Phoenix Bakery

Bakery: Phoenix Bakery 
Address: 613-5 Gerrard Street E, Toronto ON
Website: n/a
Style: Chinese
Price: $ 

While visiting Leslieville/Chinatown East for the very first time on Saturday, I decided to pop into one Chinese bakery for Cake Tour purposes and well, the first one I walked by was Phoenix, so that was that. :P This is, in the Chinese bakery tradition, another ridiculously cheap place to grab your baked goods, with most items priced at 3/$1. Although, I must admit that I'm usually a bit wary with these dirt cheap places, since they tend to be either skimpy with fillings or size or just simply not very tasty (still remembering that sugar bun from Chinese Bakery :/), but this place surprised and I think it's turned into one of my favourite Chinese bakeries out of all the ones I've tried! It's nothing special or unique, not by a long shot, but it still makes a difference when your stuff is made with dough, albeit even plain, that actually tastes good! *nods*

So, this time around, I got three items: for the first, I picked out "Fujian hometown cake" (3/$1) which was a flat 'bread' topped with sesame seeds. Despite the name, I can't say it tasted Chinese at all, but reminded me of freshly baked (preferably still warm from the oven) Montreal bagels. O.o This, however, is supposed to be a good thing! The overload of sesame seeds, the denser though fluffy and soft dough -- this was tasty... well, for what it was: fresh white bread, but I've had a lot worse, so really enjoyed this.

Then, the doughnuts (3/$1) lured me. .__. These golden brown dough balls deep-fried and rubbed in sugar were also good. Slightly crunchy on the outside and super moist on the inside; despite there not being anything but plain dough on the inside, I quite liked it and it definitely stands out in the doughnut category... and at $0.33 each! Seriously, this was a find. :)

Lastly, the almond cookie challenge (though some places, like this one, calls it "walnut cookie" when there's clearly almond on it, but yeah... 2/$1): these were pretty irregularly shaped, with some huge and others smaller. Also, some had bits of glaze pooled in areas, while others had no glaze at all, so it's one of those things you kind of need to pick through to get one that's uh, just right for you. ^^; In terms of taste, these ones were pretty good, though could not oust the current champion (according to the almond cookie fanatic): Akko Cake House.

The verdict is pretty good! Simple, well-priced but tasty Chinese staples at this place and yup, that's it for today. :)

Rating: ***