Mimi's Cake Tour: October 2015

Boulangerie Samos

Bakery: Boulangerie Samos
Address: 4379 Boul. St-Laurent, Montreal QC
Website: n/a
Style: Greek, European
Price: $

Last Montreal bakery review of the year (I think)! Doing a walk from St. Laurent to Mont Royal, back down St. Denis and taking, for example, Rachel, you'll discover that this round-trip tour of the area has a lot of bakeries. Even I, thinking I had covered most, was amazed and devastated that I had to turn most down this time around. ;_; One that I did check off the list was Boulangerie Samos, a smallish, well-established (over 50 years old) bakery/cafe along St. Laurent itself. Taking a peak at its racks of baked goods in the window, it comes across as having a hodgepodge of European-inspired pastries (croissants) along with doughnuts and this tasty baby below. ;) The window also touts Argentinian empanadas, so it truly is hard to limit this to just one tag. Down to my last $3 cash, I didn't want delve into non-Cake Tour allotted funds and thought the baked goods a safe bet (nothing in the window is priced or labelled, but most items in the display case are). It was only upon paying that I noticed the selection of Greek pastries and cakes by the cash -- and they had dipples! I love dipples.... -_-

Oh boy, was this a memorable treat! :)

Nevertheless, for a whopping $2, tax included, I got this monster of a cinnamon "bun/twist". Shaped like a croissant and featuring a moist, dense dough worthy of the best Jewish-style cinnamon babas, this is a cinnamon bun worth trying. Slightly flaky on the outside with a fresh soft dough interwoven with layers of cinnamon mass that's neither too dry nor too gooey. That's then topped off with chunks of sugar. Like the bakery itself, it seems to be an amazing fusion of some of my favourite cinnamon bun styles, all "rolled" into one. I was going to just rip off a piece while it was fresh and save the rest for later... and ended up eating the whole darn thing in one sitting. Amazing! *-*

Searching for the address, I came across countless reviews lauding this bakery's reasonable prices, but no one seemed to do the baked goods justice (rather "good" -- I only had one). Until I came along, that is. ;)

Rating: ****

Vienna Bakery [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Vienna Bakery
Address: 10207 63rd Ave NW, Edmonton AB
Website: http://viennabakery.ca/
Style: Austrian, German
Price: $$

Another German/Austrian bakery in Edmonton. There were actually a lot of good European bakeries in Edmonton and Vienna Bakery is one of them. They had a big selection of German-style pastries and breads (pretty much everything I would expect).

Poppy seed cake (left) and marzipan roll/cake

I got two pieces of cake, because I like cake, especially traditional German ones. I noticed that they had poppy seed cake, so that was one I felt I had to get. [Editor's note: Finally! Finally! I get some respect! *-*] I'm not really that good with poppy seed baked goods, but this one was very good with a moist poppy seed filling with generous amount of poppy seeds in it. On top, there was a crunchy crumble top that I liked. I gave it a 4.5/5 [Obviously everyone forgot my site is out of 4].

The marzipan cake I picked out on my own was also very good and worthy of the same rating. It had a soft chocolate coating with light, but satisfying cream and fruit filling. With its smooth marzipan taste, it's definitely recommended by me, as is the bakery as a whole. I'm not sure what to say besides this.

Rating: ***1/2

FK Tórshavn [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: FK (Føroya Kepssamtøka)
Address: 64 Doktara Jakobsens gøta, Tórshavn
Website: http://www.fk.fo/
Style: Faroese, Danish
Price: $

Baah! What else did you expect to find!?!

Following a short trip to the small, picturesque island of Nórshavn feeling dejected: I hadn't done a Cake Tour that day! I wandered around the small city, but everything was already closed and so I somewhat reluctantly walked into the FK supermarket located next door to where I was staying and to which I had gone the day before for some self-catering ingredients. So, I knew that the small supermarket (the city's downtown supermarket) had a bakery counter with a fairly substantial collection of breads, buns, and the whole array of Danish baked goods (with Faroese spelling that I will not dare to replicate ;)), from spandauer, slices of wienerbrød, to poppy seed-encrusted tebirkes. All labelled and exceptionally well priced!

