Whole Foods Market [updated!]

Bakery: Whole Foods Market
Address: 301 Cornwall Rd (Oakville, ON) // 87 Avenue Rd. (Toronto, ON)
Website: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Style: Supermarket, North American
Price: $$

[Supermarket bakeries absolutely *suck* around here. Hardly anyone has any sweets or baked goods for sale, let alone something decent. Most, even the higher-end groceries like Longo's, can barely make the grade when it comes to baked goods. You can get yourself store-baked loaves of bread pretty much everywhere, but when you want to go beyond that, good luck. Pre-packed goods that never seem to be fresh, despite the expiry date in two weeks, gross cakes and nothing else. The big name stores -- especially Loblaws -- fail the most at this and you're stuck looking elsewhere. The three award-winners in the GTA for best supermarket bakeries go to the following (you may have your own opinion; let me know what it is... although I'm not sure if I'll be able to agree with you ;DD): Starsky, T&T Supermarket, Whole Foods. Consolation prize goes out to Highland Farms (this place is so far from me, so I don't have a chance to go so often) for their pretty impressive variety.]

Starting out with 3rd prize, I still have to say Whole Foods is one pretty good bakery. Oddly enough, whenever they do secret product comparisons in the newspaper, they always seem to pan Whole Foods for everything from their barbecued chicken to their baguettes, but I will disagree with them on this point. They don't have so much variety, but what they do have is really tasty stuff: quality ingredients (I'm not sure if everything is organic or just all-natural) and prices printed clearly on the tag, unique offerings that always seem to be fresh, especially their store-baked goodies like muffins, scones, brioches, cookies and danishes.

My absolute fave is their Bundt-like Low-Fat Berry Muffin (pictured -- $1.79 + tax), which sadly seems only available at their Yorkville location. Whole berries in a dense, not quite muffin dough coated with vanilla glaze. I love this thing! ^^;;

Another treat to try is their clafoutis-like cherry and blueberry danishes (also $1.79... I think :P) which I don't have too often, since they can be soggy sometimes and then it's not very appetizing; they should think of a better way of presenting these things, but the cherry ones are so good, and the best danishes you'll find in the area, since this isn't a forte of Toronto's. ;) Their cinnamon bread ($4.79, I'm almost sure) is already pretty good, but try and catch it when it's on sale and you'll pay $1 or more less for it. ^__~

For one birthday, we actually went to try a cake from them as well and chose the Apple Spice cake ($21.99), because the name (not so much the appearance) sounded alluring. The inside was a tad bit too plain for me and overall a little too "North American" (which isn't something I'm particularly fond of; pies and brownies and whatnot... not for me XP), but maybe that's also because I'm used the elaborate cakes from What a Bagel. :D Nevertheless, cinnamon spiced cake with chunks of apple with two layers of spiced cream cheese icing. The latter was too rich, especially when it was, along a light dusting of nuts and crumbs, all over the outside too. Still, it's gotten me interested enough in trying some of the other delectable-looking goodies behind the glass. ^^

Nevertheless, venturing beyond the store-baked goods in the baskets and the lovely stuff behind the counter (both made my them and brought in from the most accessible commercial bakery of all time: Dufflet. (yup, will be preparing a post on them in the future ;D)) brings you into the $$-$$ range, and that's something I've never tried. This is usually brought in from small, mostly local, bakeries. I mean, I'm sure their $17 pies are probably good, but really, $13 for an apple pie. No thanks; I'd rather bake a pretty decent one myself. :/ Other pretty ridiculous finds include a small box of $7 biscotti bites or imitation two-bite brownies for the same jaw-dropping price. I realize that they might be tasty -- they probably are -- and the ingredients are worth the price, but at the same time, I'd prefer taking that money to a small, local bakery (we've seen a few on here already ;)) and getting more bang for my buck, as my brother loves to say. ^^

[NEW!] I'm so excited to have a whole bunch of Easter-related goodies to review. Here's one we came across by fluke (Whole Foods is one of the only stores in the province that are open on Easter Sunday): WF's Easter baked good: a chocolate babka ($6.99) which was a yeast babka folded in with high-quality cocoa and chocolate chips, sweetened with honey and drizzled on top with chocolate syrup. I was a little afraid of trying this, since I don't like chocolate so much, but this was a great thing for chocolate lovers and non-fans alike. Plain dough lightly coated and folded almost like a cinnamon bun (their cinnamon bread is similar in taste and texture... and is also really good ;P) made a nice light snack with your tea or coffee. I was actually pretty surprised with this and, considering how much yeast babkas go for at Polish places, for instance, this was a decent price too! What a (pleasant) surprise!!

