ottawa foodies

The blueberry danish here is beyond delicious - perfect balance of flaky, crispy pastry and not-too-sweet filling - hard to resist!

A very nice bakery in the heart of Hintonburg. I enjoy their scones (small, square, dense, flavourful), but the highlight for me has to be their "cinnamon snails". Their cinnamon snails are a blissful amalgamation of a croissant and a cinnamon roll; flaky, crispy exterior shell protecting buttery, cinnamony goodness within. These sell out pretty early, so you'll have to get there earlier if you are coming in on the weekend. They also do a lot of good looking bread, but I haven't had the chance to do much sampling.

This is one of my new favourite bakeries and this just based on their pastries. Their selection of pastries is limited but the ones I have tried so far were excellent. I had a cinnamon danish recently and loved it. A couple of days ago, I had a plain croissant. It was excellent too. It was crisp on the outside and the center was buttery and dense. It was a very satisfying bite of pastry.

I also had a cappuccino which was well made.

They also offer sandwiches with Seed to Sausage products and carry some local coffee beans and jellies/jams such as Michael Dolce's.

I have not had the opportunity to try the bread yet but am looking forward to it.

After arriving too late to get croissants a number of other mornings (they sell out fast), I was able to pick up two fantastic croissants this morning - a little crispy on top, soft and buttery inside.

Thanks very much Bread By Us for your generous contribution to the Connaught Public School Stone Soup fundraiser!

Tried this for the first time this past weekend (end of Mar 2014).

The scones, while not the biggest of the species i've consumed, were delicious. Tasty, crisp on the outside, dense and doughy on the inside.

The foccaccia were pure happiness incarnated as delicious fresh breadstuff covered in veg and cheese. I wanted more while i was still eating them.

Staff were great.

Will totally be back.

Over the last several weeks, I've had the pleasure of trying a rather dark and dense sourdough (it must have been the sourdough rye), a walnut-apricot loaf, baguettes, and both sweet and savoury croissants from this lovely new bakery.

I feel neutral about sourdoughs most of the time (but when I'm in the mood I’m sure I’ll go back to try the "country sourdough"). Furthermore, my partner is an avid baker, so I wasn't blown away by the (objectively delicious) walnut-apricot loaf.

It’s really the baguettes and croissants (and the very lovely folks behind the counter) that keep me coming back.

Picked up a fresh loaf of pain au lait this weekend, and it was actually the best loaf of bread I've ever had (and I'm somewhat of a carb fiend). Didn't even last till the end of the day.

Bread by Us is running a suspended bread program. When you buy a loaf of bread you have the option to buy a second loaf suspended. They will post inside the store how many loaves are suspended. Anyone in need can ask for a suspended loaf free of charge.

Hintonburger was so impressed with this concept they are also going to look into doing something at their restaurant.

Picked up croissants today and was really disappointed. They were very heavy and greasy. The outer crust was flaky, but inside was gluey and heavy. I don't mind a bit of dough, but this was all dough and no flaky layers. Staff seemed particularly grumpy, so maybe it was just an off day.

The croissants were excellent! They are the denser, smallish style but have excellent flavour and crispness. My wife preferred these to the bigger, flakier style found elsewhere. Can't wait to try the almond croissant!

This Multigrain Loaf (spelt + white flour) ($5) is easily the best bread I've had in a long while. Perfect toothsome crumb with an excellent crust. There's just enough blackening to give a subtle bitterness to the bottom of the crust and take me back to childhood visits to Switzerland.

I found myself not wanting to eat anything other than this bread until my belly was full and I could eat no more. Most addictive.. better get it while it's still legal! ;-)

FF-Your bread looks great, but unfortunately the country sourdough I got yesterday was dense and had a gummy layer nearly an inch in from the crust. It didn't have the air pockets like yours did. It didn't look under-baked, as the crust was very dark, even black on the bottom. That said, I've still been eating it, mostly toasted and in grilled cheese. It sits too heavily in my stomach though. I'll give them another try in a few weeks--it's much too convenient a location to write them off after one loaf.

Picked up a spectacular Country Sourdough loaf for $4.50 on a Sunday at 10am and it was still warm. I would call this perfect bread: crisp, dark crust and a moist chewy crumb make this a rustic bread done right.

Ottawa's artisan bread scene has become good enough in the past half decade that it is difficult for a newcomer to make a splash. I believe this loaf raises the bar for country-style bread in Ottawa. Europe drifts a little closer to us. :-)

That we can have such a perfect coffee-and-pastry breakfast here in Ottawa is a true privilege. Even if you flew to Europe, you'd be hard pressed to get such a delicious cortado and almond croissant at the same place. Absolutely top notch!

At $2.65 (Happy Goat cortado) + $3 (almond maple croissant), this is about the same price as Starbucks and only a little more than a McDonald's breakfast combo. And the quality is worlds apart. I was the only one there at 9:30am on a Sunday. Must get the word out!

Once in a while (Saturdays maybe?) they post some kind of fruit Danish to their Instagram feed. I finally got there early enough to snag this awesome Blueberry Danish ($3). Really excellent: buttery pastry topped with a little custard and wild blueberries. This is very tastefully done, with the sweetness concentrated in the fruit. It's a bit like having an excellent croissant with some top notch fruit preserve.

Tried a cinnamon snail. It was good. I was expected a little more, but that may be because of all the hype. It is a croissant with cinnamon and sugar on top. I did like it much more than a traditional cinnamon roll though.

Like the croissants, these delightful cinnamon swirls are quite dense and hearty. The sugar and cinnamon levels are absolutely perfect -- sweet and cinnamony, but neither too sweet nor too cinnamony. Is cinnamony even a word? These are a top notch treat.

They have started offering a sort of bread pudding made with leftover pastries, so of course I had to try that with my excellent cappuccino this morning!

Capped with a thin ganache and served on a plate, this pudding is drier than the custard-drenched bowl of yum I'm used to. It was quite enjoyable but will likely be a one-time purchase given that the wonderful texture of the fresh pastries here is a huge part of the draw for me.

Of the two "topped" focaccia offerings, the stringy spinach on one and the strong cheese on the other didn't appeal to me or my family. You, however, might like it so don't listen to me.

We will stick with the incredible plain focaccia!

Tried a sweet focaccia with goat cheese, walnuts and honey. It was amazing. The slice was really big, so worth sharing since it was sweet. A similar sized slice of savoury would be good to eat alone.

lovetoeat, both en.wikipedia.org and www.carina-forum.com say that pizza bianca is a type of focaccia.

This looks more like pizza bianca to me.

static.guim.co.uk

credit to Katie Parla (parlafood) for the photo

This isn't the best picture but the taste of this focaccia is gorgeous! Perfectly oily, salty, and lightly charred on top. Chewy-crusty deliciousness! My new favourite treat-bread in town.