Riviera Bakery

Afternoon coffee & snacks. Very nice service. The baked goods are awesome !! Next time when I am in the area, will definitely go back for afternoon break

So good and so friendly. If you are looking for an awesome authentic cannoli, this is your spot.

I heard about Riviera for its most famous dessert — cannoli. Some websites considered it as the best in Toronto but I think it was just OK… The staff was very friendly and made fresh coffee expertly. The ciabatta in bakery was good but the most important dessert of Italy — Tiramisu in Riviera was totally a mess… The mascarpone cheese tasted a little strange and lack of rum flavor. Not recommended.

Riviera is simply the best traditional Italian Calabrese bakery in the city of Toronto… period! Excellent authentic breads offers a starting point but the finish line are the pastries.
The owners have crafted their art for over some 40+ years. This is a Toronto institution don’t pass it by if in Little Italy.
PS. Try the Cannoli… they are the best I have had outside of Italy.

This was an unplanned stop for a quick cappuccino and dessert. The initial impression is off putting as the desserts look over sized and overly sugared versions of the European counterparts. They had a big sign in the window saying the best cannolis in Toronto (I assume they serve the Sicilian version here as the portion was huge). My friend ordered a slice of pizza and a Portuguese tart. Both of us ordered a cappuccino. The place was just overwhelmed as there was only one person at the counter making the drinks and ringing in the sales.
The cappuccino is a more traditional take and is nothing special IMO.
The cannoli was decent so was the pizza slice. The tart didn’t fare well.
3 stars all said and done.

Finished dinner at Ryoji and passed by here… hmmm… why not get some pastries to satisfy my sweet tooth … Picked, paid and left happily with a box of late night snackssssssss :)
11:00pm — pastry tasting started:
1. Tiramisu — the bitter taste was so strong that it hurt my throat (Are they putting in too much espresso flavor??)
2. Palmier — huge, crispy and delicious
3. Lobster tail — love this tiny one which just finished in 3 bites. It’s flaky and it shattered and melted in my mouth with the cream… yummmmmm

Been coming here for years and what use to be the best Cannoli in Toronto, unfortunately they seem to have become more sugar and cream and not as much cheese. Maybe they thought no one would notice… Great lunch spot with great Italian style sandwiches, I love the spicy sausage on multi-​grain bun. I do love the place despite the falling of the cannoli. Why do good things have to change.

Portuguese custard tarts are The item to have there. Very good ones.
i have to try other items now…

Had a taste of them from Taste of italy when we got cannolis and we were hooked.
They were so delicious!
So good that we came back for our anniversary dessert round 1 ! and shared a sicilian cannoli and it was still amazing as we remembered.
Would like to try other things eventually but cannolis were the best we’ve ever had.

I ordered 3 cakes on 3 different occasions and received the wrong type of cake every time even though I paid for a more expensive one. I would never order a cake from this place if you ever plan on hosting an event (ie birthday party) because you’ll never know what you’re going to get.

Old fashioned bakery on College St manned by little Italian grandmothers. It’s a humble bakery with a wide, long counter showcasing different desserts and a coffee machine to help prepare the espressos and cappuccinos. I inquired if they had iced coffee and was delighted to know she was able to make it! After asking what I wanted in it, she got busy and in a matter of minutes produced my iced coffee! I enjoyed it in the little bench right outside the bakery.

FIVE STARS for the Cannoli and Custard tart!
i came when the custard tarts are just out of the oven so i was blessed! they tasted havenly. bye diet!

The French horn is really good. I like the ambiance of the Bakery, and the service is pretty good. The espresso is authentic, but too bitter for my liking.

Une pâtisserie et une boulangerie de quartier à l’ancienne. Cette enseigne est ce qu’il y a de plus authentique à Little Italy. Pâtisseries italiennes, baguettes, pain classiques et plus encore.

After a nice Italian lunch in Little Italy, I decided it was time to grab a cappuccino and a couple of pastries. I remembered walking past this place so my friend and I made our way there before heading back to our hotel.
Upon entering, we smelled bread and desserts, which usually happens in a bakery. The cute little lady behind the counter was helping a couple and was very friendly when she got to us. As the daughter of Italian immigrants myself, I chatted with her a few minutes in Italian and English as she made my cappuccino. She was very charming and I congratulated her on being in Canada for 50 years.
Along with the cappuccino I ordered some kind of almond/​fruit cake and a vanilla icing-​topped custard cake (sorry I don’t know the formal names). I did notice she made many of the more traditional pastries like babas, cannolis, lobster tails, napoleons, and eclairs.
This is a cute little shop, with enough seating for a few people so stop in and grab a pastry and coffee; the cute little lady will take care of you.

