Quest for LA's best croissants

[snackwrangler]

I'm a bit of a croissant snob, and hate the idea of wasting calories on adequate or even above-average croissants. Most are bland twisted versions of bread with a ton of butter. I don't mind discarding the dense doughy inside that sometimes lurks within, but isn't there a place that has a perfect croissant? Let's postpone the chocolate, almond and cheese croissant quest for another time. So far, my favorites are Anissette and Pain du Jour. Any other suggestions?

[Servorg]

Give Amandine a try.

[Queequeg]

Second Amandine - especially their chocolate croissants!

[sel]

I enjoy the croissants (and everything else) from master baker Sumi Chang at EuroPane Bakery in Pasadena. Also Amandine Patisserie as Sevorg already mentioned.

[maxzook]

Sumi's croissants are the best I've ever had in California, no contest (although I've got to try Amandine one of these days).

Get there early on weekends or you'll miss out on the croissants and other popular items.

[snackwrangler]

I had a very strange side effect after eating a Europane croissant. This sounds ridiculous, but I smelled like butter afterwards. Sort of like if you eat too much garlic, it comes out your pores? I swear it happened with the butter croissant. I washed my hands and my face, and I doubt I got croissant in my nose... Perhaps just collateral damage when eating a good croissant?

[foodiemahoodie]

Maybe you got butter in your moustache?

[Robert Thornton]

I'm a fan of the Europane croissants too.

[Clyde]

susina bakery on beverly is a good one.

[schrutefarms]

2nd Susina...esp. the tomato, feta and carmelized onion one.

[TimToyGeek]

I love Europane, especially their croissant filled with sweet cream cheese.

However, there is a stand at the Studio City Farmer's Market on Sundays (at Ventura and Laurel Canyon) called Traditions of Provence that has amazing croissants, big and inexpensive. He has a lot of different flavors, breads, brioches, the whole deal, but we always get at least a couple of his big, delicious butter croissants!

So far that is my favorite croissant in the city...

Tim

[snackwrangler]

Oh, I'll have to swing by that market. Thank you.

[Maxmillion]

I really love the organic croissants you get freshly baked at Le Pain Quotidien.

BTW -- the frozen Trader Joes ones are surprisingly good, too. You just need to remember to proof them overnight and they plump up beautifully and cook nicely.

[lrhr]

I second the Trader Joes recommendation...plus you can eat them in your pjs, which is a marvelous thing.

If you are near South Pasadena, Nicole's also sells small frozen croissants, which are a cut above TJs. AND, if you get lucky they sometimes sell the large ones which are usually only for their business customers. Neither of these need to be thawed overnight. So you can satisfy a craving with a half hours notice.

[keepon]

I've been on a quest for the best croissant for quite a while, this is my list..

For French style, crusty on the outside but more "chewy" on the inside,
- Le Pain Du Jour
- Dijonaise, Culver City

For "Japanese" style, very crusty all the way through (ie you will have croissant flakes all over you afterwards)
- Amandine
- Paris Bakery in Koreatown

Other places that I thought are quite good
- Delice Bakery on Pico
- Le Maison du Pain on Pico

I was just ok with Anisette's, maybe I didn't catch that at the right time. But Pain du Jour's croissant tastes the closet to the croissant from one of David Lebowitz's favorite bakery in Paris.

[HappyYummyDay]

Second the selection by keepon :-) I could be the only one around here, but I have not had much luck with baked items @ Europane... For "Japanese" style, there are Hamada-ya in Torrance and Mammoth Bakery in Gardena.

[JAB]

Are Urth's any good?

[JAB]

I tried Urth today and was not impressed for $2.50. No buttery flavor and too done on the outside.

[azibo]

Order them from Williams Sonoma... have them at home with your coffee in the morning. Better than the Trader Joe's ones, but I agree Trader Joe's are pretty spectacular for the price! Was never impressed with Europane croissants, I find them quite over rated.

[trolley]

Europane can be a hit or a miss. my first one was pretty stale and didn't understand the big fuss. I tried it again the other day and it was very good. Nothing compared to one's from Tartine in SF but flaky and buttery and not at all stale like the first time. I did get the good croissant at 8 am and the stale one after lunch so perhaps the sitting around makes the difference?

