Foodie Toronto Trip: Tortilla Flats, Scarborough Bluffs & Maple Leaf Dairy Ice Cream Parlour

Tortilla Flats

Tortilla Flats moved down Queen but it is still there!

Right before I moved away from Toronto after I graduated from York University to be with Reg in Ottawa, a group of my friends and I went to Tortilla Flats for dinner. I remember that restaurant having the best chicken wings I had ever had. I loved that on my birthday they would put a sombrero on my head and then I would do a free tequila shot. Good times.

My friend Michelle was there that last night in Toronto. When we got together during my recent visit, all our previous foodie plans for the day kind of fell apart. Then she mentioned Tortilla Flats and I knew, we had to go. It was like coming full foodie circle and… I got totally seduced into ordering a Lycheel’ade. I mean, how could I not?!

Sadly, the chicken wings were not how I remembered them. That was partly our fault, we ordered the boneless skinless ones but still. Like there was no sauce! The nacho fries on the other hand? Genius!

I could not believe it when my drink arrived in a carafe. Have I mentioned I rarely drink? And haven’t had alcohol in like, at least a year? What happens in Toronto, stays in Toronto.

Seriously though, this was one of the most delicious drinks I have ever had! And yes, I drank the whole thing. Which was very stupid of me but when I am with Michelle, you just never know what is going to happen.

She was excited to introduce me to my first churros and I must admit, now I understand what all the fuss is about. So crispy, so tender and I blasphemously dipped them in the chocolate sauce while Michelle remained a churro purist and ate them as-is. I almost wish I did not know just how good these are… damn!

The new down-the-street Queen Street location leaves much to be desired. I have never been in such an odd bathroom only to come up the stairs and notice they are being held together by cans. Yup, only in Toronto.

Still, a perfect way to begin our day together. Me a little tipsy and Michelle getting a kick out of that fact.

Scarborough Bluffs

So we got in the car and wanted to go to a food festival but then realized it wasn’t happening until the evening. So… we drove to the Scarborough Bluffs of course! Way outside the city on the other side of town and OMG, it was hot.

I think they are called something else now but this is what everyone called it when I was growing up there. This was my first time to the bluffs and figuring out how to get to the actual cliffs was not easy. Do not bother with these pedways, they won’t take you there.

There was a strip that was pretty wide of water that we had to climb over to get to the base of the bluffs. Michelle easily crossed a precariously log but my hiking boots are over five years old and have no tread left. I managed to get over to the other side walking over stones that stuck out of the water. Better to risk getting wet than breaking an ankle on vacation!

Wow, did the geese ever not like Michelle. She said it was because she had no fear but their chronic hissing at her made me laugh.

When we got to the cliffs we were amazed that they crumbled under our fingers like clay. I fear for this tree. Every year a little closer to falling down into Lake Ontario.

We found some pretty stones and even this mosaic which was very odd.

I was fascinated by what looked like a lost drunken shed covered in seagulls. BTW, you can see the city in the distance on the right and damn, what a hot day it was.

Amazing to see that birds had carved out nests in the bluffs and lived in these grey slivers.

Oh and yeah, getting back to the other side? Not as easy. My treadless hiking boots slipped and I fell into Lake Ontario.

Maple Leaf Dairy Ice Cream Parlour

Michelle had promised ice cream at the bluffs but no cart was to be found. She was determined to find a place on the way home and did she ever strike gold with this ice cream parlour on the Danforth.

A very modest but slightly old fashion flare inside.

I ordered one scoop of the swiss mocha ice cream. Do you see through the glass what the woman there is doing with my ice cream?

Yup, that is supposedly one scoop! Just what I want to eat with squishy wet feet and drowned pants. Endless ice cream.

Look at Michelle’s! I mean is that ridiculous or what? And only $3!

Now we are serious foodies but this “scoop” of ice cream just about did us in. We gave up and had to stop eating, especially since I was on my way to have dinner with my sisters. Next time I am getting the kiddie scoop and you should too!

While Michelle was at the famous food show in South Beach she picked up some Bitchin Kitchen pot holders that were a promo for me. That’s Michelle, always thinking of me.

I joke that I owe Michelle so much because she introduced me to Reg but what people don’t know is that we met in the most horrid Poetry Workshop in the world, under dire circumstances of a self-deluded prof that tried to ruin us as writers. Yet through that experience we came dear friends that I will not let time or geography destroy.

I may have not hung out with her in two and a half years but within seconds of being together we were off on one of our crazy adventures. This one ending with me calling my sister on the way home asking her to have a towel waiting for me at the front door. Yup, that was a true Michelle/Suzie adventure.