Mr. Paris Bakery

Bakery: Mr. Paris Bakery
Address: 222-4501 North Rd, Coquitlam BC 
Website: n/a 
Style: Korean 
Price: $ 

Hey, this is my first bakery in Coquitlam -- hello Coquitlam! Located on one upper-level end of the strangely insane Hannam plaza is this typical Korean bakery that is either called Mr. Paris Bakery (that's what it says online) or The Bread House (which takes up the biggest part of their store sign). Or both. Regardless of its name, it's a rather spacious bakery and cafe that features three long wooden shelves of bagged baked goods, both sweet, savoury and loaves of bread, and a display case at the front of adorable, full-size cakes.

 As with most Korean bakeries, everything is well-priced and they're open fairly late, which is always nice and makes for a great after-dinner stop. Mr. Paris features the standard items including more Western-style cream or red bean buns, among other fillings, along with a few more traditional biscuits and sweets. I'm not sure whether it's a usual thing, but coming later in the evening I found several baskets lacking labels or the same items repeated in several areas, which made things a bit confusing. 

However, I was pleased to find that one of my favourite Korean goodies was there: the butter cream bun ($1.80). It never really looks like much with its hot dog bun shape and lack of adornment on top besides a simple egg wash. Inside, it's the same story; it's essentially just a bun cut in half with thick cream, but it still tastes so good! Fluffy, super soft, slight sweetened bread. Decadent whipped butter cream, though a little more wouldn't have hurt... pretty good.

Rating: ***

Cumberland Village Bakery

Bakery: Cumberland Village Bakery
Address: 2747 Dunsmuir Ave, Cumberland BC
Website: facebook
Style: Canadian  
Price: $$ 

A bit of a hidden gem of Comox Valley, Cumberland Village Bakery may be more off the beaten path than its neighbours, but stopping at this little bakery along Cumberland's mine-town main street is a nice detour. It also helps if you're staying at the lovely hostel in town; there's really no excuse in that case.

Inside the tight space, the main attraction is probably their doughnuts. Coming there bright and early in the morning, the shelves were fully stocked with them: glazed, sprinkled, jelly doughnuts, apple fritters... they even sell doughnut holes. It was definitely *not* the day to abstain from doughnuts -- there was just so many of them and they looked so good! 

 Still, for those looking for something other than doughnuts, there were a few other options, though not a lot, ranging from classic squares to a couple pastries and tarts. Oh, and pizza. The selection, however, isn't that big and I recall finding it very hard to settle on one. That one ended up being the peach cream cheese danish ($4.25). I'm usually not a fan of any baked goods with sweet/cream cheese, but the peach was definitely calling me and it was nonetheless one of the more appealing baked goods. Three peach slices on top of a layer of cheese that was then on top of a spiral of flaky pastry dough. It was a bit unmanageable and messy with everything just piled on top of each other, but the dough was tasty and had good texture. Still not a fan of the cream cheese, but still enjoyable... next time, however, I am so going with the doughnuts!

Rating: ***

Mydel's Bakery & Deli

Bakery: Mydel's Bakery & Deli
Address: 134 Kerr St, Oakville ON 
Website: facebook
Style: Polish 
Price: $$ 

This newer Polish bakery and deli had been advertising for awhile before I finally made my way over here, but it's nonetheless one of the more recent additions to the Oakville bakery as well as to the Polish deli scene. Which doesn't happen all that often. Unlike a great many Polish delis that get their sweets shipped in from commercial bakeries, the focus here is on their homemade cakes and baked goods. More specifically, Mydel's specializes in slab cakes that sold by weight; these mainly include different varieties of cheesecake and multi-layered tortes along with a few other Polish staples like apple cake and honey cake. Personally, I was hoping that there would be more baked goods besides one last sweet cheese bun and the doughnuts reviewed here.

