Geste croissanterie & bistro — Restaurant in Toronto

It was excellent!! The croissants exceeded my expectations - so fresh, warm out of the oven (they restocked multiple times in the 2 hours I was there). The pistachio chocolate croissant is one of the best I’ve had in the city….even better than I expected! It had a creamy pistachio butter (instead of frangipane) and generous dark chocolate. Strong pistachio flavor not drowned out by sugar. The kouign amann was also one of the best I’ve had! A thick gooey layer of caramelized sugar and the classic buttery crunch. And I am still thinking about their toasted marshmallow oat milk latte! I got two and definitely would travel back again just for that! The latte I got somewhere else the next day just paled in comparison. The only thing I didn’t love was the pesto mac n cheese. It was ok but a little bland and did not compare to everything else.

They are definitely a great brunch spot though - they have a pretty large hot food menu and it was easy to walk in on a Saturday at noon. The service could’ve been more attentive - we had to go out of our way to flag down the waiter multiple times, sometimes even getting up to call them. They do have a self serve online ordering system so maybe that’s the expectation, but I much prefer to order in person so I can get recommendations and ask questions. It was also fairly priced for Toronto. For hot foods, if you are looking for egg-free vegetarian the options are mac n cheese or grilled cheese… but the grilled cheese looked amazing so I’d try that next time.

My biggest critique is they have no paper menus, it’s QR codes only yet also no wifi… this seems really off considering many people, especially tourists, don’t have data plans. It was an issue for my dining partner and disappointing for any establishment to make it impossible to order without a self-funded data plan and charged phone. I recommend they store a few pepper menus, but decided not to knock a star for this since the pastries were so good.

Overall, highly recommend for a pastry/coffee and would...

A very disappointing experience! Do not waste your time, energy, hunger, and money. You take your own order. So no reason to tip. You get charged $3.00 for a "soda", then ANOTHER $2.50 for your selection. So that is $5.50 for a CAN of diet coke! JOKE! NO proper "doggy bag" supplies for leftovers to take home! JOKE! NO service before, during, or after your meal. JOKE! All in all, had to try it once. But not going back! And its a shame, because the food was top notch. But they have no idea how to run a service business or even charge for it. And if they fall because they can't charge less for a can of coke, then they should do just that...fall!!

If no stars was an option, they would get zero stars from me! I could not figure out how to reply to Virgyl's response to my post above. So I decided to edit the post...by first changing my rating to a 5 star so that my original 1 star will not screw up his overall rating. This is because of Virgyl's speeding reply and response to my comments. As I say, the food was top notch, but I was surprised at the other experiences mentioned above. Without a doubt, something went wrong with the Clover experience around ordering a diet coke. But I did so without asking questions because I wanted to see if my eyes deceived me. But if Virgyl says it was an error, then without wait staff, this error should be fixed quickly. And finally, because of Virgyl's speedy reply, I will go back and try again. This time maybe for a coffee and pastry, because the pastries too look tremendous. So Virgyl, thanks again for your speedy reply and kind gesture of the refund. But just so you know, I am not looking for free. I'm just looking for value for my money. Please charge me for the pizza if you can. But I will take the refund for the diet coke. lol And I'm sorry for not leaving a tip, but I just felt I had to send a message that something was terribly...

Ordered a galette des rois (king's cake) a few weeks ago. Tasted nothing like a galette des rois... Phyllo pastry, instead of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), and no "frangipane" but a weird overly sweet paste. The website says that both chefs were classically trained in France. They might have missed a class on that one.

EDIT: Unfortunately, there are no way to reply directly to your answer... I also tried to call but you might have been busy at the time. Since you've been classically trained in France and apparently good enough to redefine a puff pastry, vous devriez savoir qu'une galette des rois ne ressemble absolument pas à celle proposée dans votre établissement. Votre interpretation de l'un des dessert les plus simple de notre cuisine était plus que décevante, elle n'était pas bonne.

Finally, I've seen puff pastry with layers since most of our bakeries in France use it in their recipes. But since I was here in Canada, I decided to try a local one (yours) for the occasion.

Maybe you should acknowledge your mistake when it comes to this one. Your answer is very disappointing. Best of luck.

EDIT (Again...) Being French and living in France, I know what a galette des rois is. Coming from a lycée hôtelier, I also know what it should taste like. I understand how difficult it can be to receive a negative review but critics are a good way to improve. I'm not trying to undermine your skills as a pâtissier but I believe you should know the galette wasn't good. Your answer is once again disappointing. This will be my final reply....