Reservation For Three: Butter Tart Cafe - Sticky, Sweet, and Boring

So we finally visited Butter Tart in Glassel Park today and I have to say I was quite disappointed. Part of the problem is that I don't think I had a clear understanding of what butter tarts are all about. Knew they were a popular Canadian thing, but didn't realize they'd be so sticky and gooey. I ordered one plain, one with bacon, and a coconut cupcake. Both tarts featured a nice tart shell filled with a boring, sickeningly sweet custardy/pudding filling.

To be fair, there's a lot of good stuff going on at Butter Tart. The ladies who helped me were friendly, helpful, and generous (two scones were on the house - it was the end of the day so they would have wound up in the trash) and the cafe was filled with natural light and a clean design. Loved the cardboard deer (or were they moose?) heads mounted on the walls - a nod to Canada perhaps? And the maple scone was not half bad.

My cousin just married a Canadian, who happens to be lovely, but these things are popular in Canada? Yuck! What are they thinking? And to build a whole cafe around the butter tart? It must be me because a lot of people seem to like them, especially the ones with bacon. My husband thought the plain one was one dimensional so he sprinkled a little fleur de sel on it and declared it improved.

The cupcake was fine, but in a city still cupcake crazy, you have to do better than this. Dense cake, slightly tangy cream cheese frosting, again, just ok.