Best Bakery: True to its name?

Best Bakery Review

Best Bakery has been around as long as I can remember [which admittedly is not too long!].  In the typical ‘kid in a candy store’ fashion, I remember going to their Kaloor branch and looking at the various pastries, sweetmeats and cakes at eye level as the counter was about as tall as I was at the time! They also had several other things included branded biscuits and chocolates. The main point of interest however, has always been their range of biscuits. Our favourites were the Salt biscuit and the spicy ‘Masala biscuit’ which I initially was not too fond of when my young taste buds could not take the mild but persistent heat although that eventually outgrew everything else to become my favourite.

Having several branches across the city is a strong point, making their products easily accessible. The Edappally branch even featured a restaurant [now closed] with decent food and possibly the best porottas I have tried. Over the years, they have grown and so have I, to the point that I have to look down at the glass display at the pastries and cakes; in some areas, metaphorically too: the pastries at least no longer inspire the same sense of delight I used to feel. Especially after our taste buds have tasted the remarkable quality of offerings that came first from Breadline at MG Road in the early 2000s [which has since closed down, wonder whether anyone actually remembers that place!] and shortly afterwards: Bread World, which still sticks around. [We are focusing on Kochi and not counting back to really great cakes we have had outside of Kerala years before those popped up too.]

Now after years of refraining from buying any pastries from them, we finally decided to give those another chance and see whether things have changed over the years, and [somewhat inadvertently!] also sample a few new additions. Who am I kidding, the main purpose if you have been paying attention to this point was: to get ourselves some of that delightful masala biscuit! On to the food we go!

Masala Biscuit

The masala biscuit is a real treat for the taste buds assuming you can tolerate a little bit of spice. The biscuit itself is rather perfectly round and has a light but lovely glaze on top. 

It has bits of lovely caramelised onion, black sesame seeds, black pepper, bits of curry leaves and a hint of ginger. Bits of cashew only add to the incredible richness of the biscuit while providing a bit of crunch too. The biscuit itself has an amber-brown colour and a remarkably powdery yet firm texture that breaks nicely. If you can handle a little bit of heat and there is just one thing you must try from here, it has to be this one. If you cannot take any hint of spice, move onto the next item.

Butter Salt Biscuits

Danish Cookies have nothing on this one! The biscuit is not very sweet as most bakery biscuits tend to be and that is where it works: the mild flavour of the biscuit works great with the wonderful grains of saltiness. 

The real highlight is the texture: it is incredibly soft and really powdery. It holds its shape but does not snap clean; it simply crumbles. Other bakeries have tried to match its success but nothing we have tried from anywhere else has even managed to come close. The others ones are either too sweet or the texture is just wrong: usually ending up too crisp. The ones here are the best we have had, anywhere. For the record, this one is free of egg too so it is vegetarian. Use of butter means it has lactose however.

Carrot Cake Loaf

This is a rather new addition that was not there a few decades ago. We tried it only recently however. The exterior looked promising with a mild dampness to the touch and a dark, dark colour on top with noticeable flecks of carrot, dried fruit and nuts distributed in the body of the cake. It had a lovely slightly sweet aroma with a few notes of spice.

When we took a bite, we were pleasantly surprised that it was rather moist, perfect sweetness. This was reminiscent of fresh homemade cakes. The cake was perfectly sweet aided by the dates and the nuts improved the overall texture. This was a definitely a purchase we were happy with and is very economical considering the quality and weight. It has a disclaimer you can see on the box, which states that it contains egg.

Black Forest Pastry

Just out of curiosity, we tried out their Black Forest pastry which used to be the go-to cake for most people for almost any occasion.

AND IT WAS… Still pretty much the same. Bummer. 

The overall mind numbing sweetness of the cake seemed to have generally reduced thankfully but the cream was still rather cheap feeling and the overall combination left a lot to be desired as the cake itself hardly had its own flavour. It still has not caught up with the other bakeries on this front. Other buttercream cakes may work fine as long as they are coined as ‘old-fashioned’ cakes but a black forest should still be a lot better than this in order to bear the name. Sure, even the ones sold in more expensive bakeries are pretty far from the real thing which should have sour cherries and Kirsch. Bloomsbury had one that was close but it was too long back for us to accurately review. I guess you will likely need a German Visa to experience an authentic ‘Schwarzwalder torte’!

