Le Saint Honoré

This story may sound familiar: a French-style bakery known best for selling croissants and other pastries at farmer’s markets opens up dainty little brick-and-mortar locations, rapidly generating lots of positive Yelp reviews as well as some declaring the pastries to be nothing special. No, we’re not talking about Chaupain French Bakery, which we’ve liked across multiple prior visits, but rather younger alternative Le Saint Honoré, named for a French pastry made with caramel and cream. Now with brick and mortar locations in Dana Point and Irvine, as well as a main bakery in Long Beach, Le Saint Honoré offers what we’d classify as fine rather than good or great house-made pastries and drinks, plus a small collection of refrigerated savory items and soft drinks.

The newer Irvine shop is hidden inside an obscure business park restaurant row, so small inside that customers need to physically manuever around each other to access pastry cases and the front payment counter. No seating is offered inside, but tables and chairs seemingly shared with other businesses are available several storefronts away. Due to this cramped arrangement, Le Saint Honoré even places its disposable silverware, napkins, sweeteners, and a water dispenser outside its front door, seemingly with the expectation that guests will grab their drinks and boxed pastries, then immediately leave to get the straws, sugar packets, forks, and knives they’re likely to need.