Nonetheless, I am always willing to try some slab cakes. One unique kind was their blueberry cheesecake (around $10.00 for a chunk): blueberries mixed right into the cheese mass with a few whole berries here and there with a chocolate dough on the bottom and a layer of lemony glaze on top. The cheesecake was fluffy and flavourful and I liked how it was paired with the chocolate dough instead of standard vanilla; the one thing I would say is that the glaze on top was too thick and the lemony taste detracted from the more subtle flavours of the cheesecake itself.

 Another cake worth trying is the honey cake with black currants ($1.99/100g; around $5.60 for the piece). I've seen just plain honey cake; you may encounter honey cake with prunes and walnuts at Russian or Ukrainian bakeries, but black currants were definitely one-of-a-kind. The dough was of the drier kind and the cake had a hard time staying together. I would have liked more of that black currant taste as well, but the combination of cake, cream, fruit and dark chocolate was definitely a good one.

Finally, Mydel's doughnuts/pączki ($0.99/each) are different than the ones you'll usually encounter: instead of the typical glaze, they're dusted with powdered sugar and topped with a sort of streusel-like layer of golden brown fat bubbles, which makes for a nice crunch when digging in. I always prefer glaze, but these were a good example of more bready, sweet bun-like doughnuts.

Overall, Mydel's is worth checking out and is definitely one of the better options for Polish baking in the GTA.


Rating: ***

Panetteria Pane Pane [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Panetteria Pane Pane
Address: 2 Chome-5-1 Nipponbashi, Chuo Ward, Osaka
Website: n/a 
Style: Japanese, Melon pan 
Price: $ 

A great many of my bakery visits in Japan involved a lot of research and route planning; randomly stumbling upon a bakery I wasn't expecting to find was a fairly rare occurrence, but one example was Pane Pane, a small, somewhat obscure stall near Kuromon Ichiba market selling melon pan and little bags of cookies. Having had quite a few melon pan on this journey, how could I pass up this opportunity to see how this one fared?

Pane pane sells three or four flavours of melon pan that are individually priced and all fall under the 200 yen mark. At the time of purchase, there was the standard criss-cross variety along with chocolate, milk (I believe) and strawberry (150 yen).

Seeing as it was strawberry season, I went with this cotton candy pink-coloured dome with its even melon crust dusted with a bit of granulated sugar. Inside, the dough was airy, but lacked the bubbly, slightly elastic dough I'd seen previously on some truly excellent melon pan; instead, it was a bit more foamy and the taste was reminiscent of the colour: a bit... artificial and yet strangely bland at the same time. Not the best I've had.

Rating: **1/2

Pacific Bread Company

Bakery: Pacific Bread Company 
Address: 2086 E Hastings St, Vancouver BC
Website: https://pacificbreadcompany.com/
Style: Canadian, European
Price: $$$-$$$$

At this point, I can safely say I've reviewed bakeries in all major areas of Vancouver, not to mention Metro Vancouver, but I never expected to find one of the city's priciest baked good destination on a plaza between 7-Eleven and a laundromat. Alright, alright, I'm exaggerating, but in some ways, you can't let the commercial bakery vibes of their logo and exterior get you: inside, it's a totally different story with a minimalist space featuring an open counter of sweet and savoury baked goods along with cases housing cakes, both larger sized and individual, and multiple varieties of colourful macarons, all of which come with a rather jaw-dropping price tag, with the exception perhaps of the loaves of bread behind the counter, which are fairly standard for a good bakery; simply put, it's too expensive. 

 Essentially, the review could end there, had it been just that. The thing is, there is a "but". A quite tasty "but". Despite not looking all that appetizing, the most interesting pastry available that day was the raspberry chocolate croissant ($5.25 + tax). It's not often you get anything raspberry-flavoured. Feeling quite the hole in my pocket, I walked out skeptical. With its square shape, big blob of red oozing out the middle and chocolate crust unevenly dusted with powdered sugar, well, that initial "not that appetizing" was a bit of an understatement. However, the buttery layers of French dough with that right amount of airiness and that amazing "crunch" when biting into it; the delicious fruit filling paired with not too much and not too little chocolate. In the end, it was good. Really good. Definitely belonging on the list of the best French pastries I've had in Vancouver, but it's a bit too expensive to visit on a regular basis.