The lighting, the lighting! x_x

Naturally, at 6 in the evening, the selection was drastically limited to a few remaining pastries, but I came out with a more unique treat to try. This was the raspberry cake... or whatever they called it. :P (10kr) It was a yeast-based dough (a little stale at the end of the day, but not as bad as the horrible lighting in my room made it seem -__-) filled with a tasty raspberry jam and rolled with rock sugar and slivered almonds. Would have liked more almonds and maybe fresher, but it was different from the usual products and pretty good. It still didn't beat more proper bakeries, but for a supermarket, it was a pleasant surprise... and relief after a no baked good day! :D

Rating: ***

Gingerbread Haus Bakery

Bakery: Gingerbread Haus
Address: 1138 Queen St, Halifax NS
Website: http://gingerbreadhausbakery.com/
Style: German, Austrian
Price: $$

Taking into account my fondness for German baked goods (especially given the high probability of poppy seed goodies ^^), you can bet Gingerbread Haus was on my to-visit list since my inaugural trip to Halifax last year. Sadly, I didn't have the time to go then, but I had the chance to go this time. Located down a few steps on the side of an old building in a historic neighbourhood, this has an old-world feel even before entering. Entering the little cafe, you have a variety of whole cakes and, off to one corner, a smaller selection of slab cake and fancier cake slices, as well as a few baked goods that weren't too German (danishes and croissants, if memory serves me correctly). Everything is labelled and priced. Personally, I was devastated to find not a single poppy seed treat, both in terms of cakes and sweet buns. What, impossible! ;__;

Slice of Swiss "alp-ple" cake... ha ha, get it? Yes?

I was debating this time around between two items: the classic apple strudel ($3.50) with its thin dough and generous apple filling or the Swiss apple square ($3.00). Seeing as I've tried the former and never heard of the latter (perhaps it's not too authentic then, not sure), I was leaning towards the second. The fact that it was cheaper (hey, I am on a budget!) and that I espied spice cake underneath -- I do love spice cake -- I ended up going with the Swiss apple cake. Yes, it was indeed spice cake! Delicious spice cake that complimented the apples perfectly; it was slightly milder than gingerbread and was topped with a nice big layer of crumble, with sliced apples hiding somewhere in between. Seeing as I had it as part of my picnic (well, it was my picnic besides some water .__.), it was difficult to enjoy without a fork and getting everything in one mouthful required some stretching, but it was pretty good: I loved the moist spice cake and the apples. The crumble was tasty too, but I thought it a little too oily. Altogether, a tasty, though simple cake, though I would have preferred poppy seed. *weeps*

Rating: ***

La Fournée des Sucreries de l'Érable

Bakery: La Fournée des Sucreries de l'Érable
Address: 7070 Avenue Henri Julien, Montreal QC
Website: n/a
Style: Canadian, Quebecois
Price: $$

It's so hard to go to Jean Talon market and try something new when there's a Wawel on site, with their perfectly fried and glazed doughnuts just calling you over. And of course Wawel also has poppy seed buns and poppy seed cakes and... as you can see, it's hard to go beyond Wawel and not go bankrupt. ;) This time, although I was already down to the bottom of my budget bank, I could not resist finally stopping by the small bakery located right next door to Wawel. La Fournée carries a tempting array of traditional French-Canadian baked goods, made with and practically soaked in some cases in -- you guessed it -- maple syrup. Think sugar pies, pecan tarts, in-season pumpkin pies, spice cookies, cheesecake; standing there and waiting to be served, it actually dawned on me that everything in this place looks so... good! I was torn between a small maple tart (a miniature version of the maple sugar pie; $2.95) or the maple square ($2.95). I came out with the latter. ^^

My mouth is watering more than that maple syrup!

This is one of these baked goods where the picture doesn't do it much justice, but at least you can see the maple syrup positively dripping from the bottom layer. This bottom layer was where the maple factored in; it was thick yet somewhat runny like a perfect butter tart. Mix that with the dense, spongy dough above it and the fantastic topping of pure chunks of walnut, this was phenomenal. It's a bit difficult driving your fork in through the nearly solid layer of tightly packed walnuts, but scoop everything up and I could not believe how good this simple treat was! Whoa... the mind is blown. *.*

... And now, the next time I go to Jean Talon, I'll have to forego any meals that day and just go all-out on the baked goods! :P

Rating: ****

Artistic Bake Shop [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Artistic Bake Shop
Address: 6820 104 St NW, Edmonton AB
Website: http://artisticbakeshop.com/
Style: German
Price: $$-$$$

Artistic Bake Shop is more or less your typical German-Canadian bakery with cakes, tortes, and European-style breads. I was supposed to go here last year, but it was closed on Sunday and then I just never had the time. [Editor's note: Well, at least he redeemed himself...] This year, though, I went and finally got a chance to try the reason why this was a highlighted location from the very beginning: the 7-layer Furst Puckler Torte, which seems to have some buzz around it and which, based on name and description alone, I also wanted to give it a try.

