Restaurant Review: Sweet Jesus
SWEET JESUS
106 John Street ~ sweetjesusicecream.com Instagram: @sweetjesus Co-Diner: Tim Golem
When you think about the biggest names in ice cream in Toronto, Sweet Jesus certainly comes to mind. The first location opened in 2015 on John Street... And since then they have BLOWN. UP. The chain now boasts thirteen locations all over Ontario and one in Vancouver. There's also one in Baltimore, USA. Like The Burger's Priest before it (apparently Toronto only exports Biblically-themed restaurants) this Toronto chain also opened a location in Edmonton. Only in this case, things didn't go so well and they closed up shop shortly afterward. Sweet Jesus is known for more than their ice cream, too. blogTO says that they've got the #1 Best Hot Chocolate and the #1 Best Milkshakes in town. At this point, I have visited Sweet Jesus many, many times and have been to several of their locations. Their turquoise colour scheme feels very familiar, along with their pimped-out soft serve attitude. Every location features lightening bolts and neon lights. At the original John Street shop you'll find potted plants and turquoise cherubs. The operation is very casual, with only a counter and no seating inside at all. That being said, there are places to sit in the courtyard just outside the door. The menu is decked out with nine different soft serve cones (their main thing), shakes, hot chocolate, and also coffee. They also offer pints and cakes. Their goal is to offer unique, hand crafted, chef inspired ice cream - and they succeed at this... For the most part. On this particular visit, a Sunday afternoon, I decided to order two of my favourite cones; Oh Hungry ($5.97) and Hella Hazelnut ($5.97). I'd never tried their shakes before and wanted to find out what they were all about too! The Peanut Butter, Pretzel & Chocolate Hazelnut Shake ($6.85) seemed like the way to go.
Thankfully there wasn't a lineup, even though it was a hot summer afternoon. And no, I did not eat all of this by myself. I'm not a monster! Starting with the pimped out soft serve, two sizes are available; kids or regular. I ordered the kids size for both of my cones because you get more than enough! I find that the regular size is often way too much. You can upgrade your cone to a waffle cone but I prefer to stick to the classic. They also offer special "featured" flavours once in a while, if you happen to be tired of the usual menu. I do appreciate that soft serve ice cream is the name of the game at Sweet Jesus, which is on-trend. Hard ice cream is over. (There. I said it.) First up: Oh Hungry. Vanilla, peanut butter, caramel, chocolate sauce, chocolate peanut crumble. This one is good because it offers a lot of texture and crunch. All of the flavours of an Oh Henry! chocolate bar are captured in ice cream form. Chocolate and peanut butter always create the most delicious combo! Next up: Hella Hazelnut (formerly known as Hella Nutella). Chocolate, chocolate-hazelnut sauce, wafers, Corn Flakes, pistachios. This one used to be a chocolate-vanilla twist soft serve, but it doesn't look like they do it that way anymore. Historically, I've said that this is my favourite flavour of theirs. I enjoy the taste of hazelnut with the crunchy wafers, flakes and nuts, which all creates a satisfying combo. Lastly, the shake: Peanut Butter, Pretzel & Chocolate Hazelnut. Vanilla soft serve, peanut butter sauce, caramel sauce, whipped cream, hazelnut-chocolate sauce, salted pretzel crumble. This was very delicious and I loved the big peanut butter milkshake flavour! However, the staff didn't even know how to make it. The shake looked haphazardly thrown together and it was served to me without any pretzels on it at all. After asking about the pretzels, the staff were confused and went off somewhere, coming back with a random vending-machine-style bag of pretzels to top the shake with. (Reminder: I was at their flagship location.) This isn't the first time that the staff members seemed to have no idea how to correctly assemble the items on the menu. I once got a hot chocolate at the Sherway Gardens location that was missing several of the components that it was supposed to come with. And once at another location the staff member straight up told me that she'd never made the featured cone before and didn't know how to do it (she managed to figure it out). I find these shortcomings pretty unfortunate. The ice cream and the concept is a lot of fun but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I can't end this review without mentioning Krusty the Cone. Vanilla, cotton candy pieces, cotton candy sauce, rainbow sprinkles. I did not order this cone on this particular visit, but I have enjoyed it in the past.
Probably the wackiest thing on the menu, this situation is a party on a cone! It's really, really fun. I used to be a really big fan of Sweet Jesus. I haven't written them off yet, but I would really like to see them tighten up their operations a bit more and deal with their mismanagement issues. I love the crazy flavours that they come up with and would appreciate that when I pay for something, that I get served a correctly and carefully made item. I really just want to see some consistency. Hoping to see improvements because I want to love you, Sweet J!