Located just a 5 minute walk away from the Pioneer Square light rail station, this small French cafe serves some seriously good pastries. They use high quality ingredients (Isigny Ste Mere butter, Valrhona chocolate, etc). It's something that really comes through in the final product.
Cinnamon Cruffin ($6.50) - I'm not sure I would call this a cruffin since there's not really any laminated layers on the interior. It's more like monkey bread, with a richer brioche interior interspersed with ribbons of cinnamon, then dusted with cinnamon sugar on the outside. There are some crispy caramelized sugar bits on top which I found to be fun to bite into. (4/5)
Casse-Noisette ($6.50) - The lamination on this croissant looks quite nice, but the interior isn't particularly buttery and the layers are quite delicate. It's filled with a hazelnut-dark chocolate spread which is sticky, messy and rich. I believe it's a homemade spread rather than nutella due to the richer taste and darker color. The exterior of the croissant is soft instead of crusty and shattering, probably since we didn't eat this until the end of the day. They sprinkle crunchy pearl sugar and crushed hazelnut on top, adding some additional pleasing texture. (5/5)
Savory Tartelette ($6.50) - This tart is filled with tangy and funky goat cheese, sweet and soft caramelized onion, a drizzle of honey, and a small zing of rosemary, on a super buttery and crisp base. The croissant base tastes by far the most buttery as compared to both the Almond and Hazelnut croissants. (5/5)
Almond Croissant ($6.50) - I believe this is a double baked croissant given the dark brown bake. As with the casse-noisette, this croissant has been softened by the Seattle spring humidity and unfortunately no longer remains particularly crisp. The croissant is cut in half and filled with a sweet almond frangipane. I believe it's made in house - it's more sugary than almond, and the texture is quite a bit less viscous than most almond croissants. The frangipane compresses the croissant layers into thicker slabs, and this creates a chewy texture that almost reminds me of egg in texture. (4/5)
Kouign-Amann ($6.50) - Finally another proper Kouign-Amann! This one has enriched more brioche-like laminated dough rather than plain croissant dough like a lot of other bakeries use. This makes the pastry so much richer and decadent. The interior here has a certain flavor that's totally different from the dough in the casse-noisette and in the tart. I feel like there's a unique funk that might be from cultured butter. The pastry is still quite flaky, with layers that easily come apart, and there's still a bit of a crunch from the sugar glazed over the surface. I especially love the center, where towards in the interior, there's an almost sweet custard-like center, and the center top, where there's a sand-like mound of almost-melted sugar. (5/5)
Marbre ZigZag ($5.99) - Really moist and dense marble cake, deceptively heavy for the size. There's a thick layer of dark chocolate ganache covering the cake layer, making the slice exceptionally rich. (5/5)
La Baguette MBO ($3.95) - This is an oddly shaped baguette, curved instead of flat, and very uneven in width. The shape was strange enough I thought the baguette would not be good. Cutting it open with a bread knife, the interior crumb seems a little tight, missing some of the more open holes of a well risen baguette. The taste and crustiness, however, are excellent. The flavor is very well developed and there's a hard baked crust that gives a fantastic baguette crisp. It's not perfect, but for $4, which is less than baguettes cost at most places in Seattle, this is a great deal. (5/5)
Mirabelle by Orphée is another excellent Seattle bakery! I will definitely be visiting again.
Bathrooms - Single unisex room shared with the other building tenants. Requires code to enter read more