A bar that opened near Queen and Broadview earlier this year has something different on its snack menu - birthday cake. Paired with pickles (also offered) it may not make the best one two punch, but savoured along with a pint of Mill Street, it serves as a sweet late night snack.

Find out more in my review of The Avro in the bars section.

With live music, booth seating and cheap enough beer, this College Street bar feels a lot like Sneaky Dee's. Add some inventive Korean/Mexican bar snacks and the kitchen just might give the competition a run for their money.

Read my profile of JangBang in the bars section.

The best donuts in Toronto are truly a wondrous thing and quite honestly if there is any doubt that Toronto has come into its own as a foodie town, the seemingly endless and inventive takes on such a common item should put that doubt to rest.

Now, when one mentions the word donut (or doughnut) to me, nostalgic memories of visiting Robin's Donuts and having Robin's Eggs innumerable times while growing up in Winnipeg come to mind. The almost zen-like state I would enter before each first bite (when I didn't even know what the hell "zen" was), is seldom replicated. A good donut is like curling up on a couch on a cold winter's night with a warm blanket, a cup of hot chocolate with multi-coloured marshmallows and a new comic book - it's as peaceful as it gets.

The best sports bars in Toronto are, quite honestly, a mixed lot because, for the most part, they're not actually sports bars - they're pubs that have a lot of TVs. Until relatively recently in North America, a bar specifically dedicated to gorging at the buffet of athletic competition was an anomaly. If we wanted to watch our sports, we did exactly what everyone else in the world did (and seemingly what most of us still do) - we headed down to our local and hoped they had it on the boob tube.

The best place to buy a turkey in Toronto - for Thanksgiving, Christmas or some other occasion - is NOT Loblaws, Metro, Longo's, Sobeys, Rabba, No Frills or any other major grocery outlet that sell mass market, mostly frozen, so-large-they-can't-even-walk on their own two legs birds. Instead, it's local, local, local, all the way.

The best custard tarts in Toronto are an exercise in indulgence and trickery. Small in stature but packing an absolutely wicked sugar/egg yolk/cream/pastry punch they are on par with most illicit drugs for mind altering abilities and overall addictiveness (add an espresso and that becomes an exponential comparison).