Sarkis Bakery

Sarkis Bakery has been in business for more than 25 years specializing in Middle Eastern and Armenian desserts. Their flagship bakery, located in the Armenian capital of Glendale, CA., is filled with dozens of diiferent treats, the most I've seen at any bakery recently.

We ordered over a dozen different treats that ranged in price between 50 cents and $1. I've organized the desserts between ones I enjoyed and the ones I did not with a few notes.

Desserts I enjoyed:

1) Deep-fried filo wrapped around creamy ishta cheese. The preparation created a crisp seal to the soft filling. The cheese, however, tasted of inferior quality, a poor man's ricotta cheese.

2) Probably my favorite, a sesame encrusted cookie with a date filling. It was the most balanced flavor combination thanks lack of simple syrup.






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Desserts I did not enjoy:
3) The desserts are drenched in simple syrup to the point that it overwhelmed any other existent flavor.

4) The most interesting dessert of the day. Zulubia, described as yeast-leavened batter, fancifully swirled into hot oil until cooked and dipped in a special flavored syrup. After just one bite, you get nothing but sugar and you can't nor would you want to take another bite.

5) A sesame and almond cookie respectively. Dry as dirt and both had me screaming for a fresh glass of camel's milk.

6) I've vacationed in Tokyo on several occasions and this is just unappetizing baklava. It should be enjoyed the day it is prepared rather than a week later. This was evidenced in the denture tender nuts and the buttered filo top layer.

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Sarkis should reduce the number of desserts offered and focus on the quality. It was obvious that most of the products had been on display for a while. The greatest flaw, however, is their excessive use of simple syrup and I was surprised to see it on LA magazine's list of Top 20 bakeries, very surprised.