Patisserie La Cigogne — Restaurant in Toronto

The desserts and the food is excellent here. The authenticity is impressive. I dare say, that some of the cakes on offer are on a par with any Parisienne Patisserie. The staff have little knowledge or appreciation of their wares. Visits for lunch have been spotty - we were told that the quiche was "sold out" only to spy an entire quiche in the pastry case. The cashiers and wait staff seem to be automotons punching screens and smiling Cheshire grins, spewing platitudes. My advice - go and enjoy good food and excellent pastry - but, question and engage your server to get the best of what you want. SUN.20.MAY.2018 We gave the restaurant another chance. Arrived at 17:55 - no tables occupied. We ordered two soup of the day and a chicken tortiere and a croque Madame. The wait for the soup interminable. I questioned the waitress and was told "it's coming". I said very clearly that I did NOT want the soup at the same time as my dinner. Her reply: "alright". Three minutes later the loud buzz of a microwave oven was heard -a different staff member came walking out with a bowl of soup, without an underplate. She was grasping it by the verge of a rim soup bowl and cautioning me at the temperature. Viewing the bowl under the halogen lights revealed the concentric circles of a boiling broth. Then three minutes later, my dining partner's bowl of soup arrived - and I cautioned the server that we wanted to enjoy our soup as a first course. I had taken two spoonfuls and them, the first server arrived with both entrees! I sent them back, as the table couldn't even accommodate four service plates. The sunny-side egg looked quite right, but I suggested that it will need a replacement if it went into the heat lamp. The second waitress came to clear our soup course - stacking the bowls on the table, and dropping the two cream soup spoons into the bowls. I might forgive this type of 'greasy spoon' service at a Kresge's or a Zeller's Lunch Counter. The two bowls of microwaved soup came in at 13.00... The two entrees were trotted back to us. No one had thought to check that we did not have any flatware to eat the tortiere nor the croque Madame! The egg yolk was hard on the bottom and powdery - the heat lamp had denatured the protein. The baby spinach leaf garnish was flaccid from the heat and the thinly-shaved ham edges looked like a vinyl 45 rpm record that had been left in the back of a car. The desserts at this eatery are worthy of a Parisian Café - we had an Imperial and a chestnut mousse. Both superb. The bill totalled 62.00; I did leave a 20% tip; but I voiced my disappointment with the cashier. M. Thierry Schmidt is the Pastry Chef at both locations - Bayview Avenue and Danforth Avenue - the training, service and attitude of the service personell lead me to believe that the Danforth location is the ugly...

If you are in the Coxwell and Danforth area and need a place to have a nice long chat with a friend, then please give Patisserie La Cigogne a try. Located just steps away from Coxwell subway station, Patisserie La Cigogne appears unassuming from its exterior but the interior is cozy and quaint. It's a great place to meet with a friend, grab a delectable French pastry, and warm drink.

Place your order at the counter and the lovely staff will bring the pastries to your table (self chosen). If you order coffee, they will give you a cup so you can grab it yourself at the self serve station. When I was there, they had caramel coffee so you know I had to give that a try! Decadent if you're into flavour coffees. Note: regular java is also available as are other warm and cold drinks.

Back to business, if you want a crispy, flaky, buttery croissant, then you'll want to give Patisserie La Cigogne a try. Featured in the images are their classic plain croissant as well as their chocolate croissant. NOTE: the croissants were so good that we bought extra home (as seen in the images).

The plain butter croissant was rich and flaky and exactly how you want a good croissant to taste. The chocolate croissant was also a wonderful decadent surprise. I've had other chocolate croissants where the filling snaps like a pretzel. This is not the case with the chocolate croissant at Patisserie La Cigogne. The filling was chocolaty, rich, and smooth. It's a bit hard to distinguish in the images but your taste buds will thank you for trying it.

Perhaps the best feature of Patisserie La Cigogne is its overall cozy and quaint nature. At the time of our visit, there was a steady but comfortable pace of customers. Some stayed, others left, and it was a really easy place to chat with friends without feeling rushed. Staff were pleasant at all times.

Patisserie La Cigogne also has other baked treats and packaged goods/treats in store as well. Prices vary and some are certainly only occasional treats based on price point. Croissants were under $4 and worth it if you plan to sit and chat for a while....

A cute big French bakery on the Danforth. There were a variety of pastry and viennoiseries options available. Perhaps too many it was very difficult to choose. There are also a number of packaged freshly baked Biscuits and cookies. In the end I went for a almond croissant, and a pistachio Croc Pastry slice. The Almond croissant was one of those typical double baked croissants with an almond filling and almond on top. I will say however, that I was very pleased that they either didn't add any almond essence or added just enough to elevate the croissant without overpowering the flavour. I was actually rather disappointed by the pistachio croque pastry. I found it it was almost as if they were trying to combine two distinct desserts into one. There were four there's to the pastry the top one being a so-called pistachio mousse then a crunchy crock lair, followed by a frangipane all on top of a shortbread pastry. In all honesty it feels like the top two layers or supposed to be a different dessert or is it just put on top of the bottom two layers. The mousse itself was very Bland and didn't really give a pistachio flavour at all, the only sign of any pistachios was that it was a pale green. Over all the flavours were overpowered by the crunchy layer in the middle which was incredibly sweet, almost too sweet. The frangipane or almond filling didn't really actually have a flavour per se, but it did add a nice textural contrast to the shortbread. Finally the crust at the bottom was very thick and oddly a bit stale. Again, overall I was quite disappointed by this pastry. It was very rich however. I'll probably go again to try some of their other deserts however, since it's really difficult to write off a bakery based on a single experience, and the employees were nice, although...