Rating: ***1/2

Cakebread Artisan Bakery

Bakery: Cakebread Artisan Bakery
Address: 368 5th St, Courtenay BC 
Website: http://cakebread.ca/
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$-$$$ 

The only bakery in downtown Courtenay, Cakebread is more than anything an offshoot of the grander Hot Chocolates chocolate and gourmet food shop, occupying one corner of the large space, past the rows of jars of jam and oil; it's also where you order any hot drinks so that corner also doubles up as the cafe portion -- this chocolate shop really has a bit of everything! It's not necessarily obscure or hard to find; it just seems... secondary, though at the same time, they have a decent selection of breads behind the counter and two perpendicular display cases with cakes and tarts in one, cookies and squares in the other, and a few baked goods scattered here and there. Despite the use of 'artisan', most of the sweets are nothing fancy and fairly standard fare at any neighbourhood bakery: chocolate chip cookies, scones, sticky buns, etc.

Not wanting to pick something that I could get anywhere, I was debating between one type of square (forgot what it was) and the peach tart I took. The peach tart ($3.25) was a bit of a more unique treat; despite the fact that there is a local peach season, it's frustrating to see how few places actually bake with peaches. Peaches are so good in baking! The concept here was very nice: big chunks of fall-apart peaches with a delicious topping of skin-on almond chunks of varying sizes and streusel. However, just like pies, the important thing when it comes to tarts is the shell and it was here that this fell a bit short: thin and soft, it almost disintegrated upon contact. I think making it thicker so it would hold up against the fruit filling and offer a bit of texture would have made it so much better.

Rating: **1/2

Amico Chef

Bakery: Amico Chef
Address: 2889 Dufferin St, Toronto ON 
Website: http://amicochef.com/
Style: Italian 
Price: $$ 

Located off of Dufferin in an adjacent building, and thus a bit difficult to locate when driving past, Amico Chef is a relaxed Italian bakery that differentiates itself from most Italian bakeries in Toronto in that they're not a deli. They don't serve lasagna or have shelves of imported products or cold cuts with a small fridge off to the side with some pastries and treats. Here, the bakery takes centre stage. With its counter carrying on around the store and a display case -- as well as the amazing rum baba filler -- next to the cash, Amico Chef specializes in traditional Italian pastries (with a few very lovely-looking cakes) and rustic, almost foccacia-like pizza. It's a fresh, wholly welcome concept and, with just a few of each item and others made upon order, a fresh one, at that; you don't have to worry about how long those tiers upon tiers of cannoli have been sitting there.

 It being pumpkin season at the time, they had a seasonal special pumpkin ricotta filling available for the cannoli, bombe, and one more pastry. Being a fan of pumpkin, I had to try this modern take on the classic connolo. The latter are also in either regular or small sizes: the small is a little too small and the large a bit too big for one person... somewhat wish they had a medium or the large was smaller and cheaper. Nonetheless, the full-size cannolo was needed ($3.95). Even I didn't expect this pumpkin idea to work as well as it did: a crispy and bubbly shell stuffed with the delicately spiced, slightly tart filling that was then rolled in big chunks of nuts. The texture was perfect: thick and smooth, and the taste was so good that you could just at it on its own. A surprise hit.

I also tried a bomba with nutella filling ($1.95). This small, Italian-style doughnut didn't appeal to me the way the cannolo did. For one, I felt there was simply too much filling for the size of doughnut; I was also not such a fan of the dense, spongy dough, but this is more personal preference than anything wrong with the bakery. Still, next time, I'm loading up on those cannoli... and I do want to see that rum baba-nator in action!

