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| - In a plaza north of Finch and Midland already saturated with food options, Hong Kong's Smile Dessert has finally opened in Toronto. I had actually never heard of Smile Dessert before a few days ago, but after seeing some of the spectacular looking dessert creations on Instagram, I had to check this place out.
This cafe is a beautiful space with large windows, tables and bench seating on one side, as well as a few larger booths that could probably accommodate up to 10 people.
I stopped by on the first day of their soft opening. There must have been at least a dozen staff standing around at first, then rushing around to attend to customers. I was seated immediately. I enjoyed sitting near the kitchen to see some of the staff at work plating and preparing some of the beautiful creations. The staff were helpful and attentive. Appropriately for a soft opening, they seemed genuinely interested in hearing customer feedback.
I ordered the Oreo chocolate mousse (although in the menu the title is much more complicated than that). The cake was beautiful but slightly different than expected from the photo. Truthfully it was a bit phallic in presentation. The chocolate ganache was smooth and not sweet with a nice contrast of texture from bits of nuts and cookie crumbs. Clearly they keep the cake in the freezer, as the middle of my dessert was still frozen, which unfortunately did not allow the full chocolate flavour to shine through because of the colder temperature it was served at.
I also ordered the Mango Sago Mixed. It has a fun presentation with caviar-like tapioca, pomelo, and cubes of sweet Australian mango served on large spoons encircling a stemless glass of mango purée with a small amount of all of these toppings mixed in. This presentation helped to elevate this relatively simple dessert. However at $8.49, less pricey options would to get the mango sago with pomelo, or mango sago mixed with grass jelly (each $6.99).
They serve several hot food options, including popcorn chicken, seafood with cream sauce, and other offerings familiar to Taiwanese and Hong Kong styles of cuisine.
Dining alone, I did not indulge in any of the molecular gastronomy type desserts, like the beautiful sugar orb or flaming black sesame sponge cake or cute tiramisu pot. But I look forward to coming back with hubby, family and friends to try more of the cafe's offerings.
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