Odessa Deli and Desserts

Bakery: Odessa Deli & Desserts
Address: 372 Marlee Ave, Toronto ON 
Website: n/a 
Style: Russian, Eastern European
Price: $$ 

It's not very common to find an Eastern European deli advertising desserts right from the get-go. Otherwise, I might not have found this small Russian shop that is essentially more deli than dessert, with shelves of imported products along with the traditional cold cut and ready-made food counter. Essentially, that aforementioned "dessert" portion isn't that large; actually, you can come across an Eastern European deli and they'll have just as much, sometimes even more selection without saying anything. Still, "desserts" is definitely the right term, since Odessa isn't quite a bakery. Instead, they specialize in slices and slabs of classic Russian layer tortes and a few smaller chocolatey sweets. Some sold individually and others sold by weight. There are maybe two items not located in the display case, most notably poppy seed and walnut rolls.

I decided to try two cake slices, mostly picking these over other ones because they were already cut into smaller pieces: one smetannik ($3) and one slice of Esterhazy torte ($3.35; sold by weight). Both had layers of moist sponge cake and alternating cream layers. The smetannik isn't my favourite style, but this one was still good, with a nice proportion of sour cream in between the chocolate and vanilla cake. Even better, however, was the Esterhazy. If memory serves me correctly, this is my first time trying this other famous Hungarian cake: layers of nutty dough and cream. Fresh and flavourful.

Coming up to the cash, I noticed those poppy seed rolls ($6.00) and, naturally, I couldn't resist grabbing one. Already in store, it looked stale, but I thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt. It was stale, unfortunately; the dough was dry and both dough and filling fell apart once it was cut. Poppy seed filling was more raisins, nuts and candied fruit than poppy seed which I wasn't a fan of. Would have been much better had it been freshly baked, but it wasn't up to the same level as the cake and I probably wouldn't take it again.

Rating: ***