Chinese Bakery

Bakery: Chinese Bakery
Address: 433 Dundas St W, Toronto ON 
Website: n/a 
Style: Chinese
Price: $ 

Chinese Bakery -- the name says it all. ;) It's a bakery and it's Chinese (and it's in Chinatown)! There are, in fact, many Chinese bakeries in Chinatown and so I've vowed to try a new one every time I'm somewhat in the area. Walking along Dundas this time around, I stepped into the first one on the south side of the street and that was this one. As Chinese bakeries go, they offer pretty much the same stuff as always: mostly meat buns, some sweet buns and cookies. This one also happens to be one of the cheapest ones in the area with those famous 3/$1 meat and sweet buns and almost everything else around the several items for $1-2 range. Chinese Bakery is also quite generous in terms of size and stuffing, something which the other cheap cheap bakeries fall short of. This is really Great Value with a capital G-V. ;D As such, the line is always pretty big, but it goes quickly and easily (unlike the madness at Furuma).

So~ onto the purchases! First up was the uh, semi-usual sugar/butter bun (3/$1 or $0.40/each), a sweet bun dusted with a bit of granulated sugar. Despite being the last one available, I don't think I'd return for this again. Normally, aside from the actual sugar, the bun itself is slightly sweet and quite tasty; the one at CB was strangely bland and didn't even taste like a loaf of white sandwich bread. Texture was fine, as was the size and smell... I just can't figure out why it didn't taste like anything. O.o

Next up was the latest entry on the hunt for the best Chinese almond cookie. Here, the label called it a walnut puff (2/$1), though um, it was topped with slivered almonds. Anyways, the cookie was the right cookie and both guinea pigs enjoyed this one quite a bit.

On top of that, there were these little black bean dumplings (2/$1) which I photographed without knowing whether they were sweet or not.. and they were, so yay! At least, Chinese baking with beans is never really sweet, but it was a dessert. Deep-fried dough that was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and smelled.. really good. :P The filling was similar to red bean fillings and a somewhat of a paste with some whole beans as well. The guinea pigs, once again, said it was pretty tasty as one of the better Chinese bakeries, both in Chinatown and elsewhere. So, uh take note. XD

Rating: ***

Lusitania Bakery

Bakery: Lusitania Bakery
Address: 607 Lakeshore Rd, Mississauga ON
Website: n/a
Style: Portuguese 
Price: $

Last week, I returned home to find that my youngest brother had gone cake touring on my behalf -- I love when that happens! ;) What was more, he had actually spotted another bakery along Lakeshore that had eluded me the first few drives along the street: Lusitania Bakery. Tucked away in the plaza at Lakeshore and Cawthra, this Portuguese bakery is apparently more bread than any sorts of sweets purchases. Of the latter, there isn't that much and, when there, there were only or two things besides the two purchased items. So I suppose it's not the place to get your baked goods?

At any rate, the first item which was eaten before I managed to get a picture (thanks) was a lemon tart (of course, they didn't make a note of any prices (as with a vast majority of Portuguese bakeries, no prices are listed), but apparently, he paid $9 for three lemon tarts and six doughnuts) Not bad. These lemon tarts,  small tart shells filled with lemon custard, were "alright" (seeing as I wasn't included in the tart purchasing, I can't say how they were), and were much better than the second purchase.

This second purchase I'm talking about is the doughnuts, deep-fried dough balls cut in half and filled with a thick layer of pastry cream... which was more like a cream sandwich than a stuffed doughnut. From the outside, they looked quite good: crispy and golden brown with granulated sugar. And the cream was quite tasty, though the real miss was the dough itself. One bad idea was that I chose to have a piece of this doughnut with a piece of the one from Glory Hole -- big mistake. You really appreciate the wonderfully moist and airy dough from the latter, but it wasn't so good news for Lusitania. The dough was super dense and, as the top part was larger than the bottom, it was hard biting down into this heavy, hard, unyielding dough. Taste-wise it was okay, but the texture was just... not doughnut dough! This was especially... embarrassing seeing as Portuguese know how to deep fry dough. ;D

Unfortunately, considering that there are so many Portuguese bakeries in the city, I really can't find myself suggesting this place. :/ Drive up Cawthra instead and pop into Nova. Or, go up to Dundas, go right and pop into Trigo. Both will leave you more satisfied in terms of the sweets. ^^;;

