Dazzling Café located at 37 Sheppard Ave E in North York

I feel so grateful and lucky to be able to attend so many media tastings lately. 😀   This recent one that I attended on the weekend was to Dazzling Café, a popular Taiwanese café that has grown to over 200 locations worldwide!  Dazzling Café recently opened at Sheppard and Yonge in North York and I was really excited that Sweven Media invited me and a friend to a private tasting to try out the food.

The tasting was slated to begin at 2:30 p.m. and I arrived there right on the dot. You just have to get out from the Sheppard-Yonge subway station and head towards the east west corner to see it.  Two other bloggers and their plus ones joined us as well.

Storefront of Dazzling Café

The entire cafe is really cute and “girly”.  Apparently, each one of their Dazzling Cafe locations is decorated in a different theme.  For this one, it was a pink and gold theme and I saw some Hello Kitty plushies on the counter of their bar too.  As well, the backs of the chairs had rabbit ears on it which was really cute.  There was also a white merry-go-around horse near the entrance of the cafe.

Interior of Dazzling Café at Yonge & Sheppard

Second level where the washrooms are and makeup workshops(!)

Classy and pretty

Once everyone had arrived, Closs did a short introduction of the cafe to us.  The owner of the cafe also came to greet us and give us her business card.

Menu cover

Special menus

Dazzling Café menu

Dazzling Café menu

First, we chose a drink from their menu.  I chose the Rose Lychee Soda which turned out to be not only pretty in its looks but taste as well.  It was a sweet soda that tasted flowery and also refreshing.

Rose Lychee Soda. $7.50

Daphne chose the Iced Honey Green Tea.  It was a simple iced honey tea as per its name and Daphne enjoyed it.

Iced Honey Green Tea. $7.50

We also photographed this Rose Latte beauty from Closs:

Rose Latte. $7.50

Dazzling Cafe is famous for their honey toasts and beautifully presented desserts.  However, they still have a lot of pasta, mini pizzas, rice casseroles, soup, salads, and appetizers to choose from for a lunch or dinner.  Closs made a really good decision for us by choosing a variety of savory items for us to share.  Since there were seven of us (including Closs), we were able to try a lot of dishes!

The first to arrive was the Bacon and Poached Egg Spaghetti.  This was a beautifully assembled dish where the pasta strands were twisted so perfectly with a poached egg on top of it.  It smelled so good too.  After poking the yolk, the egg contents unleashed upon the pasta.  I really enjoyed the texture and firmness of the spaghetti.  I was actually pleasantly surprised with how good the spaghetti tasted!

Bacon and Poached Egg Spaghetti. $13.99

The Mentaiko Fries were a very unique item where crunchy and crispy French fries were topped with mentaiao, or pollock roe.  It smelled amazing and this was the first time that I had mentaiko with fries like this.  Everyone at the table loved it.

Mentaiko Fries. $8.99

The Fried Caramel Chicken Wings piqued my interest when I saw these on the menu and I’m so glad that we got to sample these as well.  These were nicely fried chicken wings covered with caramel sauce although I didn’t think that the caramel taste was too obvious.  These were also a hit though and we got a second order of these.

Fried Caramel Chicken Wings. $7.99

The Roasted Chicken Leg Spaghetti with Basil Pesto Sauce had the same spaghetti as the first pasta dish.  The basil pesto sauce smelled amazing and was pretty good.  The roasted chicken leg was firm and reminded me of the ones at Hong Kong style cafes.  It was decent though and not too firm or rough.

Roasted Chicken Leg Spaghetti with Basil Pesto Sauce. $15.99

More pretty drinks:

Drinks

We tried two mini pizzas that day.  We tried the Jalapeño Chicken Pizza and the Truffle Mushroom Pizza.  I really loved the Truffle Mushroom Pizza.  This was full of cheese that tasted so, so good.  The crust of the pizza wasn’t thick at all and very thin.  It went so well with the gooey cheese.  (I was impressed that despite we took some time to photograph the food, everything was still hot as well!)

Truffle Mushroom Pizza. $10.99

The Jalapeño Chicken Pizza was definitely spicy as the menu said.  It was quite good though and the spice packed a lot of (surprise) heat.

