5 stars because it's the most ambitious pastry shop in madison and has some of the most adventurous flavors. with that said, not everything is consistently good. excluding their puff pastry desserts (eclaire, religiueuse, paris-brest are all tasty) and gelato, pretty much everything else has disappointed me. It's hard to justify paying the premium price for it. And once I bought a $16 ladyfingner cake and it must have been old because it honestly tasted like store-bought angel food cake.
This place has a couple seats inside but it's kind of sterile; I wouldn't want to hang out here.