Kensington Natural Bakery

By far the best prices for bake goods. And they taste great. Almond Butterfly sold a vegan gluten free pumpkin pie for $ 30. Kensington charged $ 10. Their cakes are also great. They have made several custom birthday cakes for me, all delicious.

I picked up a vegan pecan pie. It’s just OK. I would normally expect a pecan pie to be really gooey. Their pie is mostly crust and nuts — there’s not even enough goo to keep the nuts from flying off.

SOOO bad. Been here twice now, hoping the first time was just an off night. But nope, its bad!
My wife loves vegan, gf, all natural bakeries, so Ive had my share of these type of desserts, but wow this place is horrible.
Bought two cupcakes. They were both dry and tasted stale, and the flavor was off.

I’m sure the baked goods here would be good if they were fresh. I had high hopes when coming here after reading some good reviews and having had some difficulty finding vegan AND gluten-​free baked goods in Toronto.
There was a vast array of vegan and gluten-​free cookies and even more baked goods that were vegan and wheat-​free (contain spelt, which isn’t 100% gluten-​free). I ended up choosing three vegan/​GF cookies and a rice flour cocoa cupcake, all of which came out to be just over $ 6 … which is unheard of. But then I found out maybe why the cookies at least were so cheap.
They were stale. All three of the cookies I took a bite out of tasted like they had been made many, many days ago. They were dry, crumbly, and just did not taste fresh. Not at all tasty.
The cupcake was a little better. At least the cake part was still moist and the frosting — despite a mild off-​flavor I couldn’t put my finger on — tasted decent. That I could eat and enjoy.
But those cookies? NO.

You don’t come here for the atmosphere. But holy heck the price is right! You won’t find vegan/​vegetarian food and specialty bakery items anywhere for this price!
Many options are gluten and/​or dairy/​egg free, and lots of spelt and kamut. I enjoy the tofu or rice banquet, which is lasagna like and delicious and only $ 4.25 with salad. Butter tart without butter, as good as the original, $ 1.10. Are we in the 1980s?! The furniture would make you think so, but with 1980s prices, no complaints here (and I won’t ding em a star for it either.)
My favorite, only made when in season, is their Peach and Cranberry pie, with spelt crust. It’s so healthy yet satisfying. totally delicious. Also try their dumplings, and their spelt coco cake. Yum!
Huge fan for years. Never disappoints.

All these years I’ve been walking past Kensington Natural Bakery and never noticed it. I guess I saw it but I didn’t see it, if you catch my drift. Then I’d read stuff online that mentioned it and think ‘Where is this place in Kensington Market?’
Well, it’s not in Kensington Market, that’s probably why I took so long to ‘discover’ it. It’s just east of Bathurst in the Annex and quite possibly the last untouched business on this strip. It looks like it’s been here for eons, whereas nearly every other storefront has changed or, at least, updated over the past 10 years.
Because ‘bakery’ is in the name, I was expecting to find a big selection of baked goods. Instead I found a pretty decent selection of pre-​made vegan asian food and the very, very reasonable prices. If you dine-​in, you can get a plate of food (3 items) and a cup of soup for $ 6.
Nothing about the place makes you think ‘I’d like to stay here to eat’. There’s no ambiance, the walls are hideous shades of yellow and green, and the place is generally run down. For some reason it feels crowded, even though it’s empty.
If you can get past that, it works well for take-​out or even a quick bite. I recommend bringing your own containers because they are still stuck in the styrofoam age. The veggie stir-​fried noodles with tofu were pretty good and so was the garlicky snow pea dish I had. I will definitely give this place another shot when I’m short on dinner-​making time.
The baked goods I tried were a bit of a let down. I had one vanilla iced cupcake and one chocolate. They both turned out to be ‘healthy’ cupcakes, whatever that means — severely lacking in sugar. Maybe even sugar free. Great news if you’re diabetic, but crumby if you’re me. The vanilla turned out to be a carrot cake and the chocolate icing tasted mostly like cocoa powder than anything else. I’m curious to try their vegan pumpkin and vegan pecan pies. Maybe they are better? Maybe not? Maybe this is only a bakery in name and I should stick to order noodles. We’ll see.

I go out of my way to come here for certain items. Other stores buy these items from Kensington Bakery and sell them at a much higher price. If you come directly to the store, you can get them much cheaper. I’m not a huge fan of the café itself, it’s not very cozy and the staff can be kind of unfriendly sometimes. But this is one of the healthiest, best bakeries in Toronto, a real gem, in terms of product offerings.

One of my customer recommanded to me cause I’m vegan and she say they have quite some option so i went to.
I had a mud… pie (sorry impossible for me to remember this name)
well it was ok but not my favourite.
I also took a cupcake coco banana, the topping was delicious but then the cake wasn’t tasty it was powdery and birk awful.
Moreover the cashier was just not friendly at all so i doubt i will go back.

Potassium Chloride… Sorbic Acid… Calcium Carbondate… Calcium Sulphate… wahtttt??? Those are the typical things you will find in the list of ingredients of Wonder Bread or any other bread in your local supermarket. I don’ know about you, but I’m not a chemist, and even though I did ACE chemistry in highschool, it doesn’t mean I know what those things are and if they’re good for me.
Kensington Natural Bakery bakes their breads fresh and with natural ingredients. They have a good variety of loafs, from rye to seven grain and they’re baked fresh in the store weekly. I recently purchased their Farmer’s Rye Bread and like always do, I read the ingredients to make sure I could eat it first because I’m vegan and I have certain limitations. To my relief, I understood every ingredient listed for the Farmer’s Rye Bread, which made me feel good eating it this week because I’m confident that I’m not ingesting crap or something potentially dangerous or useless for the body.
This week I also tried their new product: gluten free, organic quinoa goji berries cookie. Priced at $ 1.25, this crunchy and lightly sweetned cookie is a delightful and guilt free treat because it’s gluten free and it has quinoa and goji berries, both very good for you!
Needless to say, I’ll be back. It’s hard to find bakeries that don’t use crap in their products. It’s also harder to find a place like this that won’t charge you an arm/​leg for their baked goods. Really, life is hard enough, people who choose to be healthier and eat wiser, shouldn’t be punished with high prices attached to our food. I don’t want to be the guy sitting next to me chowing down on a McD’s wrap for less than $ 2… sue me, I choose to exercise my rights and choose to not eat crap.

Kensington Bakery is full of all sorts of yummy surprises! Yes, there is a plethora of delicious baked goods (although not the best vegan options I’ve ever had) but they also have a great selection of hot, mostly vegan food.
For $ 5.25 (plus tax) you can choose three dishes (up to 400 gm in weight) and get an order of the soup of the day. I had heard so many good things about this place and decided to pop in after trying some of their cookies last week. I was really delighted with their colourful selection. When I grabbed my takeout container I was pleasantly surprised that it was as tasty as it looked. The soup of the day could have been better — potato and chickpea? Can you say «bland»? Although I can vouch their soup of the day isn’t always a miss, just based on my friends personal reviews.
If you’re on Bloor and need to grab something quick but crave something warm and nourishing, check out Kensington Bakery.
Cash only.