Oishinoya Broadway

Boy, this location along the Broadway corridor at Cambie has changed hands a few times!  First, it was Ramen One, where it emulated Ichiran's lonesome dining within your own cubby with minimal human interaction.  Then we found 404 Coffee Lab taking over the entire space (they were only a small window attached to Ramen One at first) offering up beverages with some food options.  Now the place is an outpost of the Oishinoya chain dishing up various version of Gyudon as well as some other rice bowls.  They didn't do much in altering the layout of the restaurant, so introverts rejoice!

So after ordering from the kiosks in front, we merely took our receipt, picked a cubby and sat down.  We placed our receipt by the service window and after a short wait, presto!  We got our rice bowl sets.  Before I get to those, the cubby itself is more than just 3 walls.  Rather, you have your personal water station (so you don't need to ask for water) as well as chopsticks, spoons and napkins.  If you needed condiments, they have it all including shoyu, garlic ra-yu, togarashi, furikake and fried garlic.  Believe me, that garlic ra-yu or chili crunch, is fantastic.  You can put that on anything and it will taste better!

Since the basic bowl wasn't interesting enough for a picture, we went for the Ontama Gyudon featuring an onsen egg.  This was placed atop a good amount of thinly sliced fatty beef.  We found green onion, onion and pickled ginger rounding out the ingredients in the bowl.  With the silkiness of the runny egg, the chewy rice took on a different texture being more moist but still having a bite.  The beef was buttery and tender while conservatively sauced.  This was intentional because we could customize the flavours with the aforementioned condiments.   We got this in a set which added 3 small side dishes including edamame, kimchi and wakame as well as a Miso Soup.

My favourite of the bunch was the Cheese Gyudon as they did not skimp on the torched cheese on top.  I could really taste the cheesiness, but it wasn't overwhelming.  There was a bit of smokiness and nuttiness.  Again, the fatty beef was tender and the stringy cheese on top added another layer of texture.  I've already gone over how the garlic ra-yu could enhance even shoe leather, but it really went well with this bowl since it was relatively neutral-tasting.  Just a bit of spice (the chili crunch itself was more nutty than spicy) and some crunch really enhanced the rice bowl.  Moreover, to give it even more boost, we sprinkled in some togarashi.  For this set, I opted for the Chicken Karaage and a Miso Soup.  The karaage featured a crispy thin batter while the chicken itself could've been juicier.

Our last version of the beef rice bowl was the Kimchi Gyudon.  This was essentially the basic gyudon with a bunch of kimchi on top.  If you were expecting some briny and spicy version of Korean kimchi here, that is not what we got.  Rather, it was plenty tangy with some sweetness and mild spiciness.  By itself, it needed a bit more for it to be tasty kimchi.  However, when combined with the fatty beef and chewy rice, it was not bad.  The tanginess and crunch brought some life into the bowl and even the slightest of spice did help provide more impact.  Instead of the chili crunch, adding some shoyu and fried garlic did the trick.

Onto a couple of non-beef rice bowls, we went for the Unagi Don.  This was a pretty standard version where we found 3 big fillets of buttery unagi.  It was lightly glazed so it wasn't too sweet.  It sat on a bed of chewy rice which accepted the sweetness of the unagi well.  Since this was also a set, we were able to try the Ebi Tempura as well.  I found the batter to be a bit thick, yet it was still uniformly crunchy.  The ebi inside was still moist and buttery.

The last thing we tried was the Bara Chirashi consisting of salmon and tuna mixed with cucumber and green onion.  Seeing that this was not a sushi joint, the sashimi was decently fresh and vibrant.  With a bit of shoyu and mixed together with the rice, this was rather pleasant and light.  Overall, the rice bowls at Oishinoya were well-portioned and did the trick.  Nothing particularly fancy here, but the pricing is fair and you can get full, even with the small size.  Great for people on the go or ones who'd rather not converse much with anyone.

*All food and beverages were complimentary except for the cost of one of the sets*

The Good:

- Decent eats

- Well-portioned, even for the small size

- Great for those who want to be left alone

The Bad:

- Obviously, not great for groups

- Currently with the Skytrain construction, it can affect you, depending how you get there

Mister Donut

When we were in Kochi, we had noticed a lineup at Mister Donut.  If we had a bit more time, we would've gotten into that line for sure.  However, we needed to get back to the cruise ship.  Now on our stop in Hiroshima, we were passing by a Mister Donut location on our way to lunch.  Well, that was as good as anytime to get in line for some donuts!  The line moved fast and we ended up with 6 donuts.

