. These two restaurants stand in firm opposition to the growing trend of Japanese fusion and mediocre sushi restaurants in the city. It's disappointing to see that Montreal has even lower sushi standards and fusion is picking up here as well. Toronto can maybe start to feel a little proud of its Japanese restaurants, which are slowly catching up to Vancouver in terms of quality options.

2. A review of Da Gianni e Maria, an Italian restaurant I reviewed just before leaving Toronto two years ago. At the time it was the most authentic Italian experience I found in the city. Now with the new and improved St. Clair area, which was under construction the entire time I lived in the city, I'm looking forward to seeing what's changed in the restaurant, if anything. Hopefully it's stayed exactly as old-school Italian as it always was.

3. A review of Cruda Cafe, a new raw restaurant in St. Lawrence Market, a shocking change to the mainly meat-centric market takeaways. I've been to Live Organic food bar in Toronto and Montreal's Crudessence, and Montreal definitely wins the raw battle...until now?

4. A comparison review of Nunu's Ethiopian Fusion, a new Ethiopian restaurant outside of the Bloorcourt Village, and Zembaba's, a much more casual Ethiopian bar/restaurant in Bloorcourt Village that I reviewed before I left. Basically I want an excuse to rant about the upscale swing of Ethiopian in the city that now makes it very similar to the Ethiopian restaurant options of Montreal, like Le Nil Bleu.

6. A review of restaurant Loire (I will mention Gilead Bistro, where Jamie Kennedy has taken back over the kitchen helm, but not review it since it has recently been reviewed by the Globe). Loire opened just after I moved to Montreal. This restaurant seems to be what half the good restaurants in Montreal are - authentic - and so it's worthy of a comparison to some of the French restaurants I've tried in Montreal since my move (Au Petit Extra, Aix Cuisine du Terroir).

Pakerna

Pekarna
2313 Rue Sainte Catherine Ouest
Montreal, QC
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8 out of 10

I swear I will eat more salad...

It was brought to my attention that in my great Montreal Desserts adventure, I had overlooked a Slovenian shop just up the road from my house. I don't know how I missed a wall of cakes. I walk past the shop all the time. Anyway, when I was told that it was better than a lot of the places on my top 10 list, my heart fell, my sugar headache intensified, and I resigned myself to another dessert excursion. Oh God. So much cake. Don't get me wrong, I love cake, but there's a healthy intake and then there's just way too much. That "way too much" level comes a lot faster when you can't digest butter-cream icing, and oh God I love ganache, and butterscotch, and mousse.

...and the commenter was right. This place is very, very good. Pure refined sugar. Nothing good for you. Ignore the lunch counter. You come here for dessert, pure and simple. It's open late every day, weekdays until 11, midnight on Friday/Saturday, and 10 on Sundays. Right next to a movie theatre, it fit perfectly with my line about getting a piece of cake after a movie. I was skeptical at first because there were so many cakes in displays. Surely you couldn't buy them all by the slice, but you could! Then surely they must come from a factory. They don't. The café is owned by a Slovenian woman who bakes most of the cakes in a big, big kitchen on the south shore of Montreal. Her two daughters run the café and bake a few more cakes, cookies and squares in-store. No preservatives, real butter, real cream. Lots and lots of butter-cream.


There's an oreo cake AND and an oreo cheesecake! Three kinds of chocolate cake including mocha, brownie (layers and layers of actual brownie separated by rich icing and called cake) and tiramisu cake (the ladyfingers are on the outside. I think one of the layers is also soaked in rum).


Or you can try a truffle. You can tell they're home-made because they're huge and they don't look perfect.


Truffles are hard to make absolutely spherical and these are lopsided and coated in nuts or chocolate.


Then there are the "chubby nuns"...also called "Réligieuses". Cream puff pastry filled with thick, intensely sweet maple cream, topped with maple glaze, and assembled in layers that look like a church with steeples, or nuns who have eaten too many pastries. Everyone deserves something that makes them happy. If it isn't your vocation, there are worse things than sweets to fall back on...

Blasphemy aside, this is a shop full of (sinfully) sweet concoctions, and will bump a whole lot of Montreal desserts down the Top 10 list. Apparently you should try the apple pie, but with 4 lengths of counters filled with three-tiers of cake each, you have a tough choice ahead of you.

Oh, and the prices are low. Huge piece of flan for $2.99. Cakes around $4.25-$4.75. Big pieces of pie with flaky crust, even cheaper. Sounds too good to be true.

Pakerna
(514) 228-5222
Hours: Mon: 8am - 10pm, Tues-Thurs: 8am - 10:30pm, Fri: 8am - 11:30pm, Sat: 9am - 12am, Sun: 9:30am - 10pm

Montreal's Best Desserts Results!

