I did the classical New Years reso thing, went healthy and then went downhill. I got a salad bowl at Chopped Leaf and ended my lunch with crazy cupcakes from Mancakes.

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This bowl is $12, of fresh items like avocado, salsa, tortilla chips, cheese, beans and corn, chicken and brown rice. I eat like this every day pretty much, so I found it rather expensive, though it was good. I’d still rank Chopped Leaf a 3.5/5. I say this because, the service is like Nando’s Chicken. You order, you sit, you wait, but it’s not a formal affair where you sit. You don’t have anyone asking you if you need anything or actually giving you full customer service. And the price is still quite high, even if the food itself doesn’t justify the cost. It’s a pretty simplistic meal with no bells and hoops, compared to something like the Naam, Foundation, etc, so I felt like I could have had a salad similar and similarly priced at the IGA across the street. I’ll say it again. I make this meal every day and I make it for roughly about $4-6, even less if I buy bulk. I’m disappointed.

 

And I was still hungry.

So, in spirit of that, I threw my healthy principals out the window and got some Mancakes for me and my coworkers to share.

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They are a little bakery up the street where I work.

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I got bacon chili chocolate, Breakfast, King Kong, Chicago, Chocolate Red Wine and Buffalo Wing. David had the Buffalo Wing and Bacon Chili Chocolate. He didn’t like the Buffalo one, because he explained it was only really “buffalo chicken” in the sprinkles ontop, otherwise it was just a sweet cupcake. He did really like the bacon chili chocolate. He said the bacon was a perfect pairing to the semi-sweet chocolate cupcake and icing.

I tried the Breakfast and was a little disappointed. It’s supposed to taste like pancakes, eggs, etc. Wasn’t so memorable. I loved the Chocolate Red Wine, as there was a chewy gummy bit in the icing that which was the wine part, which was tarte and sweet to clean my palate. I bit into King Kong, which has a chocolate base filled with a banana cream, topped with marshmallow and chocolate shavings. This one was extremely good, the chocolate tasted more like mocha to me on the top and I love the amount of banana in the mix.

One that just blew me away was the Chicago cupcake. It has caramel and cheese in it. Cheese is so good in a cupcake. I never even thought about it. There’s a single piece of popcorn ontop and it gives this cupcake a crunch. Seriously. This is probably the best cupcake I’ve ever had in a while.

4/5 for Mancakes, only because their cupcakes were hit or miss!

Yum!

 
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The Chopped Leaf on Urbanspoon