Pâtisserie de Gascogne [RIP]

Bakery: Pâtisserie de Gascogne
Address: 237 av. Laurier O., Montreal, QC (ALL locations closed)
Website: http://www.degascogne.com/
Style: French
Price: $$$

[De Gascogne rather abruptly closed all their locations]

Nevertheless, seeing as there were four of us, we got four little, individual cakes ($4+/each) all fancily decorated... although considering how much you pay for them, it would be nice for them *not* to put them into one giant box and pack them individually or put some sort of barriers between them. When I opened the box to take pictures, they were all either smooshed against one another or against the wall. I mean, it wasn't such a big deal for me, but if you were entertaining, peeled chocolate, fallen raspberries and dirty wrappers doesn't look so impressive. This was my biggest complaint about these guys.

As for the cakes... Well, I can only really speak for myself, but mine was superb and definitely beat out the treat I bought the day before. I chose it due to the fact that de Gascogne seems to specialize more in chocolate cakes (they also sell their own chocolate at another counter in the store) and they didn't have so much in the fruit category...  Anyways: fresh raspberries on top with a little glaze sitting atop a sponge cake with vanilla cream in the middle. This was amazing, just a tad too small, especially considering the price ($4.30, I believe).

The next, at around the same price, is a chocolate raspberry cake. (pictured at top) This apparently was a chocolate cake with raspberries on the inside coated in dark chocolate and decorated with dark chocolate flakes. Verdict: "It was good. I'd give it ***"
The other was the Marocain. This was a chocolate and nut combination with nuts in the dark chocolate coating and a thick, very rich nutty mousse in the inside along with some sort of dough. Good.

Overall: perhaps the price doesn't make this a place you go to on a regular basis, but this is definitely a place worth visiting.

On a return trip, we settled on splitting a large raspberry tart ($15.00) which was made up of two layers of dense, almost almond -like in taste "shell" which was split with some sort of cream. This was then topped with tons of fresh raspberries, a bit of powdered sugar, some candied orange peels and a small sheet of chocolate. The cake was definitely a unique take on the fruit tart/flan idea. Really liked it!

Rating: ***1/2

Milbree-Viking Inc.

Bakery: Milbree-Viking Inc.
Address: Unit 2, 350 Davis Dr., Newmarket, ON
Website: http://milbreeviking.com/
Style: Finnish, Scandinavian
Price: $$

I've been waiting MONTHS and MONTHS to have some pretext to go to Newmarket, around 100 km?? north of Toronto, so I could go back to Milbree-Viking and have another taste of their delicious pulla. The Finnish deli, smokehouse and bakery used to be in Toronto, but relocated after a huge fire destroyed much of their previous location. :( Ever since seeing the CP24 news screen on the subway about a "multi-alarm fire at Laird Rd deli" and *knowing* at once that it was the single Finnish bakery in the city, I've been eagerly awaiting some news of their reopening. This came about a year ago when, on their website, they had found a new site for their business... in Newmarket. Seeing that it was hard enough going nearly to Scarborough (I visited, with much traffic-related complications Milbree-Viking, only once before), I wept knowing that I'd never make the trip to Newmarket. Fortunately, the brother was having a soccer tournament there and yeah, pulla for me! ^^

Anyways~ as I've said, Milbree-Viking is indeed the only Finnish deli in the Toronto area (unless you include Hillside Cafe, who are Estonian, but it's as close to Finnish as you can get ^^) they sell a few imported goods from Finland and their own, homemade goods. The brother isn't very helpful in terms of what was there now, but they should still have their variety of smoked goods, especially fish, cold cuts, cheese (you can buy yourself a sandwich), various salads and, of course, fresh rye breads and Finnish baked goods, which are all of yeast-based dough. Knowing me, I'm only focusing on the latter. ^^ Their variety isn't huge and the breads, especially, are more than the price of bakery white bread (rye breads are never cheap, and this is especially true for heavy ryes), but what they do have is of high quality and uh, great taste. ;)

We bought two loaves of bread: one heavy and the other light rye. Everyone was pretty impressed with this, but as for the sweet stuff, he he he, anyone can already guess what a fan I'm of them. ^^ First off, we got a whole bag of cinnamon buns (~1.50/each; please excuse the appropriately cheesy pic, I couldn't help myself), which are so good. The cinnamon mass folded into cardamom-laced dough is especially recommended for those who want a tasty treat with their tea or coffee and don't a mass of overly sweet, sugary stickiness. Of course, one brother was complaining that it would have been better with icing. No, I don't agree. ^^;;;

On top of that, we got a pulla (Finnish sweet bread with cardamom and either sold with sugar (~$7) or with raisins and almonds (~9). The prices are approximate, since those that bought it didn't do a great job of paying attention. :/ Nevertheless, I love pulla. A lot. ^__^ The taste is simple yet so good, even with just a little butter. Mmmm, I LOVE Finnish baked goods... I can't wait for another tournament to come along, since I don't think I can get here any other way. ;_;

Rating: ****

Wawel

Bakery: Wawel
Address: 5499 Sherbrooke O., Montreal QC
Website: http://www.wawelpatisserie.com
Style: Polish
Price: $$-$$$

I'M BA-ACK! :) After several weeks' absence due to icky schoolwork (which has been handed in after months of work-- yes!) and vacation (complete with a few great World Tour bakeries to add to the collection), I've officially returned with plenty of places ready to check out, tons of badly photographed pics to share, and a few to recommend to you. My first post since my return belongs to that category... actually, it would be more fair to say it's more a four star, enamoured rave than a recommendation, but hey, it's not my fault.

