If you've walked through the Zone @ Rosebank, chances are you have passed by the ever so french Patisserie, with their much smaller version of the Eiffel Tour and pink striped walls and decor.
Oh, and those several gorgeous treats on display.
We visited The Patisserie on a breezy Sunday, and found ourselves looking for someone to help us. While we know that people tend to grab treats and hot drinks to go rather than sit down and enjoy a meal, it was a bit irritating having to find someone to greet us, let alone seat us.
After having found someone to help us, we opted for a picturesque spot outside, and a cappuccino and peppermint tea. The atmosphere is really quaint and cute, and carries through from the pretty and detailed indoor decor to the outside.
Indoors you can find a whole smorgasbord of cakes, biscuits and treats that look pretty damn enticing, but we saved those treats for after our meal.
Connor grabbed the French Toast with banana, fruit compote and creme fraiche and I ordered the Croque Monsieur. We had a small wait, which was strange as there were only two other people seated in the restaurant.
Connor's French Toast looked appetizing, and followed suit with taste, although the toast itself needed to be cooked a little longer, as it was slighty eggy. French Toast with banana (uncooked, in Connor's case), fruit compote and creme fraiche is a pretty classic breakfast menu item these days, and is pretty difficult to be mucked up.
My Croque Monsieur, however, looked spectacular, but failed to deliver on taste. The dish sounded great, rich and creamy bechamal sauce, crispy toast and smokey parma ham, but the technicalities is where it failed.
The bechamel was completely overpowered with mustard, to the point where the tang of the mustard sort of hit you in the jowls. On top of that, it wasn't cooked properly, so the cheese wasn't fully melted, and had an unpleasant texture.
With a lot left to be desired, we grabbed some sweet treats to take home.
We took a slice of the Death by Chocolate cake, a red velvet cheesecake brownie, and five macarons - lavender, red berry, orange, lime and salted caramel.
The chocolate cake was delicious, and could possible send someone into a chocolate coma. We received a decent hunk of the red velvet brownie, what I'd like to call a doorstopper. This is in no way a bad thing. It was pretty yummy too, melding tanginess and sweetness just perfectly.
The macarons were well made, had good feet, but some were hollow on the inside, which meant it there was slightly less filling than we were hoping for. The flavours were all good, except for the lime, which tasted of melted butter and nothing like lime, which was unfortunate.
Overall, we had an average trip to The Patisserie. We'd recommend the sweeter items on display, or a safer menu item (every chef has a dud day, but consistency is key).
The decor is pretty, and fits the theme, and for a short little while, you can feel the oozing of Parisian inspiration (when you're not hearing the music from the burger joint across the way).
Stay hungry for adventure, friends.
Steph & Connor
3/5 Eiffel Towers