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| - 3.5 stars... better than average with the Amaretti and Chocolate Chip Cannoli being 4 to 5 star. I would give an overall 4 star if the service improves.
A clearly beloved Italian neighbourhood bakery that has its regulars come in to enjoy an espresso and cannoli. I was finally in the area to check it out and try the famed cannoli myself. This bakery is far bigger than I expected with a full service hot plate area with everything from veal sandwiches to dinners, large seating area, gelato, a large deli counter, espresso drinks, and all the sweet baked Italian goods.
We came after dinner and was hoping for a light sweet bite to close out the night. The bakery allows a lot of light and there are many tables available to sit down. Most of the tables were clean. One clear misstep was the service... there was maybe only 1 person every 5 or 10 minutes trying to order something from the various sections. I spotted at least 1 to 2 employees at each counter. All counters except the actual cashier area was very slow. I stood in front of the cakes while a young lady stood in the middle of the gelato, cookies, and cakes hunched over reading something. I was like for around 5 minutes before the cashier finished cashing out someone and yelled out her name to make her be aware I was waiting. I saw this a few times. Off day with service perhaps?
Cannoli (vanilla and chocolate chip ricotta) - I say these prefilled and was worried as it was 8 pm and I know that a pre-filled cannoli is not usually a good sign. We still ordered 2 mini cannolis... one a simple vanilla and the other chocolate chip ricotta. I took a bite of the chocolate chip one and was pleasantly surprised how the pastry still had a nice crunch to it. It wasn't soggy. The sweetness was good and not overwhelming. It could have a bit more flavour (I usually love a bit of candied citrus to offer something more than just sugar). The vanilla one wasn't as good since the shell was definitely more soggy... it wasn't crispy and absorbed some of the filling already. The filling had a tiny hint of vanilla and lightly sweet. Not bad but the shell was a disappointment. 4/5 for chocolate chip and 3.5/5 vanilla
Amaretti (almond and maraschino topped) - They have an entire section just dedicated to amaretti and wow, these were just great. Full almond flavour that is not too sweet but very good. The texture was pleasantly chewy and for the ones that had a dusting of powdered sugar had a light thin crispy sugary shell... the maraschino cherry ones were the best as it gave a great cherry flavour (dont get the candied ones!) 5/5
Sfogliatelle - These were gorgeous... flakey layers all nicely seperated with a nice bronze colour. These were really well made. When I took a bite, the layers all shattered and was nice to keep that crunch even it was baked hours ago. What was unfortunate was the filling... even after 3 large bites to try to get to the filling, I kept finding air pockets. There was very little filling and what was there sank all to the back. It had a bit of vanilla but not much. 3.5/5
Butter cookies (blueberry and raspberry - These were really confusing as they were called butter cookies but after taking a bite, there was no taste of butter and incredibly soggy. It did come from a case that had a lot of humidity in it as the case was filled with water drops on the glass. These were more expensive than the cannoli so I was expecting something more but with it having no flavour and lacklustre texture, this was disappointing. I will admit that it looked very good. 3/5
I wish I could give this place a 4 star because they do have some great items... just the service seemed really inattentive and bored.
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