Happy Bagel Bakery

Bakery: Happy Bagel Bakery
Address: 4949 Bathurst St, North York ON
Website: facebook
Style: Jewish, Eastern European
Price: $$

I was going back down to the 401 when I spotted yet another bakery on bakery-heavy Bathurst -- and imagine, I hadn't done it yet! Happy Bagel, to be sure, is not that hard to overlook. Located on the corner of a plaza, the boring sign makes this look a little like a rundown coffee joint; you don't expect the lovely array of Eastern European/Russian baked goods waiting inside. This includes several types of poppy seed treats (of course that's a priority) along with flaky buns and pastries filled with chocolate, sweet cheese, prunes and nuts. They also have more universal baked goods like turnovers and cookies as well.

Naturally, I had the difficult decision as to which poppy seed bun to get: the smaller coil with rock sugar and what looked like candied orange peel or the larger, more dense roll. I went for the big one. ($2.99) Delicious poppy seed mass generously rolled with thin layers of dough with a hardened sugary topping above. Very good, but I had one issue which I wasn't too pleased with: raisins. In some ways I was surprised since generally this style of poppy seed mass doesn't contain raisins, and there were a lot of them so considerable picking was needed. :/

To make up for the raisins, there were these beauties: trays of hamantaschen ($0.89/each) available in poppy seed or prune. These were freshly baked and you could tell: sugar cookie dough was crunchy on the inside and slightly soft on the inside. Pair that with a chewy poppy seed mass that had not yet hardened as is the case with cookies that have been sitting around for awhile. Nothing too elaborate, but I think these outdid all others I've tried; these "poppy seed triangles" have to be my new favourites! Fantastic, moderately priced and quality baked goods.

Rating: ***1/2