Evana Patisserie & Cafe
Evana Patisserie & Cafe has been open a while, but has recently been going viral for their soft-serve croissants.
What once was an online catering company operating out of a home kitchen has since grown into a sleek and approachable French-Asian dessert destination.
Founded by Eva Soung, who grew tired of a career in luxury beauty and marketing, she decided it was time to put her retirement plan into early action and in 2018, she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu's outpost in Ottawa to get traditional pastry training.
A self-described "foodie" who would travel far and wide for a single good dish, taste, texture, and aesthetics were all important factors for Soung when running her cafe and bakery.
At the core of the offerings are delectable desserts that are perfect for when you want to "celebrate small and big things."
The menu ranges from several types of croissants to more classic French pastries, all executed with an interesting Asian twist.
The popular circle croissant lives here in a pistachio ($6.50) flavour. Flaky and cream-filled, it's a great execution of the classic pastry style.
The croissants are quite large here, with Soung describing them as "face-sized." The Rocher Croissant ($5.75) is dipped in semi-dark chocolate and covered in toasted hazelnut pieces. 
A great summer option is the Strawberry Custard Croissant ($5.75) filled with vanilla custard cream and fresh strawberries.
The space also hosts events on a regular basis, including a popular pottery class where you can make plates like the one pictured below.
There's also a selection of danishes to choose from if that's more your vibe.
We tried the Kimchi Bacon Danish ($5.50) that was salty and savoury, with fried kimchi with bacon, bechamel, and cheese nestled inside the neat square pastry.
On the classic pastry side, you have the Exotic Passion ($8.75), a vanilla choux-filled with whipped vanilla bean ganache, mango confit, and topped with a stunning sour passionfruit mango mousse. The top is airy while the choux is delightfully crispy in contrast.
Rich and decadent, The Merlot ($8.85) is an elevated experience. The ganache and gelée are made from merlot, and inside you'll find dark chocolate mousse and cake, all on a cocoa tart shell, giving each bite an interesting bitter and boozy note.
The Matcha Wreath ($8.75) uses ceremonial-grade matcha from Japan to make the mousse and ganache. Lemon-lime cremeux is a bright note against the earthiness of the green tea.
The Kalamansi Meringue ($7.75) is an Asian twist on the classic tart. It's more fragrant than the classic lemon, while still being a familiar but fun option to try.
There are also éclairs, like a Chocolate ($9) one that's lovingly adorned with house-made crispy chocolate pearls offerring a nice textural crunch in contrast to the soft cream.
The über-popular soft serve comes served in a croissant of your choice ($10.95), but you can also get it in a cup. Flavours rotate every month and when we visited, they were Thai Milk Tea and Vanilla Bean Twist.
All the drink syrups are made in-house using real fruit and the Grapefruit Ade ($6.50) is a refreshing choice.
There's also a Sparkling Passionfruit drink ($5.95) that would balance any decadent dessert perfectly.
Evana Patisserie & Cafe is located at 390 Silver Star Blvd Unit 118. Open Wednesday to Monday.
Fareen Karim
