This place.

This French bakery in Connecticut, this patisserie in Fairfield.

I was so excited about this place.

So excited.

But everything we tried here was mostly disappointing.

Except for the Croissant Donut holes.

I know what you’re thinking: Cronut? What year is this? 2012?

But you shouldn’t care.

When somewhere does something well, who cares about trends?

The problem is, this place doesn’t even do Croissant Donuts well.

Just the holes.

Let’s see what they’ve got…

Macarons:

The Macarons were terribly disappointing.

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We tried three: Caramel (top left), chocolate, and raspberry.

The caramel was very light, with a slight marshmallowy taste.

After a little bit, you realize it basically tastes like the buttered popcorn jelly beans.

You know, disgusting.

4.5/10

The Chocolate tasted mostly like cocoa, but with an overcooked quality.

Imagine the corner piece of a pan of brownies, but someone didn’t add enough chocolate.

5.5/10

The raspberry was basically just raspberry preserve.

But then, there was a very odd aftertaste, like too much cleaner.

5/10

Sugar Croissant Donut

The major complaint with the croissant donuts is the shell.

It’s incredibly tough and chewy.

It almost hurts to fully bite through them.

While the glazed croissant donut has a nice sweetness to it, the sugar croissant donut only has a light cinnamon sugar that isn’t enough to makeup for the tough shell.

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Sugar Croissant Donut:

5/10

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Glazed Croissant Donut

6/10

Florentine Cookie

This is basically an almond brittle cookie.

But it tastes like a peanut toffee with an almond aftertaste.

The chocolate is…okay, doesn’t add much but doesn’t detract.

Overall, if you like raw almonds, not roasted but raw, this is the cookie for you.

The Rating: Florentine Cookie

6/10

Shortbread Cookies

I do not like shortbread.

It’s dry, with an artificial buttery taste.

I don’t get how people like it.

But this shortbread? This is good.

Not too buttery, not too dry.

Even that chocolate dip goes well.

Pretty good.

The Rating: Shortbread cookies

6.5/10

Raspberry Bomb

Okay, up until now, almost everything has been bready.

So we had to try something else.

Something chocolatey.

But…the chocolate here is never chocolatey enough.

The chocolate flavor in this raspberry bomb is light.

The raspberry flavor inside is solid, like a nice preserve.

There just isn’t enough chocolate flavor.

The Rating: Raspberry Bomb

7/10

Croissant Donut Holes

Here we go.

A lot of things tried, from a very fancy place, to get us to the highlight of this patisserie (so far).

These are amazingly crispy.

And with such a large surface area, the cinnamon sugar gets a chance to shine through.

The interior dough is chewy but light.

The holes highlight what’s wrong with the croissant donuts.

Basically, they are all air.

But in the holes, it’s pretty dense, and nice.

The Rating: Croissant Donut Hole

7.5/10

Isabelle et Vincent

Address: 1903 Post Rd, Fairfield, CT 06824
Hours: Open Tuesday – Sunday: 6am-4pm