Rating: **

Glory Hole Doughnuts

Bakery: Glory Hole Doughnuts
Address: 1596 Queen St W, Toronto ON 
Website: http://www.gloryholedoughnuts.com/
Style: Uh, doughnuts ;P 
Price: $$$$

Going for lunch (always Tibetan *-*) before walking/shopping along Roncesvalles, I noticed this place a few times before (they haven't been here all that long) though never popped in... until yesterday, that is. ;) As the name suggests, Glory Hole Doughnuts sells... doughnuts. Doughnuts and coffee and nothing else, so I guess it's understood that these guys *better* make good doughnuts. And they do! (I'm trying to improve my intros here XD)

This pretty tiny place with its retro decor and seating for three, four people actually doesn't have that much in terms of selection; considering the small display area, I assume they rotate their flavours since they seem to only be able four-five at a time (when I was there, there was PB&J, chocolate hazelnut, the one I took, and the (semi-famous) bacon one as well as a rummy cinnamon twist. In addition to this, they have smaller doughnuts in three-four flavours as well and... something else which was sold out (someone came after me and was asking about it and they said they were out). I say semi-famous, because they were featured in the newspaper for their raspberry jam and bacon doughnut (this is how I'd actually found out about them besides walking by it on the street) which... looks as nasty as it sounds and (sorry) won't be featured on the Cake Tour. x___x

Nonetheless, I settled for the doughnut with blood orange glaze, lemon cream, and sesame seeds. ($3.50) That was the description and it actually ended up being a lot better than I expected, mainly because in my head, I was picturing cutting into this thing and having this lemony yellow pudding ooze out -- the lemon cream of the label consisted of strips of an intense jam-cream which were used to stick on the sesame seeds. So, no oozing pudding! :) Cutting this into pieces for everyone to try, the first thing that you notice is the absolutely delicious smell of citrus fruits and the super moist, airy dough whose closest resemblance is, if I remember correctly (it's been yeeeeears since I had one) Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The dough is amazing and then the glaze/cream was both sweet and sour and super flavourful. I don't like sesame seeds all that much, so I was glad I couldn't taste them all that much. The brother said that poppy seeds (as in, orange poppy seed cake/muffins) would have matched better... and damn it, I should have been the one to say that! :P It's nothing fancy or elaborate, but for a doughnut, I don't think you can beat these guys!

One minus, however, is the price. At $3.50 each (or Timbit-sized minis for $2.25 ; the rummy cinnamon twist was $4.50) and almost $4.00 with tax, these doughnuts are *expensive* and I believe, as good as they are, they're certainly not worth that much, even if they are larger than your standard doughnut. I personally think $2.50 (that is, twice the price of a regular doughnut) would be a reasonable price. When you think about what you can get elsewhere at good bakeries in the GTA *inserts figurative thought bubble*...
1.5 Swedish cinnamon buns vs. a doughnut (Victory: cinnamon buns)
1 Gateau Basque vs. a doughnut (Victory: Gateau Basque)
1.5 poppy seed buns vs. a doughnut (Victory: poppy seed buns)
3.5 oponki (the best from the late Granowskas) vs. a doughnut (Victory: oponki) 

*pop the bubble* Okay, so you get the point, I hope. ;D At any rate, I think it's a little ridiculous when you think about how a half dozen will set you back $24. O_O Or it's simply that in my head I still can't get past the idea that the doughnut is pretty much the fast food equivalent of baked goods and should be treated as such??? Don't know. Still, one won't break the bank... and mine at any rate was really good. The tummy left satisfied. ;D

Rating: ***

Antojitos

Bakery: Antojitos 
Address: 803 Lakeshore Rd E, Mississauga ON 
Website: n/a
Style: Colombian
Price: $ 

And with this post, 'Colombian' gets its own tag. :) I never actually expected to find a bunch of Colombian bakeries, but here they are! Going into bakeries where you have no idea what you're doing can get you misleading results since you have no idea what to compare it to. This time, however, I have to say that the first was the best and Todo Rico does reign supreme as the city's/area's best South American bakery.

