Tanja-Tiziana
Love Me Sweet's plain cheesecake
LOVE ME SWEET 7181 Yonge, at Doncaster (Markham), 647-633-1899, facebook.com/lmsbakery
Opening in the wake of Tetsu-mania, this north-end bakery has many advantages over the downtown juggernaut. You don't have to wait in line! You can buy more than one cheesecake at a time! You can try free samples! (You need to be in Thornhill to do any of that, so Tetsu's may still hold an advantage there.) Love Me Sweet, which held its grand opening last weekend after several weeks in soft-launch mode, does plain and chocolate cakes ($10 and $10.25), with a coffee variety on the way. Early reviews say LMS goes a little stronger on the flavour - worth checking out if you've found Tetsu underwhelming.
BAKERY NAKAMURA 3160 Steeles East, at Victoria Park (Markham), 905-477-3555, bakerynakamura.com
How did they feel at this Markham bakery, billed as the first Japanese pastry shop in town (est. 1993), when Toronto was suddenly all a-twitter over Japanese cheesecake? My guess: they were probably too busy fielding business from J-Town plaza regulars to think much about it. In addition to the classic "soufflé-style" cheesecake, they also offer tofu-dairy blends swirled with matcha and black sesame (all $4.25/slice, $25/6-inch cake, $38/8-inch).
BAKE CODE 4910 Yonge, at Spring Garden, 647-346-3888, bakecode.com
This Taiwanese chain, a sister to Chatime, landed in North York last fall with a glossy flagship café stocked with sweets. In addition to a wide array of fluffy, fusiony goods like macaron-plastered mousse cakes and bacon focaccia, there's classic Japanese cheesecakes available by the slice ($2.90) - as well as New York-style slices, if you still haven't been lured over to the eggy side.
MON K PATISSERIE 1040 Coxwell, at O'Connor, 416-696-8181, monkpatisserie.ca
Mon K specializes in a balancing act of French and Japanese styles of sweets. Like at Nakamura, soufflé-style cheesecakes (here, topped with fruit) have long been on the menu ($28/6-inch cake, $38/7-inch cake) - but as far as East York locals are concerned, they tend to take a back seat to cream puffs, Mont Blancs and macarons in flavours like yuzu, mango and matcha.
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