[keepon]

Sitting around def makes a difference. I go to Amandine a lot, there 3pm croissant is good but it pales to eating that at 10a.

I think that also explains why Pain Du Jour is always good: they ran out of croissant early, and so you are probably always eating on really fresh croissants.

[emily]

The WS and TJs croissants are the same product -- both made by Galaxy Desserts. One just costs a lot more.

[budlit]

pain du jour on pico east of lincoln are the best I've had

[lexi976]

Salades de Provence on La Cienga. amazing, reminds me of Paris

[snackwrangler]

I'm keeping this quest alive with an on-going, unofficial survey of LA's croissants. I'm only trying plain croissants, because chocolate and cheese mask a lot of problems.

This week's samplings: Anisette, Bread Bar, La Petit Boulangerie, and La Boulangerie (via farmer's market).
Anisette: great flavor, great flakiness, greasy, weird dense inner core.
Bread Bar: decent flavor, good flakiness, light and not greasy. Not exceptional but good.
La Petite Boulangerie: (I had low expectations, but I figure it had to be included some day) flavorless, decent flakiness, bready.
La Boulangerie: terrible; no butter flavor, no flakiness. I had to throw this one away.

This week's winner: Anisette wins for flavor, but Bread Bar wins in the overall performance category.

The quest continues...

[Cinemaverite1]

Thank you for embarking on this quest and all your caloric sacrifices from horrible croissants. I'm moving back to LA tomorrow after living in SF and I've been stressing about how life will ever be as good without croissants from Tartine, Della Fattoria, and La Boulangerie. Once I get back, I will surely partner up with you and not rest until we find and conquer this buttery grail. It would be great if I can find a good scone along the way as well!

[trolley]

i still think about those croissants from tartine and i moved back to LA in 2003 after moving back and forth!

[JudiAU]

What size did you select at Bread Bar? I think the small size is better. Most American croissants are too big and that screws up the interior. (And yes, I do prefer their pain au chocolat but think the regular is often excellent.) We go to the Third street branch and I only eat them at 8 a.m. on Sundays.

[echoparkdirt]

I'm an enormous croissant fan as well, and it's one of my favorite carb treats.
The best I've found are at Cafe Los Feliz on Hillhurst north of Franklin. The place is a perfect little patisserie -- small, charming, european. The croissants are buttery, flakey, with lovely mouth feel. They have secret cinnamon croissants that they don't have a sign for, but they're often there. Amazing.

[1newyorkguy]

that's a very cute shop, but the one croissant I had there was a let down. pain du jour's was nice.

[jaykayen]

This is my list: Anisette, Amandine, Breadbar, and the almond croissants at The Conservatory for Coffee (does anyone know where The Conservatory gets these?)

[snackwrangler]

Apparently Chowhound doesn't want me to post a link to my t-w-i-t-t-e-r blog about my CroissantQuest. If you'd like to follow it, look it up under croissantquest.

But I digress. I just ended Week 2 of my mission and I am sad to report that I was only able to try 3 croissants.

Bottega Louie: the first croissant of the week and it's a good thing I took notes bc it was kinda forgettable. Taste and flakiness was good, but not great. Nice and light though.

Amandine: I love the almond croissants at this place. and the banana chocolate tart. and that raspberry thing. I've been coming here for years, yet I never tried a plain croissant. Turns out it does not hold up on its own without the glorious almond, chocolate or chocolate almond fillings. In fact, it was flavorless. Good flakiness and texture though. I'm still not sure if the "Japanese" style croissant should have it's own category for consideration.

Susina: the croissant is probably the ugliest thing in the case. But it had nice butter flavor and flakiness. Kinda dense in the middle.

This week's winner is a tough call, and I'd have to say it's a tie between Amandine and Susina.

[kavatee]

Le Pain Quotidian for plain croissants
Susina on Beverly for filled (sundried tomato- yum!)

[Michelly]

I agree that Le Pain du Jour has GREAT croissants, but being a spoiled American, I automatically assumed that they would have an espresso machine. Plain coffee only.

And every time I get to Anisette, they've run out of croissants.