El Quetzal

Bakery: El Quetzal Bakery and Restaurant
Address: 2011 Lawrence Ave W, Toronto ON
Website: n/a
Style: Guatemalan, South American
Price: $

While going on a bakery tour of West Toronto, these guys came up on Google and really, how could I resist some more lesser known baked goods? ;) El Quetzal is tucked into a plaza directly east of Weston Rd, and it really doesn't look like much. Inside, I can't say they have so much variety, as they seem to be partly a restaurant (where you can order and eat by the big screen TV playing soccer ;P), a very small deli (with one shelf of goods) and an equally small bakery with a few sweet buns in the glass case. These are similar in style to the other South American bakeries on my tour (especially Pancho's).. well, I *do* only have two other bakeries, so perhaps it's a little unfair to say 'the others', but nonetheless~~

Out of the three South American destinations, El Quetzal definitely had the least selection and variety. I think there was something like four, maybe five bun options, although I believe all of them had nothing in them, so they were all very nearly the same (at least, I assume they had no fillings... the worker didn't know enough English, I didn't know enough Spanish and so it was really just a series of smiles back and forth :DD), despite differences in shape. In the end (after a few more smiles ^^), I settled on three buns (all $1/each, tax included = cheap-o-rama): the most boring of the group was this one with this little dash of icing sugar on the tip. I thought it might have cheese or cream or something in the middle, but it was just a plain bun. As with the others, it smelled of fresh yeast (which is such a yummy smell), although, as such, it got old really fast. This one was a little too doughy, especially how tall and airy it was. Definitely my least favourite.

Next up was this slice of uh, bread? I'm not exactly sure what this was, but it was an airy piece of bread with sugar baked into the top like a sort of crust. This part was good. The height was perfect too; it wasn't too doughy and you got this sugary topping with every bite.Tasty!

Last but not least is this bun which seems to be a signature of Mexican baking (at least, Asian bakeries sometimes have similar buns and they call them.. "Mexican buns" :P) I don't know why I always thought this was something else, but this is essentially a plain bun like the first one but with a mix of butter and sugar creamed together and smeared over the top. Now, that is an excellent idea! This was probably the best of the best, though the second one was also quite good. It's not anything amazing, so I suppose it's good to have an idea of that beforehand, but it wasn't a disappointment, though I did prefer my other two uh, trips to South America. In terms of bakeries, that is. :P

Rating: **

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