Sherman's Food Adventures: Bakery Sate

Bakery Sate

"Bakery Sate".  What's in a name?  If you think this sounds like a Malaysian joint specializing in grilled skewers of meat and roti, it couldn't be further from the truth.  Without the acute accent on the "e" in Sate, the word is a shortened version of "satiate".  Hence, the place is actually a French bakery that is the brain child of Eric Ho, a graduate of the Pacific Institute of the Culinary Arts.  Viv and I were invited to visit the newly-opened store on the Southern edge of The Drive to sample some their pastries made from all-natural ingredients.

We tried the Hazelnut Scroll first where it was buttery and flaky.  Employing the same methodology as a croissant, but in a different shape, it exhibited the same qualities as well.  However, in this case, there was a nutty sweetness as well as a sugary (but not overly sweet) crust on top.  Next up was the Raspberry Vanilla Napoleon with house-made puff pastry, vanilla bean diplomat cream and fresh raspberries.  This was relatively light (in texture) with defined crispy layers.  The cream was smooth, airy and semi-sweet with the background hint of vanilla bean.


Onto another type of pastry, we headed off to a selection of choux starting with the Paris Brest.  This consisted of a sliced ringed almond choux pastry filled with praline cream.  It exhibited a light airy interior contrasted by a lightly crisp almond topped exterior.  Inside, the smooth and purposefully sweet almond cream had a nice aromatic finish.  On the same plate was the JJ Bean Espresso Puff with a texturally pleasing streusel topping.  As much as the light diplomat cream was pleasant, it could've used more espresso.  We had one more cream puff in the Mango Coconut Puff with mango and coconut custard cream. Again, the light choux was nicely accented by the crunchy streusel topping.  Inside, the custard cream was aromatic and not overly sweet.  We would've preferred to see a thicker custard though.  Moving onto the New York Style Cheesecake with hazelnut shortbread crust, I was a happy camper.  In the classic style, the cheesecake was rich and full of cream cheese smoothness.  It was only sweet enough with a slight tart finish.

With the table beside us eying our bevy of sweets (they must've thought we were nuts...), we moved onto the Strawberry Frasier comprised of gluten-free chiffon, strawberry mousseline, strawberries and white chocolate parfait.  This was a study in varying soft textures and differing sweetness.  We found the gluten-free chiffon to be slightly denser than the regular version, but good nonetheless.  Overall, we found the cake to be a bit too sweet as some of the different flavours were muddled as a result.  In a beautiful hue of green, the Matcha Black Sesame was also pretty sweet.  It was comprised of gluten-free dacquoise and chiffon, real black sesame mousseline and matcha white chocolate parfait.  Again, with a layered cake, an array of flavours and textures were at play.  I especially liked the black sesame as it exhibited its unmistakable aromatic nuttiness.  

Nearing the end, we sampled a Coconut Macaroon, Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie and Canelé.  Not to be confused with a Macaron, the Macaroon was sweet, chewy and coconutty.  As for the cookie, it was surprisingly good for gluten-free.  Predominantly comprised of rice flour, the cookie ate, well, like a cookie.  It was crunchy and only slightly dry.  There was massive amount of chocolate chips which made it pretty sweet.  Lastly, we had the
Canelé which was probably one of our favourites.  With a hard caramelized crust (and a bit smoky) revealing a soft, custardy filling that was purposefully sweet, we liked the well-defined textures.  Overall, we enjoyed our visit to Bakery Sate.  Other than some sandwiches and croissants, we sampled almost everything that they had. Their location at the edge of The Drive keeps things low-key which works as a nice place to grab a drink and some treats.

*All food and beverages were comped*

The Good:
- Offering up some gluten-free items
- Reasonable-pricing
- Carefully made pastries

The Bad:
- A little heavy on the sugar on some items
- Relatively modest selection
- Decor a bit spartan

Bakery Sate on Urbanspoon

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Finally, a decent bakery in the hood. I have been lamenting this for so long, but no more.

It's close, it's got great pastries and I heard the coffee is awesome.

My dream has finally come true!!

Btw, they're closed on Sunday and Monday, so be forewarned.

I'll be back as my mission is to try everything on their menu.

Search this Site