Bakaríið við Brúna [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Bakaríið við Brúna
Address: Gleráreyrum 2, Akureyri 
Website: n/a
Style: Icelandic 
Price: $$-$$$ 

I was speaking in my previous post of two bakeries in Akureyri. Here is the second one. Bakaríið við Brúna is, for the common tourist, a little out of the way, especially when you don't have a car as I did. In fact, it might be a little hard to chance upon, as it's off the main road and tucked into the corner of a fairly insignificant plaza, but the maps you pick up at tourist information advertise it, so making the small trip shouldn't be that difficult, especially as you'll be fairly pleased you made it.

BvB is as busy a bakery as you'll find. I came at well past lunchtime (around two) and there were still tons of people there (all of whom were locals -- always a good sign), with almost every single table in the seating area occupied. In fact, I was lucky I came when I did since I might not have got a table at all! Ha ha it's almost weird that we're still talking about Akureyri here. :P One thing that impressed me from the very start was the amazing variety of baked goods, both sweet and savoury. One wall is dedicated to breads and the selection of sweets was downright overwhelming... had there not been poppy seed for the taking. ^^; The one thing that kind of irked me was the inclusion of cupcakes.... *shakes head* Classic American doughnuts are everywhere in Iceland, but cupcakes are uh, a fad that doesn't need to be exported across the Atlantic. Nonetheless, there is plenty to choose from here: from danishes to various cakes to well, doughnuts. There's something sweet for everyone. :) One drawback is that this place was one of the more expensive bakeries I've been to in Iceland -- the inexplicably overpriced one in Stykkishólmur took top honours -- with everything costing upwards of 300kr. For three items (two baked goods and one choco milk), I paid 767kr, 200kr more than I paid in Siglufjörður for the same combination. That's pretty ouch. x_x 

As this doubled as my lunch, I thought I should get something lunch-worthy as well and somewhat regret that I did. I don't really review the savoury, but I thought I might as well just say that I got a cheese bun as well. Icelandic cheese buns are beautiful things (really :P), but this one disappointed with dry dough, not enough cheese, and two totally unnecessary chunks of ham. I've had much better. 

Fortunately, the slice of poppy seed cake (moonstykki; around 310kr) more than made up for that not so great cheese bun: whole poppy seeds braided into moist dough and topped with dark chocolate drizzle and vanilla sugar. Holy moly was this ever good! Does everything Icelanders make with poppy seeds have to be so yummy (because, yes, now that I think about it, I have yet to be disappointed by poppy seed baked goods)!? I think this was one of a few items I would have happily bought the whole roll of, even if meant eating it three days in a row... if it lasted that long, that is! ;D

So while the cheese bun fell a little flat, my sweets purchase was delicious, not to mention the fact that the goodies other people got around me looked really good as well. Judging not only by the crowds, but by the fact that this was one of the few places where almost everyone is buying treats in addition to their pizzas, grilled cheese and whatnot, this seems to be the destination for baked goods in Akureyri.   

Rating: ***1/2