Address: 5072 Dundas St W, Etobicoke (Toronto), ON
Website: http://europeanpatisserie.com/
Style: European, Italian
Price: $$-$$$
We parked on this plaza once (to go for Korean food XD) and that was the first time I noticed European Patisserie, the teeny tiny pastry shop with the somewhat unimaginative name. Seeing I was planning on going bakery hunting in Runnymede (Bloor West Village) that day, I thought about saving this for another week (especially seeing as I'm at Kipling every weekend) and had been eagerly waiting to have the time to return, mainly because the total cuteness of the patisserie had managed to lure me in. If I had a pastry shop, it would look like this, I swear. Tiny space with some baroque accents and macaron trees in the window. So pretty! *-*
Sadly, I was a tad bit
disappointed with the actual goodies. Firstly, probably because the outside (and the fact they had macarons; ie. they know what they're doing) had excited me a little too much and raised my expectations to towering heights. Secondly, because I discovered the pastry shop is actually more of a custom-cake/catering place than a bakery in that they seem to have a lot more orders (the counter behind the cash had some pretty beautiful cakes ready for pick-up; as a side note, they should have so stuck those on their picture slide show. The Gucci and Barbie cakes totally cheapen and undervalue what they're capable of creating! ;)) than what's available in store for immediate, drop-in purchase. This isn't all that much and even with the two glass counters, there's a lot of empty space and not much selection. Besides the aforementioned macarons, they have a two or three cake slices, the same amount of fruit tarts and a few cookies. As such, it was a little difficult to pick out three distinct things... and I wasn't
in the macaron mood that day either. So, I settled on these three:A chocolate-vanilla cake slice ($2.50) coated with chocolate and powdered sugar and the slivers of dough stuck together with some sort of jam. It kind of fell apart (well, more like toppled over -__-), so it wasn't much to look at, but it ended up being the favourite amongst the whole gang, even though from appearance alone, I was thinking that the strudel ($2.50) would actually come in first. In fact, the strudel was my first choice: spongy vanilla dough wrapped with what I assumed were apples (they were pears) and baked-on glaze on top. Baking with pears is always a problem, because they're so bland and with nothing to spice up the filling or the dough, this didn't have a lot of flavour.
Exclusively for myself, I got
a fruit tart ($3.25) which wasn't as fruity as I thought and actually turned out to be a zeppole in tart form: nice, flaky form filled with a *generous* dollop of mascarpone cheese, slivered almonds, sweet cherry syrup and large pieces of cherries on top. It wasn't what I was expecting (actually, I was a little surprised EP ended up being Italian, as anything with "European" in it always makes me think Polish or Portuguese ;D), but at the same time... it ended up beating real zeppole. ;)))Overall, it was alright, but didn't seem to live up to (weeks worth of) expectations and seeing as the portions are as teeny tiny as the store, some items (especially the tart) aren't really worth it. Or, you're supposed to come here just for the cake? *shrugs*
Rating: **1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment