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: ****