Thanks to everyone who got in touch with me about their favourite Montreal dessert places, and especially thanks to the special people who ate a ton of cake with/for me. There are still half-pieces of maybe 8 desserts in my fridge, so my roommate has his breakfast work cut out for him for awhile. He was a great second opinion on the Brulerie St-Denis cakes, using wonderful adjectives, and discerning the hint of vanilla in the icing of the carrot cake that I had missed(!).

10 or so pieces of baklava and syrup-soaked pastries, 3 carrot cakes, 2 chocolate mousses, a chocolate cake, a chocolate swirl cheesecake, a key lime pie, a banana cake and a raspberry almond cake later, I think I'm done with cake for awhile. I did sneak leftovers of my favourites today and my stomach is currently wreaking havoc on the rest of my body. It doesn't quite understand that, try as it might, I'm not letting it escape. There are so many more things with which to fill it. Savoury things. Like vegetables. And lemon. And salad. So, so much salad. To see the whole article summarizing last week's adventures, check out Midnight Poutine.

Here's a list of the winners:
Top 10 Dessert Places in Montreal
1. La Croissanterie Figaro
2. Crudessence
3. Aux Deux Marie
4. Le Cagibi
5. Brocante Baleze
6. Brulerie St-Denis
7. Aux Vivres
8. Au Festin De Babette
9. Calories
10. Rockaberry

And here's the inside scoop for those who read here as well:
The best cakes were definitely at La Croissanterie Figaro, the reasons for which I explain in the Midnight Poutine post, but when you're craving cake, you're maybe not thinking about the best quality cakes. The Croissanterie Figaro cakes were light and beautiful and art in cake-form - chocolate mousse success like I've never achieved myself - but when I get a cake craving I will probably end up going to Aux Deux Marie for their chocolate mousse or carrot cake instead. Kind of like you know you'd be better off with the guy who has a house, a steady income, and a responsible four-door sedan, but instead you go out with the guy with the motorcycle and a mickey of gin. You know it's not the 'best' choice for you, but you do it anyway. Fortunately I don't often have this problem, as I would not want to combine a motorcycle with a mickey of gin. See? This is a responsible blog. Maybe even all-ages, what with the celebration of cake. It's important to teach kids good decision-making skills while they're young, I hear. I also digress...

So now I'm proud to say I know the best desserts in Montreal and am more than capable of recommending a place from a long list of sweet options. Feel free to disagree with me, though. In fact, please do! Let me know if I forgot somewhere. For instance, I hear tell that Beauty's has good home-made chocolate cake, but I could not physically handle another sampling of chocolate cake when I heard this, thus it got left off the list. Not good investigative journalism, I admit, but there is a line, and that would have passed it. To thine own self be true. Know your cake limits. Shakespeare knew about this stuff...

Montreal Desserts: Brulerie St-Denis

Brulerie St-Denis
3967 St-Denis
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5 1/2 out of 10

On the first eating stop of my Montreal dessert adventure, I decided to check out Au Festin de Babette, but as I'm a thorough investigator, I decided to look in every café window on my way up St-Denis in search of cakes. I was first stopped at Brulerie St-Denis by a three-tiered cake display. A million questions later, I had two pieces of cake (BMOT - brought my own tupperware) and a whole lot of answers.

I think the only reason I particularly cared about the Brulerie was because the carrot cake (bottom right of photo) was not beautifully glazed. Instead, the icing was smoothed simply around the whole body of the cake. Home made???

It turns out all the desserts at Brulerie St-Denis are bought from two Montreal companies:
Dawns Desserts and Fous Desserts.

Dawns Desserts doesn't have a shop, but delivers relatively freshly-made cakes and pies to certain Montreal cafés and restaurants, as well as doing private cake orders (by phone or email). Fous Desserts has a flagship store on Laurier, but also delivers (frozen cakes) to local businesses. Both websites say they are made with real whipped cream and the finest quality ingredients. Fous Desserts explicitly states it uses no preservatives and only the "richest butters and creams". I have a feeling Dawn Desserts skimps on the butter, though, because I know butter. When you don't eat a lot of butter, you really taste it and in Dawn's chocolate icing I did not taste butter. If it was there, it was not a particularly good butter.


The cakes: I went with Dawn's cakes because Fous Desserts had all been pre-frozen so I figured fresher would be better (but maybe you can get Fous Desserts' cakes fresh at the shop on Laurier?). Fous Desserts only had mousses and cheesecakes, kinds of cakes that can get away with freezing without people caring, but Dawn valiantly offered a two-layer Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake and a two-layer carrot cake (the colossal one with 6 layers you see at JavaU sometimes wasn't in attendance that day). If you're not like me, and are only getting one piece of cake, there's no question that you go with the carrot cake. The chocolate cake tasted like just about nothing. Non-buttery icing aside, it was a decent dense texture, though a bit dry from being refrigerated. It almost found a saving grace in a bit of espresso flavour in the icing, but it couldn't make up for the rest of the bland slice.

