Pâtisserie Saint-Honoré [RIP]

Bakery: Pâtisserie Saint-Honoré
Address: 2945 Bloor St. W, Toronto, ON
Website: n/a
Style: French, European
Price: $-$$

Somewhere along the way, I ended up on the stretch of Bloor St. around Royal York. Getting out because I remembered there being some sort of bakery here (The Hot Oven, it turned out), I chanced upon this patisserie and, well, getting a little excited at the prospect of French bakeries, I chose this one over the other. :P

The selection is pretty impressive, especially at a distance: full-sized tarts and flans in the window were enough to entice me. Then, there were the baked goods, croissants, some more savoury things (I remember something spinach and feta?) and then the "pastries" (all very clearly labelled and priced), although I was a little disappointed that they weren't overly French in look or style and I would have never called them that if I had seen them on their own. For example, the individual tarts, raspberry and blueberry, were topped with a mountain of jam/fruit puree. Same thing with the flan-like slices; they looked alright, but didn't contain that much fruit and hence, they weren't exactly what I was expecting.

However, I wasn't leaving without something and so I settled on the plum pie ($2.50/each), which looked pretty good. Upon examining it at home, I found it a little skimpy on the plums and was ready to write it off as a complete disappointment.. until I took one small bite and was pretty much hooked. This was *good*. Well, I still would have liked some more plums, but I liked it so much I don't think I can complain too much about it: the flaky, tart-like shell was perfect, and there was this dense mass  in between the shell and plums which had some fruit bits in it... it was slightly tangy and fruity, really nice and moist. Top this off with glaze and there you go. Really tasty!

Overall, Saint-Honoré isn't too authentic, but when taste's most important, I don't care that much. I guess it proved to be a very yummy surprise!

Rating: ***