To get a baseline for their mochi donuts, we had the Glazed Mochi Donut.  This was lightly coated, so it wasn't super sweet, yet at the same time, it was not flavourless either.  I found the donut itself to be aromatic and the texture was lightly chewy.  We got the Chocolate Glazed as well and since it was only partially coated, it wasn't very sweet and it allowed for the fried mochi donut essence to be more prominent. 

Their strawberry glazed donuts were pretty dominant in the display case.  We got the Mochi Strawberry Glazed as well as the Strawberry Glazed Yeast Donut.  In terms of the glaze, it was actually not as "Pocky"-tasting as I thought it would be.  Sure, it was sweet, but it also genuinely had some strawberry flavour to it, albeit on the creamier side.  The yeast donut was light but still had structure.

Yet, the best of them all was the Strawberry Cruller.  Due to the egginess, it was light with a crispy exterior.  With only half of the donut dipped in the glaze, it was also balanced in terms of sweetness.  Our last donut was the Chocolate with coconut.  This cake donut was fluffy and fairly light.  It was only mildly sweet and had the aromatics of coconut on the outside.  I would've liked toasted coconut, but it was still tasty with natural sweetness.  Overall, the donuts at Mister Donut weren't mind-blowing, but they did the trick and were not expensive.  Try at least one of their strawberry donuts.

The Good:

- Inexpensive

- Solid

- Just sweet enough

The Bad:

- Nothing mind-blowing

- Sometimes a lineup

i-Cafe Express (City Square)

For the longest time, i-Cafe resided upstairs on the Southwest corner of Broadway and Heather.  If you have been around for awhile, you will remember that location was Jukebox Johnny's in the 80's.  Now we find i-Cafe as a food court stall in City Square right beside Dumpling King.  They are now known as i-Cafe Express and I really do think this concept lowers the overhead with less staff and of course, less retail space.  They have most of their favourites on the menu while offering a slightly lower price point.  I was able to take out once and eat in another time for this blog post.  

On my first visit, I took home some of the Hong Kong-Style Cafe essentials including the veritable Baked Pork Chop Rice.  This was a decent portion consisting of the necessary fried rice base topped with a good amount of fried pork chop on top.  The pork was tender and meaty without too much fat.  The abundance of sauce was quite textbook being thick from the roux and exhibiting a balance of tanginess and sweetness.  This was a competent version of the dish.

Another classic dish that needs to be included is the Spaghetti Bolognese.  Depending on the version, it can get pretty close to the Italian dish.  This one here was certainly meaty and was the beneficiary of the sweetness from the onions.  Lots of depth and richness from the creaminess added to the sauce.  There was enough of it too that it coated all of the al dente spaghetti in the tin container.

So the Curry Beef Brisket may not be as vital as the previous 2 dishes when assessing a HK-Style Cafe, but it is a menu staple nonetheless.  This one was actually decently spicy with a good amount of earthy curry hit.  The coconut milk/cream provided plenty of creaminess and aromatics.  The beef itself was quite tender and so were the potatoes.  The side of rice was a generous portion.

On another visit, I actually sat down to eat and went with 2 dishes.  The first was the Laksa that was stuffed to the top of the plastic bowl with bouncy noodles and coconutty broth.  I wished it had more spice and brininess as it was aromatic but bland.  However, the plethora of components made up for it as I was eating for awhile to actually make a dent.  I liked the little details were there such as the soft-boiled egg (not cooked to oblivion).

I originally wasn't going to finish my second item in the Chow Kway Teow, but it was so good, i finished it too!  It was a good sized portion that was the beneficiary of solid wok hei.  Hence, there was smokiness and caramelization.  The noodles were nicely chewy while not clumping together.  Seasoning was adequate being a bit spicy, a bit earthy and plenty savoury.  They didn't skimp with the ingredients too.  Solid dish.  Overall, the food at i-Cafe was like it was before - solid and dependable.  I like the concept of them being in a food court as it lowers their operating costs and hence, the prices are reasonable.

