La Saison de Patisserie — Restaurant in Vancouver

I’d like to start with the fact I have worked at and been to many cafes over the past two decades and have had varied level of experiences.

Having been to La Saison De Patisserie a few times now, I can safely say I am not impressed with their quality of work or drinks.

First reason, when I ordered a drip coffee, the barista said they were out of coffee and offered an americano. I asked if drip coffee was going to be made again, the answer I received was a shrug. I took the americano, however usually when in other cafes, I would pay a drip coffee price in this situation, but was not offered that. I thought okay, sure that’s fine, I hope it will be good at least.

Once I received the drink in a dine in cup, the cup it was served in was grimy all over. I was able to see sticky thumb prints on it. I asked if I could get it replaced, and the barista just poured the drink into a new cup. Shocking, because if a cup is verified to be dirty on the outside, we can make a safe guess the cup is dirty on the inside as well. The barista clearly did not think that was the case and gave me a new, “cleaner” cup. Two shots of espresso and hot water will not make or break a cafes profits, I would have simply made another americano for a customer in this situation, apologized and provide a better level of customer service and experience, but the barista did not make one.

All in all, by pouring it into a new cup, the crema was ruined and americano in general was overly sour, lacklustre and just barely palatable.

Second reason, below I have attached a photograph of a Salted Caramel Iced Mocha. When I asked if they could make this drink the barista said yes they could. What I received was milk with chocolate bits inside. From the colour alone I knew this drink was made with either the most minimal effort, or the recipe provided for this cafe was poor. There was no caramel flavour, no hint of saltiness, and simply just tasted like milk with bits of cooking chocolate inside. It looked like something served to children in a school cafeteria than a cafe that apparently looks to pride itself on higher end drinks (the prices indicate they feel they can justify this quality).

All in all, I will not be ordering the drinks from here again, and I really don’t recommend anyone should unless they fix their recipes and at least sharpen up their awareness to providing clean cups.

The only positive thing I received was the cookies. They were great, I just wish the drinks and customer service and experience were up to...

Found a nice new bakery recently on Rupert St.

The cinnamon pull apart reminded me of a churro with a soft puffy inside. The Earl grey pastry cream croissant was nice and flaky. Loved the laminations in the Kouigan amann crown - it had a bit of a sticky caramelized exterior.

The chocolate tart was really good with chocolate sable, caramel sauce, milk chocolate anglaise, milk chocolate whipped ganache.

Update: Been back a couple of times in April. First to try their lychee croissant. It's nice and flaky wit soft velvety cream inside. A bit messy to eat Flaky airy creamy. Soft velvety cream inside messy tho.

Flat croissants are a bit trendy and we did try their flat strawberry croissant. While flaky, the nature of a flat croissant means it loses the light and airy texture that you want in a croissant. Good but i would stick with one of their regular cream filled croissants instead.

Lemon cruffin was good. Nice filling and good pastry.

Got the cute Peep which is shaped like a little chicken. Flavours are blueberry lavender inside. The Peter rabbit carrot cake is shaped like a bunny that took a leap into a bunny hole. You have to get to the centre to get to the carrot cake part but it's worth it.

Mango croissant was very good but, like the lychee croissant, super messy to bite into with loads of cream and filling flowing everywhere.

Update: December 2024 - still one of my go-to places for pastries. The vBlack Sesame White Chocolate Cookie was delicately nutty. Also really liked the Chocolate Chunk Chip Cookie. Always have to get a Kouign Amann with its nice layers and caramelization. And the Garlic Cheese Pull Apart was light, airy, fluffy,...

Right Saison for some sweets?

I noticed this place during its renovation stage awhile back and finally gotten around to paused a busy life a bit and relaxed to something sweet, could this be the saison for goodness?

This place is located on Rupert street, just around the corner of the newly renovated Chong Li supermarket. Inside has simple yet modern cafe layout, nothing too crazy. A dozen of tables and chairs to one side with the counter to the entrance.

Here were the drinks and sweets I ordered;

Iced moch. Pretty basic, nothing special. Iced matcha latte. Once again nothing special, had better grade matcha elsewhere. 6pcs assorted macaron box. They were okay, one or 2 inconsistent in texture. Double fromage cheesecake (small). Tasted okay, honestly nothing special. Croissant (Lunar New Year edition). The cream fillings were quite overwhelming and once again nothing special).

Overall, I tried to order a few more assorted sweets to try but an auntie in front decided to order boxes of them to go. The services here were pretty basic, could be a little warmer and welcoming especially it’s more then the usual $2/bun at Maxine (actually the ladies at Maxine are better with their services now lol). I would categorize the layout and atmosphere here as very casual and basic, certainly no wow factor. I kind of expected a little more considering it’s a French style patisserie? As for the drinks and sweets, I can only speak for what I tried so far, nothing special and the quality didn’t meet the higher price.

Unfortunately wouldn’t be a repeat for me anytime soon. This saison is not the...