Gaby's Gourmandise — Restaurant in Grand Rapids

The absolute best pastries I have EVER had. They can rival ANY Patisserie in France. Gaby is from France I was told by his very friendly and helpful staff. Everything is made fresh daily, beautifully displayed and I could taste the quality of the ingredients and the care each item was made with. The cream puffs are LOADED with cream and so many good flavors: chocolate, pistachio, cardamom, and coffee. The quiches are filled with housemade sausage and veggies and they have a vegetarian option too. The fruit tarts? Wow. The fruit was so fresh and the almond cream to die for. They have soups and salads if you want a quick lunch as well as these open faced sandwiches called tartines with a creamy sauce, caramelized onions, bacon, and cheese all browned and melty goodness. There are no words to say how flipping delicious it was. Seriously. And a strawberry cake with a rich cream filling. Yes, I tried all these (I did split them with a friend-I'm not a total glutton). Did I mention the double chocolate cookies? Got some of those to go. He even makes his own butter and sausage. Yes, makes his own butter! I can't wait to go back and try the other amazing looking treats, like the madeleines with passion fruit chocolate!! Sooooo delicious. Oh, and it's located in this cool market hall with all sorts of other delicious vendors. I can make a day out of noshing and I did today at The Downtown Market. He even told me he makes custom cakes if you...

Incredible place if you’re in search of high quality baked goods and sweet treats.

Entremet - I have had a lot of chocolate cakes in my life, I can positively say this is one of the best ones I’ve ever had. Lots of places try and get parts of it wrong. Stodgy cake, too rich, frosting/cream doesn’t match the cake. Gaby hits every part of this immaculately. The cake itself was incredibly baked, soft and moist but had a good structure at the same time. The chocolate flavor came through beautifully but wasn’t overpowering or too rich. You can tell that the chocolate used for this is very high quality. The cream was such a good counterpart to the cake, tasted fantastic and the texture was perfectly balanced with the cake. Highly recommend this.

Cream Puffs - Had strawberry and vanilla cream puffs. Fantastic as well, the pastry itself is amazing and the cream (there’s a lot of cream mind you) has incredible flavor and texture.

Will 100% be back here to try more things and would recommend this...

I'll starting by saying my favorite pastry is a canelè. They're not readily available, but when I come across them, I 100% indulge. When walking into the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, the VERY first thing I zoned in on, were canelès, perched behind the counter at Gaby's Gourmandise. I noted them (hard) and kept moving about the market. Before we walked out the door, I obviously swung back by and grabbed a few. I know exactly what they're supposed to taste and feel like, and they're seldom perfect, but even a bad canelè is a treat, so I purached with confidence. Side note, the man behind the counter was a delight. Main note, this was the most perfect canelè I have ever had. It was perfectly shaped, perfectly crispy on the outside (not too dark, not too light), and the center was a perfect custardy texture with a light vanilla flavor. I am now DEVASTATED that I live in the Northern Virginia/DC area and cannot have these regularly! Grand Rapids, I hope you appreciate these little pastries. Eat...