La Maison d'Isabelle

Crowned as the bakery with the best croissant in Paris in 2018, Maison d’Isabelle is a dream for any carb lover. Located just a block from NYU Paris, the bakery is a quaint outdoor shop serving freshly baked viennoiseries that infuse the air with luscious oven fumes. Although the store always has a line, it goes by quickly as the staff wastes no time knowing they have the most famous croissant in town. Maison d’Isabelle also boasts a variety of cakes, tarts and other breads, but the croissants and pain au chocolats conveniently sit right by the cashier to incentivize customers to buy as many as possible — and my peers and I did just that. I first tried the classic croissant, and man, let me tell you — I immediately knew in my first bite that it was the best croissant I’ve ever had. As a major foodie, I’ve had my decent share of pastries throughout my life, but nothing compares to the incredible structure and lightness of Maison d’Isabelle’s croissant. I could tell the layers of dough and butter must’ve been expertly folded as the outer shell puffed out the most crispy little bits, while the inside had an absolutely beautiful honeycomb-like web. I find that the typical croissant tends to shrink if you hold it too tightly, but this one was strong, large and had an audible crunch every time I bit in. As for the pain au chocolat, the layers shrunk more easily than those of the croissant, but the overall flavor was perfectly sweet and left the best butter grease goodness on my fingertips. Taking away from the whole experience, my main critique is that I wish the viennoiseries we got were warmer — especially so that the chocolate in the pain au chocolat would’ve been gooier — but that’s just a matter of when exactly you buy them. My rating: 9.5/10 for the croissant and 8.5/10 for the pain au chocolat.

Andrea Lui