Boulangerie Seraphin [RIP]

Bakery: Boulangerie Seraphin 
Address: 5008 Blvd St-Laurent, Montreal QC 
Website: n/a 
Style: Portuguese, European 
Price: $$ 

My final bakery visit for this particular Montreal trip, I kind of ended up here purely by accident; rather, I wanted to try another bakery that was more on the way and found that they really couldn't be called a bakery and there was nothing that could be reviewed. Recalling that there was some sort of  bakery near the intersection of St-Laurent and Mont Royal, I decided to give it a try.

I'm not quite sure why I was so convinced this was a Portuguese bakery when there wasn't that much here indicating this to be the case. Yes, one of their "feature" items were those omnipresent custard tarts, but you can find them in many bakeries and everything else fell more in with a pan-European selection of tarts, cheesecakes, croissants and cookies. In terms of baked goods, I definitely would have preferred more varied choices; with this ranging from croissants to apple turnovers, I would have liked something... different, unique.

So I went with this twist ($2.75) with powdered sugar and almonds on top, thinking that it would be a coconut bun. Hey, it looked like one and those custard tarts made it a natural assumption! Of course it was my fault for not inquiring further (nothing is labelled or priced besides a few select items), but when I bit in and found it to be a custard bun, I realized my mistake but wasn't overly upset at it. I can like a good custard bun as well. However, I found this particular bun flavourless; the custard was too thick and had the taste and texture of boxed pudding mix. The dough was too dense and again, didn't have that much flavour; maybe some more almonds and powdered sugar would have helped it along?

Seraphin had potential, but given the fact that Portuguese bakeries are usually reliable for tasty, affordable baked goods, I felt this one couldn't come close to others on St-Laurent.

Rating: **