I’m a little surprised to read the negative reviews about the service here. Maybe we happened to come here on a good day?
It was prompt, the little old woman helped us decide what to get, and once my boyfriend joked around with her a bit, she crackled a smile right back and chuckled. Maybe if customers were just friendlier sometimes, we’d get better service huh?
We got:
1) Traditional cannolis: very good! the ricotta filling is the perfect level of sweetness, and not cloying/​rich at all despite how much there is
2) Another kind of cannolis: this was different because it was made from a flaky pastry rather than deep-​fried dough, but pretty decent! nothing too special
3) Valentine’s meringue cookies: these were a bit tasteless and didn’t have that ‘chew’ that I like meringue cookies to have. it was just very, very crunchy and airy
There were a bunch of other nice-​looking desserts so I think I’d still come back and consider trying ‘em! (and definitely get a cannoli or two)

Was doing some shopping in Little Italy and had my lady suggested stopping in to pick up some desserts for later that night. I’m never one to argue with the idea of eating decadent sweets so we stopped in.
After perusing their wide variety of snacks and baked goods to choose from we settled with a couple chocolate cupcakes, a piece of blueberry cheesecake, and a chocolate rumball.
The cupcakes were amazing, probably the best cupcakes I’ve found on College Street. The blueberry cheesecake was also really enjoyable as it wasn’t over the top sweet which I find a lot of cheesecakes can be. The rumball on the other hand, well, it tasted like rum. A lot of rum. I guess some people might enjoy that but I typically like my booze and my chocolate served separately.
I was especially surprised and pleased that when I went to pay, all 4 desserts came to less than $ 10 after tax. I’m definitely going to be stopping back in here, and maybe even for lunch as they did have some really good looking sandwiches for what looked to be very fair prices.

Yum, yum yum! Sweet old school Italian bakery/​pasticceria. I bought some chocolate glazed doughnuts and cheese «Sicilian» cannolis to bring to a cottage weekend. We didn’t end up eating anything the day-​of, so the doughnuts were a little stale (although my friends enjoyed them) but the cannolis were still awesome.
Next time I go back, I want to try to the meringues (or were they macaroons?!), the eclairs, the gelato, the coffee… I might have to go back a few times.
They also sell freshly made breads.

Wow. Judging only from my visit, I thought that Riviera Bakery was fairly new. But there’s already 7 reviews here on Unilocal.Given that bit of insight, I will have to start by saying that Riviera Bakery looks unfinished.
Though the selection of beverages, breads, and pastries is plentiful and there’s a lovely mini-​tiled landscape in the entrance, something seems to be missing in terms of coziness. Yet, I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Apart from that, I guess it does make sense to me that the Riviera isn’t that new and is well-​known. It seemed to be quite popular, especially for dinner time on Saturday evening. That’s when I was there with a friend, to do a quick email/​work break before dinner across the street. Unexpectedly, people were constantly coming in to pick up homey, bakery style, celebratory cakes.
I had two cappuccinos made with Lavazza espresso. They were served quickly and in a friendly manner. However, if you’re a stickler for micro-​foam, stick to drinks without steamed milk. For later, I ordered a ricotta-​filled pastry the size of a three-​year old infant’s head. My friend ordered ¼ of the pastry case as an appetizer. He enjoyed them only moderately.
For lunch the day after, I barely managed to eat the infant-​head pastry. From the inside-​out: Sweet ricotta-​filling that is gently flavoured with citrus and chocolate; rounded out with a pastry that is surprisingly thin to carry the weight of its contents; rolled in (panko?) crumbs and deep-​fried. Indeed, it stood up to the test of time and was still tender, crisp, and tasty. Even though I don’t usually like the citrus + chocolate combo, it was subtle and the ricotta was just the right sweetness for me.
New or not, Riviera Bakery has a couple of kinks to work out to maximize its overhead. Its current location is convenient, yet close to competition, and possibly costly. As it is, I would probably only go back to pick-​up an infant head and leave immediately. There’s so many other bakery options.

Although I will admit that Riviera always immediately comes to mind when I think of bakeries in the Downtown area, I must agree that its really just «ok». Although they make a mean Cannoli and marvellous Calabrese Pita, beyond that the pastries are rather mediocre.
However, and its a big however, if you have never tried a Zeppola from Riviera, you are missing out on the most fantastic Italian pastry experience of your life. For the feast day of St. Joseph (March 19) Italian’s in North America for the most part bake a special dessert, and Riviera makes the best ones I’ve ever tried (and I’ve tried quite a few)! They are donut shaped dough fritters filled with pastry cream and amarena… divine!
Facing the bakery ladies’ wrath is worth in it, the month of March!

It’s a little funny that the previous reviewer noted a sense of hostility from behind the counter, because I too have fallen victim to that. My friend and I walked in, wanting to stop off for a hot chocolate or tea. There were two ladies behind the counter, one on the phone, the other just standing back there. As I walked towards the back of the store, the lady on the phone shouts «Where did you come from?». I glared back at my friend who looked equally surprised. She was talking on the phone, but staring right at us! It was a little strange and awkward.
They have some really delicious cookies, of the butter/​sugar variety. Brings back childhood memories. These are the type of cookies you buy per lb and end up costing close to $ 1 per cookie! They have some realyl big and tasty rice balls too, those are always a treat.
The staff aren’t the most friendly or inviting, so don’t expect much and you might be surprised!