The Good:

- Dependable decent HK-Style cuisine

- Reasonable pricing

- Decent portion size

The Bad:

- Well, being in a food court, you lose the restaurant experience, but you would find something like this at Aberdeen Centre as well

- The Laksa could be more flavourful

Pokerrito (Morgan Crossing)

Back in 2012, when the Poké craze initially began to take shape in North America, I was trying to keep up with all the new spots opening all over the place.  Seeing how it was growing exponentially, I decided to give up as I couldn't maintain the pace.  Predictably, many have come and many have gone as the market did get saturated.  However, quite a few have survived and are still doing well.  One particular chain is Pokerrito, which surprisingly I've never had a chance to do a visit.  With a menu tasting in hand, I finally got my chance at the Morgan Crossing location.

For those who aren't familiar, Pokerrito offers up classic poké bowls as well as some fusion bowls.  But as the name implies, they are known for their Poké + Burritos = Pokerrito.  Think of it as a really large sushi roll with all the goodness of poké inside.  In the picture above, you will find the Diamond Head   It was particularly impactful with the combination of spicy tuna, spicy seaweed salad, crab meat, ginger, masago, jalapeno, furikake, crispy onion and sweet chili.  Lots of spice with sweetness and tang.  This was the most flavourful of the ones we tried.

As for the Hawaiian Classic, it was much more subtle with marinated tuna, seaweed salad, sesame, radish, pineapple, sweet corn, pea shoots, tempura bits and shoyu.  As you can imagine, this was mostly sweet with some saltiness from the shoyu.and Hawaiian Classic Pokerritos.  In this picture, you will notice the nori casing and a thin layer of sushi rice. That meant we could totally taste the ingredients even more so than the bowl version.  Also, the textures were more apparent.

Now we had two different Pokerritos that resided at each end of the spectrum.  With the the Hanauma, we found something that fell somewhere in the middle.  We had it in both pokerrito and bowl form and they ate very differently.  The bowl version had much more rice, which in turn made each individual ingredient less apparent than the pokerrito.  Now it wasn't as if there was no impact.  In fact, it still tasted great with the buttery salmon, sweet imitation crab salad, ginger and wakame salad. I personally ate less of the ginger as it was sharp with a spicy and tangy bite.  In the pokerrito form, it was harder to pick out and that overshadowed the fish somewhat.  But then again, it was further enhanced by the lack of rice.

The North Shore Bowl had some elements from the Hanauma Bowl as well as the Hawaiian Classic.  Instead of salmon, we found fresh tuna with wakame salad, radish, edamame, pineapple and masago.  This was fresh-tasting with subtle flavours.  The addition of pineapple added sweet brightness and the imitation crab salad provided creaminess.  I think this would be good in pokerrito form since there would be less rice.  The tuna and pineapple would stand out even more.  Also no ginger would allow the other components to shine more so.

Onto something that was a bit different than the previous bowls, we had the Torched Ahi Tuna Bowl with soba.  Naturally, this added smokiness and varied texture within the tuna itself.  We had some slightly cooked bits while most of it was still raw and buttery.  By virtue of employing soba and seared tuna, this ate much more like a composed restaurant dish rather than quick service.  Really enjoyed the chewiness of the noodles combined with the crispy tempura bits.

If raw fish isn't your game, they also have some cooked bowls too including the Torched Miso Glazed Salmon Bowl.  If you are wondering, yes, this piece of salmon was fully cooked.  Despite that, it wasn't dry though, so it was flaky and moist with a sweet and salty sauce on top.  Nice smokiness due to the torching and lots of bite from the ginger on the side.  That was the only competing flavour in the bowl since everything else was mild.  Personally, I would've liked a more rare piece of seared salmon for this bowl, but not sure if that could be done?

Here is where we start to see some Korean fusion with the bowls.  First, we had the Torched Bulgogi Bowl.  This was aggressively sauced and then torched, which further intensified the sweetness.  We really had to mix this into the rice as it packed quite the flavour punch.  The ample beef was sliced thin and tender.  Some kimchi on the side provided some tang and mild spice.  Another variation was the Beef Bul-Dog.  So essentially bulgogi in a hot dog bun with some greens and crispy tempura bits on top.

Our last bowl was the Torched Spicy Pork Bowl.  This was just as saucy as the bulgogi bowl while adding the element of spiciness.  Once again, we had to mix this quite well to distribute the sweet and spicy sauce.  There was ample amount of pork that was tender and moist.  To compliment, we found some edamame, cubed tamago and kimchi as well as spring mix.  Great alternative for people who don't eat raw fish.