But.. that's hardly the right way to start off a new bakery, isn't it? Oops. :P Anyways, my brother found out about this place online as serving some good stuff, mainly their signature caramel/dulce de leche squares, which they apparently made up themselves. ... I'm sorry, I have no idea what the name is, as the brother had absolutely no idea what he was buying and how much it cost... geez, thanks. Last week, he announced that he had gone there himself (imagine, without being begged! Wow! And he gave me a Cake Tour this week too. ^-^) and brought back a whole bunch of goodies, bragging that he had spent $6 for five items, so, although not knowing any prices, you can say that everything was more or less $1.20 each. As is the case with Colombian bakeries, this place was great value. And, as always, they seem to be more famous for their hot food, especially the empanadas, but there was still quite a bit to chose from.

So: what did he bring back? Well, I guess he really couldn't resist those caramel things, squares of layered flaky pastry topped with a generous dense caramel spread on top. Besides this topping, there wasn't really that much in the actual pastry itself, which is a little dry, and the brother left a little disappointed, claiming that the (next item up!) flaky strudel stuffed with guava was much better and the best thing they bought, though there isn't that much to say about it. Sugary, crispy but still a bit soft... uh, with guava. :P


My own default offering (as in, the last item claimed/eaten) was the uh, for lack of a better word, the guava doughnut, a ring of denser sweet dough filled with guava paste and then coated on top with this crust of granulated sugar. From the outside, I was getting pretty excited, since this looked better than I had seen it elsewhere, but biting into it, you begin to realize that the guava is only injected in three separate spots and, as opposed to having guava paste oozing out from all ends, beyond the three 'spots' (each with maybe a tablespoon or two), it's just dense, fairly dry dough. Great idea, but too doughy to appreciate the fried outside and guava on the inside.

Overall, not too bad and maybe they do have great empanadas, but as to the baked goods, I personally think it would have been much better with a tad more filling and a tad less dough in all cases. I guess like it is there wasn't anything overwhelming 'wow' about it. Unless you *love* caramel and flaky pastry, then this might be the place for you. XD

Rating: **1/2

Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe [RIP]

Bakery: Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe
Address: 900 Kingston Rd, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.beachesbakeshop.com
Style: Swedish 
Price: $$-$$$ 

No... no.... why? One of the best bakeries in the city gone....

Eeeeeeekkk! Finally! After years of saying I'd make it here, I finally braved the nearly 2-hour drive/ride and visited the Beaches Bakeshop, the city's only Swedish bakery. ^____^ First of all, thank you very much to Ea, who called my attention to the existence of this little cafe a long while back!

Ahem, anyways, nestled in the Upper Beaches, this little cafe is really neither bakeshop nor cafe. With only two small tables in the window and not that many baked goods to choose from, it's more like stepping into the cozy nook and bright kitchen (you can see all the ladies baking in the back of the store) littered with all things from Swedish, from candies to clogs and crisp bread. It's just amazing! The only one minus is that they don't actually that much in terms of baked goods; upon arrival, there were a few jars of cookies (ginger snaps was what caught the eye) and only.. two (two?) items in the glass case which were Swedish (and which had their little Sweden flag on the label) were the Mazarin tart ($3.75), an open-faced slice of dough topped with almond paste (the Finnish equivalent was reviewed here) and Sara Bernhard "cookies" ($3.25) which is... I'm actually not sure what they are, but I found both quite expensive for what you got. Having come for Swedish baked goods, I was so upset to find nothing matching the description that I just asked for the cinnamon buns. Good thing I did: they were still in the oven and I was asked to return in a few minutes.

/time lapse/ So I returned and I received a bag of still *warm* kanelbullar ($2.50/each or $13.50/half-dozen) and, lo and behold! the semlor advertised in the window (pretty much the Swedish equivalent of a doughnut/cream puff-cross) were sitting on a tray next to the cash. How could I resist a semla ($3.75) for myself?!?! And it was hot! Seriously, when was the last time the baked goods you bought were still warm? Ah, so so amazing and the aroma (remember, there was still 2-hours remaining of holding the bag in my lap) wafting from both was almost unbearable -- how can you sit and not just eat it all? O_O;;; I swear, the entire streetcar smelled of cinnamon, butter and cardamom!

With the smell and just looking at my goods, I could tell they could only be yummy. The kanelbulle was so incredibly aromatic (especially after having heated it up again to get the 'from the oven' feel) and biting into the soft, cinnamony dough made me just want to cry: it was beautiful.

