Romeo & Juliet's

Bakery: Romeo & Juliet's Caffe & Bakery 
Address: 1292 Hertel Ave., Buffalo NY
Website: http://www.rjcaffe.com/
Style: Italian 
Price: $$ 

This is what I would call the most authentically Italian bakery in the Buffalo area (they have four locations), although they, like a great many Italian "bakeries", seem to meddle in a bit of everything, from homemade pasta to pizza to antipasti to sweets. And of course they cater -- how could they not? ;) Even if this is the case, gone are the oversized pastries and leaning towers of tasteless cream and instead you have classic treats.

 And where there are classic treats, there are cannoli, smaller and thin-shelled (one sampler wanted to point that out, it being his favourite type) with good cream and crispy exterior: a standard cannolo that was good compared to nearby bakeries, but not exceptional on its own. It would be nice to do a taste test with a whole bunch of cannoli like I did with zeppole (oh yeah, that was a whole lot of fun! *-*)

Similarly, there was the sfogliatella, the multi-layered pastry that had good texture and taste, though at the same time I'll admit it's not my favourite Italian pastry by a long shot. Nevertheless, after countless very disappointing, sometimes downright disgusting visits to Italian bakeries in Western NY, here's a solid contender for one of the best.

Rating: ***