Bakery on Mavis

 Bakery: Bakery on Mavis

Address: 5700 Mavis Rd, Mississauga, ON 

Website: n/a

Style: Portuguese 

Price: $-$$

 

At some point that seemed to elude notice, Brazil Bakery shut its doors on this and their other locations. Having been here for quite a time, it came to me as a surprise and a disappointment, but when a bakery closes down the best thing that can happen is for another bakery to take it over; Bakery on Mavis did just that and, thankfully, there is still a bakery in the neighbourhood. The new bakery has lost its coziness and feels rather... cold and empty. Maybe this is owing to the fact that they definitely lack selection in freshly baked sweet treats - which I've always seen as not only a staple of any Portuguese bakery, but in my opinion the best thing they sell. They have quite a number of tart varieties - more than usual - and a few cake slices, but for whatever reason it didn't come across as a destination for sweets. 

I tried three different varieties of tarts: coconut, beer and almond ($1.40 each). The coconut featured a sort of jelly and barely qualified as a tart at all. I wasn't a fan of the jiggly texture. The beer (bottom left) was unusual and hard to place in terms of taste while the almond would have been the clear winner with its chewy filling and slivered almonds on top; however, both had that undeniable stale taste. The tart shells were so brittle and unyielding that even a knife couldn't get through them. I get that tarts don't have to be baked every day like yeast baked goods, but I think there's an expiration date for verything. 

One of the very few other pastries they had was this one, known in store as "the famous pastry" ($2.60). I'll admit I've seen it before, but it never piqued my interest. Honestly, I think it looks more complex than it actually is: two pieces of thick, coconut-encrusted sponge cake with a very thin, almost imperceptible layer of jam in between. I couldn't get rid of the idea that it tasted so commercial. Maybe it was the texture of the cake or the cake and jam combination? Not sure. Sometimes the strangest pastries become famous.... 

Rating: **1/2