Sanremo Bakery

Bakery: Sanremo Bakery
Address: 374 Royal York Rd, Etobicoke ON 
Website: http://www.sanremobakery.com/
Style: Italian
Price: $$ 

Hey everyone! The latest "best of" guide -- the Best of Toronto bakeries -- made by yours truly has just been finished and posted on the menu at the very bottom of the screen or here.  You're welcome to take a look, see what you think. :)

**

Ah, Sanremo -- at last! It is not often that Mimi's Cake Tour has to retreat and regroup when it comes to a bakery; in this case, that meant walking out and returning another day. In a sense, it's almost unbelievable that this was my first time going to this busy Italian bakery in Mimico, famous for their doughnuts. How did that happen? Nonetheless, checking out their website and spotting thirty flavours of doughnuts was enough for me to come running. Unfortunately, everybody else seemed to have the same idea and I soon learned that coming on Saturday afternoon was a big mistake. With entire shelves and every single doughnut cleaned out and barely enough room to stand, I've never seen such pandemonium in a bakery. Impossible to park, difficult to even drive past, it takes patience and dedication, and even I was getting annoyed. Seeing that nothing I wanted was there, I returned on a Wednesday afternoon to find a more subdued insanity, but all doughnuts except two butterscotch and one chocolate chip gone. They did, however, it being March, have four or five flavours of zeppole... and I then knew exactly what I wanted.

Backing up a bit, Sanremo is more or less a typical Italian bakery and deli with just a portion of the large space dedicated to baked goods. Some self-serve treats are located on shelves near the bread, but the vast majority are located behind the counter of craziness. Even with a number system, it's hectic and frustrating with people cutting in line or groups of individually paying friends ordering all at the same time. Despite this, Sanremo does have a larger than usual selection of Italian and Canadian baked goods including shelves upon (empty) shelves of doughnuts, cannoli, cakes and cake slices, and some interesting Italian pastries I've never seen anywhere else, such as the torta calabrese. Items are labelled and priced... if you can push past the hordes of people to see anything, that is.

Yes, it being zeppole season, I had the chance to try a Sanremo version; the amarena cherry version, to be exact. Other options include ricotta cream, strawberry and cream, nutella, but at a pricey $3.75 + tax -- the most expensive I've ever seen them -- the only one worth taking in my opinion was the amarena cherry one: my favourite. In some ways, I was hoping that it wouldn't be too great since I wouldn't have to return here, but that backfired. :/ Incredibly fresh pastry rings (which made me realize I've never had a freshly baked zeppola before) stuffed with custard and cherries that were literally soaking through the dough and onto the box below. This weighed a ton and was a pleasure to bite into. So much rich cherry flavour, delicious dough -- wow. In the end, everyone seems to know it's worth the wait and inconvenience of grabbing something, anything at all from this bakery.

Rating: ***1/2