ManCakes Bakery

My sister was surprised to hear from me and more ecstatic when she found out I would be visiting her at work. But little does she know, the only reason is because I wanted her to come with me to ManCakes LOL. I do like visiting her at work occasionally though because the building reminds me of the show Suits, but their Harvey Specter is already married and has a family. Back to the cupcakes… there are a few cupcake speciality stores in Vancouver, where the most known business is Cupcakes by Heather and Lori.

Personally I am not a fan of Cupcakes by Heather and Lori because considering the "premium" prices being charged, their quality and lack of consistency is not worth it in my opinion. There are also plenty of bakeries that offer cupcakes but the only other specialty cupcake store I know of is Cassia Cupcakery on Commercial Drive.

As for ManCakes however, I consider their cupcakes "gourmet". From the quality and consistency to the fun and innovate flavours, ManCakes does not offer basic cupcakes such as yellow, carrot cake or chocolate topped with a variety of buttercream icings. Instead, ManCakes provides a variety of basic bases with the addition of a filling and then the buttercream icing. The filling is what makes a big difference for me because I can easily bake cupcakes at home, but how often will I bother making a filling if I am short on time? Let alone unique fillings such as theirs!

With regards to the name ManCakes, the story behind the business is that three gentleman friends united to make boring and overly sweet cupcakes fun, unique and better. The store is small but spacious, and there are comfortable seating arrangements along with a few stool seats facing the window for people watching. ManCakes is also known for their DeathWish coffee, which is 200% stronger than any other on the market. I do not drink coffee but probably should have tried it, just for the heck of it on my three visits.

$3.75 || 2 FOR $6.95 || 6 FOR $19.75 || 12 MINI TOOL BOX $19.75

Bernard Noir

Bernard Noir is a fairly new chocolate boutique, located in Downtown Vancouver. The boutique offers three of the ten most popular chocolates in Europe which include French brands Michel Cluizel and Richart, along with German brand Lauestein. Moreover, Bernard Noir carries their own chocolate made by a certified chocolatier. 

Asides from chocolate, Bernard Noir offers housemade pastries and dessert by Chef Yutta. The selection changes daily from a variety of croissants, scones and brownies, along with Belgian waffles to cakes and cupcakes. In addition, the boutique offers gourmet baguette sandwiches.

I was invited to sample some goodies and met the owners behind Bernard Noir. Bernard handles the business aspect while his wife Chef Yutta, does the baking. The owners are a strong believer in "fat makes you fat" and only use real ingredients for their pastries such as butter, cane or coconut palm sugar. Furthermore, the owners also believe in using less fat because "fat makes you fat".

Baguette & Co : Davie Street Location

A few weeks ago, Baguette & Co kept popping up on my Instagram feed so I figured I must have been missing out. There are currently four locations (Davie Street, Kitsilano, Main Street and Marine Drive) and the patisserie offers fresh pastries as well as dessert. The cafe also offers mini sized pastries ($1.25/each or 3/$2.95) and dessert ($1.50/each or 3/$4.00) which provide an opportunity to sample a bit of everything before deciding on a whole size purchase.

I came here on two separate occasions because my first visit was nothing special so I wanted to give Baguette & Co another try. There are around five tables in the cafe and the seating arrangements are not too tight. A self serve station is also set up where cocoa, honey, cutlery and water is available.

Tung Hing Bakery 同慶餅家

After a long disgusting sweaty game of basketball, we were already running late for a double date and needed to get home fast. But, I was really hungry so took the opportunity to grab a quick snack. Tung Hing is a popular Vietnamese bakery that sells Asian baked goodies and banh mi.

This is also BFs favourite place for banh mi and he is not even a fan of bread, sandwiches or subs. Something about him having too much when he was a child… to the extent that he even gets full just looking at bread! Weird. Tung Hing's baked goodies range from a variety of buns to sesame balls, Chinese donuts and butter croissants.

As for the Vietnamese subs, it is BFs favourite place because he likes to see the preparation. Tung Hing offers the house special, meatball, vegetarian, honey garlic sausage, shredded garlic chicken and lemon grass chicken banh mi. The prices are pretty average and run from $3.50 to $3.95.

Tarts Bakery

There are plenty of popular bakeries that offer cake, tarts, pies, macarons etc. However, Tarts Bakery specializes in only tarts. The bakery is located on West Broadway in Vancouver and is founded by two sisters who share the passion of baking.

Walking in on a weekday afternoon, the store was empty and the owner sat by the counter. As I approached the display of tarts, she immediately stood up but did not say a word. So to break the silence, I mentioned I was browsing in case I was keeping her from something. However, my weak attempt to break the silence did not work because she did not say a word to me and I felt even more awkward. Perhaps I should have asked her about the tarts...