Nevertheless, during my latest trip to Montreal more than a month ago, I was checking out new places to try out and my brother told me that they were saying good things about a Polish bakery by the name of Wawel. More specifically, there was the general opinion that Wawel happened to make the best pączki in Montreal. Of course, considering the total lack of Polish businesses in Montreal, I kind of laughed it off to people not having tasted that much else, but man, was I ever wrong. For this, I have to apologize, Wawel.

We went here and taking a look at the first glass case, I must admit I wasn't wowed. Well, if you like opera tortes and macarons, then you wouldn't be complaining, but I was a little disappointed that they didn't have anything really Polish, except for some pretty expensive cheesecake sold by the kilo. It was then that I spotted a tray of pączki; seeing as the windows of the store were covered with cheesy, multilingual decals advertising them as the best doughnuts in the world, I thought it had be to be tried to believed.

So, we bought a half-dozen pączki ($1.25 each) and a poppy seed bun. My brother, not being to control himself because of the scent of sugary glaze wafting through the car, caved and ate his within ten minutes of leaving Wawel. His verdict: "This is the best pączek I've ever eaten." He followed that by non-stop comments of how fresh it was, how good the glaze was and the plum filling, and how Granowska's was nothing compared to this. My other brother, finding he couldn't resist, had his soon afterwards. His verdict: "This is the best pączek I've ever eaten." Not taking either of them seriously, I decided to finally bite into this relatively small ball of deep-fried goodness. I normally pick out the plum jam, because it's not something I like that much, but one taste was enough for me to know I was going to finish this. Holy crap, this *IS* the best pączek I've ever eaten! O.O The unbelievable, perfectly fried freshness of it teamed up with super-soft dough, perfect filling and glaze with a hint of alcohol in it... This was really one of two Polish bakeries that have succeeded in wowing me.  It was amazing, Polish perfection! :)

The next morning, I delved into the poppy seed bun which used the same soft, delectable yeast dough and liquor-ish glaze as the pączki, but with a fairly generous amount of poppy seed mass rolled into the dough. A-maz-ing. ^.^

As a concluding remark, all I can really say: I can NOT wait to return to Montreal, because I know that Wawel will always require a visit. I really can't believe it's taken me... seven, eight years to find this gem of a place!

Rating: ****

French Corner Patisserie

Bakery: French Corner Patisserie
Address: 1224 Dundas St W, Mississauga, ON
Website: n/a
Style: French, European
Price: $$-$$$

[I just realized that I haven't updated in ages... this is mostly due to a lack of material and well, a lack of time, since I'm now in a constant scramble to contribute to my master's thesis. Don't know if it's working, but hey! worth a try? ;D But I couldn't leave my beloved tour for too long without popping in with something ^^]

French Corner is a fairly new bakery which I didn't find to be necessarily that French in their baked goods and which also didn't have the same level of quality I've come to expect from other French establishments. :/ Their prices aren't entirely ridiculous and for a French bakery, pretty affordable (we just spent $27 at (the divine) Le Thobors, so I should know a thing or two about French bakeries and pricing ;____;): baked goods are under $2, pastries around $3, but in my opinion (everyone can differ if they want to; there's a reason I don't cross post any of my stuff :P) it's just not the same thing. But, let's go into a little more detail~

The cinnamon bun ($1.50), ended up being the best. The brothers got that one and said that it was both "okay" and "better than the croissant". Well, they said something this time around! XD Nevertheless, rolled danish dough with a few raisins and topped with glaze, this one was pretty fail-proof and definitely a lighter, tastier version of the otherwise gooey and sugary cinnamon bun. Not bad, and if there is a next time, I'll definitely to stick to this kind of stuff.

Up next was an almond croissant ($1.75) which, everyone's opinion was exactly the same, was considered the biggest disappointment out of everything, since aside from a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and the few slivers of almonds, that was it. There was nothing remarkable about it, so this was a bit of a flop. (man, it really hurts to make a negative review... I don't like this, I feel so mean ;_;)

Nonetheless, the last pick for the day was, as is always my luck, my least favourite out of what I ended up sampling and which pretty much spurred on this negative review, since everything else was, though not super, not bad either. The cheesecake ($2.75) wasn't worth neither the cost nor the calories. Seriously, I do not like cheesecakes that taste like nothing but Philadelphia cream cheese; it's okay at home, but a bakery should be better. This one featured a graham-cracker crust, cream cheese filling and a pie-filling like glaze on top. Put simply, I didn't like it.

