The Best Persian Bakery in Richmond Hill & Markham (2026)

What makes a great Persian bakery

A real Persian bakery is defined by bread baked fresh, in small batches, throughout the morning — not once at dawn and left to sit. The loaves should be warm when you buy them, with a crust that crackles and a crumb that's still soft and pliable an hour later.

Beyond bread, a Persian bakery carries the sweets of celebration: baklava layered with pistachio and honey, knaffa warm from the oven, gata for tea, and the seasonal pastries of Nowruz. The baker should be able to tell you what's in each one and when it was made.

Finally, there's the cultural piece — a Persian bakery is a gathering point for the community, a place where the language, the smells, and the bread of home come together. That's what we set out to build at Ganash Bakery.

Persian baking in Richmond Hill and Markham

Richmond Hill and Markham are home to one of the largest Persian communities in the Greater Toronto Area, and Highway 7 has become a corridor where Persian food culture thrives. For families here, finding a bakery that bakes sangak- and barbari-style bread fresh — not frozen, not days old — is the difference between a taste of home and a compromise.

Ganash Bakery sits at 372 Highway 7 Rd East, Unit 115B, Richmond Hill, minutes from Markham and easy to reach from Vaughan and North York. We open at 6:30am Tuesday through Sunday (8:30am Mondays) and bake in waves through the morning so the bread is warm when you arrive.

What we bake

Our Persian bread is hand-stretched, dimpled, seeded, and baked on a hot stone surface for the signature crisp bottom and soft interior. Alongside it we bake golden baklava hand-layered with over 40 sheets of phyllo, mascarpone knaffa with rose-water syrup, and traditional gata — the sweet, flaky pastry of Armenian and Persian tea tables.

We also bake Italian breads (ciabatta, focaccia, biga-based loaves) and French pastries (baguettes, cheesecakes, viennoiserie) under the same roof. It's an unusual combination, but it reflects how our community actually eats — Persian bread for breakfast, Italian bread for dinner, French pastry for dessert.

How to choose a Persian bakery near you

Ask three questions: Is the bread baked fresh today, in batches through the morning? Can the baker name what's in the sweets and when they were made? Do they take orders for Nowruz and other celebrations? If the answer to all three is yes, you've found a real Persian bakery.

We're proud to answer yes to all three. You can order online for in-store pickup, or come in the morning when the bread is warmest.