Rating: **1/2

Der Brotkorb

Bakery: Der Brotkorb (aka The Breadbasket)
Address: 2458 Dundas St., Mississauga ON
Website: n/a
Style: German, European
Price: $$

Yeeess, I've returned with more reviews. Sadly, all the places I've been to don't have location shots (this is usually because they're on plazas and my mom went out to buy me something and won't take any pics for me -__-), so I'll add that later.

Nevertheless, Der Brotkorb (they changed their neon sign lately and included the name "The Breadbasket", which is the English translation of the original name, but also confuses matters a bit) is pretty close to my house, but I don't ever remember there being anything there; hence, I haven't really thought of returning for cake tour purposes. Perhaps originally they were more bakery focused, but now this is mostly a lunchtime cafe serving soups and Eastern European favourites such as goulash, cabbage rolls and pierogies. That being said, their small variety of baked goods never seem very fresh. While there, my mom noted that the filling in the tarts had sagged to 50% of the height of the shell, which is a sure sign they've seen better days. But since on the constant quest for, you guessed it, poppy seed anything, I got super excited to get two things from this place.

The first was your pretty standard (German) poppy seed bun (I believe it was $1.49 -- my mom can't remember, only that she paid around $5 for both) in spiral format, but boy, aside from looking the part, this was pretty disappointing: dough was flaky, somewhat stale and had absolutely no flavour. The poppy seeds (which were maybe sitting out in the open air for too long or something) didn't help matters much: they tasted like nothing. The two together was just super bland; perhaps if they used butter in the dough, you'd get a hint of some sort of taste, but like this, I just couldn't believe how tasteless it was. I definitely prefer the same thing at Dimpflmeier's. Definitely.

The second was a slab of poppy seed strudel ($2.99) Now, after the bun, I was really concerned about this thing. If it didn't taste like poppy seed then I don't know what I'd do, but fortunately, this had a lot more taste, although it wasn't too fresh either. And there were a little too many raisins. Still, as you may see, this was jam-packed with poppy seeds and really (excluding those pesky raisins) nothing but poppy seeds. The dough was exactly the same as the bun (i.e. really bland), so didn't do anything except keep the whole thing in shape. Not bad and a whole lot more flavourful than the bun, but not the greatest either. I don't know if I'll be coming back again for the baked goods, though...

Rating: **

Future Bakery "Factory Outlet"

Bakery: Future Bakery (Factory Outlet location)
Address: 106 North Queen St, Toronto, ON
Website: N/A
Style: Ukrainian, Eastern European
Price: $-$$

Man, I really haven't gone bakery hunting in the last few weeks, and this is pretty much my one hit in the last month or so. Nevertheless, it's still a bakery in need of a review. ^-^

I did actually review the St. Lawrence Market location of Future Bakery beforehand, but seeing as it was quite different in terms of baked goods, I decided to write a separate one. Suffice to say, considering the Factory Outlet is mere blocks away from Dimpflmeier's factory outlet, I was expecting big things from this pretty big place. In this sense, I was pretty disappointed, since this wasn't actually a bakery, but a giant deli selling everything from bread to cold cuts, cosmetics and a whole variety of MC dairy products (it's the same owner). Products on the shelves are mostly Ukrainian with a generous smattering of Polish and Russian goods as well. While the variety of bread products was pretty impressive and interesting, the sweets area was... pretty pathetic. Granted, it was Saturday afternoon, but even the space looked like it couldn't fit much more. The selection wasn't very exciting: overpriced ($20/kg is a little ridiculous considering they sell the cheese for $10/kg at the back of the store) cheesecake and Ukrainian doughnuts were the most unique things there, although they also sold some danishes and cookies and a few other goods that didn't particularly stand out to me. Yes, to be honest, I was quite disappointed. Considering that they had so much Ukrainian and E. European goods in the store, I was hoping the bakery would be the same, especially when Ukrainian baked goods are really good (I just took out a cookbook from the library *-*), so there was no excuse for these guys!!!!

