Sense Appeal (96 Spadina Ave)

I have been meaning to come here for a while. They're located pretty much near a BIXI bike station - doubleplus good.

At first sip the espresso here is really smooth and has a creamy/round mouth feel - neat. It's nicely balanced and not too strong - I really like it actually. It's a nice mid- afternoon sipping sort of espresso. Honest and great to the last drop.

In spirit of discovering real macaroons this past weekend, I decided to order a chocolate one (pictured above). It pairs up nicely with the espresso - a nice not to sweet cocoa treat.

This one was totally worth the scary bike ride in rush hour traffic, I'll be back.

Cafe Mania (605 Yonge St)

Yes, I got the coffee here in a paper cup - I guess they were all out of porcelain cups. No biggie - it still tasted fine to me. Their coffee is really good actually - but it was served damn hot and I burned my tongue!

The decor here is neat - feels like chic euro or something - complete with a big Eiffel tower picture at the back. Even the floor tiles look really unique - they are a shattered mosaic pattern - looks like it was painstaking to install them.

Besides the pretty decent coffee, this place serves up really good crepes. I ordered the tutti fruiti which is nutella, strawberries and banana. A sweet combo - but not too sweet, just perfect and goes well with fresh coffee.

After cheesecake I think crepes are my most favorite sweet food. They have both sweet and savory ones here and I'd come back for them.