S. Worthen | Weblog

The new Toronto Life Eating and Drinking Guide is now out (and has been for several weeks), so I've been browsing through it. The biggest improvement in this year's guide is the addition of an index broken down by neighborhood - and oh, is it broken down by neighborhood. To find all the recommendations within half a mile of me, I need to look at four or five different neighborhood listings.

Since I was heading down to that stretch of Queen anyways today, I took the guidebook's advice and tried out the Vienna Home Bakery, which the guidebook loves enough to have three different entries. I bought two lemon brûlées, since they looked small and light, unlike the Chocolate Raspberry flourless chocolate cake. They also had date puddings and apple pie in stock when I was there. Most of the display case was filled up with whole pies, way too much food for two of us to eat in the very near future.

The lemon brûlées were tartly lemony, with a smooth custard in a light crust and a burnt sugar topping. Clearly, there's real lemon juice in the custard. They were pleasant, perhaps a little too tangy. If it's convenient, I might go back, but I'm not sure I would go too far out of my way for it. (Then again, my mind's lemon tart category is still won by Café Concerto back in York, a smooth mix of lemonness and sweet without the sharply acid overtones. That's the competition and my ideal for a lemon tart.)

Vienna Home Bakery. 626 Queen St. W. Toronto, ON, Canada. Phone: 416 703-7278
Café Concerto. 21 High Petergate. York, UK. Phone: 01904 610478