To sum it all up:

Biscuits are as great as ever, they remain our all-time favourites

Most pastries still leave room for improvement

They have adapted slightly: the new cakes are well executed

Could improve quality of certain cakes: especially Black Forest.

They are doing well and it would be in their best interests to keep up the quality of their biscuits and savouries high as always.

Best Bakery, true to its name still has the best ‘bakery biscuits’ in the city. Their savoury items are also good enough quality even if it may not be the absolute best available. They remain one of the most iconic bakeries of Kochi and have some unique and delicious offerings that you will not find anywhere else, daresay: in the world. 

Type of Cuisine: Bakery, Desserts, Cakes, Savouries, Snacks
Location

Near Axis Bank, Manimala Road, Edappally.

Parking: Most branches have space for a few cars in front, should not be a problem.

Ambience: Average

Service: Quick, Pack 'n Go!

What we liked/Recommended for:

• Delightfully rustic biscuits. 
• Old-fashioned butter cream cakes. 
• Good quality snacks and savories; much to choose from. 
• Value for money. 

Potential Shortcomings:
Some items still stuck in the past [details above]. Stiff competition. 

Taxes: Included in price, no fat tax applicable.

Phone Number: +91 484 255 5957

Timings: 08:30 - 21:30

Website: https://www.bestbakers.in/

On Zomato:

     

Afters Bake House: Is this another ‘After’thought?!

Afters Bake House Review

Having various branches across the city, ‘Afters Bake House’ is a relatively new chain of bakeries that offer the usual complement of cakes, pastries and savouries. With several other well established bakeries all around town, are they worth your money after all? (*Haha! you see what we did there? 'After all...' never mind.*) 

We decided to find out.

The branch we visited was at Palarivattom, opposite the Corporation Bank Zonal Office. 
Walking into the store makes you feel like you just stumbled into an underground cave or cellar. The interiors could be summarized in one word: dark. They had black tiling, walls etc. and even the tables are a very deep colour. Heck, even the serving tray we saw was deep brown!!! This monotony was only marred by a white pillar with a few other items on its shelves, reminiscent of a candle in a dark room! [The plates are white though]. The place was clean enough too. Like any bakery, the glass counters had all the various baked goods arranged neatly. Right, let us ‘shed some light’ here [Buuurn!] on the food itself!

Chocolate Triffle/Truffle Cake

Depending on whether you go with what the menu says or the staff [at least that day] calls it. 

This one had a dark layer of chocolate on top, a mousse like light cream layer after that and layers of cake. It worked well and had good flavour. The cake was soft and spongy too. 

<Some Dense chocolate cake>

Forgive us but we forgot what they named this cake. We just pointed to it and they served it. Hey, at least we are being honest about it! 

Like most places, this one was quite good with a decent layer of dense chocolate ganache on top. The outer edge had some chocolate shavings too which contributed to the texture. The cake too was reasonably moist enough. It checks all the required boxes for these types of pastries.

Vancho Cake

The layer of icing was rather thick, almost as much as the cake. Unfortunately, it turned out a bit too sweet for our taste too. The worst part was that it did not seem very fresh: it tasted like it was just on the verge of becoming rancid. Don’t get us wrong: it was not bad just yet but it was definitely not fresh either. We do not know whether this was a one-off incident but boy are they unlucky it happened to be this way with when we decided to pop in.

Paneer Puffs

Puffs are just savoury snacks in which a savoury filling is enveloped by puff pastry. While it looked massive for its size, the first bite revealed the same problem everyone has and what we expected given the price point: it had too many layers, overwhelming the amount of filling inside. This is a shame because the filling itself was actually quite tasty, when it was not drowned in the vast ocean of puff pastry. It had creamy paneer [fresh cottage cheese] and a few spices which worked well together.

Chicken Vol Au Vent

The Vol Au Vent fared a bit like the puffs but in the opposite way: the filling did not really taste or feel like chicken at all. It was generally nice and creamy however. The pastry outside was layered and rather well baked.

Ghee Murukku

With a segmented shape reminiscent of fusilli pasta or caterpillars  [not as gross as it sounds, look at the photo!], the murukku had cumin (jeera) and black sesame. It also uses ghee which is a type of clarified butter, so it tasted fine. 

Cuteness aside however, it was really not that good. It was not very hard but neither crumbly enough like a good ghee murukku should be. 

