Here are a couple of more croissant visits.
Bonjour Patisserie:
I had read that one of the pastry booths in the Little Italy Mercato had opened a brick and mortar shop on Cedar street. I had tried the croissants from Bonjour Patisserie's stand at the farmer's markets and wasn't very impressed, but since the Missus wanted to try the Spiral Croissant to compare against the version Desserts by Clement. So, after doing my typical Saturday Farmer's Market stop, I headed on over to Cedar to the newly opened shop.
Walking in I was greeted by the nice young lady working. And there was the Pistachio Spiral Croissant that the Missus wanted.
I got one butter croissant and the spiral croissant and headed back to the car and then home.
Once home I went and tried the butter croissant.
Though it looked over-baked, the exterior wasn't flakey and crisp. The interior was on the doughy-bready-chewy side and the croissant, in my opinion really lacked butteriness. This was mediocre at best and was the same as what I'd had before from their stand. Well, at least they're consistent, right?
The Missus also dug into Her spiral croissant. Which looked pretty good.
But the Missus cut into it and took a bite and made a face. She made me have a taste. The crust was doughy, gummy, and lacking in crispness. It was on the thick side. The filling was too sweet for my taste as well.
So guess who was sent back to Desserts by Clement as few days later?
Well, another croissant tried and marked off…….
Bonjour Patisserie
320 W Cedar St.
San Diego, CA 92101
Current Hours:
Tues – Sun 8am – 4pm
Closed on Mondays
Cafe de l'Opera:
During my visit to Izola's new location, while walking back to where I had parked my car, I passed a newish looking cafe. I took a quick look inside and saw that they had various patisseries, including croissants. The friendly young lady noticed that I had the Izola box and we had a short chat; the gist of it being that Cafe de l'Opera made their own croissants. I promised to drop by for some coffee and to try their croissants.
A few Sundays later, I decided to get a bit of walking in; so I headed down the hill and caught the Blue Line to the Park & Market stop and then hoofed it over to the Diamond Terrace Condo building where the cafe is located.
The same very nice young lady was working. I placed my order and had a seat in the nice looking cafe.
I had ordered a Cold Brew along with my croissant.
Man, this was a pretty stiff cold brew! It pretty strong and really woke me up! Not bad at all.
As for the Butter Croissant.
It was soft and doughy, lacking in that flaky-crispness that I enjoy. I'm not sure why they call this a "Butter Croissant" as sorely needed more butter flavor. The interior was a bit too "moist" for my taste as well.
Too bad, because I liked the cold brew and the young lady working here.
Cafe de l'Opera
910 J St.
San Diego, CA 92101
Current Hours:
Mon – Fri 7am – 3pm
Saturday 7am – 2pm
Sunday 730am – 2pm
And so my exploration of croissants in San Diego continues…….
It was quite interesting, the skin was separated; the one's that were fattier were on the upper and left hand side; these were crisp with a creamy finish. The skin on the right were more crisp. The leftover skin with fat heated up super well in the air fryer later! The meat was slightly gamey and earthy. All of this went so well with the perfectly made tender, but up to the task pancakes. Which also heated up well using my microwave tortilla warmer.
We saved the two legs for home and they crisped up perfectly. This was so delici-yoso once you create your little "roll-up". In fact, the Missus said this was better than what we'd had at 
I walked up to the counter, the place had just opened, but there seemed to be a couple of folks waiting for their orders already. The young man working was really nice, though he looked a bit overwhelmed. I took a look at the menu….even though the portions looked pretty large, I went and ordered the Mix Katsu Combo ($19.99), which included both pork and chicken katsu and curry. 
The katsu had not been fried evenly and there were some darkly colored spots, the texture of the panko was kind of mealy, at least the breading wasn't separating from the proteins, but it was easy to tell which was the pork and chicken. The pork was on the left; it was thicker, had a more spongy texture, but was fairly tender, if a bit on the dry side. The seasoning was one dimensional being quite salty. The chicken on the right side was thinner, dry, and chewy. It was also quite salty. I'd take the pork any day of the week.
I'm pretty sure the curry had been made with "cubes", it had a nice spice, but was barely lukewarm….and I was eating in the food court. It was quite gloppy and was also on the salty side. Dipping the katsu in this was just too much sodium for me.
Way back when 
Man, that plate looked kinda sparse? So, going down things, the bi was missing the roasted rice powder which would give it a wonderful nuttiness; the one slice of Tan Hu Ky was dry and flavorless. This would be the common theme of the meal, as the "cha" the pork -egg "cake" was dry and bland. The meats were dry and tough; you get the point, right?
Good lord, this was greasy, and rubbery, there were like three shrimp, it was terrible.
Good lord. The fish was supposedly mahi mahi, overfried, not seasoned, and dry as heck. The tortillas were like cardboard. The purple cabbage slaw was flavored with ginger and the other had mango "salsa" which really needed some spice. It was all accompanied by a pool of pasty black beans, which at least was seasoned adequately.
With not too much of anything, I could try the biscuits and gravy. The gravy wasn't too salty or greasy, the texture was on the lighter side of things, but it wasn't bad. The egg was perfectly easy over, the yolk having no off flavors. The breakfast potatoes nice and crisp on the exterior, the breakfast sausage routine. This was good enough to bring back memories of old school – diner breakfasts I'd had in my younger days.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Marbled Rye was used, which added an interesting yeasty-tangy-sourness to the sandwich. As a whole, a routine sandwich, basic mass produced sliced turkey; we enjoyed the cucumber and sprouts the most. It was enough for our lunch and we walked thru this western theme town to our car and headed off.
