French Made Toronto — Restaurant in Toronto

I've now tried a good sampling of their pastries. I've tried their carrot cake, macarons, chocolate chunk cookie, sesame palmier and almond croissant. Here are my (lengthy) thoughts about their baked goods.

Carrot cake: Disappointing. There was a lot of icing to cake ratio, which normally isn't a bad thing. I was expecting a slightly less buttery cream cheese icing. It left a slightly strange coating on my tongue and strong aftertaste in my mouth. Perhaps an entirely too strong artficial vanilla flavour? I did enjoy the tang of the cream cheese but the balance of flavours in the icing was not for me. The cake itself was very wet and dense. I prefer a lighter and fluffier texture. It was also quite sweet. The spices weren't lacking, however, the balance of the spices seemed off. If you enjoy a sweet carrot cake with a more buttery cream cheese icing, you might enjoy this. It wasn't for me and I wasn't able to get through more than half the cake slice. The price point, at $9.00 a slice, was also a bit high given how unsatisfying this cake was.

Butter croissant: Also disappointing. Since this croissant labeled as a “butter” croissant, I was expecting more of a butter flavour. Instead, it was quite bland. Texture-wise, it didn’t have the nice flakiness one would want from a higher quality croissant. The croissant was priced at $4.00, which feels too high for what you actually get.

Macarons: I should have written down the flavours for the macarons, but I believe there was a lemon curd/citrus, some kind of berry, and mocha. The mocha was my most liked of the 3. It had a nice chocolatey coffee flavour and the texture wasn't bad, chewy, almost fudgey. The berry was my least liked, you could barely taste the berry flavour since it was so sugary sweet. The texture of this was less chewy compared to the mocha. It almost felt a bit soggy on the inside with the outer cookie missing the nice snap you expect. I would describe it as just crumbly. It could have been more citrus forward in order to balance out the sweetness. Texture-wise it was similar to the berry. Neither the citrus nor the berry flavours wowed me. I would say they were standard fare, and at $3.25 a pop, not worth it.

Chocolate chunk cookie: The cookie is a mix of white chocolate, dark chocolate and semi sweet chocolate. I enjoyed the mix of the three chocolates and the slight saltiness offset the sweetness of the white chocolate. The texture was not as chewy as I’d like. The best way I can describe it would be when baked goods are left out in a humid room and absorbs the surrounding moisture. It leaves the cookie bit soft and almost falls apart a bit because of the extra moisture it’s absorbed. Out of all the items I’ve tried here, the cookie wasn't bad. However, at $4.75 each, not sure if it’s good enough to be worth the price point.

Sesame snap palmier: Finally getting to something I really enjoyed. I loved the addition of sesame to the palmier. Definitely reminded me of sesame snaps. The palmier also had a really nice texture, a well laminated pastry dough that shatters in your mouth. Is it worth the $3.00 price point, perhaps. That toasty sesame flavour does give it some uniqueness and it is a well made product.

Almond croissant: Here is the star of the show. Although you do wish the croissant itself would be slightly more buttery, you are rewarded with a delicious and generous frangipane layer sandwiched between two halves of flaky croissant. Twice baking it definitely helps ensure that croissant is flaky, unlike the regular butter croissant. This is probably the best almond croissant I've had in the city so far. Priced at $5.50, I would say this one is worth it. If you are going to stop by for any baked good, this is the one. But you do want to head there early since they run out of them pretty quickly. My recommendation to French Made is to have more of these bad boys since they are so amazing.

Verdict: expensive for what it is and hit or miss with their...

We went to this cafe on April 2nd, 2020 and got 2 cappuccinos and 2 croissants and were charged $19.49, which was $5.00 over the price it should have been and we didn't notice until later. The barista was a young man, maybe 5"10 and did not make the cappuccinos properly (the foam went away in under 1 minute & there wasn't enough foam)

Later I went to this cafe the evening of April 2nd, 2020 and got 1 cappuccino and asked for a double shot espresso. The same barista, charged $8.00 for the coffee, after I paid I noticed it was too expensive and should have only been $5.50 for the extra espresso shot. I asked him for a refund, and he said that he did not know how to make refunds. He said he would just refund me the next day and he would remember my face. I told him I would not be returning the next day/week as I would be out of town, and he did nothing. Not only was the coffee made by him bad again, it was an unpleasant experience to be...

I'm not sure what's been going on with their staff lately, but I've noticed a few new faces, and the service has definitely gone downhill. We came in the afternoon, a typically not-so-busy time, yet the employee at the counter decided to play with someone's dog instead of acknowledging us as we waited to place our order. After a few minutes of being ignored, he just walked away to the back without a word.

Eventually, the girl at the cash took our order, but when it was ready, she gave it to the wrong person and only realized her mistake after they checked the order. There was zero service, no attention to detail, and snobby attitudes throughout the experience. Not even a simple apology, smile or a "thank you."

On top of that, the portion size of the burrito has noticeably shrunk while the price remains the same. This used to be my go-to spot, but I'll be avoiding it...