LIGHT CAFE

Light Cafe was one of those restaurants that looked stunning on the screen. With a vibrant live wall, whimsical drinks and colourful desserts, the menu defined Instagrammable. Since we don’t eat only with our eyes, I had high hopes that my tastebuds would be equally delighted, and for the most part they were. Light Cafe proved that they were more than just visuals with fresh ingredients and creative combinations.

Disclaimer: All food and drinks reviewed below were provided complimentary. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine.

To start, our group ordered a couple of drinks including the Berry Iced Tea, a Grapefruit Italian Soda, Tiramisu Latte and we couldn’t resist the Cotton Candy Coffee. Light Cafe also offered a selection of smoothies, espresso drinks, and loose leaf teas. I sipped on the bubbly Italian soda myself and liked how many slices of fresh fruit my glass came with. Similarly, the Berry Iced Tea was topped with lots of apple slices, sliced grapes and blackberries. I really liked the Tiramisu Latte, but it was unsweetened and a little hard to add sugar without getting cocoa powder everywhere. As for the Cotton Candy Coffee, a drink designed for Boomerang, the presentation of the drink was adorable. Two small milk bottles filled, each with milk and coffee, were served with a glass mug topped with a fluffy cloud of cotton candy. Pouring the coffee and milk through the cotton candy into the mug melted it and sweetened the drink at the same time. Fun and whimsical. Personally, I like my coffee a little sweeter than the level of sweetness provided from just the cotton candy.

As for food, we tasted at least one item from each section of the menu. For myself, I ordered the Lobster Bisque ($6.50 for a single bowl) and really liked the savoury, creamy soup. The warm cup was served in a copper measuring cup and was very comfortable on the chilly day. Continuing the lobster trend, I also ordered the Lobster Roll. At $15.50 for two buns this was pricey for a sandwich but pretty good for the amount of lobster on the plate. The cold chunks of lobster, tossed with a creamy dressing, was served on two toasted hot dog buns, perfect. I still dream about the hot butter lobster rolls from Boston, one day I hope to find one in Toronto.

The next few dishes were shared at the table. The Truffle Mushroom Croissant was visually interesting with the mushroom heads spilling out and had a generous drizzle of truffle oil, adding even more earthiness to each bite. If you like mushrooms, this would be the sandwich to order. With the Smoked Duck Breast Salad, the duck was incredibly flavourful and well seasoned, but only 5 slices were included. The salad itself was fresh with greens, a few chunks of citrus, tomatoes, cauliflower and radish. When ordering a salad, diners can choose from 4 different dressings. I picked the sesame, which was creamy and fragrant. Both the Yuzu and Mustard Soy dressings also sounded interesting.

I only took a few bites of the next two plates, the Creamy Shrimp Mini Pizza and the Smoked Salmon and Caviar Baked Potato. Between the two, I preferred the baked potato. Both dishes were weak in comparison to the other items I tried that night. The texture of the mini pizza was more like a flatbread and difficult to cut through.

When it came to dessert we tried three different waffle flavours, the Strawberry Waffle, Charcoal Black Sesame Waffle and Mango Waffle. The strawberry and mango waffles were more traditional, topped with whipped cream, fresh fruit and ice cream. I liked the idea of the flavour shot inserted in the scoop of strawberry ice cream, but it was hard to drizzle out. Both waffles were crispy and a great base for the topping. The black sesame waffle was cut into individual hearts and used actual (food safe) charcoal in the batter to achieve the dark, black colour. A little pitcher of black sesame sauce was served alongside.

Overall Light Cafe would be a great place for any type of meal, from a full dinner, to coffee, to dessert.