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19 reviews for Harbord Bakery
19 reviews in English
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Review from John C.
Mississauga, ON
3/15/2012 1 photo
Lot's lot great treat's.
It's a must visit . Prices are high but well woth it.
I had the best butter cup ever.... -
Review from Chris P.
While waiting for my friendly friend I popped in here to have a carb-attack. Most of the choice here is pretty standard for a bakery. The staff were friendly and quick to help me. I grabbed a chocolate croissant and some shortbread. The croissant was decent. Not the greatest but hit hit the spot. The shortbread fell a little short. It wasn't as buttery as I would have liked.
The pies and cakes in the display case looked phenomenal. I will be back to give them a try. -
Review from Lanna J.
Toronto, ON
5/26/2012
Paying this bakery a visit is an integral part of my daily morning routine. They have a vast selection of baked goods that are consistent in their high quality. The staff is also both helpful and nice!
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Review from Zoe R.
10/11/2011
I really like some of their items here. Their chocolate coffee cake; their bagels; their fast service (always well-staffed).
Prices are sometimes $$, but I guess one gets what they pay for.
If you have your heart set on an item, call them ahead of time and they will set one aside for you for pick up a little later that day.Listed in: 30-day challenge businesses
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Review from Jonathan S.
York, ON
8/23/2011
One of my favourite places in Toronto, Harbord Bakery has served up the best in Jewish baking longer than I've been alive.
I write this review with a freezer full of Harbord Bakery products.
Regrettably, portion sizes have recently decreased while prices have increased. For breakfast this morning, I toasted a bialy-a flatter, sweeter, oniony-er cousin of the bagel. A proper bialy is about the circumference of a big dude's palm. These were tiny. Make an OK sign with your hand, and unless you're on a first-name basis with the Wizard Gargamel, chances are you could fit one through the hole. They do remain tasty, with crisp outsides and tender middles even after their term in suspended animation.
With apologies to baguette fans everywhere, there are only two kinds of bread worth buying on the planet. Both are served here. Workday lunches on Russian black, light or marble rye are well worth the carbs. Lights crusts and springy crumbs add body to the most anaemic sandwich. On their own, with just a bit of salted butter, they're perfection. In old-country Jewish homes, Challah, made of finer flour with an abundance of eggs, was reserved for the Sabbath. Harbord's version is rich and deeply flavoured, glazed to an egg-washed shine and studded with sesame or poppy seeds. With the High Holidays approaching, it's worth ordering a gigantic crown of a bread, even if you don't celebrate. A raisin version, turned into french toast the next day might encourage you to convert.
Bagels err on the light side. Baked without parboiling, they lack the density and chew one associates with a 'real bagel'. Served fresh, they're still perfect vehicles for smoked salmon and cream cheese.
Desserts are primed for sharing, or at least for breaking off a piece if you're the sort who can't truly enjoy a cup of coffee without a little something on the side.
Assorted pies and cakes are just fine, although a banana cream version drizzled with chocolate might challenge the upscale version sold further up Spadina Rd.
Chocolate cupcakes are smeared with thick chocolate icing and colourful sprinkles. More sweet than cocoa in flavour, they're childhood in wax paper. The french palmier is reinterpreted as a dinner-plate sized round of puff pastry lightly topped with caramelized sugar, then dusted with more sugar and cinnamon. It's outrageously addictive and impossible to place between 'snack' and 'dessert'. Seven-layer cake is coated in thick, hardened ganache. Alternating yellow sponge and light whipped chocolate icing need liquid support. I recommend coffee with cream and no sugar.
Depending on your appetite, danish with fresh fruit, cheese and/or custard are your best bet. Just this side of sticky; crispy pastry on the outside yielding to tender leaves inside. If you just want a bite, opt for the Rugalach; a lighter cookie dough rolled around chocolate, cinnamon or fruit preserves. If you're entertaining a crowd, a fresh chocolate ring uses more of that danish pastry, and plenty of the good stuff.
Shopping at Harbord Bakery is an experience; prepared items like salads, entrees and empanadas are dished out from a central island. Random freezers conceal juices, dairy and ice cream. A haphazard toy store takes up a third of the space.
The whole shebang gets 5 stars. How could it not? It feels like home. -
Review from Jane M.
5/5/2011
I'm an insanely picky eater because I was raised by parents who said, "If you don't like it, just leave it on your plate." Because of this I refuse to eat a whole manner of things and the majority of the time, I look at a menu and say, 'I have no idea what that is, I am not putting it anywhere near my mouth.'
However, my little trip to Harbord Bakery was one of the rare times where I just wanted to try everything, no matter how odd it looked (the last time this happened it was with food carts and street meat, so consider this a step in a classier direction).
