Tre Mari Bakery — Restaurant in Toronto

3.5 stars... better than average with the Amaretti and Chocolate Chip Cannoli being 4 to 5 star. I would give an overall 4 star if the service improves.

A clearly beloved Italian neighbourhood bakery that has its regulars come in to enjoy an espresso and cannoli. I was finally in the area to check it out and try the famed cannoli myself. This bakery is far bigger than I expected with a full service hot plate area with everything from veal sandwiches to dinners, large seating area, gelato, a large deli counter, espresso drinks, and all the sweet baked Italian goods.

We came after dinner and was hoping for a light sweet bite to close out the night. The bakery allows a lot of light and there are many tables available to sit down. Most of the tables were clean. One clear misstep was the service... there was maybe only 1 person every 5 or 10 minutes trying to order something from the various sections. I spotted at least 1 to 2 employees at each counter. All counters except the actual cashier area was very slow. I stood in front of the cakes while a young lady stood in the middle of the gelato, cookies, and cakes hunched over reading something. I was like for around 5 minutes before the cashier finished cashing out someone and yelled out her name to make her be aware I was waiting. I saw this a few times. Off day with service perhaps?

Cannoli (vanilla and chocolate chip ricotta) - I say these prefilled and was worried as it was 8 pm and I know that a pre-filled cannoli is not usually a good sign. We still ordered 2 mini cannolis... one a simple vanilla and the other chocolate chip ricotta. I took a bite of the chocolate chip one and was pleasantly surprised how the pastry still had a nice crunch to it. It wasn't soggy. The sweetness was good and not overwhelming. It could have a bit more flavour (I usually love a bit of candied citrus to offer something more than just sugar). The vanilla one wasn't as good since the shell was definitely more soggy... it wasn't crispy and absorbed some of the filling already. The filling had a tiny hint of vanilla and lightly sweet. Not bad but the shell was a disappointment. 4/5 for chocolate chip and 3.5/5 vanilla

Amaretti (almond and maraschino topped) - They have an entire section just dedicated to amaretti and wow, these were just great. Full almond flavour that is not too sweet but very good. The texture was pleasantly chewy and for the ones that had a dusting of powdered sugar had a light thin crispy sugary shell... the maraschino cherry ones were the best as it gave a great cherry flavour (dont get the candied ones!) 5/5

Sfogliatelle - These were gorgeous... flakey layers all nicely seperated with a nice bronze colour. These were really well made. When I took a bite, the layers all shattered and was nice to keep that crunch even it was baked hours ago. What was unfortunate was the filling... even after 3 large bites to try to get to the filling, I kept finding air pockets. There was very little filling and what was there sank all to the back. It had a bit of vanilla but not much. 3.5/5

Butter cookies (blueberry and raspberry - These were really confusing as they were called butter cookies but after taking a bite, there was no taste of butter and incredibly soggy. It did come from a case that had a lot of humidity in it as the case was filled with water drops on the glass. These were more expensive than the cannoli so I was expecting something more but with it having no flavour and lacklustre texture, this was disappointing. I will admit that it looked very good. 3/5

I wish I could give this place a 4 star because they do have some great items... just the service seemed really...

A great neighborhood staple but with room for improvement

I want to start this review by saying I have been frequenting Tre Mari for at LEAST once a month for 2+ years and at this point feel qualified to review Tre Mari and share my thoughts.

THE GOOD:

Tre Mari is a beautiful neighborhood store with a rich history that you can feel as soon as you walk in the door. There is such a great vibe of an old world Italian bakery with a contemporary twist. Tre Mari's offerings are in short incredible. Having a deli, bakery, hot table, dessert, etc all in one makes it an absolute go-to visit for me and the family nearly every week.

The staff is incredible. They are warm, communicate properly, friendly and they smile and greet you. The girls at the hot table are super helpful and answer questions.

Food wise there are many items Tre Mari does right. The deli meat always tastes fresh and is shaved thin when requested. The donuts, cookies and (most) things at the hot table are extremely delicious. The canoli and tiramisu are also delicious and worth checking out.

Having a family friendly space is also greatly appreciated. I love that Tre Mari prioritizes having a variety of seating including bar-style window seating so you can have your coffee and pasty and watch the world go by.

TO IMPROVE:

Overall I find Tre Mari's pricing swings widely depending on the item. I don't understand why a small single cookie costs over 3 dollars for example. Or why a frozen lasagna is priced so high I might as well order something from the hot table.

I find some of the bakery items could use improvement as well. The cakes in particular do not seem worth the price point. We found they were dry and lacked a richness and bordered on being even less delicious then a store bought cake from a chain like Loblaws. Some of the hot table dishes (like the pastas, veggies, etc) could use a little improvement. Some feel one-dimensional and lacking richness in the sauce.

I find the marketing a little excessive, I'd love to see more of the time and budget that's spent on branding, overly art directed window displays etc. spent on actually improving the quality of various products themselves.

My last point of feedback would be to the coffee. The coffee taste doesn't land as well as it should (this is feedback from many friends) and the service feels extremely slow at times depending on what's happening over at the south...

Great tasting food and cakes. Have ordered many times and management seems great but unfortunately had some less than perfect experiences with expensive cake order pickups that weigh heavy on my heart.

Picked up a cake order for a family member (did not know what the cake was to look like) and they had forgotten to make it (I am assuming) and I waited 30 minutes to pickup a baptism cake that should’ve been two tiers and a different flavour and received a sheet cake without apologies or an explanation. Showed up to the baptism with the wrong cake and the mother was not happy.

My wedding cake was from here as well. I’m sure it looked beautiful prior but unfortunately it did not have enough supports put into the three tier cake. It fell over in transit despite being carefully transported (cakes of similar size have been successfully transported prior to this - not the first time and not the last that it has been done) A very costly error. Thankfully our caterers tried to put it back together (did not look great but we made do) and it did taste amazing but the caterers were disappointed in the lack of support the cake had for the size of it. Disappointing considering how much it cost. Mentioned it to tre mari when I once again ordered from them because their cakes do taste amazing and just received an apology and nothing more. The cake ended up being hideous for photos (I try to laugh at it) but guests once again loved the taste.

We have had a couple good successful orders from them that went without issue. I guess depends who is working on the order? Not sure. Will probably go back for smaller less risky cakes because my family just loves the moistness of their cakes lol. My favourite is the hazelnut cake with added strawberries and the lemon cake is a...