The 7-layer Furst Puckler torte

To be quite honest, I think I was expecting something a lot more exciting and elaborate. The kind of thing that you spot and you instantly want to try. The tortes are only available whole ($28.50) and are covered in dark chocolate so you can't see inside. For the price, they're pretty small. The piece pictured is 1/4 of the cake. Slicing it open, I was a little disappointed to find that it was little more than a traditional sponge and cream cake with no real "pizzazz". The layers were white sponge cake, chocolate sponge cake, chocolate cream, white cream, strawberry (pink) cream, another white cream, and I'm not sure if the bottom crust or chocolate coating was supposed to count as the seventh layer?

The torte was rich without being heavy, which was nice for all that cream. The other correspondent ate his slice for breakfast and "felt sick" afterwards, so maybe he doesn't agree, but that's his own fault. It was good; however, not amazing and not really what I was hoping for. Next time, I would probably try something else.

Rating: ***

Bakaríið hjá Jórun [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Bakaríið hjá Jórun
Address: Klingrugarður 6, Klaksvík

A small tour of the town of Klaksvik

Arriving in Klaksvik, the second-largest town in the Faroe Islands after the capital, on a cold, rainy Sunday, I was rather... alarmed to find that everything, every sort of food source was closed except for the convenience store. With nothing better to do than to wander the abandoned streets, I encountered an Icelandic tour bus at the port and later found that same bus in the parking lot of this bakery/cafe. The bakery was open! This seems to be common knowledge, as the place was packed. Of course, due to a lack of any other food, they also serve hot meals (I saw one customer walking away with french fries so it goes beyond usual bakery/cafe fare).

The Neo-Nordic church

Nevertheless, Hjá Jórun is the kind of bakery I hoped to encounter on my travels through the Faroes: display cases filled with Danish-dough pastries as well as elaborate marzipan creations, tortes and tarts, not to mention tables laid out with prepacked pancakes and what I would consider loaf cakes. Really, who cares about the french fries? :P Items are labelled (it does help if you're familiar with Danish or Icelandic baked goods as it'll make navigating through the Faroese a lot easier) and most are priced. At many places, I had a hard time choosing what to get, simply because there wasn't really any thing that stood out; here, it was quite the opposite. I wanted the whole darn store! ._.

Flaky, creamy Danish-dough is back! ^^

After a few moments of glazed-eyed bakery shock, I noticed this gigantic piece of cream-filled "Vienna bread" (Danish dough) for 20kr. Actually, it was half a piece (the whole was 35kr if memory serves me correctly) and that half piece was huge. It was an absolute steal of a deal! I brought it back to my room, convinced that I could make two portions of it and imagine my delight when I took it out of the paper bag and discovered I could get three generously-sized slices from it (pictured). Given you won't pay less than 10kr for any sort of baked good, this was fantastic value. And it was good!

In fact, I found it almost remarkable how this was almost identical to the 'strudels' I buy at the Danish bakery on Pape (in Toronto, Canada ^^), which I love but couldn't find anything similar in Denmark and thus deemed it "Canadianized". Biting into this thing, I was amazed. Delicious dough that's slightly flaky on the outside and soft on the inside. Tasty cream, though I found it a little watery and more reminiscent of apple sauce, piped down the middle with a generous (perhaps a tad too much) sprinkling of rock sugar and slivered almonds. This was so good (though the photo seems to reflect more the gloomy day than anything else) and, on top of that, I had three servings of it! This was probably the bakery highlight from the Faroe Islands -- yummy!