I bought three items while there, just to give it a try: the first was for my brothers, an pretty large, pretzel-shaped almond ring (95 cents) which one brother said was "hard as a rock" and the other thought it not bad, that it got better the more he ate it. Let's just say that no one was particularly thrilled with it and both heartily recommended the same thing from Benna's. The price, however, like everything else purchased was pretty fair.

Second on the list was by far the best thing purchased on this trip, an apple danish ($1.49) made of puff pastry, stuffed with apples and coated with glaze and rock sugar. In taste, it was pretty good, especially in comparison to everything else we bought, although the dough tasted a little too.. pre-fab for me. I can't describe it any other way. Still, in comparison to everything else, I can at least say it was tasty.

Lastly, I had to take the poppy seed bun ($1.49, I believe) as per custom, but man, was I disappointed with this one. I recall my review of the St. Lawrence market location and saying how the mass was very Russian tasting (this is something that only makes sense to me XD) and had a lot of raisins in it. I was, quite frankly, expecting the same thing here, but it wasn't. This was actually one of the worst poppy seed buns I had, as neither the dough nor the poppy seed "mass" had any flavour whatsoever. Usually, the poppy seeds are mixed together with sugar or honey and butter, sometimes with flour to make it more dough-like, but this tasted like the top of a bagel: plain, unflavoured ground up poppy seeds teamed up with plain, oddly bland (considering it's just supposed to be sweet yeast dough, I was surprised) dough. Wasn't thrilled with this.

Verdict: their breads are pretty good, but I'm not going back to Future Bakery for any sweets. Actually, the only real reason I'd return here is to take advantage of their amazing prices and variety of baker's cheese of MC dairy, because ha ha ha it's finally affordable to bake your own cheesecake... or to try the frozen imported cakes they have for $22 (they were sooooo tempting me even then), but as to the baked goods: no thanks. :(

Rating: **

Karpaty [RIP]

Bakery: Karpaty Pastry and Deli
Address: 1525 Bristol Rd, Mississauga, ON
Website: N/A
Style: Polish, Eastern European
Price: $-$$

There seems to be no existence of this place online, which is a little strange. Actually, everything about Karpaty is a little strange, but I'll get to that later. First of all, I have to say I was pretty disappointed to see how (quickly) this location had sort of fallen off the bakery radar. A few years ago, we used to do all our Polish shopping here, even though it was quite a drive. Karpaty was one of the biggest delis in the area, and then when the bookstore and the eye clinic left, they pretty much squeezed themselves into half the space. After that, or at the same time, Euromax bought out some Karpaty (well, that's what I assumed happened, or at least a change of management??) locations, but not this one, and this one has sort of gone downhill ever since: the prices, quite reasonable and competitive before, have gone up. Some of their goods weren't so fresh either (ie. a loaf of bread which cost $3.99). We actually went here on a Friday, which is one of the busiest days for delis, and yet they had very little baked goods: a few sweet buns, no pączki (which is pretty much a staple for Polish delis), and not much of anything featured on the price list on the wall.


Nevertheless, I got what I came for: their poppy seed bun ($1.49), which I still love and, I gotta say, is the best Polish poppy seed bun I've had. It's just so tasty and different from the others: the perfect amount of poppy seed, great dough and a little bit of icing on top. I highly doubt they bake it themselves, and seeing as Kraków, for instance, buys from Double W, I'm curious where they get these delectable bun from. Anyone know? They have a lot of goods from Astoria, so maybe it's from there, but alas, I'm pretty sure they don't have a bakery store. So, has enough encountered these anywhere else?? ^-^

Overall, I wasn't very impressed with my visit to Karpaty: although the baked goods being at a pretty good price, selection and freshness were lacking, and it's not some place that I'm itching to do my regular shopping at, but they *do* get bonus points for that poppy seed bun, despite not having much of anything else. :/

Rating: **

Granowska's [RIP]

Bakery: Granowska's
Address: 175 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto, ON
Website: N/A
Style: Polish
Price: $$-$$$

