The Best Desserts in Downtown Toronto

Toronto is a great place to be if you love dessert. Dessert in Toronto is always reaching new heights with new places opening up and old favourites continuing to deliver quality treats. One of my favourite things about this city is that you can try food from almost every culture and country. It’s truly fantastic. In the world of dessert, this is a wonderful thing. I definitely lean towards enjoying French desserts but there really is something for everyone in Toronto.

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Finding the Best Dessert Places in Toronto

Toronto is a big city. If you’re looking for dessert places, it’s a great idea to just focus on one area and eat your way around it. These dessert places are all downtown and easily accessible using public transit. Many of them are located near iconic things to do while visiting Toronto that you are sure to want to snap a photo and post your favourite Toronto caption.

While this isn’t an exhaustive list, these are places that should be on your radar if you’re a sweet-tooth foodie visiting Toronto. Toronto is a great city for foodies, so there is a little something for everyone.

Best Macarons in Toronto

Delysèes

It’s all about the macarons here. This French bakeshop has the cutest and most delicious macarons in Toronto. I know there is usually another bakery that is top of the list for macarons in Toronto but I would fight you on it, Delysees is where it’s at. With flavours that range from the usual like chocolate or vanilla, to the unusual like Earl Grey Blueberry and a blue Curacao inspired macaron, there is a macaron for everyone. For the summer they have a gelato macaron option which I haven’t tried yet but I am sure is top notch.

Delysees also sells amazing croissants, one of the best chocolate chip cookies in the city, and really cute mini cakes.

Location: 131 Ossington St.
Nearby Attractions: This strip of Ossington is great for restaurants

DaanGo Cake Lab

If you’re looking for the cutest macarons in Toronto, DaanGo is the place to visit. The macarons at DaanGo Cake Lab are baked and decorated to look like cartoon characters or cute animals. It’s impossible to say which of these macarons is the cutest.

In addition to being almost too adorable to eat, these macarons are delicious. With interesting flavour options like Vietnamese Coffee and Hong Kong Milk Coffee as well as classics like Chocolate Hazelnut and Strawberry, you can’t go wrong. These macarons are perfectly light and fluffy while packing a punch in the flavour department.

In addition to cute macarons, DaanGo Cake Lab sells stunning cakes and desserts. All of them are so artistically done and are truly works of art. There are five locations in Toronto and Scarborough to choose from. I recommend the one downtown as it’s closest to other tourist attractions.

Location: 241 Spadina St
Nearby Tourist Attraction: Kensington Market, Chinatown

Best Doughnuts

Best doughnuts in Toronto is a really hard category. I love all of these and for different reasons. I feel truly spoiled for choice in this city.

Glory Hole Doughnuts

With two locations to choose from, the original Parkdale storefront offers up unique flavours on deliciously fluffy doughnuts. Unlike a lot of overhyped doughnuts stores, this one delivers. Glory Hole has classic flavours like Birthday Cake and but also offers up seasonal flavours. There’s always two vegan doughnuts on the menu that change up once in a while. On the regular menu, Toast and Butter is phenomenal, as is the Ferrero Rocher. My favourite on the spring/summer seasonal menu is the Lime Coconut Cream Pie, a huge doughnut filled with coconut cream pie custard and topped with a lime glaze. Yum. The Raspberry Pistachio is also not to be missed, the glaze on it is delicious. I don’t think you can go wrong with anything on the menu. On the fall/winter seasonal menu my favourite is the Caramel Apple Cheesecake with London Fog being a close second. The seasonal menu changes twice a year and they do change it up year to year.

Location: 1596 Queen St West (Parkdale), 1505 Gerrard St E.
Nearby Tourist Site: Parkdale location has unique shops on Queen St. W
Vegan-Friendly

Dipped Donuts Inc.

Dipped Donuts knows what it’s doing with doughnuts. Every single doughnut here is made with premium ingredients and a lot of thought is put into the flavour combinations. The dough is soft and perfect. It’s basically my dream doughnut, and if you aren’t dreaming of doughnuts, are you really living? My favourites here are all of them but I love that they have mini filled doughnuts as well as vegan options. Don’t miss the mini Boston Cream, it’s phenomenal, as is the Hazelnut Crunch which is filled with a hazelnut pudding. So good. If they have it, the Apple Fritter is the best I’ve ever had. The cinnamon glaze was amazing.

