Neighborhood: Logan Square

Vegetarian Options Rating: ★★★★

Pescatarian Options Rating: ★★★★

Affordability: ★★★★

Ambience: ★★★★

Service: ★★★★1/2

 Food Quality: ★★★★1/2

Overall Rating: ★★★★1/2

Menu:

• Meals/Snacks: Smoked Salmon Crepe and Brie Croissant Sandwich
• Dessert: Almond Croissant

Logan Square now has a charming, French Boulangerie for one to reminisce about being in France, drink coffee, and eat delicious food.  The counter is surrounded by gorgeous French pastries and bread.  It’s basically a Parisian dream in Logan Square.

I find it hard to find affordable French food in Chicago.  While there are some remarkable French restaurants in Chicago, most of them are quite pricey and you can’t really have an affordable, casual lunch there.  Sometimes I just want a savory crepe or croissant sandwich and I was able to find that here.

La Boulangerie is a small, cozy and modern looking Parisian boulangerie with a wide assortment of traditional French pastries, breads, coffee, and tea.  They also have some substantial lunch items like sandwiches and savory crepes.  I am a big fan of savory crepes and while they weren’t on the menu at this specific location they let us customize the crepe to our liking.  So we ordered the Atlantic sandwich in the style of a savory crepe.  It came with smoked salmon, horseradish aioli, red onions, greens, a hard boiled egg chopped up inside, and an over-easy egg on top.

The crepe was a wheat crepe so it was hard to cut up at times but it was worth the difficulty since wheat flour tends to be healthier than white flour.  All of the flavors went really well together in the crepe – you can’t really go wrong with smoked salmon and the horseradish aioli gave it a nice little kick but didn’t dominate the crepe.  The yolk from the over-easy egg oozed out deliciousness and was soaked up perfectly by the wheat crepe.

 It also came with some mixed greens drizzled with a light, zesty dijon vinaigrette, which was tasty.  There was a bit of balsamic drizzled on the side of the crepe creating not only a delectable meal but an aesthetically pleasing plate.

We also tried their sandwich of the day, which we had on a croissant.  The croissant was flaky and moist with caramelized onions and brie. Quite simple, but quite delicious.  Can you really go wrong with caramelized onions and brie?  I don’t think you can.  But the onions were perfectly caramelized though.

 We decided to take a sweet almond croissant for the road.  It was crispy, flaky, and moist with a stimulating almond flavor to complement all of the savory delights.  I can’t wait to come back here to have another delicious lunch or snack while getting some necessary work done in a quiet, clean environment.