We had one more thing at the end and it was their Matcha Tiramisu.  Sure, it was a prepackaged item, but it turned out to be quite good.  The masacarpone was creamy and light while purposefully sweet.  With just a slight amount of bitterness, the matcha flavour was present but not overpowering.  Overall, the stuff at Pokerrito is solid and there was so many options available.  I love how you can have your poké as a large roll too since it not only allows for a different flavour and texture experience, you can actually have your poké and eat it too while on the go.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- You can have your poké as a handheld
- You can also have it classic style too
- Cooked items available

The Bad:
- The sauces for the bulgogi and spicy pork were rather aggressive, best to ask for it on the side 

Stackhouse Steak Sandwich

One of the most convenient quick take-out lunches (or dinner) is the classic sandwich.  Even though they have been on the downturn as of late, Subway has been the go to spot for decades if someone wanted a sandwich.  However, with prices creeping up, there are other options and that would also be one of the contributing factors into Subway's struggles.  Consider the new Stackhouse Steak Sandwich on Davie offers up their signature Steak Sandwich for only $12.00, you can see why people are not flocking to Subway as they did before.  We dropped by Stackhouse to try their wares recently.

Before we got to the sandwiches, we had some of their accompaniments including the surprisingly delicious French Onion Soup.  For a sandwich shop, this was a pretty solid soup with the sweetness of slow-cooked onions coming through.  Unlike many other versions, this was not overloaded with salt either.  This was topped with the usual toasted baguette as well as a slice of gruyere.  With all of the usual components, this was a classic French onion soup!  Even the Caesar Salad was elevated with house-made dressing and anchovies on top.  That added the salty fishiness that was noticeable and provided impact to the salad.

The Stackhouse Steak Sandwich is their signature menu item.  It features medium-thick slices of medium-rare flat iron with a chimichurri sauce and crispy onions.  This was a really good sandwich!  The beef was tender but still had a natural texture while the sauce was bright and tangy which kept things light.  Loved the crispy onions as they added aroma and more texture.  The bread itself had a crusty exterior with a soft and almost fluffy interior.  Really good value at only $12.00.

Something a bit more fancy, the Steak Tartare Open Sandwich was also well-priced at $12.00.  It featured a considerable amount of fresh beef that was tender with a slight chew.  It was dressed with the usual components such as dijon, cornichons, capers, parsley and red onion.  A sous-vide egg yolk topped the whole thing.  When mixed together, we had a silky custardy texture from the egg yolk.  The sturdy bread was a good compliment to the tartare but secretly, I liked putting it on top of the chips! 

Yes, the previous 2 sandwiches were good, but it was all about the French Dip for me.  This featured the same sliced flat iron with Swiss cheese, horseradish cream and fried onion chips.  I really enjoyed the horseradish as it a slight bite, but the biggest thing was the aromatic creaminess it provided.  The au jus on the side was flavourful without being salty.  When dipped into the au jus, the bread soaked it up well without going completely soggy.  It added the last bit of flavour that put this sandwich over the top.

They also had a featured sandwich which was the Pulled Pork.  There was no shortage of fully sauced and tender pulled pork.  It was on the sweeter side, but I appreciated the impactful flavours.  Sometimes, people forget that the bread is pretty neutral-tasting and the filling needs to compensate for that.  That it did and it was delicious with each bite.  There was some crispy onions for crunch while a bit of slaw provided a creaminess to the sandwich.

Dessert came in the form of a jarred Cheesecake with strawberry topping.  I found the no-bake cheesecake pretty creamy as there was whipped cream mixed with the cream cheese.  Possibly too much whipped cream as it took away from the cream cheese.  It was lightly sweet, but the strawberries on top were quite sweet.  I really enjoyed the crispy crumbs on the bottom.  Added so much texture to the dessert.  Overall, I was pretty impressed with Stackhouse since their stuff is pretty good quality but their prices are low (especially for Downtown).  I would totally come back, especially for the beef dip!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Quality ingredients

- Reasonable prices

- Surprisingly elevated food

The Bad:

- Limited seating, but it is a sandwich shop

- Cheesecake could use less whipped cream

Goldies Langley

Over the last couple of decades, we've seen a considerable amount of development in Langley.  Once seen as a place that was "too far" is now a desirable destination for people to move to.   I have some friends who are out in Walnut Grove and that area was already built-up a while ago.  Another spot that has seen rapid growth is around Willoughby Town Centre.  Once lined with trees, there are multi-unit complexes sprouting up all over the place.  I've been out to Moku a few times last year, where it is nestled within one of these developments.  Sandwiched in between that and Willoughby, we find the newest location of Goldie's Donuts & Bakery.  It too is also at the ground level of another complex.  Love the concept of these little communities within a community.  We witnessed that as many families came in during our visit to Goldie's.

