Caprice Pastries

This pastry shop does an excellent Yule Log, as shown. In France, it is the traditional Bouche de Noël, which was our Christmas day luncheon dessert this year.
JOYEUX NOEL!

I stopped into Caprice Pastries after shopping at Trader Joe’s. There’s no retail display, but the proprietor welcomed me into the kitchen and showed me a variety of delicious looking desserts, including an assortment of miniature pastries.
As I was trying to decide, he directed my attention to a chart showing the prices — one for $ 2.25, two for $ 4.50, etc. I selected two, and he said, OK, $ 4.75. Although this was a little more than the price chart said, I decided not to quibble over 25 cents, and handed him a $ 20 bill. He then said, «OK, we’ll round it up. $ 5.» (Yes. You read that correctly).
I thanked him profusely, as it is not every day that one has the honor of being personally overcharged by a French pastry chef. Yet as I left, I felt a certain sadness at the paltry amount of my involuntary tip. Perhaps if I had been more fashionably attired, Monsieur would have embellished my tab by $ 2 or $ 3, or even — dare I hope — $ 5. Despite my disappointment, I must say the pastries were very tasty.

I’m feeling disappointed. The gentleman that took my order over the phone was lovely. He wasn’t sure about the marshmallow icing. After an internet search we agreed on meringue icing but, he didn’t produce what was ordered. The deciding factor was the icing — I called 6(?) bakeries before Caprice — and, although we spoke at length about it, the cake had what tasted to me like plain old white icing. Cake was good but, not what the birthday boy wanted. I really wanted to be satisfied because the gentleman was soooo nice and the price was right. I can’t imagine ordering from Caprice again :(

A visit to a hidden gem, been hiding for over 20 years, he mostly wholesales for high end coffee shops and events in the LA area but he is a hack of a nice Frenchman (yea, I know.), and super affordable and yummy!!! Jean-​Luis is a hack of a pastries chef and a gentleman.

Cash only.
This place is amazing. I was searching for birthday cake and found this place through Unilocal.Funny, I never knew this place existed even though I go to Trader Joe’s across the street all the time. There’s a figure of a chef in the front and upon entering it’s a office to the left and you’re walking into a full bakery. I asked, «are you a store?» and a French chef immediately came up and showed me his trays of goodies and cakes. There’s a small sign that says «Wholesale, open for the public» and samples to nibble on.
I got the red velvet cake and a small strawberry rhubarb tart. The cream cheese frosting on the red velvet was lighter than usual, much creamier and tarter topped with raspberries and covered at the base in chocolate chips. The crust on the strawberry rhubarb was flaky, and the filling was smooth and not too tart or too sweet.
This place is legit, I’m definitely coming back here for my baked good needs!

Amazing pastries! The staff is so nice. I didn’t know it was CASH ONLY so I left after making my selection to run to the ATM and they were so sweet about it. I bought pastries for a friend’s birthday and can attest to the amazingness of the following:
–Crème brûlée (chocolate and vanilla)
–Cheesecake (they have many fruit flavors)
–Mousse cake
–Lemon bar
–Cookie swans
Everything was SO. GOOD.
They also have larger cakes that looked beautiful too. I definitely plan to order a cake in the future.

Best pastel in town! When you enter there, it’s already a kitchen. You can’t see inside from outside but don’t be afraid! Head chef is French guy nicest person;) whatever you order, he will give you that.
Once I order the special cake, he said he had never done it but he did it and it was perfect!
I like be this place. Everything is not too sweat but super good!!!

I wanted to get a little baked good for my friend’s birthday. Another friend recommended that we try out Caprice’s Pastries.
Jean-​Louis greeted a group of us as we came into his shop. He was extremely affable, helpful, and playful. He brought out some cookies for my friends to try just for showing up. They were very tasty! He helped us pick out a lovely hazelnut tart for my friend’s birthday and it was only $ 2.25! While we were paying up, he offered my friends more little baked treats (which we all happily gobbled up… again, very tasty!).
Jean-​Louis was so friendly and kind to us. Even though we were only there for an inexpensive item, he treated us all like we were top-​paying guests! The treats were delicious, the service was fantastic, and everyone left happy. I highly recommend Caprice Pastries!

