Tatsu's Bread

Bakery: Tatsu's Bread
Address: 3180 Lakeshore Rd W, Toronto ON 
Website: http://tatsusbread.com/
Style: North American, Japanese 
Price: $$ 

This has been on my to-visit list for awhile now, seeing as it's not so far away and, well, it would spice up my Etobicoke selections a little bit. :) Tatsu's Bread is, as the name all too clearly indicates, known for its artisan breads in a variety of healthful flavours. As well as this, they have a few hot lunch options and the brothers are already planning their trip to try the Japanese-style burgers and hot dogs. Their website indicates a bunch of North American/Canadian baked good staples such as brownies and fruit tarts, but I found the dessert selection not that great, with a few cookies and several Franco-Japanese-inspired creations like green tea macarons, dainty lemon custard tarts, and madeleines. This, however, sure beats brownies. :P

Wanting to try something more unique (I reserve the macarons and madeleines for next time, mwa ha ha!), I was going to try the lemon custard tart ($1.00), but it was just so.. petite! Also for a dollar there's Tatsu's handmade granola bars that also get a thumbs up (if you're craving granola and not sweets, naturally :D) I guess I could have gotten two slices of tart for the price -- not sure why I didn't think of it while there -- but I finally decided on the green tea biscotti ($1.85), for the sake of getting something more Japanese, and was very pleased with this simple treat: filled with slivered almonds and not too many chocolate chunks. Of course, the highlight was definitely the absolutely delicious dough, generously infused with matcha (green tea powder) so that the flavour is always there. I also liked that it wasn't tooth-breakingly hard like many biscotti I've encountered.

In addition to this, I also got the apple danish ($2.00), because it looked different than your typical, fruit in the middle danish. And indeed it was. Strangely enough, the dough was especially worth noting: super, super soft and yet dense at the same time and different from any sort of French or Danish dough. It's the soft dough that only Japanese and Korean bakeries seem capable of (after 200+ bakeries, I can safely assume so) and it's yummy. Top that off with a great, homemade apple sauce filling. Mmmm....

Seeing as this is pretty much just a drive down from the Kipling subway station (the closest thing I'm regularly at in Etobicoke), you can count on me returning. Not so much here, but recommended nevertheless.

Rating: ***