Rating: ***

Le Bihan [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Le Bihan 
Address: 1 Chome-1-43 Abenosuji, Abeno-ku, Osaka
Website: http://www.lebihan.jp/
Style: Japanese, French 
Price: $$ 

After a few weeks of travel in Japan, I'd begun to despair that I'd never encounter another 4-star bakery along my Cake Tour. Luckily, along came Le Bihan. Regrettably, Le Bihan is yet another one of those bakeries with nearly a dozen stores nationwide, though it seems most are centred around Tokyo and Osaka and whether or not it's really headed by the older, decidedly French pastry chef on their website is worth debating. As with many patisseries, Le Bihan mostly features a fairly large selection of the usual Japanese baked goods, such that at first it doesn't seem particularly remarkable. If you look past the croquette buns and red bean treats, there are, however, a few more traditional French pastries.

Fortunately for me, repeated practice had revived my reading skills and examining the label of this lovely pastry gave me a thrill of excitement: kouign amann. Yes, the kouign amann, my most beloved of buttery French pastries. This required zero deliberation and I left the small, somewhat hectic department store bakery with my kouign amann in tow (237 yen).

This was precisely what I expected from a well-done kouign amann and French pastries, in general: the dough was flaky and buttery with a sticky sugar coating on one end and layers upon layers of rich and simple yet flavourful dough. It really was one of the best  I've had; truly a highlight not only of my Osaka leg of the journey, but also of my entire Japan trip. A well-deserved perfect rating.

Rating: ****

Polonia Sausage House

Bakery: Polonia Sausage House 
Address: 2434 E Hastings St, Vancouver BC 
Website: https://www.poloniasausagehouse.com/
Style: Polish 
Price: $$ 

Polonia Sausage is the original Polish deli empire in Metro Vancouver and while only their one Surrey location is listed as a bakery, each location nonetheless has a limited selection of traditional Polish slab cakes as well as a few other items like poppy seed rolls. Some are sold by weight and others sold as larger pieces, such that you're pretty much forced to commit to a big chunk. I don't know about their Surrey bakery, but their Vancouver delis don't offer any individual baked goods typically found at a Polish deli with the exception of Polish doughnuts... if you're lucky.

At the time of purchase, I had the choice between poppy seed, apple, cheesecake and one more variety of slab cake. Seeing as the poppy seed cake couldn't be cut up into a smaller piece, even in half, I went with my second pick: the cheesecake ($13.50/piece). I never mind grabbing some Eastern European cheesecake, though I find that sometimes it's either too dense and cheesy or it has no cohesion and crumbles upon impact. Fortunately, Polonia's version was fresh and fluffy, somewhere in between cheesy and not doughy at all. Perhaps the strips of not too flavourful jelly weren't necessary, but it was still pretty good. Even better was warming up a little, which made is soft and light.

Turns out Polonia isn't just the destination for sausages!

Rating: ***

Anthony's Copper Kettle Bakery & Cafe

Bakery: Anthony's Copper Kettle Bakery & Cafe 
Address: 268 Anderton Rd, Comox BC 
Website: facebook
Style: Canadian
Price: $$ 

Located just off the main retail street in Comox, Anthony's Copper Kettle is a quiet, rather unassuming bakery with slightly limited counter space that was, at least at that time of day, sparsely stocked with buns/dinner rolls and a few cupcake varieties. Yes, it did feel pretty empty and this was even more true of the sweet selection, which I found to be lacking besides those aforementioned cupcakes. Maybe it's simply one of these bread bakeries?

Nevertheless, one thing they did have were Eccles cakes. And I happen to like Eccles cakes, so I grabbed one. (around $2.75) This was of the flaky, puff pastry variety, similar to an apple turnover. Actually, almost identical to an apple turnover. The dough was airy with a bit of crunch on the outside and was topped with coarse sugar. Inside, the hearty filling had a nice hint of spice, though I think it could have used some more texture. It was a little too mushy for my liking.

Overall, a good classic bakery in the heart of Comox with not enough baked good options.

