C'est La Vie - Pastries Breakfast & Dinner

Absolutely love this place. The most authentic French pastries you will find in Sarasota. I've been to France many times and this is the place I go when I need a sweet fix. Everything is freshly made. French owned. I have never had a bad pastry here. Their croissants are HUGE! I highly recommend their chocolate chip croissant. Its decadent, crispy, buttery, with the perfect amount of chocolate chips throughout. I'm partial to a chocolate twist but this is the next best thing, if not better. The apricot croissant is also amazing. Whole apricots inside a buttery, flaky crust. Their St. Honore pastry is to die for. Almost like an almond tart on the bottom with basically a croquembouche on top with mini creme puffs, diplomat cream, and hardened caramel for a nice crunch. The caramel chocolate tart is absolutely amazing, I believe there are nuts in it FYI. The dubai croissant has the potential to be amazing, the chocolate on the outside is delightful, however the pistachio cream/katayfi mix could be better with a pure pistachio cream instead of a brightly colored mix. Overall I absolutely adore this location

First time there and we loved the food! From a French-Euro perspective, a bit pricey…but once in a while you just need something better! Unfortunately they did not have a GF version for the quiche - one of my favorite dishes - but surprisingly, you can order your crepe with buckwheat. Not sure how they deal in the kitchen with celiac - eat first, question later - that is on me! Nevertheless, who knew you could have an amazing crepe made out of buckwheat! And if you didn’t know, they make their bread locally in Sarasota and deliver to the restaurant every morning at 7. C’est La Vie is C’est Bon in my book!

I was in the area on Saturday around lunchtime.. we were checking out the downtown market. Just wanted to grab a quick bite with the family. They don’t have a kids menu, but they did enjoy the pastries and sweets. Service was really good. Highly recommend peach or mango mimosas or even an iced pistachio latte!