HOW did i not know of Jean-Louis’s Caprice until now? HOW?! i can kick myself for all the times i’ve craved patisseries and sadly pouted to myself at the nonsense of having to drive across our fair city plagued by asinine traffic for a pathetic attempt at the art of french pastries… all those years, with a hop + a skip, i could’ve been smiling like a cheshire cat at the plaisir of gorging myself with all the awesome stuff i saw at caprice. for shame! thank goodness for my friend who lives around the corner from Caprice for bringing us here after a late lunch today. gosh i love her!
from the moment we walked in, we were warmly greeted by Jean-​Louis, who immediately offered wonderful samples. my friend is a frequent visitor, so i felt really special — he gave us a whole tres leches (it was cinco de mayo, afterall) tarte to try, a mexican chocolate layer cake, and offered other samples (a gorgeous variety of punitions, lemon squares). they were all amazing!
i wanted to pick up a selection of pastries for dessert w/​my family tonight. we were shown an abundant selection of mini crème brûlée, tarte tatin, napoleons (+topped w/​fresh huge strawberry halves), chocolate mousse cake, or choux à la crème (he named his «the swan» — it’s adorable, he cuts up the choux and puts it back on the crème to look like a swan!), pistachio choux, tiramisu, and much much more. we picked up several of these amazing creations and i honestly couldn’t believe the price: 6 for $ 13.50. what?! at a «fancier» patisserie, i’d get maybe 2 for that price, if i’m lucky, and the presentation isn’t as impeccable as Jean-Louis’s work.
needless to say, everything i picked up was a serious hit. my family is a little snobby with french pastries, even when the folks producing them are french trained. but Jean-​Louis is a true patissier francais… nothing was too sweet, crunch where it was supposed to be, rich when appropriate, delicate when needed, crème light as feather. it was such a pleasure to meet Jean-​Louis. i bet he can make a kick ass croquembouche. i hear croissants are to die for and can’t wait to try it. fyi, i’m told that croissants are only on saturdays. only 4 more days to go.
à la prochaine, Caprice!

Best birthday cake ever, except those that were made by someone I know or that teenage mutant ninja turtle cake from 2^nd grade. That was legendary.

This place was a disappointment, this is not a patisserie and doesn’t claim to be, but comes up when you google french pastries it is not. The pastries are all the same, I don’t know if they let this batch slip through the cracks but then again it is their fault for lacking quality control. Everything has so much cinnamon in the taste, even the chocolate pastries. I bought two whole boxes of pastries and tarts for New Years and they were all bland and not good at all, the price was the final nail in the coffin.

LEGIT AF

Two of us Sampled several pastries. Ranked them by number 1 to 5 for our own memory, so next time we know what to get.
Crème Brulee 5+ Wonderful, smooth. A bit on the overly sweet side.
Pecan Tart 5 well made and just what it is supposed to be. Excellent
Vanilla butter crème ball with nuts, 1 bland
Lemon bar 2 not what we expected, Other flavors took away from the lemon, which was more of an after taste. Not the way we like it.
Puff pastry with Grand Marnier filling, needed more Marnier 2
Chocolate mousse 3 pretty good, secondary flavor was not to our liking.
Key Lime tart. 3 Needed more key lime flavor, nuts detracted from the flavor. Less sugar and more key lime would have made it better. The crust was good on its own, but conflicted with the key lime.
So next time we will plan to get the Crème brûlée and the pecan tart.
Some of the pastries were excellent and you can tell the chef is a master of it, just some did not appeal to us. So I will give it a 4 overall for the attempt.

I stopped here with a co worker to pick up treats for the office. They have many samples and I almost filled up on those alone. It’s an interesting set up where you almost walk into the kitchen to buy the sweets. I met the chef, who’s working almost next to the counter where you pay. He was friendly and offered me even another pastry. You need to bring CASH as they don’t take plastic.

