Kanadell Bakery

Bakery: Kanadell Japanese Bakery 
Address: 417 Industrial Ave, Vancouver, BC 
Website: https://www.kanadell.com/
Style: Japanese
Price: $$$ 

There aren't that many Japanese baked good destinations in Vancouver, but they're there: Kanadell is one of them. Unfortunately, Kanadell is not quite a traditional bakery and doesn't have a dedicated retail location. Instead, they mostly frequent farmers markets throughout Metro Vancouver in addition to operating a very small online shop that doesn't feature their full market selection. As the address above indicates, they do have a"bakery" where you can pick up your online orders, but only on select days (you can pick up orders at market stalls). That means that you can't just pop in and see what you feel like and if you happen to come at a time in the week when there are no market dates you're out of luck. And I was out of luck. Actually, I was thinking of ordering online, but can you order just one item? Why don't they have more selection online, like their cute bear buns? In this sense, I am not a fan of Kanadell's system.

However, you do have another chance of grabbing Kanadell's baked goods: on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they deliver a small selection of goodies to three locations: Konbiniya on Robson, the market at the Nikkei Centre and the convenience store attached to the UBC bookstore. Not in the area of the first two, I risked the madness and absurd parking fees of UBC and tried out the convenience store. To my frustration, all I saw at first was a couple of savoury curry beef and sausage buns, but I finally found the last two melon buns. Selection according to price list was very small.

I had no choice but to take one matcha and one caramel mocha melon pan ($3.69 each). They come wrapped in plastic and, because of that, they didn't have the "melon crust" I love on my buns. Actually, they were a little soggy - maybe they were packed too soon after baking? The taste was good - I especially liked the matcha one. There was nice depth of flavour, bun texture was good, but that soggy bun aspect really got to me. Also, they were too expensive for pre-packed baked goods. Conclusion: I'd only get these Japanese treats at a market or when they finally get a legit bakery.

Rating: **1/2