Location: 3272 Midland Avenue, Scarborough
Website: https://www.lalabakeshop.ca/

La La Bakeshop is a thoroughly delightful bakery that melds French and Vietnamese flavours, mostly through its assortment of Asian-inspired croissants (though they do have several other cakes and desserts, and everything looked great).

I went with the condensed milk croissant, which certainly isn’t a taste combo that I would have thought of.  But oh man.  It was insanely delicious.

Mostly, it’s the croissant.  There are roughly a billion bakeries in the GTA where you can find a croissant, but most of them aren’t much better than okay.  Frequently, the texture isn’t quite right, or they’re not buttery enough, or they’re not fresh enough, or they’re just… not good.

The croissant here was remarkable.  Perfect texture — it’s super flaky and crispy, with just the right level of tenderness and heft on its interior.  Great buttery flavour.  Legitimately one of the best croissants I’ve had in the GTA.

It’s filled with a pretty generous amount of gooey, oozy condensed milk, and you’d think it would be too sweet, but somehow, it isn’t.  The croissant and the condensed milk work so well together that I’m shocked I’ve never seen this combination before.  It would be a tasty combo with even a lesser croissant, but with a croissant of this quality?  It’s a contender for the best pastry in the GTA.