Rating: ***1/2

Julien's Patisserie

Bakery: Julien's Patisserie, Bakery & Cafe
Address: 5517 Young St, Halifax NS
Website: http://julienshydrostone.ca/
Style: French, Canadian
Price: $$

Yes! I have some more Atlantic bakeries up for review again, after a little more than a week in Halifax and St. John's (NL) and Julien's is the first one up. I actually had this place on my list last year, but never made it. This year, I stayed pretty much a block away and, having arrived very late from Iceland the previous night without dinner, I had no food on me and needed breakfast. My hosts told me that I had two local options: Starbucks or "the French patisserie" and you KNOW which one I opted for! ^-^

The wonders of French dough... ex. #408

Julien's is an absolutely bustling cafe with people constantly popping in for some bread or to sit down and eat pastries and while I have to say I envisioned Hydrostone Market as more of a market, Julien's is still a charming bakery with countless options that aren't necessarily limited to the viennoiseries in the front case and tarts and quiches towards the back; they also had cookies, some sort of squares, and both European and more home-style (ahem, boring...) white and whole wheat breads. The tarts looked good, but were around $4.00, and for the very budget-conscious me (who blew all her money abroad ;_;), I chose the baked goods instead, which are labelled but not priced. Or was it the tea that wasn't priced? At any rate, I paid $5.50 total (with taxes) for a big mug of tea and a baked good.

The raspberry one being unavailable, I made an impromptu decision and went instead with the abricotine, the apricot pastry. This was really good -- I'm not the biggest fan of the apricot ones, since some places are a little too generous with the glaze and the cream bed, resulting in soggy dough. I like to appreciate French dough as well as the filling and Julien's got it right: two apricot halves, no gloopy glaze, delicious flaky dough and just the right amount of cream tucked into the middle. Mmm... if I didn't have any more bakeries to do in Halifax, I'd come here for breakfast every day. ;) Of course, the Cake Tour must always go on~!

Rating: ***1/2

Harri Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: Harri Bakery
Address: 223 Algoma St S, Thunder Bay ON
Website: n/a
Style: Finnish
Price: $$

A case of the exploding cinnamon bun :P

Ever on the quest for Finnish baked goods, I've been wanting to visit Harri Bakery for more than a year; ever since the National Post ran a travel article on local eats in the Thunder Bay area, with Harri being one of the selections. So when I heard that the brothers were driving through Thunder Bay (staying a night, in fact), you know what the orders were: freeze and bring back whatever you can! And, for once, they delivered. :)

Operating from a red wooden building in the quite Finnish Thunder Bay, Harri has all the classics: dark rye breads, cinnamon buns, pulla, etc. And we got it all. Realistically, how can you not when the next Finnish bakery is in Sudbury? ;)

Forever a sucker for cinnamon buns...

For one, I got some cinnamon buns (with its variant, the apple cinnamon bun). I'm sure everyone must know my fondness for Finnish cinnamon buns; the ones from Harri were a bit doughier and the layers plumper than your average bun, with a sprinkling of regular sugar instead of the usual rock sugar. This meant that for a whole bunch of dough, you didn't get that much cinnamon or sugar in a mouthful. There was a nice amount of cardamom and I liked the dense, yet soft texture, but would have personally preferred more than just one roll-around. The apple variation, with chunks of apple in the centre, was an interesting take on the classic bun. I will say I prefer the original, but it was pretty good in its own right.

Give me pulla and I'll be happy ^^

The pulla, a braided sweet bread, was also tasty. Some bakeries sprinkle them with sugar and others add raisins; I probably like the sugar better, though I can always do without raisins, but this was a very good one, though probably not my all-time favourite: hints of cardamom, soft dough. Mmm... no matter what, I'll take whatever Finnish baked goods I can get -- yes, even if it means a two days' drive! *-*

Rating: ***

Kaffihúsið [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Kaffihúsið
Address: Bryggjubakki 14, Tórshavn
Website: http://kaffihusid.fo/
Style: Faroese, Scandinavian
Price: $$$


The fact they had this = bonus points

Well, well, well! I hope you didn't think you'd get away with not having a World Tour this year. ;) I myself feared it wouldn't happen, but I managed to come out with a couple exciting spots from this year's newest destination: the Faroe Islands. Yup, the Faroe Islands. My last Scandinavian destination (if you exclude Greenland, but that will be done eventually) and a downright impressive Cake Tour if you ask me! :)

This was obviously my first opportunity to try Faroese baked goods and, with such strong ties to Denmark, I was not surprised to find bakeries selling very Danish treats such as spandauer, "cream balls", or cinnamon "snails". Now, as a big fan of Danish baked goods, I had nothing wrong with that. ;) While there aren't very many actual bakeries in Tórshavn, the world's smallest capital city, and the country as a whole, the Faroese seem to uphold the tradition of the "fika" (alas, I only know the Swedish word), the afternoon coffee-and-a-sweet break, with cafes offering homemade cakes in the smallest of towns, often in someone's house. Of course, the "city" has far more approachable options and pretty Kaffihúsið, located along the old port, is not only one of them, but one of the chicer choices.

