Regina Sweet Bakery and Coffee House Review

So, the food reviewing starts! I might even do two in one blog, because we had duck last night and it was delicious. Anyway: Hildy’s mom and I went to tea/lunch on Saturday at Regina Sweet Bakery and Coffee House. I was craving a biscuit. It’s a somewhat silly thing to crave, as they’re easy to make but I can never make just ONE at home. So I end up having to eat them all. Slathered in butter and jam. And – given that I’m so close to a grocery store – I’d be tempted to add clotted cream to that. Yes, adding cream to the already present butter. I’d end up staying in the apartment, too big to get out the door. Because one dozen biscuits with all three toppings would be followed by another and another and another. Sigh. I have weaknesses!

In the end we chose Sweet because it was close to the park where the dragon boat racing was going on, and because they have lunch and tea things, and good vegetarian choices. My companion is the vegetarian, I’m an omnivore. See above, re: duck! We had been there once before but sadly they were out of vegetarian choices that time. They weren’t out of odd people (us included, perhaps?) having lunch. Now, generally, I have nothing against the odd. Different people make the world an interesting place. But having someone alternate between listening intently to our conversation and doing strange ritualistic things with paper and mutterings in the interim is a bit more distraction than I care to have when I am trying to have a pleasant visit with a friend. So, perhaps this time there would be veggie choices available, and nothing unusual with the other customers. Yes and no, as it happens. Nothing TOO unusual with the other patrons, but I did get a very strange look from someone. The kind that makes you wonder if you forgot to put clothes on, or if they’re on backwards, or they're on fire or something. But harmless. And I wasn’t on fire, so it was all ok. I had clothes on too. They MAY have been backwards, though! My friend had the French pastry with tomatoes and goat cheese. I assumed it would be puff pastry, and I worried that it would be pre-made lard puff. It ended up being basic pastry. Which she said was fine, as was the crumbled cheese on top. The sad thing was the bland imported from somewhere store bought tomato. As my friend pointed out, there we were with farmer’s markets and gardens and local produce in abundance and yet…bland slightly under ripe slices of imported tomato. Also, the pastry was baked and then the slices of tomato were placed on top. Because the bottom slice was slightly cooked from the heat of the pastry but the rest were cold slices of blah. With cheese. I should have asked her what she would have rated it on a scale of 1-10. Six? Seven? I had a lemonade and a pecan coffee cake. They had biscuits as part of various lunch choices but for no reason I can defend I am not comfortable asking for something that is not specifically listed as a thing on its own. So I didn’t have a biscuit. Which is just as well, as I don’t know if they would have had jam available. Butter yes, jam perhaps and clotted cream certainly not. Where on that scale would I rate what I had? Lemonade an eight or even nine, muffin/cake thing a three or a four. It did have a pecan. And it had good flavour but it was incredibly dry. Almost as though they made individual coffee cakes with streusel topping and then for mine forgot the cake part and just filled the thing with crumbly topping. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good thick topping. It’s just…to be a topping you have to be on top of something, yes? Overall, I think I would go back. For a lemonade to go. I'll start carrying my camera around. Hopefully next review will have pics! (The Boy said the duck was fantastic. I was pretty happy with the results too. Just in case you were wondering.)