For those who aren't familiar, Goldie's is a brioche donut shop that also offers a selection of baked goods.  The name is inspired by their golden retriever and in fact, they have a plushie of one at both locations.  Their original opened in Horseshoe Bay in March 2024.  The new Langley spot is bigger with more seating.  They offer the same fluffy filled brioche donuts including Tiramisu, Oreo, Matcha and Strawberries & Cream.  Maybe it is recency bias, but I found these to be so light with a pleasant ending chewiness.  They were only mildly sweet with the fillings to be natural-tasting.  The fresh cream was light with only the right amount of sweetness.  I particularly enjoyed the strawberries and cream since it was light and fruity.

They also feature some donuts that are both filled and glazed.  We tried the Pistachio Cream & Raspberry Puree, Triple Berry Cream and Hazelnut Praline.  Although these appeared to be super sweet, they were only mildly so.  I particularly enjoyed the triple berry as it was fruity, with a light berry cream with a sweet glaze on top.  The hazelnut featured a nutty cream and chocolate glaze.  The pistachio was good too with an aromatic nuttiness balanced off by the fruity raspberry puree.

In addition to donuts, they have baked products as well.  We tried the viral Korean Salt Bread, Ham & Cheese Croissant, Blueberry Scone and Double Baked Almond Croissant.  The first time I tried the salt bread, I didn't think much of it.  This time around, I really enjoyed the textural contrast of the crispy exterior compared to the chewy interior.  The salt level was just right.  The scone was a little too flat for my liking but it was moist and full of blueberries though.  Ham and cheese croissant had enough filling for each bite to be fulfilling and the pastry itself was flaky and shattered.  It was a little on the dense side though.  Really enjoyed the double-baked croissant as it was crunchy with lots of slivered almonds.  The filling was buttery and nutty.  There was also a single Old Fashioned Vanilla Glazed Donut with these baked items and it was cakey with a pretty sweet glaze.

We also had some of their drinks and beyond looking rather appealing, they were also great to drink too!  We had the Matcha Cream Latte, Almond Cream Mocha, Matcha Cream Latte with Stawberries and the Nutty Cloud.  Yah, don't sleep on these because they are just as good as the donuts!  My favourite of the bunch was the Nutty Cloud.  There was some crunch on the top and the whole thing was indeed nutty, creamy and just a bit sweet.  The Matcha Cream Latte with strawberries appealed to me too as it was sweet in a good way and had the nice balance between bitter and fruitiness.  Overall, the stuff at Goldie's is quite diverse and ultimately tasty.  Great place to stop by for a drink and a donut/pastry or to grab a box and impress your friends.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Fluffy brioche donuts

- Just sweet enough

- Lots of space at this location

The Bad:

- The way the counter is orientated, it becomes quite the bottleneck when there is a large lineup

- Due to the light flavour of some of the fillings, it might not be sweet enough for some (but I like it)

Kozak Ukraїnian Restaurant

If you can believe it, this would be my first visit to any of the Kozak locations in the GVRD.  Yep, I've literally walked by the original Victoria Street location countless times and have driven past the Gastown one even more.  I've even passed by the New West store a few times on foot and in my car as well.  Now they've opened their newest spot in Langley right near Colossus.  They are featuring some of their best classic dishes on the menu including lunch combos.  So I finally made it out, to their 4th location!

Before I get to those combos, I'll focus on the individual dishes first starting with the both the Beef and the Pork Borsch.  They both came with a large slice of sourdough bread but for the 2nd beef borscht, it came with solo canapé (which was cold smoked pork on rye with horseradish).  For me, I loved both soups, but the pork just had a bit more meatiness and body. Both had the classic sweet and sour notes and with the addition of sour cream, some tangy creaminess.  After adding the sour cream, it is typical to take a bite of the chewy sourdough, then dip the garlic into the salt and take a bite before having any soup.  We did just that and it was great, lots of flavours activated.  Their grand opening is on October 4th & 5th, 2025 and the 1st 1000 customers receive free borsh!