The carrot cake fared much better. The first of the two layers being a white cake with strands of carrot. Definitely not overly carrot-y, very moist, but the bottom layer had more of a gingerbread colour and taste, with more walnuts and dried fruit pieces, while staying just as fluffy and deceptively light as the top. The real cream cheese icing tasted respectable and was melt-in-your mouth smooth. Not the best carrot cake ever (Aux Vivres wins hands-down when theirs is fresh, despite the orange, grainy icing) but definitely not bad. If you're a cheesecake fan, try Fous
Dessert's Green Tea version, and for mousse, try the popular Phénix. I think these cakes get brownie points for trying to be wholesome and pure, but just don't make you feel like you walked into a Grandmother's kitchen. Definitely come back to these companies when you're craving that insanely bad-for-you piece of Oreo Mousse or Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake like you'd expect from a Cheesecake Factory.

Oh, so I got to Au Festin de Babette but the only cake they had was a small Chestnut Cream cake, which looked nice, and probably home made, but not exactly what I was hoping for cake-wise. It's cheaper at $3.75 a slice (a smaller slice) but I'd hold out on Au Festin de Babette for summer when you'll be craving their selection of soft ice cream, or go now for a rich, creamy hot chocolate.

Expect to Pay: $6.00-$7.50 with tax and tip

Brulerie St-Denis: 3967 St-Denis, 514-286-9158
5252 Cote-des-Neiges, 514 -731-9158
1587 St-Denis, 514-286-9159
Maison Alcan, 1188 Sherbrooke West, 514-985-9159
10 rue King, 514-397-9866
Ste-Justine Hospital, 3175 Cote-Ste-Catherine, 514-738-4900
Ptomenade Masson, 3039 Masson, 514-750-6259
Fousdesserts: 809 avenue Laurier Est, 514-273-9335, Tue-Wed 8am-7pm, Thu-Fri 7:30am-7:30pm, Sat 7:30am-6pm

Best Montreal Desserts

Help! I need suggestions! It's true, I love dessert and I often don't have it. There's nothing as bitterly disappointing as a fruit cup at a good restaurant. I don't care what kind of sorbet you serve with it. A half cup of mango purée with ice and sugar is a punishment (optimistic people would say a "torturous lesson in self-discipline) when the person sitting across from you is allowed a veritable mountain of Pain Perdu dripping in luxurious vanilla ice cream and maple syrup. If over half the world's inhabitants are at least slightly lactose-intolerant, then the dessert chefs are not catching up to the times. So there are very few places in this city where my stomach and head get along. Example:

Stomach says, "Cream! Butter! Sugar!"

Head says "Foolish child. You know you can't digest that."

So Stomach and Head have a tea and a dairy-free dry biscuit and weigh the short-term gain versus the long term pain. All very rational. But sometimes things don't go as smoothly, and Head says:

"How can you possibly be so head-strong when I disagree?" but promptly quiets down when it tastes the first bite of warm fleur de sel caramel brownie topped with old-style Vanilla ice cream from Juliette et Chocolat...Some days when this type of conversation happens, I go to bed with Head shaking itself, saying "I told you so!" and Stomach meekly admitting defeat and regretting every moment of chocolate-eating, except the first bite. Never the first bite.

Some days Stomach wins and Head shrugs, "Go figure? You should be sick now...and yet..." So it's a gamble and this seems to run in my family. The lactose-intolerance and the gambling, I mean.

...and I had a point...hmm...

Oh yes, I remember. I don't eat as much dessert as I would if I could, and I review food, and I want to do a review of the best desserts in Montreal. This is a conundrum. I am actually willing to sample small amounts of dairy-laden desserts for the good of Montreal readers, but since I've only been here two years, I haven't had enough opportunities to go after forbidden fruit. So I don't know all the hidden gems of the city's sweet-tooth. This is where you, the facilitator, comes in. I need recommendations, stories, addresses and names. The more information the better. When you think cake in Montreal, what do you envision?