Location: 161 Baldwin St. in Kensington Market
Nearby Tourist Site: Kensington Market, Chinatown
Vegan Friendly

Cops Doughnuts

Cops Doughnuts are freshly made for you so they are served warm and are just perfect for that nostalgic kick of having fresh doughnuts from the county fair. The best here is the OG Sour Cream doughnuts, the glaze is perfect. They also serve up cinnamon sugar and a weekly rotating flavour to keep things fresh. They are open until 11pm so you can get your late-night doughnut fix.

Location: 445 Adelaide St W
Nearby Tourist Site: Grafitti Alley, Queen St W

Best Ice Cream in Downtown Toronto

Bang Bang Ice Cream

This ice cream place on Ossington Ave. is easily my favourite ice cream in Toronto. No other has even come close to getting top spot compared to here. Bang Bang Ice Cream doesn’t just serve up homemade ice cream in a cone. They also kick it up a notch by serving it in a fresh-made waffle, a cinnamon bun, or my favourite, as a cookie sandwich, which is absolutely unreal.

There are so many options for your ice cream sandwich. Cookie flavours include the RoCocoa, birthday cake, and chocolate chip. You also get to choose one or two kinds of the 20 or so flavours of ice cream they sell. They have vegan options, seasonal flavours, and some unusual flavours you won’t find many places including London Fog, Totaro, and the Bees Knees. My favourite ice cream here is the Cinnamon Toast because it tastes a bit like heaven and is slightly addictive. The biggest downside to Bang Bang is that it isn’t a secret and on nice days there can be quite the lineup. It’s totally worth it though.

Location: 93A Ossington Ave 
Nearby Tourist Site: Queen St.W., Trinity Bellwoods Park.
Vegan-Friendly

Nani’s Gelato

Nani’s Gelato is Italian-style gelato with Asian-inspired flavours. While you will also find classic standards on the menu like chocolate and vanilla, you will also find Mango Kulfi, Sweet Banana Pie, Punjabi Milk Cake, and Biscoff Cookie. They are always rotating flavours and introducing seasonal gelatos so you have plenty of excuses to return. My favourite here are any of the gelatos that include Biscoff Cookies but you can’t go wrong.

They are very generous with their flavourings so if you order something like pistachio, expect lots of pieces of pistachio. They also have soft serve during the summer, which is very yummy and also rotates flavours. There are also a few vegan flavours as well as sorbettos.

Location: 6 Charles St E and Liberty Village
Nearby Tourist Site: Yorkville, Royal Ontario Museum
Vegan-Friendly

Best French Bakery Experience

Roselle Desserts

Roselle Desserts has a cute storefront located in Toronto’s Corktown. It’s also recently opened up its flagship store just off of Queen St W. It’s hard to pick just one thing from here that is the best because everything is delicious. One of the signature desserts is the canneles that they make on weekends. With a thick caramelized exterior and a beautifully moist custard vanilla-rum interior, this cake is unlike any other. Just based on that dessert alone, Roselle makes the list. But add on the cake, cookies, and caramels and it’s a total knockout of a dessert place. I don’t think you can make a wrong choice at this shop

The caramels here were the highlight for me because I have not found anything else like it in this city. These are not your grandmother’s purse-caramels. It’s not being overdramatic to say these are life-changing. These caramels are freshly made and are soft with a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Each bite into one of these bits of perfection is a burst of flavour. If you make it out to Roselle, I highly recommend trying a caramel in every flavour they have. The current storefront only has a few seats so don’t count on being able to sit here and eat.

Location: 362 King St. E
Nearby Tourist Site: The Distillery District for its events, bars, and walkable charm

Nugateau

Nugateau is the place to head to if you are looking for beautiful eclairs and French pastries. They have a wide variety of eclairs here that is always changing to add seasonal flavours. The Romeo praline is a delightful mix of chocolate and hazelnut praline on delicious choux pastry filled with chocolate hazelnut cream. They also sell very unique flavours of eclair like pumpkin spice, banoffee, and cookies & milk.

In addition to the delicious eclairs, they also sell Paris-Brest desserts. The Isaphan is probably my favourite thing from Nugateau. Its choux pastry with a rose-mascarpone ganache and lychee ganache filled with a raspberry-rose-lychee gelee. It’s absolutely delicious and decorated with a rose petal and gold foil.