Overall, it is another bakery that has some good offerings. The pastries are generally a good option to go with. The quality control on those do require more attention however, citing the above experience with the vancho cake. 
The savoury baked goods we tried did not do as well though due to the imbalances mentioned earlier. Maybe if we had opted for some other items, they may have fared better but who's to know. 

To sum it up: if you happen to be looking for a decent bakery in the vicinity, you cannot really go wrong with Afters, they have reasonably good quality and the prices are competitive too. Had they opened up a little earlier, they would have seen better days and we may have found ourselves returning for more but as it stands now with our first experience, we probably would not go out of our way to buy something from there exclusively. That being said, we would not mind having something else from here again either. We hope to give them another chance soon enough and possibly find items that are really recommendable.

Type of Cuisine: Bakery

Location [Mutliple]

  Opposite Corporation Bank, Heaven Plaza, MV Road, Palarivattom.

Parking: A few cars in  front, should be enough.

Ambience: Dark! Clean. 

Service: Good, quick.

What we liked/Recommended for:

Generally decent quality goods. Regular pricing. 

Potential Shortcomings: 

• Some items could use a little tweaking [read more above]. 
• Average quality packaged items. 
• Some cakes were not fresh [could be one-off]: needs QC. Will update if we ever happen to go again. 

Taxes: Included in price

Phone Number: +91 86069 05706

Timings: 09:30-22:00

Restaurant Website: http://www.afterscakes.com/

On Zomato: 

     

Sucree Dessert Mill: Desserts to Go!

Sucree Dessert Mill Review

Don’t let the Simple stall-like storefront of this pastry and dessert brand fool you into thinking this is some rookie initiative: as we found out, this place sells some rather compelling dessert options. How good, you ask? Read on to find out!

This stall is located on the second floor of Center Square Mall at MG Road, Kochi. It has a simple yet neat look to it, with the day’s pastries neatly arranged in the glass display unit. This however brings us to the only potential problem: if you buy something, you have to go elsewhere to eat it: there are no chairs or anything to sit on. So if your sweet tooth beckons and you really need to eat something at the mall itself, we suggest that you buy it from them and take it upstairs to the food court. We ended up buying a few pastries and bringing them back home for our 'analysis'. 

Sorry for the admittedly poor quality photos this time, we were so impatient to try out the goodies that we forgot to verify whether it was shaky and do a retake; I did not expect such a low shutter speed during the exposure and it looked fine at a glance. So much for not pixel peeping. I guess we will just buy it again instead!
Alas, I digress. Right, enough of the ambiance and silly tech rants, time to grab ourselves some dessert!!!

Devil’s Food Cake with Fudge

Nice well baked chocolate cake with decadent chocolate coating. 

The cake itself was rather moist; an absolute prerequisite for anything that should bear the name of Devil’s food cake. It was dotted along the outline with silvery sugar balls for crunch.

Caramel Bar

This had a layer of fudgy yet soft caramel. It was not overwhelmingly sweet thankfully, and had a good caramel flavour. 

A lovely shortcrust added just a touch of graininess to balance the texture and sweetness. It is reminiscent of munching on a soggy bar of Twix that has no chocolate coating. A delight for the senses!

Mango Cheesecake

We also went with a mango cheesecake; this had a light yellow colour. It was creamy and tasted mild, like it had real mango. 

The biscuit base was rather simple. We have had better cheesecakes in general [we have baked quite a few ourselves using imported Kraft Philadelphia Cheese] but for the price, these were good enough nevertheless.

We tried no less than three completely different items and all of them definitely met our expectations. Currently, the prices are also not disproportionately high considering the quality. We daresay it is arguably among the best places to grab a cake in the city.

Of course, don’t take our word for it, try it for yourself!

Type of Cuisine: Cakes and Desserts 

Location

Second Floor, Central Mall, MG Road.

Parking: Mall parking at Central [Chargeable] is fine except on very busy days and weekends when it may get full and you might have to wait to find a spot.

Ambience: Dainty stall looks cute and all that but no chairs to sit, so this could improve.

Service: Obviously quick: just pack and get going!

What we liked/Recommended for:

Good quality cakes and desserts. Strikes a good balance of sweetness. Pricing is just fair for most items.

Potential Shortcomings:
No seating may be a turnoff for some. Some may consider it expensive. 

Taxes: Included in price.

