Carlos Bakery — Restaurant in Mississauga

DO NOT GO. SAVE YOUR TIME AND MONEY. Overall, not impressed with the experience I had at this bakery. My family and I live 30 minutes away and it was not worth the drive. Firstly, the location itself is not convenient whatsoever. The parking lot is crammed behind the building and requires a bit of a walk to the storefront. The parking spots are also occupied by Carlo's Bakery trucks (they were randomly placed in the lot, shouldn't they have designated spots??). The inside of the store felt squished and awkward. There was someone controlling the person capacity limit although there was no sign of a counter in their hand (suspicious), even then it felt like there was an excessive amount of people inside the store. The ordering system is completely broken, you walk up to the counter and place your order of pastries (mind you, the selection of pastries is very limited and overpriced) and move to the side while they prepare your order. No offence, putting 3-4 pastries in a box should not take 15-20 minutes. There were 4 young employees standing around while one was preparing the orders. Meanwhile, all the orders have piled up which leads to standing around one end of the bakery amongst all the other people waiting. No markings on the ground for us to maintain social distance either. We ordered 2 chocolate cannolis and 2 lobster tails ($35 later) and stood off to the side while they prepared the order. Multiple people were already waiting but we ended up standing there for at least 20 minutes. They served each order one by one regardless of their amount. So for our 2 boxes of pastries, we still had to wait behind the larger orders ahead of us, resulting in lingering of customers. While we waited for an excessive amount of time, I watched a customer remove her mask and stand at the back of the store eating her gelato. Not a single employee noticed nor enforced covid restrictions and asked her to leave. The customer did this for the majority of our wait. She eventually finished and put her mask back on but there was no sign of mask enforcement. By the time we recieved our order, we asked for the lobster tails and the cannolis in seperate boxes beforehand, however the incompetent staff shoved the lobster tails in a tiny box, crushed them and put the cannolis in 2 seperate boxes (one in each box). Ridiculous! If I'm paying $35 for 4 pastries, at the very least give them to me intact. I also noticed the cake slices were being restocked frozen from the back. Customers were told to wait an hour before you eat them. Just another example of the low authenticity in this "italian bakery". The whole "bakery experience" appears more like a facade.

The only manager in sight refrained from telling the young employees to speed it up or do their job, as there were 5+ groups of people waiting on their orders. Although he was friendly, there was a lack of management of staff.

On a positive note, I went to the bakery the first week they opened. It wasn't as bad of an experience but likely because they had just opened the location. Their pastries are tasty and they also have pizza slices as well as sandwiches which are good too. However, everything is expensive, so be prepared to pay the price for mediocre product.

If you're looking for the italian bakery experience, I would NOT recommend Carlo's Bakery Canada. We've been to the Hoboken location when Cake Boss first blew up (although I'm sure things are different now) but the experience was much more authentic. Now that Carlo's Bakery has expanded and become more franchised, the authenticity is gone.

If your looking for something better, SanRemo Bakery is significantly nicer and family owned. More selection, reasonably priced and better service. They also follow Covid protocol very well. The cakes are fresh not frozen and the sandwiches are triple the size, better priced and tastier. I'd recommend going there before Carlo's for an authentic italian bakery experience.

I've attached the address below: 374 Royal York Road, Etobicoke

Forget Port Credit,...

This place is lovely and exciting. We wandered in, incidentally on the first day it opened. Grand opening day to come. There was a lot of little visual spots to take a selfie while waiting for your turn. It was not at all busy when we went and we were greeted by some very nice people. I had to try a sandwich and there was zero regret. It was absolutely delish! The mutz cheese (their mozzarella) is apparently made on site and it's so scrumptious. They also have pizza and I can't wait to try that too.

My son went straight for the rainbow cake. He loved it, as he prefers fondant over cream frosting. I prefer cream so it was not for me. A little dry as fondant cakes need to be more firm. I got a cannolli and it was spectacular! It was perfectly crunchy on the outside shell. This made an impact after having soggy cannollis at another bakery, recently. The cream inside was perfectly creamy. They had a limited selection of other deserts and some beautiful cakes. I wanted to try them all!

They also have a window facing the baking area so you can watch them make those exquisite creations. And I'm sure the Gelato will be super popular in the summer.

If you like souvenirs, there is a merch corner with all kinds of goodies from pens to shirts with their logo.

The service is a little slow as they seem to be dealing with growing pains but with experience, the staff will surely pick up the pace. When waiting to order my sandwich, there was another lady waiting in front of me for quite awhile. She was yet to be served as the girl behind the counter was faced the opposite way and cutting pieces of cheese.

The prices are much higher than most bakeries so get ready for the sticker shock. The one cannolli I got was $6 and it was plain. The slice of cake was $10 as was the sandwich. It's not affordable to be going there all of the time. It's more like the occasional indulgence. I would go back to grab another sandwich but now the lineups have started. Too bad there wasn't online ordering and quick pick up... or ordering on Skip the Dishes!

I gave them a fair rating as I felt the prices were higher than they should be; more selection would be nice, an express pick up window with online ordering would cut the wait time and encourage repeat business from those who've already been inside and just want to grab a quick sandwich for lunch; and they need to come up with a better system for moving traffic inside; they also need to learn how to make the orders flow better from behind the counter. I have faith that they will...

I was excited to visit this bakery and finally found the opportunity on May 15, 2022. I had gone in to purchase a strawberry shortcake for my daughter and had asked the girl behind the counter to refrigerate it as I would be enjoying a dessert with coffee on the patio. She explained to me that the bakery and patio would be closing at 9pm. No problem. First off, I had ordered the cheesecake, which was less than spectacular. I had high expectations so i was quite disappointed. I went back in to retrieve my "paid for cake". The young girl who had initially served us was busy tending to other customers. I noticed another young girl behind the counter. She looked right at me but didn't greet me. Fine, whatever. I explained to her that i was just here to pick up my cake as I had already paid for it. She then asked me what kind of cake i wanted. I again explained my situation. She then proceeded to explain to me that she was "THE MANAGER" and that she can't just give me a cake. I held out my receipt but before i could show her, the young girl explained the situation to her. Her tone and behaviour were extremely unprofessional and rude. She then gave me my cake but as I walked away, she yelled out "SO RUDE." Wow. I was tempted to return back to confront her but thought better and ended up walking away. It took every ounce of me not to confront her. We had the cake at home, not impressed. For that price I had expected soooo much more. It fell apart, it was very dry, sweet and crumbly. I had heard a lot about this place so needless to say, i was sadly disappointed. Never would i be returning. I don't wish this business to fail, but when you have this young manager exhibiting such disgusting, disrespectful and negative behaviour to a paying customer, one can only imagine other people's experience. First time...