And speaking of swooning: the semla. I don't think I realized how big this was when I bought it; when I took it home and was ready to have it with a cup of tea, I suddenly saw that... I should not be eating this thing in one sitting. :D A super soft sweet bun cut open and stuffed with a mountain (or maybe 'volcano' is more appropriate, since you bite in and this just erupts in cream) of real, freshly whipped cream with a hint of cardamom; add onto that the centre: a mass of butter and cinnamon. I said I'd give half for my brothers to try... and they ended up getting just a fourth. .___.;;; I couldn't resist.... it was just so good. I still can't believe it.

Beaches Bakeshop... should open a second location in the West End. Or deliver.. to me. Enough said. :P

Rating: ****

Yuan Ming Supermarket

Bakery: Yuan Ming Supermarket
Address: 1000 Burnhamthorpe W, Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.yuanming.ca/
Style: Chinese
Price: $

Still on the hunt for Chinese bakeries (and almond cookies ;P), I finally popped into another Chinese supermarket: Yuan Ming (on Burnhamthorpe; I believe the Dundas and Hurontario location does not have a bakery). I think that when they opened they baked their own stuff and then there was a period when the bakery was owned by, I believe, Jin Cheng, a bakery from Markham. Or it could have had another name.. I'm not sure now, but there's no reason why I should remember a name like that. O.o I hadn't gone to their bakery in ages, obviously, since it seems they've gone back to in-house baked goods, both sweet and savoury.

Just looking at their selection, I can't say it looks very impressive. There are no elaborate designs and only basic flavours (even their selection of savoury, meaty buns isn't very big compared to other supermarkets and bakeries in the area), but... they're almost all 2 for $1 (or $0.69 each), if that's any incentive. ;) It seems to be for quite a few people, since many people were taking trays full.

Personally, I can't say I was overly excited in trying something. My usual favourite, the good old butter bun, simply didn't look good; I was examining it and found it greasy and smelling like it had been dipped in vegetable oil. Not very intrigued and pretty disheartened, I looked in the other bins and settled on a milk cream bun for myself. Taking the bbq pork bun as well for the brother, the latter felt a lot fresher and softer than these did, but it actually proved to be better than I had expected. The dough was still soft and fluffy; there wasn't a lot of cream, but it was quite tasty and lighter (actually, I liked it better) than the usual yellow custard-stuffed buns, which are also available. Not bad.

In addition to this: the traditional almond... er, walnut cookie (and I forgot the price... under a dollar, I believe) which was, again, not bad, but at the same time, in no way managed to beat a bakery cookie (like the one from Akko Cake House)

And with this, I got two coconut goodies: a coconut tart ($0.88 -- the famous egg variety is also available) which wasn't fully cooked in the middle and didn't taste so great either (especially after the repeated baking) and a coconut bun which was quite possibly so completely opposite to skimpy in terms of the coconut filling that it became a fault. With the first bite, it impressed you quite a bit.. and then you started realizing it's just overflowing with this coconut mush to the point of making you a little sick. Neither item was great.

Yeah... I guess the overall verdict is: if you're in the store and want to pick up a snack, something to munch on, the Yuan Ming bakery sells it cheap, but I don't think it's worth a special trip. :/

Rating: **

Hot Oven Bakery

Bakery: Hot Oven Bakery
Address: 2226 Bloor St W, Toronto ON (2 other locations)
Website: http://hotovenbakery.com/index.html
Style: North American, Pan-European 
Price: $-$$

The Hot Oven is a semi-chain of bakeries in West Toronto with (now) three locations: one at Royal York, the other at Runnymede and a brand new one on Roncesvalles. Going into the Royal York one, nothing really appealed to me and I recall the highlights including something like brownies and cookies. At least, I wasn't so eager to pop into one a second time, since such things really don't interest me all that much. Still, the place on Bloor at Runnymede turned into my final stop on a bakery-filled trip this Saturday. I don't know if I had come at the wrong time of day or their selection varies from location to location, but there was plenty here, from, yes, brownies and cookies to yummy-looking apple strudel to danishes, butter tarts, macarons and baklava. It seems like they have almost everything and every style you're craving -- it's a real Canadian hodge-podge. ;DD Well-priced, clearly labelled in terms of what/how much it is, you feel like you can make an educated decision (even if it might take you a while to narrow it down)

Having already loaded up on pastries from Pâtisserie 27 (seen in the back XD) and deliciously aromatic baked goods from Anna's, we decided to go a little healthier here and finally settled on the raspberry loaf cake (whole grain and low fat -- $5.50), simply because it's so hard to get anything with raspberries! Other varieties included blueberry, banana, date and nut, and Belgian chocolate. This was actually more of a giant muffin, especially considering the texture and the crumble on top, but still tasty with chunks of raspberries and some seeds (flax?) to give it a curiously nice crunch every now and then. This is perfect for those who want a good, lighter snack but want something that's not sweet and a little healthier.

