Now I love me a good bakery. No matter how much I try to eat healthy, no matter how much I try to go organic…I can never resist the siren song of a good boulangerie. And every once in awhile Paris Baguette calls to me and I can’t help but run my metaphorical ship aground.

Ok, maybe I’m getting a little carried away. Don’t get me wrong, Paris Baguette is yum. But what makes it even better is that it’s also inexpensive…unless of course you go nuts with the pastries as I am occasionally apt to do. But that’s a whole ‘nuther story.

Paris Baguette is a Korean based chain with several locations throughout California (as well as New York, New Jersey, and Philly). It employs a model that I’ve found in other Korean bakeries – self serve. Basically, when you walk in the door you grab a tray, grab a pair of tongs, and get to pickin’. They have a wide variety of sweet and savory pastries as well as various loaves of bread. They also have a small selection of fancy cakes but I’ve yet to try these as they don’t fall into my bargain budget.

I made a visit a few days ago and you know how I mentioned going nuts? Well, here’s the gory details.

Clockwise from top right – chocolate croissant, chocolate coconut pastry, dark chocolate bread, strawberry cream bread, banana croissant, mini fruit tarts.

Ahhh….look away, look away. I’m so ashamed. Well, not really. My sister and I went in together to buy this and it did feed our entire family. So don’t worry, I didn’t pull a big bertha and stuff all these down my gullet.

But seriously, don’t these look yummy? And they are. My favorite was the dark chocolate bread. It was filled with chocolate chips and was so chocolaty! Mmm, mmm, mmm. Btw, don’t those two little fruit tarts look like a pair of eyes. Hee, hee. I should have arranged everything to make a face, another opportunity wasted.

Anywhoo…Paris Baguette not only (self) serves pastries but they have an espresso bar as well. Generally, I grab a mocha but they had an iced vanilla latter on special for $2(!). You know how I love my bargains. I am impervious to their siren song. My metaphorical ship…ok, ok, you get the picture.

So, check out the latte –

somebody didn’t use the flash

Pretty nice size, huh? It’s pretty much a grande at that other chain that’s on every corner. What’s it called? Star something?

So if you’re in the mood for some inexpensive pastries (they run between $1-3) and coffee check out Paris Baguette. There are multiple locations in Los Angeles and Cerritos and they are also located in Buena Park, Glendale, Irvine and Santa Clara as well as the East Coast.