Cannoli, a light, crispy pastry shell stuffed with a sweetened filling of whipped ricotta that often contains nuts, lemon, or chips of chocolate. In the right hands, it can be a thing of beauty. In the hands of Madame Cannoli, it's a disaster.
I was very excited prior to this first visit to Madame Cannoli. It happened to coincide with their grand opening; there are very few places in this area where you can buy a good cannoli. Their concept of being able to customize your cannoli to your liking is uncommon and was certainly enticing. Unfortunately, these cannolis fell flat. Though the shells were nice and crispy, they were shorter in size than your standard cannoli. The biggest letdown here though was the filling. We ordered them with the classic filling. It was bland. It tasted of little to no ricotta at all (must have added whipped cream) and it wasn't at all sweetened. Someone in the bakery must have forgot to add sugar.
In the days leading to their Grand opening, they advertised on their Facebook page that they'd be offering a 2 for 1 special on their cannolis. When we finally got to the counter after waiting in line for 20 minutes, we were told that the manager decided to change that and the offer would only apply to the purchase of one cannoli at at time and so our expectations and request to purchase a dozen for the price of 6 was not honored. In the end, this may have been a blessing because it spared us from being stuck with more of those tasteless, inedible cannolis.
I really wanted to like this place. The St-Laurent/Cartierville area is in dire need of a decent cannoli shop. It's too bad that Madame Cannoli didn't live up to our expectations. Maybe it was a bad day. In any case, I'll continue to make the drive to Boulangerie Lasalle in Chomedey or to Patisserie Dolce Piu to get my cannolis. read more