So, overall, French Corner Bakery is okay. Baked goods and breads are alright, but nothing we sampled was outstanding, and I found some stuff to be a little overpriced, especially considering the area.

Rating: **

Victoria's Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: Victoria's Bakery
Address: 173 Roncesvalles Ave., Toronto, ON
Website: n/a
Style: Polish, Eastern European
Price: $

[Along with a great many Polish businesses on Roncesvalles, Victoria's quietly shut its doors and is no more... and it certainly wasn't replaced by another bakery (which is the only acceptable result of a bakery closure)] 

While in Roncesvalles a few weeks ago, I decided to try something different instead of resorting always to Granowska's and Benna's, so I ventured first into Victoria's Bakery, a somewhat seedy-looking place on the outside and situated exactly next door to the venerable Granowska's. In essence, unlike their next door neighbour, they're more a deli than a bakery, as they have a cold cuts counter, a small variety of Polish products and a ready food counter. Their window features all of their baked goods, from buns to squares, although, even if it is a Polish store, it doesn't -- as blogto.com states (it was the first link when I tried to find the address) -- have very many "traditional" goods typical of other Polish delis. Yes, it's pretty much a given that they have pączki, but the majority seem to be inventions of their own: almond buns, chocolate or nut cake squares, and other squares ($2/per piece) with what looked like jam covered in a whole bunch of crumble.

Considering their somewhat unique selection, I was a little wary at first of trying it out. Add to that the fact that we went there on a busy Saturday afternoon (there was a street festival going on) and no one was in the store, and I mean the workers. There was a threesome waiting before us who wanted something from the ready-food counter and after awhile of standing by the empty counter, they started yelling "Hello!" and it still took a good two, three minutes for a worker to come out of the back. Kind of made you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere... O_O

Nevertheless, I picked out for myself (of course!!) the strange looking poppy seed bun ($1.50 -- tax included), made of danish-like dough and filled with typical Polish poppy seed mass (z bakaliami, which I'm normally not a fan of ;D) and topped with sugar, whole poppy seeds and huge chunks of walnuts. It definitely wasn't your usual bun, but I really liked it. The dough was light and fluffy, the mass quite generous (other bakeries, like Sweet Temptations from Highland Farms and some other delis, are as skimpy as you can get) and the chunks of walnuts pairing up perfectly with the inside. I don't know if I'll ever be tempted into trying the other baked goods, as they don't look very interesting, but I'd be willing to get another poppy seed bun at Victoria's. ^-^;;

Rating: **1/2

Athena Bakery

Bakery: Athena Bakery
Address: 598 Danforth Ave., Toronto, ON
Website: n/a
Style: Greek, Middle Eastern/Mediterranean
Price: $-$$$

While in the neighbourhood for the Danish Pastry Shop (previous post ^^), we also stopped by at this bakery in Greek Town, simply because I once had their apple pie and needed to go back in order to review it. While they advertise "European Pastries", this place is more along the lines of Mediterranean pastries with various types of baklava and other treats all smothered in honey like their custard cakes and honey doughnuts (I don't know what they're called -- sorry). In addition to traditional Greek goods, they also have a lot of more continental cookies, chocolate cakes and doughnuts. However, I was here for the Greek stuff, since when in Greek Town, you buy Greek (duh!). :)

Of course, I myself came here for the apple pie ($1.95), since I'm personally not the biggest fan of Greek baking (while, as you'll see, the other testers of the household adore it): a super generous slice of apple cake with a thick layer of apples and spices in the middle of two layers of dough, the top of which is soaked in honey, but in such a way that it's almost turned into a glaze. This honey layer with the apples is perfect, although the weather wasn't gentle to it and by the time it came it for its photo session, it had been smushed and jostled and overheated, but it was still so good, although a tad soggy because of the heat. ^^;

The other two items were purchased for my brothers. First off, I picked out one of several baklava ($1.50/each), this being with pistachio and just coated from every angle with honey. Not capable of wordy reviews or in-depth comments as to taste (you know, not like I can do the same... my reviews also suck just on a whole different level XD), but I think their one comment will suffice: "best baklava ever". There you go.

The third item I took because of the Greek-ness of it: a Bougassa Thessaloniki ($2.50), which is a rather big chunk of filo dough which somewhat resembles a strudel, especially with the powdered sugar and cinnamon on top. Cracking into this thing, the brothers found it to be similar to the large custard cake available for purchase, except without the honey. This was said to be "really good, but not as good as the baklava". Okay. :/

Overall, their single serve items are definitely worth it, and if you're in the area, definitely try their various baklava. Both are at an amazing price, especially for the quantity and quality you get. And well, it's delicious, so you can't go wrong. :P Be wary of the items sold by weight (the honey balls and various cookies), since, having experience with the former, it gets pretty pricey, pretty fast.

Rating: ***1/2