Phone Number: +91 75599 51009

Timings: 11:00 - 22:00

Website: https://www.facebook.com/sucreedesserts/
On Zomato:

      

As always, stay tuned for updates and new items on this review!

Bloomsbury’s Boutique Cafe & Artisan Bakery: Blooming with Goodness!

Bloomsbury’s Boutique Cafe & Artisan Bakery Review
Bloomsbury’s is located on the second floor of LuLu mall. While we have been buying cakes and pastries from here for quite a while, it wasn’t until recently that we finally decided to try out their other offerings. Serving up a variety of different continental dishes, they have an exciting menu that encompasses pastas, Nasi Goreng, and salads through to pizzas, burgers and more commonplace items.

On the same floor as PVR cinemas, they have a dining area with lots to see in terms of things on the walls and even artifacts like kettles, teapots etc. on shelves suspended from the roof. There are plenty of seats and the service deserves a special mention with attentive staff who are willing to help with your order.

Pizzas

The pizzas here are Italian style thin crust, shaped like a rounded rectangle rather than the traditional circular ones you see everywhere else. Each is about 12 inches lengthwise. We ordered the 'Sollo Pollo' and started tucking into it before we realized we did not have a photo to show! Still took one to give you an idea of the toppings it has.

As you can see it is a thin crust, typical of an authentic Italian pizza. Each slice is topped with a small slice of salami that has a bit of mayonnaise on it. Worth mentioning is the fact that the mayo is really delicious, being nice and full flavored. There is plenty of tomato base to keep it nice and moist. The sausage and ham are also fully cooked and taste delicious. Each pizza is enough for two, and maybe even three if you do order any side dishes. It was different and worth ordering.

Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice)

Nasi Goreng is the Indonesian name for fried rice. It is supposed to be one of the most delicious foods in the world so when we found this one on the menu, we just had to try it out. Here, they serve it with satay and dip.

It was presented well with the rice packed tightly into the shape of a dome and had an egg on top. On the side were the two skewers of satay with three pieces of chicken on each and the peanut dip in the small bowl, along with some sliced vegetables (carrot, cucumber and onion).

When we started eating the rice, it became apparent that this was the type made with shrimp paste. Thus it had a rather fishy tone to it. If you love your seafood like just about everyone in Kerala does, you will really love the flavor of this dish. Others may want to think twice before ordering this. Other than that, it had bits of scrambled egg in the rice as well as spring onion and so on. As with the pizza, there was enough quantity for two and maybe even three people.

Chicken satay served with it was just alright: it had a very mild tangy-sweet flavor and the pieces were cooked well, the peanut sauce fared better though.

Cakes and pastries

They arguably have some of the best cakes in town. They are slightly more expensive than others but the size of the portions kind of makes up for it.

They have a rather unique take on the Black Forest cake; it has some liqueur sprinkled over it and marinated cherries in between. This is one of the only places in Kochi that I have ever had a Black Forest like this one and is probably closer to the real Black Forest cake in Germany.

We also tried their Honey Crunch Cake above, Which had walnut for crunch, honey and caramel for flavoring. We found the three layers of frosting is of an almost overwhelmingly rich, butter icing.

What keeps us coming back for more is the Golden Chocolate Cake. While it is said that all that glitters is not gold, this is definitely one of those exceptions. The golden color comes from the golden powder they use. Not only does it look good, it tastes great. It is a chocoholic’s delight as it has a rich and thick layer of chocolate on top of the dense, dark chocolate cake. Don’t take my word for it, have a look at it above, try it yourself and you will see why.

Just in case you were wondering, yes; that is a picture of my birthday cake!

Type of Cuisine: Continental, Bakery
Location

Near PVR Cinemas, second floor of LuLu Mall, Edappally.

Parking: Mall parking at LuLu [chargeable] is fine except on very busy days and weekends when it may get full and you might have to wait to find a spot.

Ambience: Typical mall ambience, love it or hate it!

Service: Very good, highly attentive.

What we liked/Recommended for:

• Quality cakes 
• Good ambiance 
• Great staff 
• Good continental fare

Potential Shortcomings: 

Some items could be better priced. 
Taxes: Included in price
Phone Number: +91 484 4059034
Timings: 10:00 - 22:30

On Zomato:
      

So head over there and enjoy some great food, you will have a great time as long as you know what you are ordering. Which hopefully, you now know! Let us know in the comments below!