I bought a few different things: Some chocolate roll cookies, some peanut butter cookies for my boyfriend and a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. The cinnamon raisin bread is fabulous! It tastes a bit like a cinnamon brioche, I think. Light and fluffy and amazing toasted and smothered with my best buddy butter. The chocolate cookies disappeared in a scarfing-frenzy after a trip to the gym. They could have been a little chocolatier (word? I think not!) but I didn't exactly put the bag down to come write this review...
The peanut butter cookies, I have no idea. Peanut butter and chocolate/any kind of sugar is not a cause I support, nor do I feel peanuts have any place on a dessert menu. It's nothing against peanut butter, me and peanut butter go way back, It's just a personal movement with little, uh, movement. It's something that has remained solid through my transition from 'picky eater' to 'grown-up that eats leaves and other green things.' My boyfriend liked them though! They sounded quite crunchy? Sorry I can't give you guys more than that!
Minus one star because I found there wasn't enough labeling happening. I saw things I was tempted to try but didn't because I wasn't sure of what they were. "Is that caramel brown or PEANUT BUTTER brown?" See the first world problems I face?Listed in: Eats in the Annex
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Review from Margaret S.
Toronto, ON
3/8/2012
I love them.
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Review from Ivan G.
Toronto, ON
10/5/2011
I just had their Cinnamon raisin bread and it was so good. They sure know how to keep their food fresh and good.
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Review from Laura D.
Toronto, ON
7/15/2009
Living across the street from this bakery makes life particularly difficult. Everything they make is good, from their sweets (Cherry-cheese, almond or poppy seed danishes), to their bread (Raisin Challah is to die for and so it their Rye) to their hot table (try a Chicken Empanada) and cold salads. It's ridiculous really!
Besides the fact that it can be a little expensive this bakery really never lets you down! -
Review from Leeor J.
4/25/2010
This is a great bakery! I get my rye and challah on here all the time. Bagels too. My favourite is the russian black loaf. oh man. Not the cheapest, but definitely worth it.
If you want that great rye with the crunchy crust go here, I guarantee you eat 4 slices when you get home even if you're not hungry! -
Review from John I.
Toronto, ON
6/20/2011
Sprawling layout and confusing organization makes the Harbord Bakery a maze of desserts and baked goods. I selected a chocolate croissant and was not impressed. Perhaps it was old stock, but the item was lacking a certain freshness. In general, the selection of baked goods were poor. I asked for a blueberry bun and they did not have. Neither did they sell bubkas or rugelach!! Come on now. They can do better than this.
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Review from Dardana M.
ON
1/25/2009 1 photo
MmmHmm. I love this place.
Another stop on my never-ending, early-twenties nostalgia tour, coming here always makes me feel warm and fuzzy and hungry for my youth. And some bread. Discovering the quiet dignity of Harbord Street was a revelation then, a humble alternative to walking home (ie, to my BFF's apartment) from school down College or Bloor.
As Erin said, they have been around forever, and everything just oozes with old-fashioned care, such as: the little cellophane bundles of cookies, each tied and labeled, and of which I can't usually resist the almond crescents. The empanadas are very good, though quite rich, with a flaky, buttery crust (quite a different style than what my recently-reviewed Jumbo Empanadas serves up), for which I am always on board.
The egg bread used to be such a staple in my routine, that I once had a dream that the shelf behind the counter (where they keep it, natch) was relocated to my kitchen. The pie- especially the peach- is so good that it changed the way I feel about pie. I crave it fortnightly, for serious. -
Review from Anastassia M.
Toronto, ON
8/10/2011
Extremely fresh and tasty selection of breads.. Also freshly baked cookies and biscotties of all sorts as well as non-sweet stuffed pies. Yesterday was my second time stocking up there and I really enjoyed everything I got. It is true that it is a bit pricy. Staff is friendly.
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Review from Jes L.
Toronto, ON
2/13/2009
There is no way I can be in the Annex area and not make a trip to this bakery. Truth be told, I have a serious sweet-tooth, but I also love fresh bagels. When I can't get to Gryfe's http://www.yelp.ca/biz... or Pascal's http://www.yelp.ca/biz... for bagels I'm more then happy to load up at Harbord Bakery.
I love the sugar cookies with the jam in the centre, and find it hard not to eat all of them before I get home. -
Review from Susan D.
Toronto, ON
2/2/2011 2 Check-ins Here
Based on the recommendations of the reviews on this site, I tried an empanada, a butter tart and a blueberry muffin. All delicious! Thanks, fellow yelpers!