[I never imagined that I would be writing death notices on my site and I NEVER, ever imagined that my first would also happen to be the best Polish bakery in the GTA. Whhhhyyyyy??? Yes, brace yourselves.. erm, myself: Granowska's is no more. Fortunately, I read it first in a Polish newspaper because, I swear, if I went to Roncesvalles and saw the bakery shut down with paper on the window, I think I would have had some sort of panic attack there on the streets. After years and years, they shut down the bakery and I'm stuck all alone in oponki-less desolation! O__O Life is just not fair. Granowska's, rest in peace. Your delicious, hint-of-orange baked goods will not be easily forgotten by this fanatic. *goes off to weep somewhere*]

Granowska's is pretty much a staple on Roncesvalles, which is (maybe 'was' is better) the centre of the Polish community in Toronto, although many more plazas have popped up in the suburbs (yeah, I would know -_-). It's been here forever and, sadly!!!!!, is still probably the only Polish "pastry shop", in that not only they actually know what they're doing (their pastry chef certificates are hanging next to the cash register ^^v), but they're not somehow adjoined to a deli, market, butcher and/or ready-to-eat counter like everything else is. Of course, they make a whole bunch of other stuff as well, including ice cream, sandwiches, pierogies, and other bakery/cafe fare. Nevertheless, it's a must-see and is somewhat revered amongst many Polish people here -- when we came here years and years ago and visited Roncesvalles for the first time, we had to get something from this place. When my grandparents came from Poland, they also got treated to it.

Most unfortunately, it's something that you can only really be treated to on a sporadic basis, because they seem to value themselves as the greatest and price their stuff accordingly. When we came here years and years ago, we bought a small piece of szarlotka (apple cake) and paid more than $10 for it. Some of their cakes are (were?) available at Starsky (Polish supermarket which will be reviewed one of these days ;D) and are priced per kilo about $5-10 more than all other cakes, which is just ridiculous. One more thing: nothing at all has a price on it (which is standard almost everywhere here, which absolutely sucks) so you won't know how much you're paying until they bring it to the cash and, trust me, you'll be surprised when you get there. :/ This wouldn't pose much of a dilemma if it were bad, because then, he he he, I wouldn't go to it. But alas, it's so damn good and I can't help but actually want to get something every time we go! ;__; Another sadly: it seems that their selection of slab cakes and actual baking has slowly gone downhill; I so remember there being so much more before! Now, that variety doesn't seem so impressive and they seem to prefer filling the case with doughnuts and cookies and other per piece items, probably because no one is rich enough to afford their cakes (hint from Mimi: maybe if you guys made the prices more reasonable, people would actually buy it -___-).

Still, because *I* can't afford anything from them, so I've settled for their oponki [$1.13] *pictured by me ^__^* which are the BEST THINGS EVER! *squeals* My brother was so laughing at me when I was raving about these things and said they couldn't be that good because they were just doughnuts. Then he tried them. XDDD These things are just perfect; I've heard people love their pączki [around $1.30] (round doughnuts with plum jam in the middle... I'm pretty sure they might have other flavours as well: the usual raspberry, budyń (custard), róża (rose). Maybe??), but seeing as I'm not a big fan of the plum filling, I gave these a try and they're... so mcuh better. :P Perfect dough with a hint of orange essence with the tastiest glaze that *never* flakes off like the Starsky pączki (on the pic, some of it got stuck to the paper bag after it had been lugged around the city at +30 degree temperatures, which is why it doesn't look so perfect...). *glares* Yup. Oponki are heavenly.

NEW! Really, I don't know what I was thinking giving this a 3 1/2 instead of a 4. *shakes head in horror* Yup, the week between Christmas and New Year's, we went to Starsky (Polish supermarket) for some small shopping and, to my utmost excitement, they had a fresh shipment of some of Granowska's cakes, so for the holiday, I was allowed the opportunity to try their "famous" babki ($9). As far as babki go, it was a little expensive, as can be expected. I have to say I'm not the biggest babka fan; they're a little too dry for me, but this was seriously like a baked oponka: the same fluffy dough and the same orange glaze. Add in the occasional bit of candied orange peel, and this was so good (along with the oponka my mommy bought me ^___^;;;;;) that I realized the mistake in my rating. Four stars all the way!! ;)

