Out & About #202 | Ripley's Aquarium of Canada + ROM

Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, not to be confused with "Ripley's Believe It Or Not", has been occupying the space adjacent to the CN tower for over two years now. yet I've never had the opportunity to visit. It was high time I engaged in a tourist-y activity.  

If I remember correctly, my first aquarium visit was to COEX Aquarium in Korea - it was one of the main highlights of the mall it was situated within. My second, and more recent, experience was the ​Vancouver Aquarium, which was largely outdoors and featured penguins, otters, and Beluga whales.

As expected of a weekend morning, Ripley's was seriously crowded. Children were rampant and in abundance, and in the hands of every non-local was a different DSLR model, if not at least some type of smartphone or media-capturing device.

View the full album HERE !

An undeniably kid-friendly environment, the aquarium included small-sized tunnel attractions and carried kitschy glitter keychains, colouring books, and shark tooth necklaces in the gift shop. As someone over the age of ten though, I developed a much greater appreciation for the moving walkway in the underwater tunnel and the ceiling-high jellyfish wall.

The next stop of the day was the Royal Ontario Museum, which we had purchased timed online tickets for prior to embarking on the trip. Ripley's had been more exciting than anticipated, despite the incredible influx of young children, but we were now facing a shortage of time.

Instead of trying out McDonald's new $2.99 McGreek and McItalian sandwiches as I had hoped, we settled on hot dogs instead.

The subway whizzed us away to the ROM in about fifteen minutes.

After thoroughly enjoying the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit and gazing upon the remains of Dinosauria clade, we were off to the Bay and Dundas area. Uncle Tetsu's happened to be en route to Ryerson, so I suggested popping in for Matcha Soft Serve and Matcha Madeleines.

We passed by a fairly new bubble tea shop by the name of Chachago on the way, but not wanting to fill our stomachs up before Basil Box's Pre-Opening Event, it was only reasonable to save the trip for a later date.

My hankering for something sweet didn't exactly subside even after munching various Basil Box goodies, so I was prompted to drop by Infuse Cafe across the street afterwards.

We were too full to try any of their teas, but I desperately wanted to make a comparison between the ever-so-hyped Cece's Cheesecakes and Uncle Tetsu's original Japanese cheesecake.

Quarter slices of the original and chocolate-flavoured cheesecake were ordered to go (matcha had been sold out). The staff were extremely friendly and even expressed interest in knowing my verdict after conducting the taste test.
The consistency of chocolate slice fell between a dense, egg-less chocolate cake and a classic sponge; the cake itself wasn't overly sweet, though I found the ganache and milk chocolate sphere placed atop to be a tad too sugary for my liking. It wasn't anything to write home about, but hadn't exceeded expectations either.

Directly marketed against the famous Uncle, Cecilia's original cheesecake was creamier and denser than its rival. Not nearly as fluffy, and a bit too moist even after chilling, it felt as if the recipe was tweaked in order to appeal to the New York Cheesecake-loving crowd looking to delve into the Japanese cheesecake trend. While tasty all the same, my preference still lies with Uncle Tetsu. (Sorry!)


Find my experience at the Basil Box's Ryerson Pre-Opening event here!