Renaissance Pâtisserie — Restaurant in Charlotte

Simply the best European Vanilla Buttercream frosting this side of Europe! (Well, at LEAST, this side of South Charlotte!) If you do not like gritty, cloyingly sweet, Harris-Teeter-type frosting that tastes as if it were made of equal parts granulated white sugar and LARD, then you might want to try THIS delicately textured, subtly sweet, divine concoction! Having been a self-proclaimed connoisseur of buttercream frosting since my youth (when my best friend and I would go into the Swedish bakery in San Anselmo, California and ask to buy 10 cents worth of just frosting on a piece of wax paper!), I can honestly say that this is the frosting that sweet dreams are made of! I like it best paired with vanilla or yellow cake (or sometimes even almond pound cake), but I recently had it on a chocolate birthday cake layered with vanilla buttercream ,raspberry filling, and chocolate ganache and it was quite tasty, too! Try Decadent Designs; you won't be sorry! Their creations are not only lovely to behold, but equally delightful on the palate! And the service is also wonderful! Plus, in their latest location, there are even comfy sofas and chairs to stay and linger over every last crumb! And one last recommendation - cup cakes with buttercream frosting - they don't often have them, but you can order them. Beware though... they DO also have the gritty (what they call "old-fashioned" type of icing) yuk! TOO sweet! but my hubby actually does prefer that type - silly cretin!

P.S It probbaly sounds as if I either work there or was paid to say all this, but I assure you I am just a lowly patron of their establishment! (Although, do you think, that if I print this out and show it to them, they would perhaps offer me a free slab of pure buttercream frosting on a piece of...

Was in the Southpark area for an appointment, and was hungry, so I decided to stop by for lunch. I had visited before, maybe a couple years ago, and was underwhelmed then, but I decided to give it another chance. As soon as I came in to order, the girl behind the counter looked “thrilled” to be helping me. I ordered an egg and cheese croissant, which was grossly overpriced at $16. It was rather small, and came with, maybe 10 little leaves of salad on the plate. Was that supposed to be garnish, or a salad? The sandwich was ok, a tad on the greasy side, but I was still hungry, so I decided to get a cappuccino and a mini bouche de Noel. The cappuccino was fine-you can’t really mess that up, except for the ridiculous $12 price. The $8 dessert left MUCH to be desired. It looked better than it tasted. The “chocolate” pieces on top were pretty much flavorless, as was the “mousse” on the inside. There was hardly any cake on the inside, and it was like eating mouthfuls of brown cream that was just sweet. It tasted absolutely NOTHING like chocolate, at all. The entire thing was flavorless, and a waste of money. I took maybe 3 bites, and threw the rest of it away. Anyway, this place is overrated, loud, counter girl unfriendly, food is overpriced for what it is, and NOT an authentic, European Pattiserie. I’ve lived in Europe, and spent A LOT of my life there, to know what I’m talking about. They are majorly cutting corners in ingredients and freshness, and my guess is, the majority of South-Charlotte folks don’t know what quality is, so they’ll just keep paying those high prices, but also love the idea that they’re eating somewhere that’s “French”, so it’s just a status thing. Won’t be back, and...

So I decided to come here again because I was desperately craving the kouign amann's( KA) Pardon my spelling if it is incorrect, I blame auto correct! Anyway I went crazy as usual when I am in a store like this. I got some profiteroles, chocolate croissants and ofcourse the KA's. Then I saw that they had a crab crepe special so I thought why not! I ordered it then realized after I paid 52 bucks for everything that I could have gotten 12% cashback on Yelp. So please activate that BEFORE you buy anything! Anyway I got the crepe, which didn't look appetizing at all. I like my food to look halfway decent. There was nothing on the plate that said eat me!! Anyway I tried it and was quite disappointed. It was sweet! It was supposed to be a savoury crepe but it was sweet!!! I love profiteroles but these were also a big let down. There was no sugar in the filling. Like none. If there had been no chocolate on it then it would have been an almost savoury profiterole!! Now, I read my old review and after having the chocolate croissants this time feel like they were two different places. The croissants were TERRIBLE!! There was a thin layer of pastry with a little chocolate and plenty of air in it! Look at the pic!!! This honestly is pathetic, especially from a French chef and his patisserie!! So far the best croissants in CharlOtte are at Sunflour bakery, if you get there early enough to snag one! The KA's however are still delicious and their saving grace, otherwise there would have been 0 stars ( I wish there was a way...