Panaderia Latina Bakery - Vancouver

My friend Marie and I were immediately intrigued by the Chilean sandwich we saw on display at Palandria Latina Bakery, so we decided to give it a try. The Chacarero sandwich was truly one of the best I have ever had! Served on a large, slightly toasted bun, it featured thinly sliced grilled beef, green beans, tomatoes, and mayo - a delicious combination. At $11.50, it was a great deal. We also tried some of their empanadas, opting for the chicken and spinach varieties. Both were generously filled and had a flaky pastry crust. We couldn't resist trying a piece of the Torta Alfajor cake, which was layered with caramel and had a delightful flaky pastry. The bakery also offers tamales, which we took home and found to be of impressive quality. The staff was friendly and patient with us, answering all of our questions about their baked goods and Latin American grocery items. Overall, a wonderful experience at Palandria Latina Bakery.

It's so nice to be able to enjoy a delicious oven-baked empanada with meat filling outside of Chile. It's definitely recommended. The cheese empanadas with flaky pastry are also a delight!

• This hidden gem is located just a half block north of Joyce SkyTrain Station. • There is free parking available along the streets. • The staff is friendly and helpful. • The pastries have a Chilean background and the restaurant is family owned. • The flan looked delicious and was perfect and mouth-watering. • There are plenty of breads, pastries, and desserts to choose from. • The Creme Caramel flan was incredibly smooth and not too sweet, a steal at $3.35. • The Milhoja, a puff pastry with Dulce de leche, was good but could have been creamier. • Different sizes of Milhojas are available for varying prices. • The chicken empanada was a bit disappointing with dry pastry and chunks of white chicken meat, hard-boiled egg, and olive. • Despite that, I will definitely be returning to try more items on the menu.

Although this bakery has been featured on the show You Gotta Eat Here, it doesn 't seem to have garnered the same level of attention and popularity as other places in Vancouver. This is a shame really because the bakery 's FREAKING FANTASTIC! As their name indicates, they are specialized in Latin American-style desserts, and features delicious dulce de leche in a lot of their goods. I 've sampled their Milhoja, Torta de Dulce de Leche and Torta de Hojaldra see below for more details). Everything was delicious my favourite was the Torta de Dule de Leche, which is a cake filled with cream and delicious dulce de leche), and the prices are a great bargain.<br/ <br/ Milhoja $3.95):<br/ 3.5/5<br/ The consisted of puff pastry with a generous layer of dulce de leche sandwiched in between. It was quite sticky and a bit messy to eat I ended up getting caramel and pastry bits all over my fingers and lap). The pastry was a tad tough at times, and seemed to have a slightly 'off ' flavour. The dulce de leche on the other hand was delicious; thick, sticky and sweet.<br/ <br/ Torta de Dulce de Leche $4.75):<br/ 5/5<br/ This consisted of layers of what I think is vanilla cream/mousse and dulce de leche sandwiched between cake and covered in coconut. And it was as fantastic as it sounded: the cake was soft and tender, and perfectly complemented by the cream and caramel, which lent both moisture and sweetness. The dulce de leche in this cake seems to be a bit different from that in the milhoja: it was runnier but equally delicious). The coconut added a great fragance.<br/ <br/ Torta de Hojaldra $4.75):<br/ 4.5/5<br/ Layers of puff pastry with tons of dulce de leche in between. This was like the Milhoja on steroids! While I did still find the puff pastry to be a bit lacking I think that it might be a tad underbaked), because the layers were considerably thinner than the Milhoja, I wasn 't nearly as bothered. Of course, I cannot get enough of the delicious, thick dulce de leche. I can imagine some people finding this dessert to be too sweet; for me however, it was fantastic.<br/ <br/ I love this bakery; it 's currently one of my favourite places in Vancouver for desserts. If you like dulce de leche, please do yourself a favour and head over there now; you will not be disappointed.

I am a little ashamed to admit that although I have worked in the neighbourhood for over a decade I only recently tried the Panaderia Latina Bakery. I was talking about it with some colleagues of mine and we agree that there is something about the physical structure of the sky train being between where we work and the bakery that feels like a psychological barrier that seems so far to cross.