Sobeys

 Bakery: Sobeys
Address: 511 Maple Grove Dr, Oakville ON (tons of other locations, just with no poppy seed XD)
Website: www.sobeys.com
Style: North American 
Price: $

I'm not one to do such giant supermarket chains, mainly because these supermarket chains also happen to have the worst bakery sections you can encounter. Sobeys isn't great itself, but then again, it's not Loblaws, so it is one step ahead of its game.  Nevertheless, it's not everyday that you randomly pop into a Sobeys and find them selling poppy seed buns; therefore, a post was absolutely necessary! O_O

And yes, I did say poppy seed buns. POPPY SEED BUNS at SOBEYS!?! If someone had told me this, I would have laughed at them and played along, just for fun, but never would I have believed it. Chocolate danishes, perhaps. But poppy seed buns: never. That being said, I've been to Sobeys locations in this part of the GTA, from downtown Toronto to Mississauga, and know that you won't find poppy seed buns at any old supermarket, although I have no idea what makes this location on Cornwall Rd so special. It just boggles the mind.

Sobeys seems to be taking the cue from Metro and introducing a series of all-butter, individually sold baked goods. At a standard Sobeys, this usually includes croissants, a pain au chocolat-looking creation, and occasionally the odd fruit danish. In addition to this, they also sell a few lacklustre cakes and the usual, pre-packaged muffins, cookies, and flaky strudels. Nothing too exciting and your best bet is most likely the butter goods. Because you can never have too much better. (Okay, yes, you can, but given how hard is to find bakeries that still bake with butter, the occasion should be celebrated ^^)

At the Oakville-Cornwall location, there were two bottom trays of the croissant rack that had no labels. One was a blueberry roll or bun; at any rate, something with blueberries that didn't feel the usual pie gloop. On the very last row, there were these spirals and at first glance, I thought I was seeing things. Was that a poppy seed bun? After much stooping and examining, I did indeed discover that they were poppy seed buns. Stunned beyond belief, I had to take one ($1.49). That being said, they weren't the greatest I've had. Actually, they had been sitting out in the open for too long since the dough, especially the outside layers, were tough and chewy like a strip of meat. Not the experience I had been hoping for. Once in the middle, it was pretty good: the poppy seeds were surprisingly generous and I liked the unique combination of crumble and this light glaze. The most notable was of course that "100% butter" dough which was, in fact, extremely buttery. Despite my previous conviction, I'd almost say too buttery. The dough was very rich and I think in a croissant that would be great since there's no other flavour clash, but it was so strong that you couldn't really appreciate those poppy seeds. And poppy seeds need to be appreciated. :3

Sobeys on its own would probably get *1/2 -- it's not the greatest supermarket bakery by a long shot with no real options or exciting treats, but including this stunning find...

Rating: **1/2