Nanaimo Bakery

Bakery: Nanaimo Bakery
Address: 2025 Bowen Rd, Nanaimo BC
Website: https://www.nanbakery.ca/
Style: German, European
Price: $-$$ 

Several years ago, I discovered that the city of Nanaimo has created a "Nanaimo Bar Trail", a local tour celebrating the city's homegrown hero: the humble Nanaimo Bar. Taking a look at the tour with the express purpose of covering as much ground as possible, I discovered that there really weren't that many locations, and not that many bakery locations, at that. Of the two on the list that I considered close enough to group together and make a Nanaimo Bar Trail of my own, Nanaimo Bakery was my second and final stop.

Fresh with my disappointment at having not found any Nanaimo bars waiting for me at the previous bakery, I came in to Nanaimo Bakery expecting the worst. What I didn't expect was an overwhelming array of pastries, cakes, baked goods and chocolates, all laid out in a very impressive spread, so much so that I couldn't possibly leave with just one item in tow!

I was very fortunate I did, since all three sweets were delicious, starting from the famous Nanaimo Bar ($1.30), which was exactly as I wanted it to be: rich custard cream in between a dense chocolatey bottom layer and dark chocolate on top that tasted so fresh, which was a nice change from squares and bars often encountered that taste of the fridge and have kind of solidified. This is how a Nanaimo bar should taste.

Equally good was their poppy seed danish ($1.75), a unique treat that had a flaky bottom layer of dough that was topped with poppy seed mass, some crumble and an almost opaque layer of icing. I'd never thin anything in this style: very thin, made almost like a Copenhagen square. Was it ever good!

In addition to that, I tried to silly porcupine cake ($2.25): roughly the size and shape of a rum ball with a moist chocolate inside and rich taste, though maybe the poor critter's face needed a little improvement. :P Overall: a fantastic bakery.

Rating: ***1/2