Leonard's Bakery

          After spending the morning as a tourist at Hanauma Bay, why not keep being a tourist for half of lunch? Prior to our stop at Ono Seafood, we stopped at Leonard's Bakery for some freshly fried malasadas. This is probably one of the most the most famous eateries around Oahu, as they sell merchandise alongside the malasadas. If you don't know what Malasadas are, essentially they are just deep fried pieces of dough that have Portuguese origins. If you want a simple explanation, think doughnuts without holes. At Leonard's you can't miss the big flashy sign or the group of people hanging around eating their malasadas. Inside you can see a big case filled with baked goods, but you are here for the malasadas, which are nowhere to be found. Well, I guess that the goods could be gold, but we didn't try any, and they are (obviously) famous for malasadas. The reason is that they are made fresh to order, so there may be a wait. The pricing is average, put up on a board and a few other things so just watch the T.V showing odd and comedy like commercials for Leonards.

        

Malasadas, Cupcakes and Drinks Menu

           You can get two different kinds of malasadas, with or without filling. The filled ones are $1.50 and the none puffed items are $1.10. From what I see, there is no discount from buying more of them and you can pick what flavours you want. For the filled items, there are always the macadamia nut, chocolate, coconut, and custard flavours to choose from along with the flavour of the month. For the normal malasadas, you had the choice of the original sugar, cinnamon and li hing (salty dried plum). Of course we tried everything, starting with the macadamia nut, or the ones on the bottom right and left. Not sure why it was a macadamia nut flavour, as it was just sweet and tasted nothing like the nut. At least the dough was nice and airy: 3/5. Next we tried the original which was very good. Not overly sweet from fillings  this was a nice light airy deep fried ball of joy: easy 5/5. The guava, which was the flavour of the month during our visit was not very good at all. Although it was nice and airy as usual, the filling was much too tart and sour, and made the malasada not sweet enough: 2/5. Finally, we tried the li hing flavour, which seemed like nothing was out of the norm and was just like the original 5/5. Those were the 4 that we tried when they were hot, as we saved the other ones for later. It really isn't the same to write about the fresh and unfresh, so I won't try. Overall, what we tried at Leonard's Bakery was very hit and miss. Some were overly sweet, some hit the target spot on. I think the ones without filling are better than with filling. 

Bottom Line: Hit and Miss Malasadas

Tip: Unfilled > Filled                                        

Overall (hot items only): 4/5                                                                        One of Everything!!!

Maxim's Bakery (Whalley)

Maxim's Bakery Entrance

        Maxim's Bakery is a chain of bakeries that are scattered throughout the Lower Mainland. Actually, the Chinatown location there is the bakery with a restaurant above. Most of them just have the baked goods and you just buy them and leave. At the Whalley location, you just take a tray, a pair of tongs and go to get your pastries. I go there quite a bit, and the goodies are often very fresh and replenished often. They actually do a thing where there is no tax should you buy 6 pieces of anything, and do cakes for parties and whatnot. Not only do they do whole cakes, but also sell refrigerated small slices of cake. However, we only got the a few of the baked goods even though I will add a few pictures of the cakes I got a while ago.

Sausage Bun with Cheese

         We start with the Sausage Bun with Cheese for $1.75, which had just come out into the baked goods section. When we got home 10 minutes after the purchase, the bun was still warm. The sausage was just your generic sausage, which tasted like the kind of boiled sausage you could make at home. However, the cheese was topped with some green onlion which didn't do too much, but the cheese was melty. Under the cheese, there was some sauce that was a bit sour. It was slightly odd tasting, but it did in fact go pretty well for the bun. The bun was nice and warm. The bun was actually quite airy and really nice, but the one problem was that it was greasy.  However, this bun is still a 3.5/5. IT was acceptable for $1.75 too, even though it was nothing special.

Mini Coconut Bun $1.50

Pineapple Bun $0.60 for 1, $1.50 for 3.

           The next item we got was the Mini Coconut Buns, which looked pretty fresh while one of the employees showed us one of the fresh ones. My mom actually got his one, but she let me try a bit. At $1.50, this was a decent portion with some coconut shredding inside and sesame seeds on top. This was my first one, so I can;t really rate this bun, but it was light and airy like the Sausage Bun. The other item we got is the Pineapple Bun, which cost 60 cents for 1 or 3 for $1.50. This one was a bit disapointing, as it wasn't fresh even though it was around 3 hours after the opening time. This bun was a little chewy

with the outside as it was not very fresh. Probably sat there for quite a few hours after it was baked. Going along with the suspiction that the bun was a bit older, the pineapple thing on top was like eating a pineapple chip. Nor did it help that the bun wa pretty cold. Overall, this bun wasn't too great, probably because it was not fresh. However, on a few other times I have tried this bun, it is actually good when hot. I would give this bun a 2/5. 

8"Black Forest Cake $24?

      As a bonus, I'll show you people some birthday cakes. Whenever we ever get a cake, Maxim is our go to spot. #NotSponsored! Anyways, we like there cakes because the leftovers taste just as good as when we get them. However, stay away from the ridiciously sweet white chocolate. I thought that I liked sweet things, but this was really not good. So yeah, cakes are always affordable. Oh, and the picture on the bottom is their section of cold mini slices of cake. I wouldn't recommend them unless you wanted a treat, but you could probably get better.

Maxim's Cake Case

Bottom Line: Only If Fresh

Tip: Heat+Water=Fresh

Overall: 3.5/5

  Maxim's Bakery
 10153 King George Hwy, Surrey