Douce France

I have been looking for the best croissant in town for a very long time.  A lot of the times the croissants I come across are just too bready.  I've never made croissants, and not sure if I would want to try since it involves so much work, so I'm just not sure why some would turn out bready.  Is it the flour?  Is it because the dough hasn't relaxed enough?  Other times, the croissants just don't have that rich buttery flavour.  And when I mean rich buttery flavour, it doesn't mean that the croissant has to be leaking out butter and covering my hands and mouth with greasiness.

I recall reading about Douce France a while ago, not necessarily for their croissants, but for their chocolates.  But within that article I recall (the many things that I don't remember nowadays but I remember random things that I should be saving that brain space for more important things) that Douce France made croissants too.  So while I was running errands in the area, I made the hubby go in and pick up some croissants to try.  These croissants were amazing!  Light and flakey and full of buttery goodness!  I'm pretty sure that it partly had to do with them being fresh from the oven as well.    I wish that I lived closer so I could eat these croissants whenever I wanted.  But I'm sure my pants love that I live that far away.

Croissant

Douce France
2471 Yonge Street,

Toronto, ON 

M4P 2H6

Phone:  (647) 348-7661

Hours:  Monday CLOSED

             Tuesday - Friday 830a - 700p

             Saturday 830a - 630p

             Sunday 830a - 600p

http://www.doucefrance.ca

Allwyn's Bakery

From what I've found online, Allwyn's Bakery has been around for a very long time, and is a staple for anyone that loves Jamaican patties.  When I have cravings for Jamaican patties, if I'm at work, my coworker takes me to this place that's close by her house.  The name escapes me at the moment.  If I'm at home, I used to go to Allan's Pastry Shop inside Peanut Plaza.  But as of the last couple of years, it seems like Allan's started skimp out on the fillings.  Not only is the filling less, but it looks and tastes like there's more filler, cornstarchy gumminess, and minimal meat.  I have to say, their outside is still nice and flakey though, which I love.

Allwyn's Bakery's Jamaican patties are a bit different than Allan's.  The outside is less flakey, and more like a cross between a pie dough and the normal Jamaican patty exterior.  There is a good amount of filling whether it is chicken or beef (we got one of each), and the filling is actual meat, not much in terms of fillers.  You can see the actual meat pieces.

Chicken & Beef Patties

Chicken Patty (inside)

Beef Patty (inside)

I personally prefer the flakier crust, but the fact that Allwyn's has a better filling, I think I would get my patties from Allwyn's now.  Allwyn's also does many other dishes (i.e. Jerk), but I didn't try those, so I can't comment on those dishes.

Allwyn's Bakery
81 Underhill Dr.
Toronto, ON
M3A 1K8

Phone:  (647) 847-4698

Hours:  Monday - Friday 11:00a - 10:00p
             Saturday 11:30a - 10:00p
             Sunday  12:00p - 10:00p

https://www.facebook.com/Allwyns-Bakery-732508286790526/

Bake Code

An Asian bakery with a twist.  I know they’ve been open a while, but I never found a big enough reason to drop by.  Parking near Yonge St. isn’t easy when you want free.  Finally after dinner along Yonge St. one night, we stopped by Bake Code.  It was busy in there, and the shelves were pretty empty.  But I was here only for one thing, a croissant that has this liquidy yolky inside.  I think I saw the croissant I came here to buy, but before I touched anything, I wanted to ask someone that worked there to confirm.  So I asked the girl at the cash.  I said “Excuse me”, and responded “Just wait!”.  Wow……treating a customer like that.  She wasn’t even really doing anything.  Not a good start.  In the end I just took a guess and bought the croissant hoping that it was what I came here for. 

The croissant was quite dry, and the liquidy interior wasn’t as liquidy/lava like as in those deep fried sesame balls from dimsum.  The croissant part wasn’t very buttery like what I would be looking for in a crossant.  It was more bready than I would would like.  And the price, I don’t remember what it was, but it was quite high for a croissant.  With crappy staff attitude, medicore product, and high prices, not sure I will be coming back.

Egg Yolk Croissant

Bake Code

4910 Yonge St. Unit B1,

Toronto, ON,

M2N 5N5

Phone:  (647) 346-3888

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8:00a - 12:00a

             Saturday - Sunday 10:00a - 12:00a

http://bakecode.com

Von Doughnuts

Its a very good thing that Von Doughnuts are far, and out of the way for me to get to.  They are DELICIOUS!  I would be such a frequent buyer.  For those of you who do not share my love of yeast based doughnuts, no need to read any further.  I was kinda worried that by time we got to buying these delicious treats, that they would be sold out, it was late in the afternoon.  But to my delight, they still had a pretty decent selection.  We picked up 6, to share with friends, although I wished I ate them all myself!  I hope I remember correctly what we bought, I believe they were, malibu passion punch, rocher, burtle (bacon & turtle chocolate), pucker up sucker (lemon meringue), raspberry rush (raspberry filled), and caramel salt n'pepa.  Of the 4 that I got to try (didn't get to try the malibu passion punch and the raspberry rush), they were all very good.  I think my favourite was the pucker up sucker.

Von Doughnuts

Von Doughnuts
713 Danforth Ave.,
Toronto, ON
M4J 1L2

Phone:  (416) 901-8663

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8:00a-6:00p
             Saturday 9:00a - 6:00p
             Sunday 10:00a - 5:00p

http://vondoughnuts.com

La Boheme Cafe

We had a friend come back from Hong Kong, and brought her coffee loving husband along to check out Toronto.  So I was going to take them to De MelloPalheta, my favorite coffee house uptown, but my friend overheard that I haven’t tried La Boheme Cafe and its on my to try list, she said we should check it out.

The inside of La Boheme is quite large, with plenty of tables for people to sit.  At the counter, behind the glass case, there were plenty of desserts and sandwiches to choose from.  I ordered a croissant and latte (they don’t do flat whites), the hubby ordered a spinach and cheese pastry/croissant and espresso macchiato.  The friends got a regular coffee and café au lait.

I’m not even sure I feel like going into detail about the coffee or food.  It was disappointing overall.  The latte lacked much coffee flavour, my friend said that her café au lait was disgusting.  The regular coffee took the longest to arrive.  The friend’s husband who loves coffee said that his coffee was ok, but then my friend said he also liked Tim Hortons coffee.  So loves to drink coffee, any type of coffee kind of guy I guess.  My croissant was large, but bready, not so buttery.  Hubby’s spinach and cheese croissant, they gave him a ham and cheese instead……when they changed it for him, I took a bite and it was like bread with spinach and cheese inside, nothing remotely like a croissant. Friend also ordered a blueberry tart and a macaron of some sort.  They didn’t finish either dessert.  I’m taking it as it wasn’t very good.   When I was paying for our food, I noticed a sign saying that the bread was from another bakery…..made me wonder if all of the breads and pastries are brought in from elsewhere…..  They do open pretty late for a bakery, so it only makes me assume all baked goods are brought in from elsewhere.

Latte & Crossisant

So if you’re in the area, skip La Boheme, and go a few doors north to De Mello Palheta where they have great coffee and cook their own baked goods!

La Boheme Cafe

2481 Yonge St.,

Toronto, ON

M4P 2H6

Phone:  (416) 489-2233

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8:00am - 7:00pm

             Saturday CLOSED

             Sunday 9:00am - 7:00pm

http://labohemecafe.ca (Not sure if the website is broken, but when I last checked it doesn't load)