Pâtisserie Coco

Bakery: Pâtisserie Coco
Address: 2 Rue de la Gauchetière O, Montréal QC 
Website: https://patisseriecoco.business.site
Style: Chinese
Price: $ 

For quite a number of years, de la Gauchetière had a few Chinese bakeries. Slowly, however, these closed their doors and only Harmonie remained, as crazy busy as ever. Somewhat recently, a new contender arrived on the scene: Patisserie Coco (not to be confused underground mall Chinese bakery Cocobun). This certainly more spacious bakery offers your typical selection of HK-style sweet and savoury buns that, truthfully, look like carbon copies of Harmonie's repertoire. Perhaps the Japanese-inspired (for lack of a better word) sweets, creamy treats and Western-style danishes are slightly more unique. Suffice to say, neither is more authentically Chinese than the other.

 Still on the quest to determine which Montreal bakery has the best Chinese doughnut after my favourite spot closed, I had to try Coco's version ($2.00). Theirs consisted of three extra plump, golden brown doughnuts on a skewer and rolled in sugar. Despite its golden exterior, it wasn't particularly well fried and was still soft - everyone knows what makes Chinese doughnuts of any kind so good is their crispy, perhaps overly greasy outside. The dough was moist and spongy, so I liked the texture and it probably beats the competition, but still... darn it, it just doesn't come close to that one that got away! Nonetheless a pretty good Chinese bakery and a welcome addition to Montreal Chinatown.

Rating: ***