Solero Bakery

Bakery: Solero Mediterranean Bakery
Address: 3029 Dundas W, Toronto ON
Website: www.solerobakery.ca
Style: Serbian, Mediterranean, Eastern European
Price: $

Wow! This really turned into the find of the year in terms of bakeries, and the surprise of the year at that. I really didn't think this would be so good, but I had seen that on blogto.com's visit, they had snapped a picture of poppy seed buns in the oven. For this reason, and for this reason only, I put Solero on my must-visit list and it has since then gone straight to the top of the must-return list. I don't think there is anything remotely bad in this deli/bakery in the Junction (near High Park and Dundas); it's just not possible. Everything is... amazing! And add to that the fact that the prices are just ridiculously low so you can shop to your heart's content! The most expensive purchase happened to be the meat burek ($2.25) which they seem most famous for and, as the mom attests after having eaten it in minutes, is very good; everything else barely went over $1! It's thrilling!

And what's the most thrilling is the... poppy seed buns. *shrieks and starts hyperventilating* They've got two of them for the taking and well, I did indeed take both. The smaller one ($1.25) made of denser dough and rolled a few times though it's so bursting with poppy seed that you can't even see the layers is delicious. The larger one ($1.50) is huge, stuffed with poppy seed and tastes *exactly* like my all-time fave poppy seed buns at What a Bagel Richmond Hill before they started skimping out (though it breaks my heart so much that I don't even want to mention it ;__;), at half the price. It was heavenly. *-* Mmm....

Ahem, besides the poppy seed euphoria, I also got their perfectly flaky and buttery cherry strudel ($1.25 per slice; $4, I believe, for a whole) which also deserves special attention. They've also got apple, which I'm sure would be just as good. The last purchase was a cherry danish ($1.25) braided with flaky dough and encrusted with pistachio, which was... excellent. Everything was excellent and really, I almost get mad at places like these because you start to run out of adjectives to describe just how good (let's stick in a "scrumptious" there, why not) it was. Besides what I bought, they also sell baklava, both drier ones per piece ($1.60) or per kilo behind the glass. Behind the glass, there are also several Serbian cakes, some pies.. in short, everything that probably tastes as good as it looks. Solero, you've become one of my best friends! ;DDDDD

EDIT: I've been back twice and on both occasions, there wasn't a poppy seed baked good to be seen or that many baked goods at all, as a matter of fact. What on earth happened? I was disappointed so much the second time, upon being greeted with an "empty" bakery that I just walked out. :( What happened to the poppy seed buns and strudels??  As of now, I can hardly give this place three stars... so sad!

Rating: ***