Chocorrant Patisserie & Cafe

I had the BLTT sandwich on croissant. Really tasty and fresh flaky croissant. Everything I've tried so far is excellent. A nice place on 124th street to discover. ❤❤❤
Their strawberry white chocolate croissant and chocolate almond croissant are amazing.

Last week I went back to Chocorrant for the second time. I went once when they first opened, and have not been back. It’s located right on 124th street and 103 avenue. When I first opened, they only had pastries and coffee, and since have expanded to offer lunch as well. On this occasion, I just went for some coffee and pastries, but their lunch seems kind of intriguing so I’ll have to go back and give it a try. There’s not much for parking; There are a few parking meters in front, and some free hourly parking on the adjacent streets if you’re lucky enough to snag a spot.

Ask any Edmontonian for a bakery recommendation and 9 times out of 10, they'll steer you to Duchess Bakeshop. While they're not wrong, a little competition here and there is always healthy. Over the past year or so, a number of bakeries and pâtisseries have popped up around the city, including La Boule, Macarons & Goodies, and FanFan Pâtisserie (that's next on my list to try!). Also giving Duchess a run for their money is Chocorrant, a café-pâtisserie located just a few blocks down the road.

I honestly had high expectations for this place. I was so excited to visit a new bakery as I am a huge lover of sweets. Coming back from Australia, I miss the endless amounts of beautiful cafes and pastries that are to die for. I am on the look out for a cafe/bakery that isn't duchess which has consistently dominated the bakery scene for years.

The bakery itself is beautiful, it's bright and immediately upon entering, you see the glass display of all the pastries and cakes. They also serve brunch and drinks to go along with your cakes. I really wanted to try everything and it is so tempting with all the beautiful cakes on display.

I opted for the matcha croissant because I have been longing for a matcha croissant similar to the famous one they serve in Sydney. I was so disappointed.. the croissant was not flaky enough and you can see there were not enough layers in the croissant. In fact there was a huge hollow space right through the centre which is such a shame. A well made croissant when sliced in half will show you multiple (hundreds of) the layers, and little pockets of space in between each throughout the whole croissant. The croissant did have a slight matcha taste which was nice and it wasn't overpowering either.

I also got the lemon cheesecake. The presentation was beautiful and it looked so elegant. The caramel tuile was a nice tasty addition to the cake and I could eat a bag of them if I wanted. The cheesecake was light and fluffy with a very subtle hint of lemon. Inside there was lemon curd which was not tart nor overpowering. To be honest, I was extremely disappointed with the addition of a macaron shell inside the cake. Why do they do this??? The macaron shell added no texture nor flavour and in fact takes away something from the cake itself. The soggy macaron just added unnecessary sweetness and ruined it for me. I guess it added colour since it was yellow and the rest of the cake was pale.

The last cake I bought to try was the earl grey cake. This was probably one of my favourites from everything else. The earl grey was refreshing and the cake itself is beautiful to look at. I definitely recommend this one among the others, however, the caramel made it overly sweet. If they removed the caramel and replaced it with a layer of jam or curd (ex. Raspberry) I would be happy.

Overall, not bad but definitely has room for improvements. The cakes are $6.25 each, with the croissants ranging from $3.25-$3.75. I still think Duchess is more intricate and the consistency with quality/detail and flavour reigns above the rest.

I enjoyed the clean, minimalist interior. I had the strawberry milk croissant and a regular matcha latte. The drink was average which is fine. It's interesting that there are different flavours of croissants. As the name suggests, it seemed like the highlight of their store would be their croissants. Half of their display is filled with croissants. I liked the flavour ideas being presented so I had high hopes in how it would taste but was not blown away. I like a crunchy, super flakey croissant but the croissant I had was rather doughy. The flavours of the strawberry was not strong enough to me and I found that there wasn't much filling if they had intended for them to have filling. The prices however are very reasonable.