Serano Bakery — Restaurant in Laval (administrative region)

Always busy whenever I'm here; customer service was efficient, price was elevated from pre-pandemic times but acceptable, imo. Tried the Bougatsa (Greek pastry dessert or custard pie with phyllo). Traditionally a very crispy Greek pastry dessert, it lived up to its billing here.

Bougatsa history and meaning for those interested (I'm a librarian so I like to inform ... 🙂) :

Bougatsa is a very crispy Greek breakfast pastry dessert (sweet or savoury) consisting of either semolina, velvety custard cream, cheese, or minced meat filling between layers of phyllo.

There are two versions of Greek Bougatsa. There is the one you find in Greek bakeries, filled with custard cream. The other is the homemade version that always uses a semolina cream. It is always served warm sprinkled with lots of icing sugar and cinnamon.

The name Bougatsa derives from the Byzantine Greek word "πογάτσα" ("pogátsa," meaning a "pie filled with cheese"), itself either borrowed from Old Italian "focaccia" or from the Vulgar Latin word "*focacia," from Late Latin "focacius," from Latin "focus" (the Latin word "focus" meant "hearth, fireplace").

*focācia is a kind of bread or other food baked on a fire (originally referring to a hearth)

Bougatsa originated in the Byzantine period (approximately 395 CE/AD to 1453 CE/AD), particularly in Constantinople when Constantinople was Greek i.e. prior to the Ottoman Turkish takeover in 1453 CE/AD, and it began as a dough that was stuffed with numerous sweet and savory fillings.

At that time, this particular pie was called "pogátsa" or "bogatsa" by the Greeks, and "bugatsa" by the Turks, though today "bugatsa" to the Turks refers to a number of different pies and other foods totally different from each other.

It is widely known that the Byzantines had a long tradition of making of pies and desserts made in a pan. One form of these famous pies of the Byzantines is "Bougatsa". Even after the Ottoman Turkish takeover, Bougatsa continued to be famous in Constantinople according to a traveler's testimony in the...

What a delicious pastries, wonderful variety, and awesome prices !!!

We had a chocolate parfait and a cornet. They were so good and fresh. Not heavy or too sweet. We all loved it!!!

The bad thing was the service I got from the lady who took care of us. She was so rude with me I couldn’t understand why I was talking to her in English and she started being upset just because I didn’t speak in French, then I asked her that I want this dessert and the other one and I show her with my finger and then she said that she doesn’t understand my language she was extremely rude but I put her on her place because I reply to her with what exactly I wanted and the way I want it, in an educated way.

Then she noticed that she didn’t do right, and she gave me what I want which is the two desserts that I end up buying here. Even the other customers that were in front of her saw how rude she was with me and they looked at me...

I rated 3 Stars and here’s why : First don’t get me wrong it’s a great place to get cake! But here’s the thing first the wait time can be sometimes long because there’s like 2-3 girls working and it can take around 10-15 minutes to get your order but that’s okay my issue started the 8 February when we bought the small cheese cakes with strawberries on top, it was really old the strawberry tasted fermented and the graham cracker (or cookie sorry im not a pro in this) wasn’t brown or light brown like it was supposed to be but it was starting to get grey… been buying cake there for like 2-3 times a year for about 4 years and it’s the first time that it happened I just hope we’re not eating old cake and we didn’t notice it… We went back there the next day couldn’t get a refund but they gave use new cakes instead! I was happy with that! Conclusion : Great place to get cake! But gotta be careful on...