Far Breton Bakery — Restaurant in Madison

Five stars for friendliness of staff and one star for quality. This was our first visit, and we really hoped to love the place after hearing about them on Reddit Madison.

We picked up 9 items yesterday/Saturday. The two raspberry galette we tried today tasted and appeared anything but fresh. One taste and we passed/tossed them. Went to the cinnamon-sugar morning buns, which looked beautiful. The centers had a kind of custardy/eggy-wet-dough consistency and flavor that was definitely new to us. Unsure if that's a style? but we're not custard/creme brulee/cooked egg people so two more hard passes after we again each tried a bite. Not knocking those in case they were intentionally made as such, but they, too, went into the bin. I moved on to a carrot cupcake. It was pretty good but again tasted and felt seriously (EDIT 3 mos later, missing word: less) than fresh. Even the frosting was dry. I'm a huge carrot cake fan and have tried soooo many. Loved or very much liked nearly all of them. Finished half of this one because I was hungry. My husband is reluctant to even try the (orange? lemon? we forget) cupcake that was in the cool case next to the carrot cupcake. The very nice person readying our items said it was "about a week old but should be okay because it's covered in frosting." I looked at my husband and he said he'd try it. So we bought it. I did not ask but more importantly they didn't offer to reduce the price at all. After telling me it was about a week old. My husband thought the little shortbread cookies were good, and we both liked the seeded chocolate chip/almond cookies quite a...

I got one croissant (huge, $4.50), and it was okay. I thought it was a bit too moist/greasy and had too much butter (the grease was leaking through the paper bag and when I bit into the croissant, the inside was WET). I thought that this may be due to the fact that it was super hot outside when I got the croissant, but when I took it out of my fridge the day after (after 24 hours of refrigeration), it was once again way too dense and greasy albeit a bit more solid. I've never had a problem where a croissant had too much butter considering butter is literally its foundation, but it managed to happen here. Interesting experience, to say the least. This croissant was also definitely more well-seasoned than croissants from other bakeries, but it was just a touch too salty for me. I didn't think I could take multiple bites without having to chug down a bottle of water. It did have an extremely nice crunch factor! Decently crispy on the outside and didn't give in super easily when I press on it. I appreciated how big it was too, but given the price, it was probably the right size. I could also tell that they used really good ingredients too, so although $4.50 is quite costly, I'd be on the fence about reducing the price too much. One thing I wanted to note was that the inside of the croissant had an almost fermented/cultured flavor (reminiscent of alcohol), which made me wonder if it was actually overproofed...? I thought that distinct flavor was nice at first because it helped to cut the grease/fattiness of the body of the croissant, but it became a bit too much...

For the past couple of years, we've purchased 2-6 Far Breton Bakery croissants weekly from the Northside Farmers’ Market. Their croissants are delicious, but we decided it wasn't worth putting up with the lack of respect and rude service anymore. In addition, the prices of the croissants also went up quite considerably. It was very surprising that despite being very consistent, loyal, and weekly customers, the owner (who runs the cart at the Farmers’ Market) never recognized us or acknowledged the fact we had seen her just a week before. We support the Farmers’ Market because we believe it is important to get to know your farmers/bakers/chefs/sellers to develop a greater appreciation for the food, people, labor, knowledge, resources, and care that sustains us. We shop solely at the Farmers’ Market for this recognition, rapport, and/or friendliness. For these reasons, we have moved on to get our...