The verdict: not bad and with plenty to choose from, I can come back a few times and still get something new each time. ;) A pleasant surprise!

Rating: ***

Pâtisserie 27

Bakery: Pâtisserie 27
Address: 401 Jane St, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.patisserie27.com/
Style: French, Japanese
Price: $$ 

Holy-moly! *-* I've found myself another spot to get myself some delectable French treats, this time a little closer to where I am! A little out of the way from the Jane-Runnymede bakery strip (one of the highest bakery per capita ratios in the city, that's certain) is this little, unassuming shop with, at first glance, not much in it. At second glance, you want to rob it of all its treats. XD

I discovered Pâtisserie 27 after having scoured a few food sites for bakery ideas. I got a few on blogto.com and this was one of them (though the others they did got me showing up to empty, closed down businesses :/): the result of a meeting between a Torontian man and a Japanese woman at a French culinary institute, I believe. And this is one yummy result!! I sometimes get this gut feeling that I *need* to check a place out and so I was gearing up for this place for awhile now. Not in the mood to venture further into Toronto on a cold day, I braved the wind and came here. The city's take on Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki, 27 is a subtle fusion of French and Japanese, with neat inventions in the form of tasty-looking cakes, pastries ($4.95) and Japanese flavoured macarons (the only variety I saw that wasn't sold out yet was a Japanese lemon ($1.50-1.95)) In addition to this, they have traditional French staples like various viennoiseries, madeleines, etc. In terms of price, prices are clearly written and quite reasonable (though the pastries are more, as in all French patisseries), especially given that we went bakeries along Bloor afterwards that were nowhere near as fancy (and amazing) and they wanted $2.50 for their danishes and $2.00 for macarons. Worth the walk or.. well, we should have taken the bus from the station. -.-

Bringing my purchases home, I swear, all I needed to do was look at them while taking photos to know they'd be amazing. Look how you can actually see the layers of the dough in the danish! That's skill. And biting into it, you can taste the skill too.

The first item was the Davide ($2.25), a danish rolled with high-quality dark chocolate bits and maple syrup -- the lovely golden colour failed to show up well on camera. If it means anything, the brothers that ate these thought they were bought at The Danish Pastry House, because they couldn't believe anyone else could make such a perfectly flaky danish. It blew them away and in the words of one brother: "This is what a danish is supposed to taste like. Perfect score!" Okay. ;)

They ate theirs before I ate mine, so this was.. exciting news. ^^ I was getting impatient~! For my purchase, I got the Gâteau Basque ($3.50 for an individual; $12.00 for cake-size -- available weekends only), something I tried for the first time in Paris. Pff, looking back at the photo from my first time, the difference between the two is shocking. Cracking into this buttery crust and finding layers of almond paste, spots of pastry cream and chunks of cherries, I wanted to squeal! Exactly like it should be! And then the taste... omg! When the description said "cookie dough", I was thinking something hard and crumbly, but the dough, especially the outer layers, was the texture of the most perfect chewy cookie. Whoa! ... Again, this thing just oozed with expertise: cracking open this buttery, hard crust and having this soft, chewy filling on the inside... *swoons*

Final word: this place is incredible! Whether you try some of the original pieces or stick to the classics, I think you'll agree. A bit of heaven in Runnymede/Bloor-West! ;)

Rating: ****

Baked Goods by Kristin H.

