Cafe De L’ Opera

Excellent daily specials. It’s like being in France for a little bit.

came to visit from a dear friend’s rec on their croissants!
picked up the almond chocolate and their butter croissants:
The butter one was extraordinary. Thousands of little crinkle sounds as I pinched and pulled away small pieces. This is how crispy it is. Yet, the inside is soft and buttery. It exceeded my expectations. For those who know, Tartine in SF has a much much more buttery croissant (not as crispy and not a fan), and Bouchon’s is on the other end of the spectrum, which I love. Café De L’Opera has the best of both worlds. I am truly sold.
The chocolate almond, on the other hand, was a bit disappointing to me. There weren’t as much almond pieces or chocolate. Though I probably should’ve gotten the pan au.
Now I have a reason to come to down town in the daytime! Can’t wait.

Cute little café near Petco Park and Hotel Indigo where I stayed.
I had an Iced Chai that was thick, sweet and flavorful and a customized Croissant with ham, fresh mozzarella (instead of Cheddar) and Fig jam (instead of mustard aioli).
I also got a free salted caramel macaron with Unilocal check in!
The lady was very sweet and accommodating and prices were very reasonable especially for a place that prides itself with 100% Organic coffee/​tea and freshly baked pastries.

I came here for lunch today & was not impressed. I ordered a turkey baguette but asked for no turkey or spinach. It sounded really yummy — lettuce, avocado, pepperoncini, cheese and some kind of dressing.
First, my sandwich came with turkey. So she missed me saying no turkey. It was the first thing I said when I ordered it, but that’s okay. It happens. Then I got my sandwich back, which by the way, didn’t look like a it was on a baguette. I took one bite and tasted turkey. I was not happy about that at all. I looked in my sandwich and there were chunks of turkey left on it. Also, there were only 2 tiny, old looking pieces of pepperocinis and the dressing was smothered all over the sandwich, as well as the salad. Other than tasting turkey the only other thing I tasted was the dressing.
I tired to eat the salad but it had too much dressing as well. And it seemed like it came out of a bag. Not impressed. Everyone seems to like the coffee and croissants. Maybe I’ll just try that next time.

I work across the street and this is my go-​to coffee shop. Love that they organic coffee and cheaper than the bagel shop a couple streets away. Their croissants are so buttery and flaky and probably extremely fattening but that’s ok. I love it!

I LOVE THIS PLACE! The Staff is very friendly. The Owner Alana is just the sweetest and she is way I keep coming back!

Extremely friendly and accommodating to all types of food sensitivities and high maintenance orders (egg whites only, no dairy, no gluten type of things etc etc). The breakfast food and drinks were incredible too!

This is a cute little coffee shop next to petco park. We had an almond croissant which tasted amazing! Better than Starbucks for both the croissant and coffee. We checked in and got a free macaroon! It was delicious! The staff here is sweet and helpful. We’ll definitely come back here when we’re in town :)

Café De L’Opera is great! It’s amazing for being a little coffee shop right by Petco Park. Service, people, food, drinks… all fantastic!
I had the Vanilla Latte & it’s right there with Starbucks or even better. & the Almond croissant is the best croissant I’ve ever had!
I’m coming back for sure!

We were here for Scripps night at the ballpark. Line was out the door to get their fantastic ice tea and coffee. Owner was fantastic! Accommodating and polite despite the busy crowds. Great food wonderful atmosphere

Popped in here to try it out yesterday and there wasn’t a large option of desserts like I thought there would be. I wanted some macaroons and there was only three flavors to choose from, a little disappointing. But I really wanted the toasted almond and chocolate, they happened to have both. Once I checked in on Unilocal I saw I got a FREE MACAROON! Swoon, I get another macaroon! But when I showed the check out girl she seemed shocked and didn’t know what the offer was and was confused. She was the only person working and seemed a bit frazzled. She tossed all 4 macaroon into a larger brown paper bag, a little sloppy since one cracked and said how weird the odd was but have it to me and said to have a nice day. The macaroons were tasty, the outside was a little mushy but overall very tasty. I might try this place again but overall wasn’t very impressed by it. There was a large seating area that would be nice to enjoy coffee and chat with friends.

Good, casual spot for lunch! Lots of yummy salad and sandwich options. As someone who isn’t typically a fan of kale, I really enjoy their Kale Caesar Salad. It’s offered as one of their side options for $ 4.50 and it’s a pretty good size. Meaning for a light lunch I could just order that and be good. Mostly I do a salad and soup combo or order a smoothie. I’ve ordered a few of their sandwiches though and they’ve always been tasty.
Have yet to try their breakfast, pastries or coffees, but they have a good array of options. It’s a convenient spot if you work nearby and want to grab something fairly quickly.

I really wanted to like this place because it’s convenient for us but what a horrible disappointment. I ordered a pesto chicken sandwich with greens and a tomato soup with roll. The sandwich had no tomato which the menu says it comes with tomato. They didn’t give me the greens and when I had to go back they didn’t even apologize like it was my fault. The soup was barely warm and no roll. Really? I was the only person in line so it wasn’t like it was busy. The croissants looked small and dry so I didn’t even bother.