Location: 717 Queen St W and underground in Sak’s Food Hall near Pusateri’s.
Nearby Tourist Site: Queen St W, Trinity Bellwoods and Nathan Philips Square, Eaton Centre

Best Cookies in Toronto

Le Gourmand

Who doesn’t love a good chocolate chip cookie? Le Gourmand has arguably the best chocolate chip cookie in Toronto. After hearing Le Gourmand’s name come up more than once in best cookies in the city discussions, I had to try it. I was not disappointed. Wow. The chocolate chip cookies here are to die for. I would say these cookies are about double the size of most bakery cookies. Nice and chewy and with lots of chocolate. I love that this cookie has this perfect golden colour without being crunchy. It ups the flavour profile like crazy. Definitely stop into Le Gourmand if you are near Chinatown or after a walk through Graffiti Alley.

Le Gourmand also sells lots of other bakery items at their cafe but honestly, I only had eyes for the cookies.

Location: 152 Spadina Ave
Nearby Tourist Attraction: Toronto’s Chinatown, Graffiti Alley

Nadege Patisserie

Nadege Patisserie is the place to go if you are looking for the perfect crunchy hazelnut chocolate chip cookie. I don’t know how it stayed off my radar for so long but this cookie is seriously delicious.

They also have excellent croissants and macarons but the star for me here are the cookies. There are a few locations around Toronto so it’s a convenient stop if you are looking for sweets.

Location: 780 Queen St W (next to Trinity Bellwoods), Richmond Adelaide Centre
Nearby Tourist Attraction: Trinity Bellwoods, Nathan Phillips Square

Impact Kitchen

Impact Kitchen isn’t really a dessert place but rather a gluten-free breakfast and lunch place. This doesn’t stop them from having my favourite chocolate sea salt cookie though. It’s perfectly chewy and topped with the right amount of sea salt. If you are looking for gluten-free dessert in Toronto, this is the perfect place. There are some vegan options as well including a raw chocolate chip cookie.

There are multiple locations downtown to visit, including one right next to Love Park.

Location: 88 Queens Quay W, 44 Adelaide St W, 99 Atlantic Ave
Nearby Tourist Attraction: Love Park, Graffiti Alley, Exhibition

Best Pastry in Toronto

Uncle Tetsu’s Japanese Cheesecake

Cheese tarts are a Japanese import and I am so happy they exist. It’s basically cheesecake in a tart. My favourite cheese tart in Toronto is Uncle Tetsu’s.

Uncle Tetsu’s was a huge hit when it first opened up in Toronto a few years ago. Like, huge lineups and running out of stock hit. The hype has died down so you won’t have to deal with the masses to get a cheesecake anymore. The cheesecake is super yummy and light and fluffy. It isn’t like a traditional New York Style cheesecake at all. But guys. The cheese tarts. This is what you should lose your mind over. They are out of this world amazing. They come in plain, chocolate, and matcha. The chocolate cheese tart is to die for.

Next door to their cheesecake shop near Dundas Square is the tart shop so you can try all the tarts and cakes. Actually, the location where Uncle Tetsu’s is located is turning into a bit of a Little Japan so you can bounce around between the dessert shops here.

There is also a shop in Union Station that sells whole cheesecakes so you can easily grab one before catching your train or streetcar home.

Location: 595 Bay St., Union Station
Nearby Tourist Site: Yonge-Dundas Square, Eaton Centre, Ed Mirvish Theatre

Wanda’s Pie in the Sky

The pies from here are seriously delicious. Any flavour of pie you want, Wanda’s has it. From fruit pies, to cream pies, and custard and nut pies, all your pie dreams can be fulfilled. Best of all, most of the pies come in slices or as 6″ pies which means, you can sample lots of flavours. My favourite here is the raspberry rhubarb but I really don’t think there is a wrong choice as every pie I’ve had from here is delicious, and honestly, it’s probably more than the socially acceptable number of pies. The crust is flaky and perfect and just absolutely delicious. Best of all, it’s in Kensington Market so its the perfect after exploring the food options available there.

Location: 287 Augusta Ave in Kensington Market
Nearby Tourist Site: Kensington Market, Chinatown

Mabel’s Bakery

Mabel’s Bakery does some seriously amazing pies. The crust on these is so flakey and has an amazing texture. You can get all the classic flavours of pie here including pumpkin, blueberry, pecan, apple, and cherry. They do have seasonal flavours of pie as well like raspberry. I love that they sell both full-sized pies and mini pies that serve 1-2 people. My favourite here is the wild blueberry pie, the filling is delicious.

In addition to great pastry, Mabels also serves up some of the best fresh bread and cookies and squares. It’s all-around great bakery to stop into to grab a treat or even a sandwich for a picnic. The location on Queen street is just a shop with no seating.

Location: 1156 Queen St West and 323 Roncesvalles Avenue
Nearby Tourist Site: Queen St West and Trinity Bellwoods Park

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