Cob's Bread [Updated!]

Bakery: Cob's Bread
Address: 370 Bloor St West, Toronto, ON (multiple locations)
Website: http://www.cobsbread.com
Style: North American, British
Price: $$

[I haven't been updating recently; mainly because I don't have that much "footage" left. Ha ha I was saving up photos for months before I got this started, and now that my cache is being used up, I've realized that I really don't go to very many bakeries at all. This has to change. ;P Nevertheless, went to a few places over the past few weekends, so hopefully, this will get me through for awhile...]

Cob's Bread is a chain of bakeries (the world's biggest bakery chain????) with a majority of its Canadian locations in and around Toronto, and some in BC and Alberta. As the name indicates, they specialize in a whole bunch of bread, from rye to white to special grains and a bunch of interesting varieties in between. In addition to this, they do carry a few sweet options, although it's not a lot and all except the scones are based on the same yeast dough. In the latter category, there's their delicious cinnamon buns ($2.50 + tax), larger sized tea cakes with fruit and custard or just apples ($5.95 + tax). I believe it was during Valentine's Day, they also had these amazing berry rolls which are like cinnamon buns, but with a berry filling and then on top there's icing and coconut. It was good. ^^;

Last time around, we took the scones ($1.50 + tax) which is pretty much the only other option you have; they have a few flavours, both sweet and savoury. We were going to take three, but the worker said we'd save money if we bought four, so we got another one... and ended up paying $6.25. O_o? Anyways, we took (clock-wise starting from top) cheese and chive, berry white-chocolate, chocolate chip and banana, and cinnamon. I've taken the berry one before, and it's pretty delicious, in terms of scones. The chunks of raspberries and heaping with white chocolate chips. According to the ribbon on the wall at the Bloor St. location, they won first place for this scone and rightfully. ;) No one seemed so thrilled with the other flavours, however. My younger brother said the banana chocolate chip didn't have enough banana in it and... "tasted like a sofa cushion". Yeah, thanks yet again. -_-

Overall, their sweets are pretty good. Their style is more British than anything else (think of every single English-language book entitled "Baking" and that's what I'm talking about), which isn't a style I'm fond of. Their scones are delicious, especially as scones go, and the same goes for their yeast-based concoctions, but at the same time I'd a) prefer something else at another place, b) find their bread a lot tastier. Indeed, there are always places where their good bread doesn't necessarily equal good sweets. Cob's Bread doesn't go to that extreme, since their sweet stuff is pretty tasty, but at the same time, their bread is so good! You may pay a little bit compared to supermarket (in-store) baked breads, but it's worth it. Fresh every day with some amazing flavours (my fave has to be the cheese and jalapeno flat-ish bread, with special mention going out to the Turkish bread). I'd recommend this over anything else, sweet or otherwise, but the baked goods aren't bad either... just a little bland. After all, I think their cinnamon/berry buns are the best choice from the sweet selection. :)

[NEW!] Yay! I never thought it would be possible, as Mississauga never seems to me like the place to have a Cob's Bread, but they did indeed open one not too far from me this summer. And I had to run and check it out. Serving the standards, and not knowing what to take, I must say I was a little reluctant in my mom's suggestion of the Cranberry and Custard Danish (around $2.25, I think... please correct me if I'm wrong) which I didn't think I'd like because of that mentioned custard, which is pretty much vanilla pudding with cranberries and then with some dark chocolate drizzled on top. Perhaps it doesn't look like much, but after the first bite, I was thinking, "wait a minute, this isn't supposed to be so good!". Yup, this might be my favourite sweet from them. The dough is soft and fluffy, but, like their cinnamon buns, not sugary. The little bit of custard and dark chocolate teamed up with the tartness of the cranberries. Who thought this up? Wow, you've impressed me, Cob's! ;)

Rating: **1/2