I concur! The almond croissant here is decadent and lovely. An almond croissant and coffee is my ultimate favourite morning treat, and Café l’opera definitely treated me.
The croissant — the part that everyone forgets about yet is so important — was perfect: Buttery with generous, delicate layers of light pastry. The almond filling leans more toward the more textured (due to raw almonds) with a good dose of almond extract side (a la bear claw) as opposed to others that take more of a marzipan approach and a smooth filling. I enjoy either of these versions, but am adamantly against the double baked versions which ruin the croissant and are way too heavy.
I asked the [very kind and friendly] staff guy if they bake their own croissants and he hesitated for a moment before diplomatically responding «they are fresh daily». When printed again, he replied that no, they do not bake the croissant themselves, but have them brought fresh daily. The bakery, however, is a secret :)
I also went for an egg/​feta/​tomato on ciabatta panini (they were out of the lamb sausage that sounded so good) to round out breckie. Fantastic ciabatta bread. Rather boring sandwich, unfortunately. Only reason for the 4 vs 5 stars.
Had a simple cup of coffee. An organic Peruvian blend that day. Was good, basic, if a bit light, coffee.
Great value for my filling and satisfying meal. Right across the street from Petco dog park and next door to 7 – 11 on Island. Their lunch menu also looks tasty and I plan on returning to try that out. And get an almond croissant for dessert, of course :)
FYI: if you pay via credit through their POS, and you are so inclined to tip, you must tip with cash (I didn’t see an option on the screen).

I stopped by here when I was staying in the area. I ordered a dirty chai latte, and it was amazing! It wasn’t too sweet, with the perfect amount of spice-​ness and espresso-​ness. It was delicious! I wish I had ordered the almond croissant. Everyone raves about it, but I had dinner plans, so decided to forgo the croissant. I wish they had a shop like this in Torrance too, instead of the standard Starbucks and Coffee Bean franchises in the area.

I sadly have to update my review and subtract a star for Café De La Opera. I absolutely love the food. Since my last review I have tried a few more items off of their menu, my favorite being the jalapeño chicken panini. It is delicious and a very fair size. It comes out toasted to perfection on the most delicious bread and oozing with cheese. Most of their meals come with a side of chips or a side salad of your choice and here in lies the problem.
During my last two visits I have opted for the side Cesar salad and both times the salad has come out wrong. This wouldn’t have been the biggest deal if the food came out at a decent rate, but I feel like the service has become more and more slow. It should not take 30 minutes to receive a sandwich and salad, but it has, with an extra 15 minutes added to receive the correct salad.
Please add more crew members during lunch hour.

They have great breakfast pastries! I love their butter and chocolate croissants. I have also had their chicken pesto panini, and it was very good. My only issue with this place is that it takes forever to get anything! They only have 2 people working, and one is usually in the back or doing other things, while the cashier (very friendly) is left to make all of the drinks and prepare the orders. I had to wait 10 minutes the other day to have her put a chocolate croissant in a take out bag because she was making someone else’s food who was in line before me. They need more employees asap! I will continue to go back, if I have time! There is no way I could ever go in for a quick bite unless I saw it was empty with no one in line.

So yesterday my office wanted to order some salads from this place. I went on a huge search online for their website and menu. To my surprise there is not a working website, then to get their menu I found it on their FB page. This is not a printable version so I had to copy/​paste it into word so that everyone could easily view it. Annoying but whatever, then I try to find the number to call and make my order. The only number is to their 5^th ave. location and it keeps getting sent to their mail box. Finally I decide to just go down and order the food. I tell the cashier about the lack of menus online (and as it turns out in store) and he agrees and cant figure out why they wont take the time to print some up/​make them more readily available online. The food takes quite a while (which I was told by the cashier it would) since there were only 2 people working.
Then I saw the cashier handling the salads (without washing his hands or wearing gloves) after he had handled payment from a few other customers. Grabbing hand-​fulls of lettuce and other toppings and tossing them into the container. I’m fairly certain that’s a health code violation.
Overall not pleased with this place, it was my first and last time coming here.

fantastic croissants!!!

They’ll toss your salad! Wait. They toss salads for you? No, no. Okay, they will make your own salad for you. Much better.
But they will; you can build your own salad per your liking and specifications. Though they have a quaint, intimate space with a similar motif to a European café or neighborhood coffee shop, you can order to-​go or call ahead.
They also have a rather large coffee/​latte menu to order off. If that’s not your thing, they also almost always have a large cucumber water pitcher available for diners.
Though there’s no outdoor patio to enjoy the daytime hustle and bustle of downtown, they do have windows you can cozy up to and gaze out from. Also, did I mention that they’re extremely affordable? Hey, $ 8 for a salad is probably one of the best deals you can find for lunch. And if you get to make it to exactly how you want it? Can’t get much better than that.

I was so happy I happen upon this place because I not only got to eat a great grilled cheese, but I got to expand my Grilled Cheese list for San Diego. In addition to grilled cheese, I ordered a 12 oz Americano. (
)
The grilled cheese came with three cheese: and aggressive cheddar, a mildly nutty provolone, and a light Swiss cheese. Did I mention the grilled cheese came with crispy bacon, well it did. The grilled cheese had a light crust of the sourdough bread. (
) The bread was good, but the stars ere no doubt the melted cheeses. The trio made for some great flavor and excellent consistency. (
) The bacon was good and added some great texture and flavor. (
) The
The Americano was great, and so was the service. The lady, «Lane» who took my order, made my panini and coffee, was great. She was very personable and friendly.
Hooray for Grilled Cheese!