I don't know how authentic the empanadas are, *as* empanadas. In the past, all the home made and store-bought (from specialty stores) empanadas I tried were rather different to these--on those, the pastry is drier and less flaky, and the filling somewhat differently seasoned in the veggie ones. These have been mostly Argentinean, Chilean and so on. People craving a taste of home with that specific kind of empanada may wish to check out one of the places that sells them at Kensington Market. But even if they're not like the other empanadas I've tried, the versions at Harbord Bakery do fall into the "filling surrounded by pastry" type of food genre (alongside savoury pastry puffs, samosas, empanadas, cornish pasties, etc. You get the idea)--and boy are they delicious! Next time, I'll try one of the meat varieties--I'm curious whether I will find them dry, as some others have mentioned. I'm also curious about the seasoning used for those. Regardless, suffice to say, the veggie ones were not dry at all (some of the previous reviews had pointed out that the veggie ones had some moisture to them, and it's true). They are fabulous!!
The butter tarts were lovely too--decadent pastry, and the filling had formed a crunchy, teeth-sticking crust on parts, and a more gently crunchy layer elsewhere on the treat. Just the way I like them!
The muffin had bits of oat on top and they were tasty--I'm not normally a big fan of muffins, but this was definitely a good one! All recommended. I've tried the shortbread and the cheese stick things from here before--also delicious! -
Review from obscure b.
Toronto, ON
4/12/2011
The beef empanada , Chocolate mousse cake and cheese sticks were average at best.
Haven't tried their bagels but I doubt they compare to the bagel shops in toronto.
Service was friendly. Decor was non-existent and the food was overpriced.
Unfortunately I don't have any childhood memories associated with the place nor am I a fan of overpriced average food to give it more than a star. -
Review from ness y.
Toronto, ON
8/5/2009 ROTD 1/15/2010
my only regret is that i'd never been to this bakery before last weekend.
perhaps with good reason since:
a) i can still fit into my skinny jeans now, and
b) it's a bit pricey when you consider how much i now plan to go.
c) just cancel out a)
so, on my first and only trip i bought for a potluck:
i) 3 empanadas (veggie, chicken, and beef). The pastry for all is the same: really flaky and dry, in a good way. I preferred the veggie empanada because, when i forked into it, a small amount of savoury veggie sauce helped moisten the mouthfuls of crust. I found the chicken and beef fillings to be a bit dry to accompany the great pastry.
ii) Two handfuls of spicy cheese & anchovy bread twists. They were very crisp and buttery. I was surprised that they were sold by weight, rather than by the piece. I asked the cashier to pack them inside the box of empanadas, otherwise the twists never would have made it to their destination without crumbling.
The potluck people liked all of the items.
Next time I go, I want to try the blueberry muffins. While I was there, a guy came in to purchase one, claiming to have 'come all the way from LA for these muffins'. Alas, the blueberry muffins were sold out. When told to come tomorrow, and mistakenly hearing 'come tomorrow at 4am', he wasn't at all fazed. Even though the cashier had actually said 'come tomorrow, call beFORE' so a few muffins could be held to the side for him, he wanted those muffins so bad that 4am was worth it!
must.have.those.muffins. -
Review from Jessica H.
Toronto, ON
9/24/2009
Favourite bakery in Toronto.
The servers are almost invariably unsmiling and somewhat brusque, but it doesn't matter because everything found here tastes wonderful. Prices are steep but I believe this is because they use butter, cream, chocolate, nuts, etc. generously-- at least this is what the taste and undeniable quality of the ingredients suggests.
Best bets:
Cheese blintzes: to die for. buttery, very tender blintz, with sweet, light, creamy cheese filling that has the milky-sweat cream taste of ricotta as well as the faint tang of mascarpone/cream cheese. These are proof positive that God wanted us fat.
- empanadas: (moist, well seasoned, consitently delicious, buttery pastry. I do not wish to know how much fat is in a vegetable number here, as I enjoy pretending they are healthy AND delicious).
- chocolate pistachio cookies: wherever the country of origin for these is, I want to live. Now.
- cinnamon rolls: limited quantity, as with much of their amazing inventory. they are just sweet enough, with no icing, but a super soft, impossibly pillowy texture.
- bagels: do not need butter. are insane. I want one now.
- seed loaf: puts Cobb's to shame. expensive though. omega three's aren't cheap.
I could go on, but won't. Suggest immediate patronage. -
Review from Jamie R.
Toronto, ON
7/9/2011
They have good food, no doubt about it, but they're very expensive and their customer service isn't good. They tend to have a lot of staff at any given time, but the staff seem to resent actually serving people, so make sure you give yourself extra time to wait around.