I always play it safe, you see. :P

These guys advertise themselves as a patisserie and while this may not be the most accurate word to use, given they offer no takeaway options and only have a handful of cake slices for sale at the cafe, it's still cake available in interesting flavours such as licorice cheesecake, rhubarb or just classic chocolate. And all are a rather wince-worthy (at least for poor tourists) 45kr per slice -- this isn't listed anywhere on their menu. Add a coffee and I paid 75kr for my coffee break. And though it hurt, I did a 7km hike that day and deserved it. :P

Nevertheless, I got a rhubarb mousse cake, which I know I won't find anywhere else. I kind of thought it a little too similar in taste to other mousse cakes with its standard vanilla sponge cake dough and the soft, fruity mousse on top, but it was quite good nonetheless. Perhaps I'd never say it was rhubarb without knowing beforehand; I would have liked some of that sourness, but it was a tasty, real-tasting (sometimes a problem with mousse cakes) creamy rhubarb mousse on top and a smaller sliver of chocolate on the bottom. Top it off with a sprinkling of dark chocolate pellets which went really well with the rhubarb and some marzipan and jam accents. Pretty good, but not my favourite from my tour of the Faroes.

Rating: ***

Comfort Table Bakery

Bakery: Comfort Table Bakery
Address: 166 Hwy 17 W, Vermilion Bay ON
Website: n/a
Style: Canadian
Price: $-$$

Look at that butter coverage!

There is something so exhilarating for a cake tourer such as myself about encountering a bakery in the middle of nowhere (no offense ^^). I mean, as Canadians, we're not necessarily that developed when it comes to local, small-town bakeries; perhaps a couple decades ago, but nowadays, it's getting harder to find that village bakery, especially when even towns of a considerable size have nothing better than pre-packed junk at the supermarket. Sad but true. So to come across a quaint, absolutely charming bakery right off the side of the highway in the not-very-big town of Vermilion Bay, up in northern Ontario (about 250km NW of Thunder Bay and 70km from the Ontario-Manitoba border) is an event worth celebrating. :) It's especially worth celebrating when it's really good -- this was on the second last day of my brothers' road trip and was one of the bakery highlights. Luckily, I got the chance to try some myself. In the words of one: "We went to a couple of cities, we tried some of the more 'famous' places and in the end, the best bakeries were the most remote ones."

Comfort Table's name says mostly all; they make the soul food equivalent of baked goods: gooey cinnamon buns, decadent butter and other tarts, and other home-style, Canadian basics. What set it apart from others was the fantastic taste and quality of the goodies.

"Magnificent!"says one; I second that!

They bought two tarts: a classic butter tart and a strawberry tart. Soft and thin homemade tart shells were so good; add into that delicious fillings that were both amazing in their own right. The butter tart was really good: it was airy and soft with a fantastic runny butter filling (with that amazing froth on top) that was worthy of top honours in my butter tart challenge.

The strawberry tart was just as good, if not better. Not too sweet with a slight tartness, the filling wasn't gloopy like it would be elsewhere; it was real chunks of fruit in a homemade jam. Whoa. *-*

Now, I don't know about some of the other stops on the tour, since I wasn't there for all of them, but this certainly deserves special mention. I'm not sure how often you drive from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg, but just in case: pulling over at Comfort Table is a necessity. ;)

Rating: ****

La Boulangerie [International Correspondent]

Bakery: La Boulangerie
Address: 2435 4 St. SW, Calgary AB
Website: n/a
Style: French
Price: $$$-$$$$

The fruit tart was good

We were staying close to this place and decided that we could try it for breakfast one day, although I wasn't sure how French the baked goods would be. My French is really bad, but even I thought the name pretty lame and it made me a little suspicious, but it turned out to be pretty impressive and authentic with a good selection of French breads, fancy tarts, and cakes. It was also pretty expensive (that's authentic...), despite being served on paper plates.

I had a fruit tart. This was very good: it had a good crust and nice filling with different berries (straw-, blue-, cran- and blackberries) that made it both sweet and tart. I liked it and would definitely take it again.

Pear tart was... okay

The second was the pear "tart" (I'm not sure what to call it), which wasn't so good. Unlike the fruit tart, the pear tart used flaky dough, like in danishes or maybe like in napoleons, and spread out thinly sliced pears on top and then there was a clear glaze over both fruit and dough. I think it's hard to make anything with pear have flavour, since pears on their own are pretty bland, so I thought it needed some sort of punch besides plain dough. I tried a pear tart somewhere else and they put orange peel with it; that was really good. This was okay, but I thought lacked that something to make it pop.