OMG! If you are not going to be in the sixième arrondissement in Paris tomorrow, this is the best pâtisserie I’ve found in Los Angeles. And Jean-​Louis is a sweet treasure.

We checked this place out to get a sample for a tasting of wedding cake. The bakery consists of the kitchen and a little offshoot office area. The customers walk directly into the kitchen and are greeted with bakers, tons of samples and an amazing smell of deliciousness.
We tried the cronuts (AMAZING), the brownies, the oatmeal cookies and some other sweets while we were waiting.
Our tasting was delicious. The sample was decorated beautifully. The overall taste at this bakery is not overly sweet but very light and fresh tasting. It makes you want to keep eating more and more. The syle and décor element here is spot on! Check this place out for samples and to take home some beautiful pastries.

WOW… The friend’s mom brought this for breakfast /​snack for a party and there was no turning back for me! They were nicely decorated… tasted awesome and it was fresh! Definitely looking forward to checking this place out in person next time I’m in the area… but really, well worth checking out!!!
PS: prices were reasonably and the staff were friendly says the friend’s mom!

I’m undecided about this place, based on the mini desserts that were available one day. We were hoping for fruit tarts with frangipane and some eclairs, but they weren’t in the mix. Instead, out of a variety of other options, we chose a lemon tart and éclair-​like pastry (I didn’t catch the name) with a vanilla custard/​cream. From the taste, it seems like the chef knows his French pastry, but lacks a few points of finesse. The chef himself was pleasant, and the kitchen space was organized and sparkling clean.
The pâté a choux for the not-​éclair was perfect — unlike many of the bland, rubbery, nasty shells that other places serve. Inside, the filling was more dense than I’d like, although the taste was fine. My only real complaint was with the white icing on top, which looked nice but tasted like donut frosting and killed the overall flavor. I like donuts and I like eclairs/​cream puffs/​etc., but don’t try to pull a cronut on them.
For the lemon tart, the crust wasn’t too dense and the curd tasted nice despite its slight lack of firmness. Sadly, there was a ring of crushed almonds around the edge that weren’t entirely fresh, so any bites with them were tainted. I would’ve preferred the tart without nuts, regardless of being old or not.
Overall, I’d come back to try more items, though perhaps it’s best to call first to check out the selection. I’d also wager that the cakes here are good, based on other reviews and the quality/​authenticity of the chef.

Je suis ravie, un vrai patissier dans le quartier! Fantastique!
We ordered a cake for our son’s Bday and we wanted something that both the adults and kids would enjoy, and we didn’t want icing, and this, and that, and we were picky I am sorry how picky we were.
They made us a light sort of chocolate genoise paired with chocolate mousse decorated with cream, not icing. It was light and delicious and not too sweet. Imagine something like a chocolate cloud? De-​li-​ci-​ous
When we came to get the cake our son was with us and they took time to show him around, he could watch a pastry chef ice tiny cakes and they displayedfo a second all the beautiful, magical cakes hidden in the fridge. We felt welcome, it was indeed very sweet.
I always had a hard time cooking cakes here because of the difference of flours and imperial sytem of measurment, different qualities of chocolate and on and on and on… I am now free from a very difficult chore! I can’t wait to come back and order a Saint Honoré or a Paris Brest. I could just organise a party just to have a reason to get more cake from Caprice!

Our boss is a pretty die hard foodie. So for his birthday, we struggled to try and figure out what to surprise him with. After debating our options and deciding that –another– cake from Vons DEFINITELY was not going to cut it, I stumbled upon Caprice Pastries.
I called in the morning of our intended celebration, and as it happened, they do have a lot of pre-​made cakes ready to go. We decided on the mixed fruit Charlotte cake, and a colleague went to pick it up. When she got back, she reported similar findings as other Unilocalers, how it was strange that they have no storefront, and no cashier or bakery case. But when I snuck a peek into that taped up box, I knew we had made the right decision.
Upon the reveal, everyone was awed at not only how good the cake looked, but how light yet rich the cake seemed to be at the same time. It’s spongy, but not dry. Fruity but not too sweet.
Thanks Unilocal,for another ace up my sleeve.