About

This blog is to log my reviews of the bakeries I’ve visited.

The reviewed items fall into three categories: bread, pastry (specifically laminated dough) and everything else.

I’d try to improve the rating system over time so that it accounts for all the defining features of the corresponding category. Note that despite of my goal to keep reviews “objective” and consistent within the system (let’s call it Y-system), The very system is highly “subjective” and customized to my own preference. So please take all the reviews here as an open-minded opinion for your reference rather than an authoritative verdict. Everyone has a highly tuned metric developed subconsciously to match their underlying taste. What makes a good bread/pastry/xxx is a long debated question that even mainstream standards don't converge, rather each has their own take. Like any form of art you can't really define a universal "standard". What you can do is to introduce a new perspective. I'm here to present you the Y-system.

I keep things intuitive and informative. It’s all about bakery reviews. Each entry reviews one bakery. I'd give an overall rating. It's the top level metric that factors in everything important including quality, value, consistency etc. I'd also add some descriptions regarding the bakery's strength, novelties, style etc. Separate reviews will be given to some individual items, either best of the best or critics.

Disclaimer: I consider my own kitchen as a home bakery. So I will occasionally add reviews to my own products under the same standard used in this blog. It’s to i) help me recognize the gap between home bakers and professional bakeries, and ii) document the stable recipes or novel ideas from my experiments.