In addition, I'm being particular. Here are my criteria:
1. A place that serves an individual piece of cake or pie or cheesecake (not little individual pastries, mille-feuilles, croissants and danishes like Première Moisson)
2. Not a counter patisserie. There must be somewhere to sit to enjoy this piece of cake. Even Cocoa Locale, who's renowned as the best cake-maker in the city, shouldn't really count as you can't sit and enjoy a single piece. You must buy a whole cake and take it to go. Though some cakes are smaller, they are still not meant to be eaten in a single sitting.
3. Preferably it should be open in the evening to have dessert after dinner. This is just to eliminate the bakery-style places and focus on café-style locations.
4. Somewhere you would go to celebrate a special occasion, but could also walk in on your own, and would certainly walk in because the place is known for its desserts
5. Not a fine dining restaurant with a ridiculously good pastry chef (a dessert sampling platter is not the kind of semi-casual indulgence I'm looking for)
6. Home made! Not factory-made. I'm on the fence about places like Rockaberry, Calories and Cheaters Dessert Bar. Definitely not worthy of the top of the list.


Here's what I have so far:

1. Le Figaro (Croissanterie)
2. Le Cagibi
3. Mamie Clafoutis
4. Crudessence
5. Cocoa Locale
6. Bilboquet
7. Cafe Beleze
8. Au Festin De Babette
8. Juliette et Chocolat
9. Calories
10. Cheaters Premium Dessert Bar
11. Rockaberry Tart

Le Figaro: I thought this was just a croissant and pastry place, but no, it makes its own beautiful cakes, is open late, encourages lingering, has a beautiful atmosphere (and terrasse in summer) and, well, is perfect if you can/choose to digest cream. You should eat their chocolate mousse cake. Three layers of...oh just eat it. Everything made fresh. All delicious.

Le Cagibi: Great atmosphere and great home-made desserts. They have a beautiful glass cake container that sits prominently on the end of their counter. It's not made there...but it is obviously home made (you can tell by the shape of the icing) and often the chili-laced brownies are brought in from Cocoa Locale.

Mamie Clafoutis: This is the sunniest, quietest, warmest place to hang out with dessert and a coffee, alone or in a group. Somewhere between a café and a take-out patisserie (I didn't know they had an upstairs full of plush chairs and games nights until a few days ago), this place won't sell you a piece of cake, but the Clafoutis are so unique and the atmosphere is so conducive to sitting and enjoying your dessert that I had to count it. Besides, it's open into the evening, meaning it's more than a place to pick up a sweet or loaf of bread and go. Definitely worth an after-dinner trip.

Cocoa Locale: Amazing date cake. Everyone seems to love the Valhora Chocolate cake, but I'm not sold on it. The chili brownies you can often find at Le Cagibi, your only option if you want to sit to eat that piece of dense chocolate. Since there's no actual place to eat in the shop, I only include it because you can buy her desserts at other places that think chairs are good ideas. Probably it's a good idea to keep nosy patrons out of your store post-purchase if your tiny kitchen is also your sales counter and you have a million cakes to bake by the end of the day. Let somewhere else encourage sitting.

Cafe Beleze: The owner here can be very rude...but even if he can't tell you what's in the cakes and loaves, and tells a lactose-intolerant person that maybe she should buy a piece of cake and see what it's like instead of asking so many annoying questions (very not okay), the cake shouts "home-made". One answer he did give was that the chocolate layer cake was made by a friend. No factory involved in this one, and it again showed in the roughly-applied icing. Way more love went into that cake than a cookie-cutter cake from Rockaberry...now if only the owner weren't so mean.

Bilboquet: Known for incredible ice cream (the original store on Bernard in Outremont serves bigger scoops than the one in Westmount or what you'll get at Java U...), the other desserts here are not to be missed. Though you're not going to walk in and start sharing an ice cream cake between a group of friends (hmm...), you get a beautiful choice of baked goods large enough to qualify as a dessert indulgence equivalent to a piece of cake. They may even have a cake that day.

Crudessence: Pop in any time of day for mousse, key lime pie or blueberry cheesecake (or whatever the chef has created) and enjoy a very different kind of guilty pleasure. Their desserts are refined sugar-free and are all vegan, but you'd never know the cheesecake was made with macademia and cashew nut purée until you're done and instead of feeling gittery from a sugar high, you feel full for the next 5 hours. Very full, and glowing.

Honourable mention:
Best Baklava: Afroditi Bakery. Not the Middle Eastern kind you find all over the city from take-out places to grocery stores, this baklava is the Greek version and comes swimming in honey syrup. More like a gooey pouding chomeur than a dry Christmas cake. If you live more downtown, you can also find their baklava at the PA Supermarket on rue du Fort. (I've heard tell that Ambrosia actually has the best baklava, but it's in Laval, not Montreal, so doesn't quite qualify for the competition. It definitely shouldn't be ignored, though). So baklava isn't cake, obviously, but you really can go to Afroditi and sit in a great space to enjoy your dessert of choice. The cakes you need to buy whole, putting this more in line with Première Moisson in terms of a place for buying and eating pastry with your Grandmother, but Première Moisson has nothing on the baklava, AND these guys are open late, encouraging a post-dinner excursion.