Golden Hearth Bakery — Restaurant in Kitchener

An excellent bakery specializing in bread and pastry. I focus my reviews on the pastries. I had 4 pastries: A Croissant, a chocolate au pain, a blueberry danish and a lemon curd twist. All four pastries were notable for their excellent lamination Golden Hearth specializes in super crunchy flaky pastry and it was the joy of each of the pastries. If I had one critique it would be that they need to be more generous with the excellent fillings to balance things out. Both the lemon curd twist and blueberry danish had delicious punchy filling, but the filling was confined to such a small part of the pastry that it was somewhat lost. The croissant was excellent, and the chocolate au pain was my favorite of the four I tried.

A few details to note about the shopping experience: customers do not have access to the store, but order from the front door. I am not sure if this is a COVID protocol or is the standard set up of the bakery. The staff were attentive and efficient but it means you should expect a line up outside, which can be a challenge on days with inclement weather.

Though both richly deserve their four star ratings I inevitably have to compare Golden Hearth to Sabletine in the debate of who makes the best Croissant in town. My vote has to stay with Sabletine whose croissants were just as flakey but also...

Ode to the Passion Fruit Cruffin. Ever year we mail my little sister a package of local baked goods. This year we chose The Golden Harvest Bakery. Scootor my leg work guy loaded up on an interesting array of beautiful things. 2 of the Beautiful Things were Cruffins a Croissant baked in a muffin tin. Scootor had said they had a rosette of cream on top which turned out to be a marvelous little meringue with Passion fruit drizzle on it. I popped one in my mouth and grudgingly gave the other one to Scootor. I almost swooned. There was a curd inside made from the same passion fruit drizzle that topped the meringue. It was then I decided that there was too much in the box going to my sister and we needed them more than she did.The Golden Harvest doesn't just make sweets. They do amazing bread. If you are in need of bread to zup up a soup or sauce their Episode would be perfect. I was told that the bakery has Cruffins almost every week. Honestly I could eat more of them...

A great local bakery that does not use preservatives. The best bakery in Downtown Kitchener for cert, maybe the entire Region of Waterloo. Focaccia, epis, baguettes, multi-grains, croissants, scones, sourdoughs. Open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Best to arrive early because they often sell out. The temptation is to always buy a lot when you are there, but remember -- no preservatives. Better to come back. Nate and Tavis are happy to give you cash back when you pay with a debit card, so you have money for the market vendors on Saturday mornings. My only complaint is the place is not open Mondays and Tuesdays, and there is no fresh focaccia on Wednesdays. Everything I buy there I like a lot. And I have been buying bread there for more...