Guschlbauer

Bakery: Guschlbauer 
Address: 690 Yonge St, Toronto ON
Website: https://guschlbauer.ca/
Style: Chinese, Asian 
Price: $$$$ 

Guschlbauer, a newer bakery along pretty bakery-barren Yonge St, is a bit of a head scratcher. Really, the whole Austrian story is bit... not necessarily far-fetched, but superfluous. The only thing that needs mentioning is that Guschlbauer is one of those "European" bakeries operating in Asia and featuring westernized, but not quite western baked goods. Transplanting this pseudo-European franchise to downtown Toronto, Guschlbauer loses all that western influence and turns into an upscale Chinese bake shop selling a small number of select item, much of which involves some sort of cheese filling. Irrespective of that, there's another issue that needs to be addressed: why is Guschlbauer so expensive!? You can get some amazing stuff at other bakeries and patisseries for the same price or even less; honestly, I don't see cream cheese stuffed buns and chocolate pastries being worth that much....

 I tried the matcha cheese tart ($2.20). This was surprisingly reasonably priced and had a slightly chewy crust with a thick and sticky dollop of cream cheese inside a tart shell. The matcha was definitely lacking; the colour alone was enough to see that. Personally, I was not a fan. I couldn't dispel the impression that you just took a giant wad of cream cheese from a bagel counter and slathered it in a shell, both of which weren't sweet enough to make it feel more like a dessert... more bagel than pastry.

The messy chocolate bun ($9.80) was essentially a pain au chocolat underneath a thick dusting (hence messy) of cocoa powder. There was nothing worth mentioning regarding the quality of the cocoa and chocolate used. Dough had nice amount of layers with good flaky texture, but the taste simply couldn't compare to a good French bakery. Um, why on earth is it $10 before tax!?!

Rating: **