Columbus Bakery

Bakery: Columbus Bakery
Address: 40 Bristol Rd E, Mississauga ON 
Website: http://www.columbusbakery.ca/
Style: Colombian
Price: $

It has been a long time since a new bakery has opened in the city of Mississauga and I'm almost always on top of such things -- finally a bit of new life in plazaville! Someone mentioned that a new Colombian bakery had opened up in the plaza on Bristol and Hurontario and I went running... imagine my disappointment when it was simply another offshoot of the Columbus Bakery chain, which has two other locations in Toronto. The thing was, I had already reviewed the Columbus Bakery on Jane -- with disastrous results. I still can't enjoy bread pudding anywhere with the same relish as before. :/ So, usually, I do one post per bakery, regardless of how many locations they have, but seeing as I drove there and was going to get something for the trouble, I thought I might take a picture in case it was significantly better than my previous trip... and then thought I'd just do one no matter what, simply because it has been ages since anything has been added to the Mississauga tag. And it wasn't as disastrous as my first attempt, after all.

The new Columbus location is large and spacious, yet curiously empty, with several display cases sitting empty directly upon entry while baked goods and savoury items are all sandwiched in one corner near the cash, making for a bit of an awkward mess with people trying to grab items, others trying to pay, and others waiting for hot food. Despite the fact that the layout could be better, sweet items are relegated to their respective baskets, with prices (the vast majority are $1.50), names in Spanish, and an explanation in English as to what they contain. Many are filled with guava, dulce de leche, sweet cheese, or a combination thereof.

The large, doughy sweet buns with guava or caramel looked the most appetizing, but instead I went for the treats with flakier dough, namely the pastry with dulce de leche and the coconut and guava stick. The dulce de leche turned out to be a little dry, with more plain dough than anything else; without a doubt, the coconut and guava stick was more interesting and tasty, though it contained less dough. Flaky dough wrapped with guava paste and then coated with a bit of coconut. In both cases, it could have probably used more filling.

Same thing with the bread. My favourite purchase at any Colombian bakery has to be their cheese breads; they have a few varieties, but the one with feta inside and hard cheese melted on top is my top pick. I love it! Columbus has two types of cheese bread... and I seemed to pick the wrong one. No cheese to be seen; yes, there was a bit, but nothing you can taste or distinguish from the soft, dense dough. Disappointed. Well, this Columbus did redeem itself a little bit, though I'm still going to stick to Todo Rico, my fave Colombian bakery in town.

Rating: **