FABULOUS BAKERY CAFE ~ Toronto, On

~~~ FABULOUS has now closed: RIP ~~~

After a few days of helping LJ move by going from Toronto to Windsor, to Whitby, to Ottawa to Windsor and back to Toronto in less than 72 hours, Dude came down after moving his stuff back from Ottawa. He brought his friend Jen down, and I gathered Julianna working in the office, and we went off for lunch and the search for a nearby patio.

There aren't any real patios in my area. Not any big ones. We headed to the new St Louis to try their patio - which isn't that nice, but it was full. The Wolf and the Firkin is nearby (but absolutely tiny) so we decided to go to The Devil's Advocate. But, on the way there we passed by the Fabulous Cafe. Although I had been there years before, I really didn't remember it or what it was like.

Its on the corner of a small street with 2 other restaurants right next door - sushi and Slice of New York. I fell like its easily missed, with its wall of bushes and plants, which tries to make-up for the not-so-nice neighborhood (Bay street just looks so drab!). Its really hard to describe this 'cafe' - it serves semi-pub food, some Italian fare, and other random items on its small menu. I was surprised to find wings, and good wing at that.

The NEW SCORE

STYLE: deep fried, then baked
SAUCES: mild/hot/bbq/ & honey garlic I think . . .
SIZE: large 1/2
HEAT: next to nothing, but good flavour 4/10
CRISPINESS: very crispy due to the second level cooking 3 /3
WETNAP FACTOR: 2 /5
PRICE: $6.95 for 1lb, $1295 fo 2lb
SIDES: fries and veggies 7/7
WETNAP/NAPKINS: napkins 3/8
WING NIGHT: none
OTHER: patio
TOTAL: 20/35

I was really, really surprised when these wings came out. This place did give me the impression they could do a decent wing and I expected a shriveled up piece of chicken. Well, was I ever wrong.





These were a good size wings, almost jumbo sized. They were nice and crispy, juicy on the inside and put a big smile on my face. The sauces I went with were half bbq and half hot. Hot was not, as usual, but it was a nice Buffalo style flavour. The BBQ were also good - but both were quite mild in flavour, letting the chicken do the talking.

What was nice was the price, with these big wings coming with both fries and veggies and dip. How could you go wrong?





Jen, who requested not to have her photo taken, ordered a salad. It was pretty much the worst salad I had ever seen - not because it was plated poorly or that it was small, but that there was a giant mushroom on it. Gross. It did have nicely roasted vegetables, balsamic vinegar and buffalo mozzarella. She seemed to really like it.




Julianna went for the Caesar's salad. While the salad looked tasty, it was disappointingly small in it portion size. The picture makes it look a reasonable size, especially with the grilled chicken on the side, but it really wasn't. From the nibble I had it tasted like bottled Caesar sauce, not home-made.


Dude went for an old-man special of a tuna-melt. What went wrong here? First, OLIVES. Who puts OLIVES on a tuna melt? Gross. It was placed on a toasted pita, which Dude did not enjoy for eating. It did come with a very generous portion of fries that were definitely not frozen fries.



FINAL SCORE: a big surprise for delivering some good wings. Although they need to kick their sauces into gear, it would be worth going back at some point (even if the other meals weren't so great). Oh, and the waitresses wear next to nothing, that was a nice touch too. Something was at least fabulous. 20/35

Fabulous Bakery Cafe
635 Bay Street, Toronto