Pastel: crêperie&dessert house

hello hello! its been a while since i've last posted a blog, which truly saddens me because i really do wish to update this as often as possible :(

anyhow, after completing our study quotas today at Robart's, S (new food buddy!) and i met up with C and we went to eat a simple dinner. with time to spare and craving something sweet, we decided that we'd try a new crêpe place that opened up in north york recently. for people unfamiliar with the dessert, a crêpe is a very thin type of pancake orginating from france that is comprised of flour, eggs, milk, butter and a bit of salt. crêpes come with a variety of textures as well as a relatively neutral taste, making them a very flexible dessert to eat. depending on their egg to flour ratio, a crêpe can be either pliable and slightly crispy, or pancake-like. in this sense, a crêperie can be of 2 settings;  a take-away restaurant that serves crêpes as a sort of 'fast-food' delicacy, or a formal sit-down café.

located along yonge  and close to finch, the dessert house has a very simple exterior design consisting of sage green neon lighting and a honey-oak-on-maple wood backdrop, and pops out quite distinctively from the surrounding dull-silver stores. the interior is also designed and furnished quite aesthetically, with its high ceilings, honey-oak-on-maple wood cupboards and tables, as well as stark white walls and seats. pastel's simplistic yet cozy approach on design makes it a versatile setting to be either a comfortable place to simply sit around and chat over a warm beverage, or a suitable romantic after-dinner destination for lovers on a date.

there were two menus present, the laminated one and one in a cover-bound book. i didn't really bother looking into the pretty book, considering that the simple laminated one provided me all the choices of food i wanted to eat.

pastel offers 2 types of crêpes; savoury and sweet. you also have the option of switching the sweet crêpe with a fluffy waffle, if you are willing to pay the additional minimal cost of $1. considering we were here after eating dinner, we opted on  2 types of sweet crêpes:

Brownie Crêpe ($7.59)

C and i shared this crêpe, and ordered it mostly because i was secretly craving soft and doughy brownies all day. the dessert consisted of a large crêpe filled with whipped cream, banana slices, and mini brownie chunks. two moderately-sized scoops of cookies n' cream icecream and a swirl of whip cream accompanied the crepe, and the whole dish was sprinkled with confectioner's sugar and warm chocolate drizzle. the humble-sized crêpe arrived warm and actually quite filled, showing that the owners didn't skimp out on giving their customers what they pay for. both the cookies n' creme ice-cream and whipped cream were quite standard and clearly grocery-store quality, but nevertheless good. though it was satisfying, i personally found the crêpe a little too leathery for my liking. the reason behind the leathery-texture could possibly be due to either over-mixing the batter, or not giving the batter sufficient time to settle in the refrigerator (the common time ranging from a minimum of 2hours to 2days).

Nut Crêpe ($8.59)

this second crêpe was ordered by S, since she just had to satisfy her chocolate craving. this crêpe was comprised of a thick layer of rich hazelnut nutella-spread smeared inside the crêpe, along with whipped cream, and chopped walnuts. accompanying the crêpe were 2 (yet again) moderately sized scoops of what tasted to be cappuccino flavor ice-cream, and a singular swirl of cool whipped cream. the cappuccino ice-cream was a great addition, and tasted better than many places i've tried it before. though it was still store-bought quality, the cool taste of it was rich and invigorating and had the perfect fusion of creaminess and caffeine. the crêpe was also covered in confectioner's sugar and warm chocolate drizzle. though i admit that i only tried the ice-cream and not the crêpe combination myself, from S's reaction (aka her fast eating, satisfied nods, etc..) i have reason to safely conclude that the nut crêpe was a success!

additional photos for your aedificare...

when C went to the washroom, i asked him if he could take a photo of it for me to see how it looked. he came back with this.

 conclusively .. . .  .   .
food: 8/10
atmosphere: 8/10
service: 10/10 (the staff were incredibly kind and attentive, as well as impressively clean utensils)
portion: moderate
 price: reasonable (<$10)


go check out pastel: crêperie& dessert house :)
happy eating!


xoxo
-A