Bakery:
Opera Cafe and Fine Pastry Boutique
Address:
2312 Bloor St. W, Toronto ON
Website:
n/a
Style:
European, Austrian (?)
Price:
$$$
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I haven't been here in awhile, so it was only when the subway was down and we had to be bussed to Keele that I realize Opera is no longer. I wasn't really emotionally attached to the place and not too impressed with the purchase I did make here, but it's always sad to see bakeries come and go. Here's hoping that the empty location will bring in another bakery/cafe.. that makes their own baked goods! because, well, it's sad to see a place like Granowska's turned into a fruit market turned shoddy pots and pans distributor. :/]
Toronto has these parts where there's a massive concentration of bakeries, so much so that you realize you can't go once and try everything, especially on a budget. ;D One of these sorts of areas is without a doubt Bloor-Runnymede (also known as Bloor West Village) where, between Jane and Runnymede, you literally have an endless assortment of bakeries of any kind, from European goodies, more high end stuff, and ones with your North American staples
(cookies, brownies and the like). One such example is Opera, the bakery with the name that's quite a mouthful. Seeing as it's been a while (one year, maybe two?) since I was last here, this place was new for me and the second I saw, I *had* to step in. *-* It only took me upon entering that this used to be the Sweet Gallery which is now nonexistent. :(
Still, I have to admit that this place looks amazing and you get the old-world patisserie feeling from both the outside and the interior, although they did little else except spiffy up the old Sweet Gallery decor. However, with a name as totally appealing as "Opera fine pastry boutique", I already got these lovely ideas of Austrian coffee shops with yummy cakes and
viennoiseries and, upon looking at the glass cases, went away a tad disappointed in that instead of being greeted with Austrian delicacies, I found stuff that are a staple in far less chic places: red velvet cake (two varieties), Bailey's cheesecake, or tiny slivers of pound cake, in particular, failed to wow me or live up to the "boutique". They had a few pastries besides some mousses (which I'll never really consider pastries... feel free to disagree), although not that many and at a pretty steep price. I found it especially curious how they happened to have napoleons and mille-feuilles, which confused me somewhat (
Napoleon = English and some other languages; Mille-feuille = French). Nonetheless, still being relatively at the beginning of the journey (and having already bought a bit from Anna's a few doors down ^^;;;), I passed on the pastries and settled on the baked goods, which for me at least, looked much more exciting and appetizing. And all are at around $2. :)
Anyways, I got super excited at the poppy seed bun (!!) and for the sake of the poppy seed tag I've set up, it was tempting me and tempting me... until I took a look at the glazed plaited dough and noticed that I couldn't see any poppy seeds in/on it. O.o Where were they? Were they there at all? Sensing disappointment (it was too small to have some sort of mass rolled into it, I presume) I settled on the very tasty looking plum danish ($2.25). If you might have read my previous posts, you might already know that I'm not on the hunt for poppy seed, it's plum cake. I looooove plums. A plum danish... thrilled me (in a way only I can understand, no doubt XDD) and so, I found myself a bit... disappointed with it in the end. Plums are in season and pretty cheap now, so I failed to understand why they were so skimpy on the fruit. Not only was there not enough plums in the first place, but they were literally plum shavings, not slices. The only thing that was generous was the glaze and as the plums didn't cover the entire gap in the middle, there were plenty of mouthfuls of just glaze and dough, which gave the thing a bit of a gloopy texture... I can't describe it very well, like always. Kind of like you're eating orange marmalade and bread... except it shouldn't be tasting like that. In this sense, I wasn't wowed by Opera. As a cafe, it's pretty good (and the people pouring into it left right and centre seem to agree), but the whole "fine pastry boutique" was a taaaaaad over-the-top, funny even.
Verdict: Opera is alright, but I get the feeling it's trying a little too hard to be fine and fancy (the waitresses serving the tea room crowd wearing oversized chef garb is the first thing I think of as an example XD). Baked good-wise, there isn't anything overly remarkable here and, if in the neighbourhood, there are other places I'd rather go and stock up on equally delicious goodies for a fraction of the cost. ^^;;
Rating: **1/2
Bakery (?): Astra Deli and Catering
products as well as from other European countries; there was some German stuff, some Polish stuff. The workers were... Slovenian? Maybe? Wasn't paying too much attention at the time. Their baked selection is very low, though, with a few sweet buns all at $1.59 and then some other buns, a few varieties of rye bread. That's pretty much it. I was going to leave, but noticed that of those sweet buns, there were -- you guessed it -- poppy seed buns! How could I not resist? ;) Taking it home, however, I realized that I'd had this before and was identical to the Sweet Temptations buns (reviewed at Highland Farms... at least the photo turned out better this time!!)... Still, same thing. Not that I'm complaining: soft, fluffy eggy dough alternated with layers of Polish-style poppy seed mass and a small drizzle of icing on top. It was good... just nothing new. And yes, I realize you could say I had it coming going to a place that's not a bakery, but pffff, don't remind me. :/