Rating: **1/2

Market Balkan

Bakery: Market Balkan European Bakery & Deli 
Address: 2881 Dufferin St, North York ON 
Website: facebook
Style: Balkan
Price: $$ 

Despite the absolutely enticing aroma of freshly baked bread upon entering Market Balkan, I'm not sure if the title of "bakery" could be used for my purposes and in that I was a bit disappointed; I'd really love to see more "European bakeries" that aren't delis, but legit bakeries with plenty of yummy baked goods and cakes to choose from. Yes, this European deli selling pan-Balkan, Hungarian and Eastern European products does make their own burek (savoury filo pastries) and lepinja (a sort of fat pita bread), but beyond that, it's... just a deli. Maybe that in itself is a bit unfair since they also offer a couple varieties of traditional cake slices, all set priced at $2.99 each.

With these cakes being the only sweet thing they sell, I grabbed a slice of the chocolate nut (hazelnut?) cake ($2.99). Coming out of this one a bit skeptical, I was surprised at how tasty this cake ended up being. Fresh-tasting with alternating layers of nutty cream, vanilla and chocolate cake with a slab of chocolate on top. A rich, decadent tort-like cake that was both flavourful and delicious. Sorry for having doubted the deli.

Rating: *** 

Maison Kayser [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Maison Kayser 
Address: 1 Chome−1, Abenosuji, Abeno-ku, Osaka 
Website: http://maisonkayser.co.jp
Style: French 
Price: $$-$$$ 

This booth inside Abeno Harukas is listed as closed, even before I got the chance to review it. Darn it. However, Maison Kayser's Japanese offshoot still has many locations, most of which are in and around Tokyo.

Completely bewildered by this department store floor of bakeries, patisseries and sweet shops, I wandered around at a loss, having no clue which one to pick. Normally, I'm more reluctant with these worldwide brands and Maison Kayser (operating as Eric Kayser in its hometown of Paris) is a big one with multiple locations around east Asia and New York. Really, that's not my thing at all, but as I stood there, recalling having attempted that aforementioned Eric Kayser and finding the location I picked closed for August holiday, I knew I would inevitably have to try something, even as the line grew and grew. That being said, it's clear that the two are not quite the same, though Maison Kayser, unlike many homegrown "French" bakeries, tends to keep things pure, traditional, and strictly French. They do also focus more on rustic breads than sweets, which are mostly limited to croissants and pains au chocolat. The addition of the French names was very appreciated and -- at last -- made deciphering everything so easy. ;)

I have a soft spot for "pain perdu" (bread pudding; 260 yen) and found its presence a bit unusual amid the more standard fare. Naturally, I had to try it. A nicely sized square with a textured top covered in powdered sugar, I found the rest of the cake lacking that typical chunky texture; even in the picture, it was very homogeneous: a dense, chewy dough that needed a bit of spice to make it more interesting and yeah, it really needed that special something. Was it worthy of exporting the Kayser name to another continent? Not so sure...

Rating: **1/2 

Footo Croissant

Bakery: Footo Croissant 
Address: 858 Hamilton St, Vancouver BC
Website: https://www.footocroissant.com/
Style: French, Croissants
Price: $$-$$$ 

There are sometimes bakeries you come across that specialize in one item; of course, this most often comes in the shape of a doughnut shop. A croissant shop, however, is a lot less common and yet this is precisely what Footo is: a croissant shop with a wee bit of Japanese flavour. They not only specialize in it, it's (almost) the only thing they bake. That doesn't mean you only have one option. On the contrary, just like a doughnut shop, they come in about half a dozen fixed flavours and are also the headlining feature of various sweet and savoury dishes. They're a bit pricey, but I guess that comes with the location.

I picked the almond croissant ($3.65 with tax), which was stuffed with almond cream and topped with homemade apricot jam and slivered almonds. If a croissant is all about the dough, then the croissant specialist should be first and foremost judged on its dough. Biting into it, it didn't have that distinctive crunch. Softer in texture, less flaky than traditional croissants, it also didn't have the delectable buttery taste that amazing croissants possess. The almond cream filling was tasty and decadent but I would have liked to taste more of that homemade apricot jam. Where exactly was it supposed to be? In short, quite good, but I felt like it needed some work.

Rating: **1/2