La Boulangerie was pretty good for someone who likes and appreciates French baking, but it wasn't really amazing enough to be worth the price.

Rating: ***

Lucie's Bakery & Deli [RIP]

Bakery: Lucie's Bakery & Deli
Address: 1479 Gordon St, Guelph ON
Website: http://www.luciesbakery.com/
Style: North American
Price: $

Kahlua and toffee square, but where's the Kahlua?

And with this post, we have a tag for Guelph. :) It's really amazing how large my list of towns and cities with more than two bakeries in them has gotten! Wow...

And before I get too emotional, let's get back to Lucie's. One Monday in the summer, I was brought back baked goods from Guelph. Other Guelph must-visits were closed and so I got a couple of fairly homestyle baked goods courtesy of Lucie's. I've long been researching noteworthy bakeries in the area and, truth be told, Lucie's website makes it look like a cake place I can't say it made me think that they had anything else besides custom cakes and the Montreal-style bagels, but it seems it was worth poking your head. The fare at Lucie's is fairly straightforward and, with several variants of the brownie, appeals either to kids or the kid in us. I'll admit I wasn't too intrigued, but in the end, it wasn't at all bad.

Is there anything under all that icing? ;)

The first item was the classic cinnamon bun ($1.49) with generous petals of cream cheese icing on top. Good, slightly flaky dough with a nice amount of cinnamon that wasn't too gooey; in my opinion, the massive flower of icing was too much. The cream cheese icing lover hotly disagreed, so I suppose it's a matter of preference.

The winning brownie... or rather, blondie

There were also two somewhat-variations on the brownie: one the Kahlua toffee bar and the other a blondie ($2.25 each). Cutting these up and turning it into a bit of a contest, I got three others in addition to myself to try these out and see which was better. Both had a great chewy texture that I love in my brownie: a slightly harder top that you just break into to get to the soft and chewy middle (a sign that they were fresh) and a pretty good flavour. They aren't fancy pastries, to be sure, but it wasn't a supermarket brownie either. Which is a relief. The verdict: 3/4 agreed (myself included) that the blondie, with its chunks of walnut and dollops of icing and lighter dough was the champ. Strangely enough, since I'm always one for alcohol in my baked goods, I found the blondie more complex than the Kahlua toffee square, which lacked the Kahlua taste I was somewhat (understandably so) hoping for.

Overall, contrary to how they advertise their cakes, Lucie's isn't anything elaborate, but it does offer simple, relatively tasty treats.

Rating: **1/2

Laggan's Mountain Bakery [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Laggan's Mountain Bakery & Delicatessen
Address: 101 Village Rd, Lake Louise AB
Website: http://www.laggans.com/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

Classic butter tart

I've seen European bakeries, fine bakeries, but this is the first time I've seen a "mountain bakery" and I'm not exactly sure what that means....

Anyways, we dropped into Laggan's on our way back from Jasper, because we thought it would give the Cake Tour some cool factor; well, we kind of knew we would be in trouble if we didn't go to this one [editor's note: at least they're bright enough to see that...]. I didn't really expect a bakery right in the middle of the Lake Louise village, but it was there alright. Except, like other national park stops in Banff and Jasper, I thought Laggan's more of a lunch stop than an actual bakery you go to for sweets, though they had all the "Canadian classics": butter tarts, date squares, etc.

Nutella square

I took a butter tart, because I like Western butter tarts better than the fatter crust versions sold in Ontario bakeries. This one was relatively good with a pie-ish crust, jelly-like butter and raisin filling. Okay price.

Their signature Nutella squares (that's what the sign said, so I thought I might as well try it) were not bad. I'm not really a fan of chewy, gooey squares and it was a little too sweet, so I'd just go with okay. I probably wouldn't take it again, though.

... and the date square

The last square was, I'm pretty sure, a date square. In my opinion, it needed more topping, at least a more hearty topping. I like having that granola feeling, with thick oats on my date squares and this one was too fine/dusty. Okay taste, but not enough substance for the date filling.

Laggan's is probably best as a lunch or breakfast stop and sure beats the super unhealthy fast food (burgers and pizza) that you're pretty much stuck with when travelling through Canada; the baked goods can make a good dessert, but not sure if it's worth a deliberate stop.

Rating: **1/2