La Lune Sucrée, San Jose

La-Lune-headerImagine waking up in a quiet secluded apartment with fresh flowers hanging from the balcony, overlooking a cobblestone street. You simply just want to throw on a casual loose linen tee and an old pair of comfy jeans and sandals, walk out your front door to grab some freshly baked french pastries and steaming hot coffee to wake yourself up on a lazy weekend morning.

Not so easy when you don’t live in Europe, right?

Walkway-to-La-LuneI’m happy to say you don’t have to venture too far if you live in the Bay Area and want to recreate that European feeling in San Jose. That’s exactly what we did one morning while we were playing tourist in our new home city.

La-Lune-SucreeI’ve been across the pond a couple of times (once to England and Ireland x2), but nothing in the last ten years. I can get my fix of European bistros by simply visiting La Lune Sucrée, a quaint little restaurant in downtown San Jose. This is definitely a spot where I’ll be taking out-of-town visitors to, and will be popping in here for morning treats and lattes. Yum!  It is a small café, and only has a couple of tables, with more seating outside on the walkway, so keep that in mind if you’re travelling with a larger group of people.

breakfast-at-La-Lune-SucreeToo bad I had to have manners and only order a regular amount of food. I could have easily consumed numerous plates offered at the café.

Pastry-at-La-Lune-SucreeAlthough I do plenty of café and restaurant reviews around the area, I don’t always rave about them and recommend you must try the place. Some of them are average run of the mill restaurants that aren’t all that special, but this place I want you to go visit if you’re ever in the city of San Jose.

Morning-hot-choc-at-La-LuneEspecially if you want a few pastries and a cuppa joe.

hot-choc-and-whip-creamOr in my case a white hot chocolate with whipped cream.

Crepe-at-La-Lune-SucreeThe Guy and I both ordered sweet crepes (as opposed to their liqueur or savoury options which also looked incredible). Their menu is cute and each crepe is labeled by country. I ordered the Italy crepe and my husband went for the Milan. Next time I will definitely add in à la mode which is an added scoop of hand-made gelato. Oh boy. Both crepes were heavenly, but thinking back we should have ordered one sweet and one savoury to split between us. Because two sweet crepes was a bit too much for a morning breakfast, but absolutely fantastic none the less.

I had a chat with both Mark and Bettina, the owners of La Lune Sucrée and enjoyed their story of how they came to open this french pastry café. Bettina learned how to make her pastries and most popular item in the cafe, the Almond Chocolate Croissants in a tiny village in France by a French pastry chef. To make a long story short, Mark and Bettina met in Europe, and fell in love. They relocated back to the Bay Area where he is originally from, and opened this café years later! Now, aren’t I glad I moved from Canada to California, so I can enjoy some of this wonderful piece of Europe that Bettina so carefully creates with her desserts? :)

La-Lune-Sucree-sandwichesI had one of my closest friends come for a visit shortly after finding out about this spot (where my husband and I ate breakfast) so I took my friend for brunch the day we got back from our three day Yosemite climbing trip. We split two sandwiches between each other so we could nibble at both to get a bit of variety. It’s a running joke that I could eat sandwiches for every meal of every day if I had to. It was a good choice to order these, instead of breakfast – even if it was just 10:30 in the morning.

Alright, so I’m pretty picky with my sandwiches and at first I didn’t really want to share since Lori ordered hers on a croissant.

She had the chicken salad sandwich with pecans, apples, raisins, honey dijon and romaine. Mine was the turkey bistro, which had jarlsberg (cheese), dijon, pear pomegranate jam and fresh rosemary. The jam was a great addition to the sandwich, so kudos to Bettina coming up with that creation, and I’ve never heard of jarlsberg cheese before. Apparently it’s similar to swiss. It was really good.

Which one stole the show? Honestly, it’s a tie. There’s no way I can go in there and tell you which one I loved the best. Like I said, picky sandwich-er over here and not all are created equal. But these are excellent, and even on a croissant! I’m a huge lover of a nice crunchy on the outside chewy on the inside ciabatta bun.

Nancy-LoriDo you think we look related? We used to get it a lot when we were younger and both living in Newfoundland, hanging out at our local climbing gym.

I have another best bud coming down in May and I’ve already planned most of her itinerary, and you better believe that I’ll be taking her here, too. Each time I popped into La Lune Sucrée, the staff working there were super friendly and really helpful with indecisiveness to order off the menu. After taking some guidance from them, I ended up with excellent choices from their great selection of pastries. I already can’t wait to go back, luckily they’re a quick drive away!

Between-3rd-and-4th-San-Jos

La Lune Sucrée 

116 Paseo de San Antonio
San Jose, CA 95112

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69 Comments

  1. That sounds like a great place to stop in for a snack. All of the food looks amazing there.

  2. Oh.my. Your pictures are amazing but the food looks amazing too. I know I’m going to do my best to drop by this place when (if) I ever get to Cali to visit my high school best friend. I really want to try the Turkey Bistro because that jam sounds amazing. I have to admit though, the Chicken Salad sounds soooo good!

  3. The food and the hot chocolates looks absolutely awesome, I am in England and we have a few quint places like you have described but the miserable weather usually ruins it for me lol.

      1. @Nancy:

        Yes, I must admit that we do have AMAZING pizza here. When a certain talk show host complained about how our pizzas were like casseroles, it was hard to forgive him. But then again, who doesn’t love Jon Stewart? Just looking at your post again is making me hungry for some beautiful places and food!
        Amanda recently posted..Chicagoland Tropical Drink SpotsMy Profile

  4. this seems to be a great place. And everything shown in pictures looks great and yammi. If one day i am at that side i will definatly go there. I am a crepes lover so that is something not to miss definatly. Thanx for sharing

  5. Dear Nancy,
    Thanks so much for this amazing review. We’re so glad that you enjoyed the food and the experience at our Cafe. Hearing reviews such as yours makes our hard work so rewarding.
    Thank you and see you again soon.
    Bettina & Mark

  6. Wow, that is a very European-looking restaurant. I say that like I know Europe. I’ve never been, but always wanted to go! At least little places like this give me a chance to TASTE Europe. I’d love to check it out.

  7. I will have to say that I never been there but it looks divine. I wouldn’t mind trying out that White Hot Chocolate looks even better!

  8. All these treats in the french pastry café look wonderful and suddenly I am craving to get them! I love the desserts and the sandwiches. With all those ingredients present in the chicken salad sandwich, I am more excited to give it a try.

  9. Yummy, this food looks delicious! I love going out for breakfast, especially in a nice area with lovely, polite people. Sure looks like you must have had a wonderful meal :)

  10. Wow, looks like you had a wonderful time. I really want to try that white hot chocolate, never even knew that existed.

  11. Omg this looks like an awesome restarnant!!! Too bad I’m not in San Jose! I would totally hit it up if I was :)

  12. The photos of the pastries look so tasty! And, I would love to dive into a cup of that white hot chocolate – yum! I love when baristas are generous with the whipped cream.

  13. Another wonderful thing about La Lune Sucre is that their patio is totally dog friendly. Also, if you are a regular, you can earn points towards free stuff. This is aside from everything else said here…that their stuff is totally YUM!

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