53 Brewer Street Soho, London W1F 9UY, United Kingdom  

posted by CBear

So after a busy day of battling crowds at the post Christmas sales, we stumbled into a cloud that caused us to stop in our tracks. The scent was buttery, vanilla-y and sweet. We turned to discover Scoop on Brewer Street, a gelaterie that boasts only natural ingredients in its gelato and mesmerisingly fragrant waffles and crepes.

I immediately asked what this amazing smell was that had pulled us in so magnetically and was told it was the waffles. The choice was clear, a waffle with 2 scoops of gelato please (it really is a crime not to try new gelato if given the chance). After considering the rows of colourful, fluffy gelato mounds, we settled on coconut (my flavour of choice) and pistachio.

The pistachio is not the usual shade of green (it's the browner scoop on the right) but that in itself is comforting... no added colours in this joint. Both flavours were really very good and the texture was smooth and creamy. Even though it's loaded with caramel drizzling, it wasn't sickly sweet. The waffle was also very good - not super dense but just dense enough to give a slightly chewy texture. All in all the combination was a thumbs up... maybe a double thumbs up.

So if you're hovering around Brewer Street, pop in, you won't be disappointed.

35 Elm Street,Toronto, ON M5G 1H1 - (647) 347 2712

posted by CBear

If you're into British food, this place is worth a look in. Owned by an Englishman and avid soccer fan, this place seems to draw Brits in Toronto like a magnet whenever the "footie" is on.

This gastropub serves up some pretty decent English fare but with a slight twist. The fish and chips, for instance, had cumin in the batter... I'm still not sure whether the flavour worked, but the fish was flakey and the batter was crisp - 2 ticks in the right boxes for anyone judging fish and chips. They also serve scotch eggs here - hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat then breaded and fried - if you haven't tried one before, give it a go.

Today we were on a mission to try the hand chopped burger. I've seen numerous reviews for this as a best burger contender and of course I became curious. We also ordered the sausage roll and the blueberry pancakes. Let's start with the sausage roll:

Sausage roll with a twist; duck and prune sausage in puff pastry served with what I'm told is "Oxford Sauce" (redcurrant, port, and mustard sauce). I LOVE duck so I was excited. All in all, it wasn't bad, but I felt like it needed more flavour and that perhaps there wasn't enough pastry in the sausage to pastry ratio. The sauce went very well with it though.

The pancakes, true to Britishness, were a little dense. It's true -you'd be hard pushed to find a wonderful, light and fluffy one in the UK, it's just not in our heritage. They were served with maple syrup and a kind of sweetened dollop of buttermilk, which ended up tasting like cream cheese frosting. I gotta say, despite the lack of airiness this was pretty good. Although, I am a sucker for pancakes.

Burger came with a choice of either Stilton or 3 year old Cheddar. I went with Cheddar and even though this may not be my favourite burger in the tdot, it was very unique and pretty good. The handchopped bit meant that there were little pieces of steak to chew on in the patty. This made it pretty juicy and chewy like a steak would be. The funny thing was that I found my burger tasted a lot like liver - not a bad thing for me since I love liver. The chunky chips in the skins were a bit of a let down though. They weren't crispy enough and even though they were well salted, I think the thickness made them more tasteless.

All 3 dishes with a pot of tea came to $45. Not cheap, but it's a great place to watch the game, service is friendly and they have a patio. Nice place to enjoy a pint and some food if you need a break from the Eaton Centre.

91 Main Street North, Markham, Ontario, L3P 1X3 (905) 472 9927

posted by CBear

First of all, let me kick this off by telling you that I am British. Yes, I come from the land of many a dry scone and numerous cups of tea, so I have had many high tea experiences, both good and incredibly bad. So when we decided to try this place for high tea, I was ready!

This tea room is supposed to transport you into Victorian England. I definitely appreciated the effort in the decor - dark maroon monogrammed wallpaper, wooden sideboards and high wooden beams near the ceiling gave a good old English feel. Every surface was covered in teapots, all different colours and shapes. Gave the impression that you were having tea with a crazy old English Lady... maybe a Royalist that went to the local equivalent of a Dollarama and collected all this stuff because it was a bargain. Interesting to say the least.

But onto the menu...

There was definitely an impressive variety of loose teas to choose from.  Afternoon tea ( tea, sandwiches, scones and cookies) comes for 2 people so we ordered 2 sets to share between 6 of us. Each person was able to choose their own tea served in a fine china cup with matching saucer accompanied by tea strainer. The waiter brought the loose leaf jars over for us to smell after the flavours had been picked. All very posh... I ended up picking the Buckingham Palace Garden Party tea which tasted like a mixture of English Breakfast and Earl Grey. Very refined... and even more so when sipped out of fine china with a gold rim. Pinky finger was raised!

The food menu on the whole was very English with things like Shepherd's Pie, sausage roll, Battenburg Cake, Victoria Sponge, Welsh Rarebit and Steak and Kidney Pie. We ordered Shepherd's Pie and the Sausage Roll with imported baked beans. The salad that came with it came with salad cream (popular in the UK and usually out of a Heinz bottle, a tangy kind of  thinner mayonnaise). The Shepherd's Pie (minced lamb in gravy baked with mashed potatoes on top) was ok, but not really that flavourful. The sausage roll (herbs and sausage meat baked inside puff pastry) wasn't bad either, but the sausage roll at Brickstreet Bakery (will blog about them later) is way better.

Onto the afternoon tea. First came the sandwiches. Pinwheel salmon and dill sandwich was very good, great taste combination. Then came a small hard boiled egg (quail?) with a half of a cherry tomato on it - ok. Ham sandwich and apple sandwich were pretty good. What followed was not so impressive : celery and walnut (although I hate celery so if you like it, maybe you will love it), cream cheese with cucumber and mint (the mint leaf I found a little over powering).

Then came the scones with Devonshire cream with an assortment of jams - the ultimate test for high tea! The scones were HUGE and although that is awesome, once I bit into one, the texture was off. A scone usually has a sort of crumbly texture, but this one was more airy in a bread-like way. So although it was good, I would say it was more a tea cake than a scone. The Devonshire cream, although tasty, again was the wrong texture and ended up more like whipped butter. Devonshire or Cornish clotted cream is usually incredibly thick and when you spread it on a warm scone, it melts a little bit but retains that creamy indulgence without trickling down the side. I get the feeling that had the scones been warmer, most of this stuff would have ended on the plate or soaked into the "tea cake".

All in all not bad at $40 per afternoon tea for 2 people (there were 6 of us altogether so it's not a charge by the head place). Great selection of tea, nice atmosphere, great service.