Choux Lab — Restaurant in Toronto

Choux Lab is pretty out of the way for me, but their choux are some of the best I've had and I wanted to pick some up for a friend's birthday brunch. I arranged for a ride so I could be there for when they open at 9am and be home for when my guests were supposed to arrive at 10am. Unfortunately, the display case was mostly empty when I got there--they were still in the process of prepping for the day.

The cafes and bakeries I usually go to tend to be ready with all their normal options when they open for the day, so it didn't occur to me that a place that indicated they open at 9am just wouldn't be ready. It was really disappointing having to settle for whatever they had on hand. But I didn't have an hour to waste hanging around for when they said they would be ready and I didn't want to go home empty handed after the trouble of getting out there.

I realize preordering in advance is an option, but I just had no reason to expect that before 10am, I'd basically just have an end of day selection to choose from. Lesson learned.

The staff were really nice though, and switched out the older mango choux they'd already packed in my box with fresh ones that had just been brought out.

Choux Lab is a great shop and I will definitely visit them again in the future, but I'll just consider their opening hours to start at 10am on weekends.

Bought: Choux 6pc $23.30 passionfruit and mango the passionfruit was great, I would buy it again the mango was okay but not as good as raspberry or blackcurrant; probably wouldn't buy again if there are other options available

Tart 3pc x2 $36.00 almond and raspberry the raspberry had good flavor but the tarts were just too sweet for all of us and I regret taking a chance on them; would...

I'm giving 3 stars because the product is good but my experience with the service has been bad more than once.

I’ve ordered cakes from here a couple of times now, and unfortunately both experiences have been disappointing, even though the cakes themselves tasted very good.

In 2023, I ordered two cakes and specifically pointed to an existing cake they had in their fridge for the dimensions, requesting the same thing but with a jungle theme and safari animals. I even called to confirm a few days before, and was told everything was fine. What we received, however, were two much shorter cakes decorated with a dinosaur instead. I was told they had lost the paper with my order and went from memory. A quick call to confirm the details with me would have avoided the mistake.

Yesterday, we decided to give them another chance and ordered a mango cake, this was confirmed back to us and we paid in advance. During pick up today, we were instead given a strawberry shortcake. This time the issue was the order was written down incorrectly.

I should note that I often buy their choux pastries, which are always excellent, so this issue seems to be specific to custom cake orders. Still, the lack of care and reliability in taking and fulfilling cake orders is very frustrating. The products taste great, but it’s disappointing, unprofessional, and careless when the order itself...

EDIT: They've taken my criticisms below to heart: no more whipping cream piped in to the choux buns to dillute the flavoured filling! And the buns are all very freshly filled and hold flawlessly until dessert after dinner. Easily 5 stars now, this is one of the best dessert spots in the country.

Tiramisu is amazing. 10/10, with great mascarpone flavour.

Vanilla, chocolate, lemon and raspberry are okay. Nothing wrong, but could have punchier flavours.

Caramel is perfectly burnt.

————————

Choux pastry is good but can get a bit soggy. Tightening up the window that choux are left in the case would be an easy improvement.

Prices aren't cheap, but they aren't crazy either and there's a clear commitment to quality.

Pistachio is good, but would be better if it were all pistachio cream and no whipping cream piped in to mute the flavour.

Ditto for Hazelnut. Ask them to fill one without any whipping cream piped in alongside the hazelnut.

Oreo also has the whipping cream mixed in. And... cream cheese?

Dark chocolate is just a mousse and I was hoping for more of a rich pastry cream. And again, the otherwise excellent flavour is muted by an obsession with piping in whipping cream.

With a few small tweaks this place will be a treasure, it's just not...