Tarts Bakery offers mini tartlets which is a great way to sample all the flavours and runs from $1.75 to $1.85, or 3 for $4.95. As for the regular sized tarts, the prices range from $4.98 to $5.95. In addition, soup, salad, cold drinks and hot drinks such as tea, coffee, along with hot chocolate are available.

I went for the raspberry macaroon as well as the lemon tart, which is when the owner broke the silence and asked if I wanted to select a third because one tart costs $1.75. At the time, I was not sure how much I was saving but decided why not? So rather than going for the chocolate mousse for a variety, I played it safe and chose something I would like, the butter pecan.

After selecting the tarts, she asked if I wanted a drink and without wanting to feel awkward that I rarely drink tea or coffee and my preferred choice of bottled water was not available, I ordered soup. As I noticed her grabbing the soup from a take out container and grabbing a box for the tarts, I mentioned the meal would be for here and proceeded to the counter.

This where my OCD kicks in. For a business to declare themselves as two sisters who share the passion of starting a business and creating a product because the quality or selection was not what either of them craved for, I expected an inviting atmosphere and a cute dainty interior (the shop is cute though). But instead, I walk into an unenthusiastic owner and the sink as well as the preparation area was filled with dirty plates. I even felt guilty for being the cause of her having to wash the dishes because I ordered my meal for here rather than to go.

Swiss Bakery

Swiss Bakery is a cafe that caters to the neighbourhood and is known for their cronuts, which they call frissant. A frissant is a croissant-donut hybrid and is Swiss Bakery's version of the cronut. Asides from the frissants, the bakery offers plenty of pastries, bread, cookies and dessert. In addition, sandwiches, soup, coffee, tea and cafe goodies are available as well, which most people grabbed on their way out.

Cartems Donuterie

Continuing with C'est la vie Maggi and I's food date, we walked across the street from Finch's Tea and Coffee to grab some donuts. I have been wanting to try Cartems Donuterie for a while and was secretly quite happy when Maggi agreed. Cartems Donuterie seems to be the go to place for donuts and in my opinion, is a lot better than Forty Ninth Parallel, food and service wise. The donut shop has a high ceiling and an industrial look with bricked walls, polished wooden floors as well as tables, stools and wood stump seating.

Although the donut shop has less than ten seats, the interior is quite spacious and should not be too cramped if there is a long line up. As for the prices, the donuts are priced at $3.00/each, $15.00/half a dozen and $30.00/dozen. We tried picking out half a dozen but both agreed it was not worth the price since only three of the flavours stood out to us.

Trees Organic Coffee : Granville Street location

After grabbing some $2.85 burgers, my friend and I walked across the street, literally, and ordered cheesecake. Well, actually, I wanted a sandwich and my friend mentioned that the coffee shop has some. But hey, there is always room for cheesecake right? Trees Organic Coffee claims to have "Vancouver's best cheesecake" and with surprisingly five locations, it must be good!

The cafe was 75% full on a Friday late afternoon around 4:00pm with a mixed clientele of hipsters, students and those grabbing coffee on the go. Trees Organic Coffee has plenty of cookies, cheesecake and a few baked goods such as biscotti, scones and croissant. Sandwiches are also available like my friend mentioned, however, pre-made. Plus, they looked very generic and for around $11.00, I rather go to a sandwich joint that sells freshly made ones.

Little Monk Pretzels

Little Monk Pretzels is located in Burnaby at Metrotown. The food stall is the only pretzel joint that I know of and even if the owners served me a cold pretzel, I would keep coming back because they are super friendly. And again, this is the only place I know of that sells pretzels! I always stick to pretzels too but pretzel balls are also available as well as hot dog pretzels.

After coming here at least 100x, I would probably try the pretzel balls next time (doesn't that defeat the purpose of having a pretzel though?). Little Monk's has a ton of seasoning flavours available too, but I stick to my usual classic butter n' salt.

Thierry Chocolaterie Patisserie Cafe

Excuse my negativity, I always write what I think and have no filter. Thierry is most likely many peoples first time buying and trying macarons. I personally prefer Soirette over Thierry because I find Theirry's too sweet. The macarons here are larger but I am willing to sacrifice size for a better tasting macaron.

Aside from macarons, Thierry is known for their wide selection of chocolate, dessert, pastries and drinks. I think these are what Thierry is known for right? And sandwiches?

