LEVEL V BAKERY — Restaurant in Vancouver

Level V is partnered with and shares a cafe space with Whisk Matcha, and from the perspective of a customer visiting the cafe, they basically function as one business since you order everything from the same counter. I have left a detailed review of the whole cafe on the location entry for Whisk, so here I'll just go over what the bakery offers. I am working my way through their offerings and think I've tried a pretty representative sample of what they serve, but there's always a wide selection available at the cafe and they're always whipping up new things, so I think I'd have to be eating their stuff every day if I really wanted to be able to try everything! I think that the objective best thing you can get here are either cookies OR come after they open and try a bun. Any bun. They are always fresh in the morning, and the slightly sweet yeast dough is so soft and tender. They rotate through various sweet and savoury fillings. The ube mochi bun that I think is fixed in the rotation is very good; one of my favourite seasonal offerings was the salted "yolk" bun, where the vegan salted yolk filling was actually made from squash. I like that they have some veganized versions of common Asian pastries that usually contain meat so that I can try these flavours. Most of the meat substitutes are not processed imitation products but creative culinary replacements. Even if you eat meat, if you have an open mind, I would still recommend these savoury buns if you want to try something different. The cookies are similarly very soft, not too sweet. These hold up their freshness better throughout the day so you don't have to come right at opening to enjoy them at their peak (the buns are also great at any time of day, but I do notice a difference between when they're just a few hours out of the oven vs later in the afternoon). They have staple flavours and rotating seasonals which are all interesting flavours (the staple matcha mochi cookie is heavenly). They have a few twice-baked croissants: matcha and almond. If you like really buttery, gooey croissants, these might not be for you, because they're a little crunchier than typical croissants and don't have that buttery sheen. I personally don't miss the butteriness and prefer this version, which doesn't leave me feeling like my face is oily after eating it. They're almost closer to a bread dough than pastry. The matcha version has a powerful dusting of matcha and a delicious matcha custard inside. They sell whole cakes, which can be preordered from their website or grabbed as a walk-in (they have a few available for walk-ins every day), and usually there will be something available by the slice. I tried a slice of pistachio cake and really enjoyed the moist crumb and smooth "buttercream" frosting. The cake was a little dense but I didn't mind it at all. I definitely want to try more of their cake after trying this one. They have various other desserts that come and go: lots of cupcakes in fun flavours, macarons, sometimes vegan cheesecake, sometimes bars, sometimes tiramisu. I haven't been disappointed with anything so far. Some are gluten-free. The desserts don't always taste exactly like their non-vegan or non-GF counterparts, but are always delicious in...

I left a scathing review last night because I was unimpressed with the product I ordered and had given this bakery a two star review.

NOW, I am changing my review to a 4 star review for this reason:

I went to a Body Energy Club and saw that they carried a slice of this bakeries Tiramisu and it was INSANELY HEAVENLY. AMAZINGLY moist and so tender and just melted beautifully on the tongue.

Unfortunately, I kept going back to the Body Energy Club and kept asking if they had anymore of her cakes and they kept saying no.

So for my birthday I decided to take the plunge an order a cake from this bakery because I was thoroughly impressed by the tiramisu. I was really hesitant due to the price and thought 45$ for a 6 inch was small but when I actually got the cake the slices were HUGE and more then enough.

This is where i gave this bakery a 2 star review.

The Earl Grey cake i tried wasnt good. The cake part was dense and dry and the buttercream was oily and overtly sweet. I also didnt get a distinguished earl grey taste. My family and me were underwhelmed and unfortunately I threw the cake away. I contacted Monica (owner) and told her about this.

SHE GAVE ME A FULL REFUND WITHOUT ME ASKING FOR ONE WOW! NOW TALK ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE! Especially for being such a small bakery thats still growing! Imagine how above and beyond someone went for my complaint. Monica could have easily told me to screw off but with no questions asked she gave me a FULL refund and profusely apologized and even acknowledged making a mistake.

Now she does have amazing products her tiramisu is what made me come back. I never buy cakes for my birthday but this year i took a chance and spent 45$ yes i was not impressed with the earl grey but many factors could have led to this and i dont think that this standard is this bakeries usual.

I 100% will give Monica my business from here on out she deserves it and she is catering to vegans with cakes that taste non - vegan (meaning not having any weird after taste as many vegan desserts usually have).

Please please please if anyone is looking at reviews deciding if they should purchase from this bakery PLEASE DO SO!

Try the tiramisu it is divine and well worth it. Im sorry for leaving a scathing review but I have changed my review from a 2 star to a 4 star review.

The only reason i took the 1 star off was due to the cake dryness but like i mentioned i dont think it is the norm of this bakery.

Please support her and her products. I know I will.

THE TIRAMISU IS A...

Don't trust their same day pre-order service on their website.

I was excited to try their Ube bun and placed an order in the morning at 11am for some Ube buns and mochi muffins. I received an e-mail shortly after confirming my order and saying that it was ready for pickup. I arrived just after 2pm to pick up my order but the staff member seemed confused when I gave them my name for my order. She checked the stack of boxes set aside for pre-orders and also asked another staff if she had seen it. After awhile she said to me that they had sold out of the Ube buns but still had the mochi muffins in stock. I was surprised and frustrated as I told her when I pre-ordered, the website had it still listed in stock, I had also received a confirmation email as well saying the items were ready for pickup. No one contacted me ahead of time to let me know the buns were out of stock, had I known I would have cancelled my order and would try again another time as I had driven 40 min to pickup these buns. The staff member refunded the cost of the buns I had ordered and gave some vague reason that someone might have bought the last buns the same time I placed an order. This is not an acceptable reason, and it was very clear to me that they had missed my order as my mochi muffins were not even ready for pickup or packaged yet. The staff member just grabbed it from the rest of the stock pile on display for walk-in customers and placed them in a bag for me at that time. I would have appreciated honesty from them to just say they had 'missed my order' rather than trying to cover it up.

The matcha and hojicha mochi muffins were nice and chewy...but the whole experience left such a bad taste in me that I am not in a hurry to go back. If you plan to use their pre-order service, I would call them to double check what you ordered actually exists, otherwise you might go home empty handed and...