Next, we sampled a variety of their Handmade Varenyky (Pierogies) starting with the Bacon & Potato.   Now if you are still slogging through those frozen ones you get at the grocery store, then you haven't had authentic pierogies before.  Fortunately, I've had the real thing many times and these were really good.  The dumpling skin was tender and thin while retaining a slight chew.  Inside, the russet potatoes were soft and nicely seasoned.  The plethora of housemade candied bacon provided that salty, smoky sweetness as well as a crispy texture.  Add in some brown butter, and we had some nuttiness as well.

Next we tried the Potato & Cheese Varenyky topped with a housemade cheese sauce.  You know how some cheese sauces taste salty and not much else?  Well this one was full on cheddar cheese with the unmistakable tanginess and pungency.  Furthermore, it as silky and cheesy without being greasy.  It also didn't separate.  The addition of sunflower seeds provided a nutty crunch while the chili flakes gave a bit of variation in flavours.

Those two pierogies were excellent, but my favourite was the Duck & Basil Varenyky.  These were packed with Brome Lake duck that was super tender and moist.  It had the appealingly gaminess of duck while also exhibiting sweetness from the onions.  The basil provided a bit of sweetness and herbaceousness.  Completing the plate was a base of tarragon cream, crispy shallots and peppercorns.  We got aroma, pepperiness and the sweet anise flavour of the tarragon.

In addition to the Borsch, we also tried the Bograch Carpathian Goulyash made with beef, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onions, jalapeños and smoked paprika.  The key ingredient here was the smoked paprika as it added so much depth and smokiness.  Combined with the natural sweetness of the root veggies and tomatoes, this was a hearty and punchy Goulyash.  We also got some spice from the peppers.  Of course we couldn't forget about the smoked pork rib sitting in the soup.  It was smoky, meaty and tender.

The showstopper had to be the Chicken Kyiv.  It was neatly presented on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes.  These mashed potatoes were rich and especially more so after we cut into the beautifully prepared chicken cutlet.  The copious amount of melted butter helped made the potatoes even more sinful.  As for the chicken, it was tender and benefitted from the buttery nuttiness inside.  Outside, it was uniformly crispy.

Of course we had to have the Cabbage Rolls as well.  We had this with beef and yes, the filling was loaded with a good mix of that and rice.  Texturally, it was on point with a slight bounce with meatiness while being fairly light.  The cabbage itself was tender and not mushy.  Nicely balanced, the tomato sauce was neither too acidic nor salty.  It was mild with a tang.  Add in the side of sour cream and that provided a bright creaminess.

If you wanted a bit of everything without needing to order full versions of every dish, you could opt for Mama's Combo for $22.00.  This plate has all the goodies including cabbage roll, 3 pierogies, a fried Ukraїnian Kovbasa sausage on stewed sauerkraut, sour cream, horseradish and mustard.  For this plate, we had the Potato and Dill Pierogies and they were the most mild-tasting of the bunch, but the fried onions really helped with the aroma.

As much as Mama's Combo had it all, the Kozak Lunch for $28.00 was ever more so.  It included a choice of Borsch, Cabbage Rolls and Varenyky.  However, to change things up a bit, we had the Nalysnyky instead of the Cabbage Roll.  Essentially the crepe version of a cabbage roll, it was quite flavourful due to the use of a thin crispy crepe rather than cabbage.  The flavours were more concentrated.  It sat atop the same delicious cheese sauce that came with the Varenyky.

For dessert pastries in their display case, you could add a variety of things including Pletenka Cinnamon Roll, Cherry Fluff, Pistachio Butter Croissant, Apricot Fluff and Dark Chocolate Babka.  Pretty good stuff here with the fluffs being my favourite.  Essentially a Danish with riocotta and fruit, these were flaky and just sweet enough.  That Babka was really good with crunchy portions and a softer centre.  The dark chocolate had the perfect sweetness level and plenty of appealing bitterness.

As for the available desserts on the main menu, the Napoleon Cake would be the most impressive-looking.  In terms of taste and texture, it was pretty darn good.  I loved the light flakiness of the puff pastry intertwined with the sweet custard.  It was a rather large slice but ate pretty light.  Overall, the food at Kozak is fantastic.  From the borsch to the varenyky as well as their baked goods, I seriously enjoyed them all.  Definitely something different than your regular fare at most other restaurants.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Food just tastes good

- On point textures

- Something different than all of the same everywhere else

The Bad:

- Sourdough was a little on the dry side

- Seating is limited at this location