Garni Bakery

Bakery: Garni Bakery
Address: 9555 Yonge St, Richmond Hill ON
Website: n/a 
Style: Persian, Middle Eastern
Price: $$

There are several Persian bakeries still needing a visit along and near Yonge, most of which are in Richmond Hill. On a recent trip to buy a cake, one brother popped into Garni Bakery, tucked somewhere among the businesses on the T&T plaza. This being his first trip to a Persian bakery, he had expected nothing except baklava (which was perfectly fine by him) and was a little surprised, though not unpleasantly so, to find such things as an array of aromatic cookies and various breads. The flat, "Barbari" bread is by far the most popular, but as it's not sweet, I'll only mention it and continue to the goodies. ;)

Taking his cue from the two customers in front of him, he got a selection of cookies as well as... those honey twists whose name I still don't know in any language. As always, he made no note whatsoever of the price, but I presume that both items are sold by weight? Nevertheless, at first I was a little skeptical to try the cookies after my last experience with Middle Eastern baking wasn't the most positive, but the cookies were delicious! The dough was delicately flavoured with orange water (not too perfume-y) and even those that were just plain dough sprinkled with some slivered almonds were very tasty. Others with jam in the middle (again, I was fearing rose water -- ha ha if you haven't learned already, I'm not one for fragrance in my food. I don't know what it is but yeah...) were even better! I think a few people were hoping I'd try a piece and end up passing on the rest, but that didn't happen. I ate them all up, and with pleasure. ;P

The honey twists, unlike the typical Lebanese version which is just plain dough coated in a mix of sugar and honey, the proportion being different depending on the location, were quite unique. For one, the dough was orange and, once more, quite fragrant. It must have been orange water, if my memory serves me correctly. The dough was not only coated, but soaked so that the texture was entirely different and actually somewhere in between the Lebanese and the Indian equivalent (jaleebi [sp?]): it was softer and wasn't so gooey and sticky. In a word, the brothers were amazed. These are by far the best they've had and were very impressed with Garni. While I wouldn't say they're the best (I think my fave are still Mona's), I too have to say I was impressed with this bakery.

Garni is certainly the best Persian bakery from my current list, although I enjoyed the others I've tried to this date. (And can't wait to try more.) ^.^

Rating: ***1/2