Tea Review: Croissante Bakery

Long time no blog! I've been quite busy at work and going back to take some classes. Without a blogging goal this year and the stress/work from my job situation plus classes blogging has definitely taken a backseat. However I do still plan to try a few of these places that aren't dedicated tea places but offer afternoon tea now that I'm a bit farther out from my yearlong tea journey. 

First up we have Croissante Bakery! This is a bakery in Santa Clara that offers an afternoon tea if you reserve in advance. 

This bakery is located in Santa Clara and it's kind of far away from public transit, there's no light-rail or Caltrain station nearby. They do have a large parking lot though so those with cars have easy parking. You must make a reservation in advance to have the tea-service and their spots are quite limited. While they did ask if we had any dietary restrictions day-of and had non-dairy milk available there's no advertising for a gluten free, vegetarian, or vegan tea on their website. 
Ease of access (location, hours, ease of making reservation, dietary menu options): 4/10

The décor for these is definitely going to be hard to score. This was very obviously a bakery and cafe first that happens to sometimes serve afternoon tea. The bakery items were really delicious looking though. The walls were quite plain but they definitely had some strong branding with all of their take-out bags and posters in this intense blue color with silly black and white old timey figures posing with breads! The staff were ok attentive but again this is more of a bakery/cafe than a sit-down restaurant the majority of the time. The cups and tea pot were quite cute and while each cup had a matching saucer they were cutely mismatched like most tea places. 

Atmosphere (décor, place settings, staff): 6/10

This tea is $40 per person and was very sweets heavy which is kind of expected since it's a bakery first. Unfortunately it left me feeling quite over-full by the end due to so much sweets! Almost everything was delicious but I definitely wish there had been a couple less sweets and instead a couple more savory bites. 
Price (value for money): 7/10

The tea selection was limited but there was a flavored black tea and a flavored green tea available that were both really good! The selection was small but had a decent variety of black green and herbal teas. We could pick one pot of tea for the table then switch to a second type of tea halfway through which was a little odd but I am going to take into consideration this isn't their main thing. 
Tea: 7.5/10

The scone was really tasty but quite small. The portions of accompaniments were good but instead of clotted cream they had whipped butter. It was fine taste wise but if you really like clotted cream it's not here. 
Scones (and/or crumpets): 7.5/10

The savories were so delicious! I'm actually quite sad we didn't get more savories not just because it would have balanced the sweets better but they were just genuinely good and I wanted more! There was an open faced egg salad sandwich, a cucumber sandwich and a warm prosciutto and cheese. Very simple sandwiches but done to perfection! (and no salmon!)
Savories: 8/10

The sweets are really the star of the show here, there were so many and with so much variety! On the tiers there was a matcha tiramisu, a canale, mini madeleine dipped in chocolate, a strawberry and chocolate mousse and a fruit panna cotta. On the side they gave us two large tarts- one mango and one chocolate! My favorite was definitely the mango tart but the matcha tiramisu was also delicious. I was surprised because I'm often put off by matcha things however this wasn't overpoweringly earthy tasting and had a good balance in flavor. My main complaint is that there were actually so many, especially compared to the savories, it was hard to finish all of them (and I ended up taking my part of the chocolate tart home)

Sweets: 8/10

Overall if you have a car and are in the area and want to try some fantastic sweets this is a nice place to visit! I wish I could have taken some of the bakery items home but I was just too full to think about it. Probably best for groups of 2-6. 

Total average rating: 6.8/10

Also I forgot to take a picture of my outfit D: Please take this stock photo coord collage as a poor substitute. 😅