Jalapeño Chicken Pizza. $9.99

Matcha!

Matcha!

After this selection of dishes, Xiao also wanted to try the Mentaiko Spaghetti with Cream Sauce so we waited specifically for that dish.  Meanwhile, all our of cutlerly and plates were already replaced with new ones to prepare for sharing the desserts.  When this arrived I found that the mentaiko paired better with the fries.  It was still a good spaghetti dish though.

Mentaiko Spaghetti with Cream Sauce. $13.99

Finally, the moment that we had all been waiting for had come!  Closs treated us to four dessert selections in total, a Honey Toast, a Waffle, and two Honey Toast Cups.

Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast. $15.99

The first to arrive was the Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast.  I’ve had this type of dessert before (the first time at Petit Potato where I had seen so many people post photos of it when it was new on the scene in Toronto) and thus was excited to see how Dazzling Cafe prepared it too.

This Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast was so delicately and carefully crafted.  It was layers of brick toast with strawberries on the side of it in a diagonal fashion.  There was whipped cream on top of it with swirls of chocolate too.  After we took photos of it, the owner Shini actually helped us cut it open and divide it.  Apparently, there was a special way to do it!  After she took apart the top, inside of the honey toast, there were smaller cubes of toast already cut up and dosed with butter (I believe).  She dunked each cube into the whipped cream with strawberry before serving each person with it with the tongs that were provided.  This was so precious!  I commented out loud that it was like the dessert had a mini treasure chest. 😀

Cutting up the Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast 😀

After we ate the little cubes of toast, we were then welcome to cut up the rest of the honey toast too to eat.  It was so good and I was very impressed that the honey toast stayed crunchy and dry throughout.

Matcha Red Bean Waffle. $12.99

The second dessert that was a beauty was the Matcha Red Bean Waffle.  This was again something that I had seen in photos only and finally had the chance to try!  It was so unique from the regular waffle dessert because each cup area of the waffle held a dollop of whipped cream with the large scoop of matcha ice cream in the middle of the waffle “flower” and some red bean on top too.  It was just beautiful.  Whoever thought of this dessert deserves an award.  XD

After the photos, Closs cut up the waffle pieces for us.  I’m actually not a huge waffle fan but when I taste good waffles, I acknowledge it right away.  With that said, I was so, so impressed with the quality of this waffle dessert!  The waffle petal that I had was so moist, well done, and it must be attributed to the batter because I think a lot of waffles out there might be too dry.  It’s hard to describe.  You just have to try this yourself.  If I wasn’t so full already (and had a dinner planned for later that night), I would have eaten more of this.  It was so good!

Mango Honey Toast Cup. $12.99

The last two desserts that we received were the Honey Toast Cups.  This was a similar dessert to the Honey Toast except that this one was in take-out form.  The cubed honey toasts were fit artfully into a plastic cup and layered with whipped cream, and the flavours or fruits of the cup that you chose.  We got to try the Mango Honey Toast Cup and Strawberry Lower Honey Toast Cup.

Everyone loves mango (I’m sure) and the Mango Honey Toast Cup definitely didn’t disappoint.  The mango was so smooth and sweet.  Again, the most surprising thing was that even though the cubed toasts were put into this cup squished with whipped cream and fruits, they remained so crispy and dry.  The toasts were the best part of this dessert for sure.

The Strawberry Lover Honey Toast Cup was just as good if you like strawberries. 🙂

Strawberry Lover Honey Toast Cup. $11.99

Although our tasting began at 2:30 p.m., it wasn’t until close to 5 p.m. that we left.  We had so much food and eating to do (and photography) that the time just flew.  It was a wonderful, wonderful tasting and we really tried the top picks of Dazzling Cafe.

Thank you so much Sweven Media for allowing us to come to Dazzling Cafe to try out this newest location.  We were informed that Dazzling Cafe will be opening up two other locations too in Markham and downtown.  I’m excited to have this again (but it’s definitely a place you bring a few friends to to share the items).

Setting up a flat lay shot

Hot drinks

Their famed desserts!

Honey Toast with a fun sign!

View from the second floor

FTC Disclaimer:  Although Sweven Media reached out and invited me to a complimentary tasting at Dazzling Café, the opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the companies.