Address: 755 Queensway E, Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.lacasadolce.ca/
Style: Italian, North American
Price: $-$$
I pass La Casa Dolce, a relatively new establishment (though I think they've only moved from somewhere else) on the corner of Queensway and Cawthra, pretty much every week and yet it's taken me some time to actually visit it. For one, I think it's a little daunting/poorly advertised with the sub-heading "custom cakes and pastries", something which just screams wedding cake consultation counter and catalogue with no actual baked goods in stock. On the contrary, they have plenty of goods to offer, from cookies to pastries to doughnuts as well as a cafe, where you can order yourself a cappuccino; despite it not exactly matching, they even have some bread... in addition to the cakes, that is. In a sense, I was quite surprised to find the place a lot more drop-in friendly than I had expected.
So, to the goodies! Actually, they do have a lot, but upon further examination, I think most of what they have are cookies (sold by weight), in terms of number and variety. There's a smattering of North American (pound cakes, doughnuts and danishes) baked goods and not that much of the Italian, so if you're looking for an Italian pasticceria, I can't say I'd necessarily recommend this place. One reason why I had been wanting to try this place was that my brother had had a potluck lunch and one person, a relation of the owners, had brought cannoli. Many people there commented that these were the best cannoli they had ever had -- this had to be tasted to be believed. However, they don't really have all that much: a few cookie varieties, one version of those aforementioned cannoli, and bite-sized sfoglie and 'lobster tails'. And yes, everything is indeed bite-sized. It's pretty well priced, at first, but the sfolgie, in particular, at $1.30 are teeny tiny with no real layering going on either, and are obviously meant not to be eaten alone, but the kind of thing that is served at banquet buffets. For the $6 I paid for three items, they filled what would be considered an individual box -- the smallest there is. Bang for your buck? Not really. :/ Seeing as the cannoli were *that* good, I bought two. ($1.70/each; if I remember correctly) As said above, they have only the one "Sicilian" cannolo with ricotta filling and dark chocolate shavings. And what was said? Well, it's certainly not the best; this was the unanimous verdict. It was alright, but with the memory of two amazing bakeries from Woodbridge relatively fresh on people's minds, these guys just didn't compare. One of the better ones in Mississauga, to be sure, but I can't say that anyone here thought of it as a runaway hit.
The second item was what was labelled a cinnamon twist ($1.89), but was actually filled with either raspberry or strawberry -- there are two options. Ha ha I remember that Longo's once had these, so I'm guessing it must be some sort of Italian thing. Puff pastry dough folded with raspberry jam and topped with icing sugar. With them lying together, you don't actually see how big/small they are; taste-wise, they're pretty tasty. The jam makes the dough chewy on the inside; the outside was a tad too crunchy, but that just might be my scraped, overly delicate palette talking. :( I also didn't really like how much of the jam oozed out and created this hard caramelized layer on the bottom. It wasn't my favourite experience, but I still enjoyed it.Overall, I can't say this place wowed me all that much, but at the same time, it's not bad either; actually, I was complaining once about there not being enough cafes where you can get an actually good (and sweet ^^) bite to eat around here, so, in the end, I did find one more place! :P
Rating: **1/2
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