Best of Toronto
The Best Muffins in Toronto
The best muffins in Toronto come in almost every flavour imaginable, and some unimaginable, thanks to the creativity of our fair city's bakers.
First made popular in the 1800's but facing stiff competition from the more well established yeast-based breakfast treat consortium, they kind of fell by the wayside for much of the 20th century, but have enjoyed such a renaissance since the mid-80's (because of instant muffin mix!), that these hand sized little breakfast cakes cause conniption fits by regulars when sold out and are clearly the North American contender for most popular breakfast pastry on the planet.
Lucky for us Toronto has plenty of seriously tasty muffins to go around and in my mouth, they remain the perfect accompaniment to a morning coffee and newspaper - crumbs and all.
For this list we took the best muffins in Toronto as voted by readers of blogTO and in a change of pace I ranked them in order of my preference. A special shout out to Cherry Bomb on Roncesvalles who should have made this list as well were it not for some logistical difficulties.
The Remarkable Bean
A family and philanthropic affair, this Beaches palace of coffee introduced cappuccinos to the masses 16 years ago and is ahead of the curve again as one of only 2 places on this list with a savoury muffin. Their roasted pepper/sweet chili/cream cheese muffin made with onion, celery, parsley and zucchini is so mind numbingly good you’ll rethink your definition of muffin. More »
Daniel et Daniel
With 6 different varieties everyday and always trying new combinations (especially on Saturday’s for you crazily adventurous types), this front for Daniel et Daniel catering is so serious about its muffins that only 1 person is in charge of churning out the 550 muffins a week the store goes through. Toss in catering orders and that’s gotta be a guy with a serious passion. Yum. More »
Wagamama Pastries and Cafe
Owner Miwa knows what her customers like because she has regulars who’ve been eating the same muffin for the past 10 years and honestly, with muffins like these, I can completely understand their loyalty. A perfectly portioned banana chocolate chip is so full of chips and moist, yummy cake that it leaves me happy but not heavy. Quite an achievement. More »
Phipps Bakery Cafe
This adorable kitschy, French country-ish bakery on Eglinton West is simply jammed full of goodies of every stripe, but the muffins (made with “tears of love” according to my guide Monica) are what sets it apart. Available in a ton of varieties, but locally famous for its “Morning Glory”, they are homemade the old fashioned way with lots of butter, sugar and no apologies. More »
Miss Cora's Kitchen
With both vegan (carrot pineapple raisin) and regular (banana walnut) available during a recent visit and selection changing daily, chances are that you’ll find something to love. Sourcing most of their fruit from across the street, owner Cora Devries knows muffins and likes to share, supplying Tango Palace, Sublime, Ideal and the Ryerson Cafe. More »
Dough Bakeshop
Only open 6 months, owners Benita Black and Tracy O’Hara saw an opportunity for a traditional bakery in Greektown and have developed a loyal following that’s growing exponentially by the day. Their muffins (pineapple coconut, lemon poppyseed, et al) vary depending on what’s at the market and sell out quickly, so get off your tushes and go! More »
Saving Grace
Packed almost every day from the opening bell, this Dundas West success (that’s been around for 10 years) bakes their muffins fresh every day and is always looking for new and extra scrumptious combos. Ginger cranberry, cornmeal ricotta and pear butterscotch are just a few that were on display during a recent visit and quite frankly, I couldn’t have been happier! More »
Urban Herbivore
Totally vegan and made with organic flours and sugar, the 6 types of muffins in rotation at this Kensington Market locale are rough hewn in texture, full of fruit and absolutely enormous. Now in their 4th year and expanding, they’re clearly hoping to add a few hundred more muffins sold to the already 1000 a week they’re at. More »
Pusateri's
With two locations in Toronto, Pusateri’s has the art of muffins down to a science. Birthing from the oven at exactly half past seven in the morning, nine, and half past ten, their 20 types of slow cooked muffins get fruitier in the spring and only get a public audience if they pass stringent secret tests. Regardless of the tests, I’d eat a pomegranate muffin anywhere, anytime, any day. More »
Mars Food
Having existed for the last 17 years it’s a good thing the muffins at Mars are fresh. Har har. Made with a secret recipe even I couldn’t pry from owner John, his stable supply of very large raisin bran, cornmeal, and blueberry muffins ensure a loyal and healthy following. More »
Harbord Bakery
A for real bakery with no seating and copious amounts of baked goods competing for attention, these Dr. recommended muffins can be a little hard to find at this institution, around and in the same family since 1945, but you should make the effort anyway...cause they’re worth it. More »
Discussion
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Best place I had a muffin in Toronto is Wagamama.
MMMMMMMuffins.
Sure you have a point that someone not affiliated with the site maybe shouldn't be answering questions like that, but there is no point in leaving a snarky comment along with your statement. Don't you realize that this interaction with your readers is a form of customer service?
Along with your rude tone, you're comment itself is strange- you have actually agreed with the commenter you chastised. The author says they are the best muffins "as chosen by [him]". Not 'as voted by the readers and ranked by him', which is what he should have written. What Todd wrote is definitely misleading as to how this list was put together. The commenter Danforthian said that it was a voting process, which you then confirmed with your comment.
Anyways it's not the facts of how the best muffins were chosen (who the eff cares really, they're muffins, a source of joy and happiness, not anything to argue about), it was your rude (and badly written) comment.
Tim, I wish you'd have more respect for your readers.
As for the rest of your comment, I agree what Todd wrote was a bit unclear which is why I chose to clarify it in my comment.
Circles & Squares is an awesome bakery for cafes to use because they delivery fresh every morning and as well all know, fresh is best.
As an aside, I have worked with people who have baked at Miss Cora's... and they've had atrocious hand-washing habits. As such, I've never gone to Miss Cora's. Maybe I'll pop my head in and check out the hand-washing skills of the current staff for myself. Thanks for the list, blogTO.
(only 8th on the list tho?!?!?)
blogTO consistently and repeatedly refers to these profiles as "reviews" on the site, giving the impression that your contributors are subjectively assessing the quality of a reviewee's offerings when, it seems, all they are actually doing is repeating a restaurant/café/club's own marketing prose. A case in point is Elizabeth-the-non-coffee-drinking-contributor's "profiles" of cafés in the city, which blogTO repeatedly refers to as reviews and includes in the review section of your blog.
This discussion about profiles and reviews is overblown. Elizabeth refers to her cafe "reviews" as "profiles" because what she is trying to do is describe what a cafe is like, rather than critiquing the taste of the coffee or some approach that might be more associated with some sort of rating or grade. In her mind, this makes it more of a "profile", but rest assured it's basically a review.