At Home with: Kristin H. 
Location: Iceland

I always wanted to put this up and never got around to it... So, sometimes the Cake Tour doesn't just involve visiting bakeries. After all, the idea is to find the tastiest baked goods, not where they can be found, and sometimes people (that is, home baking) can wow me with their baking in the same way the best bakeries/pastry shops/cafes can. :) I can still remember my grandma's crumble pies and yeast cakes made with fruit picked from her backyard garden. Or my godmother's amazing slab cakes or super soft, prune-stuffed rożki (rugullah) which, try as I might, I can't find even a decent imitation (both in bakeries and in terms of recipes) anywhere!! Sometimes you need to try someone else's baking (especially when you're short on bakeries and cash~ though it doesn't serve any purpose here except for nostalgia's sake...)! ^-^;;

Actually, I only got this whole idea after this picture; I asked permission to take it and I must have looked like the biggest lunatic there is, so I'm putting it into good use. :D This summer, while I was volunteering in Iceland, Kristin came to stay with us (that is, our host -- she was his sister -- and the other workers) for a few days and in that time, she cooked our dinners. When one of the other workers told me she was in the process of publishing a cookbook, I was impressed but it wasn't too shocking. She could cook. And as part of every meal, she made dessert. Or just baked during the day.

Once, while I was working, she ran over to the makeshift station in the garage, asking me if I wanted to join her in the house since she had just made cinnamon buns and they were fresh from the oven. I sometimes wonder if people know who they're talking to... O___O Suffice to say, you didn't need to ask me twice. XD Waiting for me on the kitchen table were two heaping bowls of hot, small cinnamon buns with more coming out of the oven and an urn of freshly made coffee. If you don't know it already, I'm in love with Scandinavian cinnamon buns and, simple and unadorned as they were, these were heavenly.

Another time, dinner was concluded with the announcement of whether anyone wanted a slice of hot rhubarb tart (the rhubarb coming from the garden out back) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top (sadly, I didn't have the courage to take the photo). Whoa, can you guess who jumped at that chance? And who was the only volunteer who eagerly and in a transport of bliss accepted the offer for seconds? .__.; Delicious crumbly tart stuffed with soft chunks of rhubarb and topped with crumble. Mmm... I was actually craving rhubarb (something I don't normally eat) so much after this delicious tart that I *had* to have a rhubarb cake in Tallinn!

It's so ironic how I was hunting for bakeries and the baked goods I ended up enjoying the most were the ones that Kristin made for us. It still makes me a little sad/mad that she disappeared (i.e. went home) one day after dinner without saying anything to anyone; I really wanted to thank her and let her know how much I (and my stomach) appreciated the chance to try her tasty food and amazing baking! Now I can only wish her good luck on her cookbook.

Thanks for the goodies! :)

Nader's Grill and Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: Nader's Middle Eastern Grill and Bakery
Address: 3900 Grand Park Dr, Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.naders.ca/
Style: Middle Eastern
Price: $$$ 

The brothers have a whole bunch of lunch spots throughout the city and Nader's is one of them. Part burger joint, part sit-down restaurant, they also have a "dessert corner" where you can buy baklava, cookies, and less traditional offerings like cakes and ice cream. Despite the sign itself and the "our" bakery on the website description, I'm actually not sure what, if anything, is made by them, since platters along the tops of the counter feature the name of a bakery in Toronto.. or Scarborough (somewhere else, at any rate ^^;;) and they have little else in terms of selection. Comparing them to other places, they don't have so much variety and the baklava is less elaborate, maybe more simple, homemade-looking? However, it also happens to be the second most expensive in the city (Mona takes gold for priciest), with both cookies and baklava at $27/kg.

Still, during their last lunch trip, they came back with two boxes of goodies. Yay! ^_^v Just as a semi-guideline, both boxes together cost around $9. In the first, they picked out some date cookies, tiny little treats made with a hard, crumbly dough and stuffed with a (small) bit of date paste. These were fairly tasty and quite different from the commercial cookies like mammoul  (which are still very good, mind you ;P), both in taste and texture. The opinions were actually divided 50/50 as to what was better: this or the baklava. Me, well, I'm really not so much the honey-and-nuts gal and I do love dates... :3

Secondly was two types of baklava: the layered one, albeit less elaborate than usual, was the traditional one with pistachio (also crushed on top) and the smaller ones were cashew baklava (on the left-hand side), which, for us at any rate, was something new. I can't say I'd ever heard of it elsewhere, so one brother thought these were the highlights of the group, saying it was something different, unique. On the other hand, the other brother claimed they tasted too much like Chinese cashew cookies and the nuts didn't match the baklava. They're quite good (it's hard to do something gross with baklava, isn't it?) though certainly not the best both from what I've had and what's also available in the city.

Rating: **1/2