NEW 2.0! Well, I've returned for another gorgeous pic (and an even more gorgeous sampling experience)! I was at Starsky yet again and found out they had Granowska's doughnuts and thought it would be a great time to try their pączki ($1.49) (well, I had one and the others were for my guinea pig brothers), since everything Granowska's makes has that something... special about it. And boy, was I right this time around! *-* I picked out three different flavours for the sampling: the standard plum (orange peel on top), budyń (custard -- with the dollop of cream on top), and... poppy seed. POPPY SEED! O_O I was in shock when I heard that such a thing even existed, to such a degree that I didn't even hear what the last flavour on the tray was. ;D I didn't need to think very hard which one was for me... Nevertheless,the same (perfect~~) hint-of-orange dough and glaze as with the babka and the oponki, but just filled with delectable fillings. One brother, without being told where they came from, took one bite and said they had to be Granowska's, and they were the best pączki he'd ever eaten. So, it's not just me. The poppy seed one wasn't actually filled afterwards, but baked with a nice, super generous centre of poppy seed mass. It was a little weird, I must say, but, what can I say? The four-star rating is here to stay. ;P

Rating: ****

Antosha

Bakery: Antosha
Address: 5986 Bathurst St., Toronto, ON
Website: n/a
Style: Russian
Price: $

I've fallen behind yet again, it seems, but here I am! :) This is from last week when we went a-driving along Bathurst, on the hunt for two of my fave baking styles: Russian or Jewish. And boy, did I find it in Antosha, a Russian pastry shop sandwiched in between a Russian deli (which I regret not going to and getting *more* baked goods.. this place was heaven *-*) and a Jewish/Kosher deli. This was a coffee shop-like establishment with nothing but sweets and goodies: behind the glass, there were various cakes either sold as individual slices or as a whole ($25). You had a choice of many of the Russian staples: Opera, Amadeus, Smetannik, (something that I know was the Russian equivalent of Ptasie Mleczko) and others such as cheesecakes and chocolate cakes. On top of the counter, you're also offered with a whole bunch of baked goodies which looked so good that I could have easily taken everything. ;)

In fact, (another hint to bakery owners) we would have taken a LOT more had we known how much we were going to pay, since this place was unbelievably cheap, but there were no signs indicating what anything cost, so we were a little unsure of what to get and how much to get. When you can get overcharged just up the street (that is, at the super disappointing trip to What a Bagel Bathurst & Steeles a long time ago), you're really unsure of yourself. Fortunately, we were very pleasantly surprised... but of course that's not just because of the price. ^-^


First up was what my brother picked out: a slice of Dobush tort ($2.80; pictured above), the Russian take on the Hungarian cake. It was a cake made up of several layers of dough and chocolate (I forget what he told me it was -__-) cream with a coating of soft caramel on top which oozed during transport and ruined the fancy designs on top. He said it was pretty good, but it couldn't compare to the cake masters at What a Bagel Richmond Hill. And I'd probably agree... ;D

I also picked out two items for me: first of all were these triangles which I keep forgetting to check their name. (and OMG, I love these things). They had two other toppings, but how could I resist? I took the poppy seed ones and at 70 cents each (yes!), I regret not taking.. half a dozen more at least. XD I've had a few of these over the years, from various places, but this is hands down the best: perfect dough that's not too hard, an excellent poppy seed mass and a light dusting of powdered sugar. Perfect! This is the place to try these delectable little treats. :)


While on the poppy seed brigade, I also took a slice of this long strudel-like, yeast-based cake ($1.00) because it looked so good, and it was! Although it was certainly the least picturesque of the three goodies, it was still really tasty: perfect dough, although it was hard to get a good taste at it... because there was SO much poppy seed! *-* YUM!!

Overall, I really cannot wait to return to this place. I know it's my duty to go around and try different places, but man, will it be hard to return to the neighbourhood (it's hard enough, since it can only be done by car and it's very inconvenient for me) and NOT pop into Antosha... and just buy up half the store. Next time, however, I'd opt out of the cakes and torts and settle for all the goodies on top. :)

Rating: ***1/2