Ottawa Foodies

In front, two delicious croissants from the French Baker. In behind, one of their baguettes.

No debate...the French Baker has the best croissants in Ottawa. Light, buttery - flaky on the outside and tender on the inside. For those of us too tired to trump down to the Byward Market early in the morning (they often sell out), the croissants are also for sale at Bridgehead.

Went to the French Baker twice last week. First time they were sold out of croissants so I just bought a baguette (perfect - thick crust on the outside, soft and tasty inside). Second time I struck gold - lots of croissants available. Bought two - one for my husband and one for me along with two baguettes, pleasantly surprised to have a third baguette thrown in for free.

Yum. I'm drooling just thinking back on the croissant. Flaky, buttery - perfect! Now that I think about it, I think I'll swing by tonight.

We heat the oven to 400 F and stick the croissants in for a few minutes, and they end up almost as good as fresh.

There used to be a cafe up the street from The French Baker that I used to frequent (Sips?) run by a lovely blonde woman named Lina (I think). You know you spend too much time at your cafe when you get invited to the staff holiday party! On the weekends, I used to buy 3 or 4 croissants from The French Baker, and carry them up to the cafe, and have the cook there make me an 'eggs hollandaise', draped over the open croissant. As a bribe for this favour of preparing food that I brought with me I always brought extra croissants for Lina and the cook. Mmmm... good times...

I found too much amount of butter (or I should say overdose of butter). It seems that that is what they are famous for. But I personally like to eat croissants with the right amount of butter.

The Croissant from the French Baker (also available at any Bridgehead in town). There is no breakfast pastry more perfect.

I must agree with you all. I am one to hate croissants but last Thursday in the freezing rain I walked there to try them and they were worth it! By the way, they are HUGE croissants but I ate it all up in one gluttonous go anyway.

Absolutely the best croissants in Ottawa. Apparently there is 20cents of butter in each croissant!

I've had them probably six times in the past ten years -- always on a weekend. As you said, it's the extraordinary amount of butter that makes them so heavy. But clearly that's what people like because they're often sold out when I get there! :)

I went out and bought some two weeks ago after seeing this post. Wow, I'm no macaron expert, but these were exquisite! The exterior is crispy, and the filling is just sweet enough, with lots of flavor! I had one hazelnut, one lemon, one raspberry and one pistachio.

Went back this morning, and they also had chocolate and orange. Picked up one of each. They are absolutely delicious!

Well they were amazing! I ended up sharing them at a dinner party. I tried one of each and vote them all super great!

No coconut Tiana, just egg whites, ground almonds, sugar, and flavourings and colour for the lemon and raspberry ones. The noisette have ground hazelnut and ground almond.

So that was you this morning. I had to laugh because you called just after I ate my morning snack...a raspberry macaron to go with my coffee. The one we were short was the one I ate. Sorry, my bad!

I called this morning to see if they had any in and they did! I have never tried them here before but was really looking forward to it. Previously, I'd only had those found on Preston.

They had chocolate, pistachio, raspberry and lemon. I ordered 3 of each but they only had 2 raspberry ones left. I think I'll live through it.

So far, I've only eaten a chocolate one. It was amazing. The outside was perfectly crispy but gave way nicely when I bit into it. The ganache was nice and solid compared to how fluid the Preston ones are. I'm fairly certain there was coconut in it as well.

It was a soft chewy pleasure beneath the thin crispy exterior. 1 down... 10 more to go...