This pre-Paczki day weekend, we decided to try out and compare three different paczki bakeries. Bartz was second on our list. We hadn't been before, but it seemed like a Dearborn staple and a good place to get classic, old school paczki. When we stopped by on Saturday morning, there were a number of customers just lounging at the tables, sipping at coffee and nibbling on pastries. Seemed pretty promising! Service here was super friendly and quick, and we decided on getting a couple of different flavors. Paczki ($3.33 Each) - We got three flavors, the traditional prune, chocolate, and buttercream. I hadn't had prune filling before so I had to at least try it out. The prune comes in quite a thick jam and the prune taste was very strong. I guess if you like prune, you will like this? For me - let's just say there's a reason I avoided getting prune for this long haha. For the other two paczki, the chocolate filling tasted and felt like those Snack Pack chocolate pudding cups. The buttercream was less of a dense and stiff buttercream and more like light whipped frosting with a heavy powdered sugar/frosting taste. To be honest, I didn't really like any of the fillings here. The paczki were glazed like donuts and the texture and mouthfeel was very similar to that of a donut: light and airy, with uneven bubbles in the crumb. The fillings easily displaced/compressed the dough. It was not nearly as light as, say, a Krispy Kreme or commercial donut; instead, it was similar to a good quality home made yeast donut. To be clear - I could definitely tell it was not a donut - the crumb structure held together better and it had a bit more of a chew. It's just that out of the three bakeries I tried, this one was by far the most donut-like. I wish I had bought an actual donut from Bartz for a comparison! I personally would not get the paczki again from Bartz. They tasted good enough, but I don't think there's enough to differentiate them from a normal filled donut. I would, however, possibly go again to pick up other treats in the future. Of the three paczki bakeries we visited, Bartz had the most homey, classic vibe. Just your everyday neighborhood bakery slinging out yummy pastries and bread. It's not a place you go out of the way for, but it's somewhere for locals and people who happen to visit the area. read more