I personally think Thierry is a place to be seen, where girls order one dessert and nibble for an hour or so. If you like any of their desserts or think there is something to rave about, please let me know. I would love to try (no sarcasm).

Why am I here? BF is late for lunch and I thought since I am already in the area, I might as well write a post on Thierry. Around a year ago, I binged on macarons and ate a dozen a day. Eventually I got sick of them and have not touched any since then. That is when I thought to myself that I could start posting macarons from the worst to the best. Well that is not true, the worst macarons are at two locations in Granville Island (I forgot which stores but pretty much every place in Granville Island that sells macarons). Why are they the worst? Oh god they are crunchy, dry, hollow, shatter and turns into dust, seriously.

I have never tried anything other than macarons here before, so I ordered a LEMON TART, SWEET PASTRY AND LIGHT LEMON CURD (5.75), as well as a DOZEN OF MACARONS ($21.95).

PUMPKIN PEAR, VANILLA BEAN, EARL GREY AND MAPLE PECAN. I have always liked how they separate the different flavours of macarons, as well as the long shaped box.

LEMON TART, SWEET PASTRY AND LIGHT LEMON CURD ($5.75). The lemon tart has a semi caramelized brittle top, dusted with icing sugar and topped with a glazed strawberry. The lemon curd tastes very lemony, sour and smooth. I find the lemon tart too sweet and was thinking to myself, am I really sitting here eating this for a post? How sad, but I did want you to taste good. I am supposed to be having a tenderloin at Coast, not some lemon tart. The tart has a standard butter crust, tastes average and is properly made.

INDIVIDUAL $1.95, 7 PACK $13.45, 12 PACK $21.95

CLOCKWISE LEFT, VANILLA, PUMPKIN PEAR, EARL GREY AND MAPLE PECAN.

The macarons have a crack or two, give or take and I am not surprised at Thierry. A few years ago Thierry was a lot better, especially with their quality control but meh. I came in knowing what to expect, so no complaints. The macarons have a soft slight hardened crust with a chewy texture (not in a bad way) and a generous amount of filling. The VANILLA MACARON tastes sweet with a vanilla bean taste. The PUMPKIN PEAR MACARON tastes sweet with a generous hint of cinnamon and has a sweetened cooked pear in the middle which I thought was interesting.

The EARL GREY MACARON is probably my favourite out of all four. The macaron is not overly sweet and has a flavourful earl grey taste. The MAPLE PECAN MACARON is topped with pecan shavings and has a very strong maple taste. The macaron is sweet and understandable because of the maple flavouring.

POSITIVES

- Macarons are sweet if you have a sweet tooth

- Larger sized macarons compared to other places

- Staff is friendly

NEGATIVES

- Macarons are too sweet and chewy IMO

- There are better macarons elsewhere (Soirette)

- Dessert is meh

LITTLE THINGS

- Cannot finish macarons? Keep them in the fridge, take them out and eat when they are in room temperature 

Food: 2.5/5

Service: 2.5/5

Saint Germain Bakery 新之美餅店 : Aberdeen location

The only memory I have of coming here is when I wanted to try their macarons. After having a lot of failed macarons, I now know to ask in advance if the outside is crunchy, if they say yes, I assume I should pass.

The cakes and buns.

What an odd shaped box, it crushed my egg tarts a bit :(. Don't you usually get the square boxes?

ALL BUTTER EGG TARTS ($0.99). The crust is perfect and melts in your mouth with a delicious egg tart filling. The filling is not too sweet and has a very smooth texture. I was lucky these are fresh and still warm.

EGG TART ($0.99). BF likes these and I felt obligated to try one. The crust is a bit too soft (kind of damp with no crispiness or flakiness) and the filling tastes the same as the all butter egg tarts.

A few weeks later I decided to try their moon cake. Well, I did not decide to but I rushed here to get some egg tarts and they were sold out, so a grabbed a moon cake. Now I know Saint German has a location in Oakridge which would have been a lot closer!

The WHITE LOTUS SINGLE EGG YOLK ($6.00?). I grabbed the wrong one and wanted the double egg yolk -.-"

This is my first time having moon cake from a bakery and I think it was around $6.00? I usually get some from T&T since they have so many options, but I thought maybe bakery ones are better. The filling does not really taste like it is from scratch and is just a paste, which kinds of disappointments me because the idea that it is in a bakery makes me feel like it would be from scratch. Darn, I should have posted this earlier instead of 2 weeks later since the festival is over. The paste is not overly sweet and just tastes like any paste (creamy, thick, smooth).

Food: 2.5/5 (all butter egg tarts 5/5)

Service: 0/5 (major grumps working all the time)