My goodness, for a French pastry lover, I sure chose the wrong side of town to live on. Murrysville/Monroeville area only has 1 bakery and that's Moio's. No macarons for anyone! 15 miles and 45 minutes later with a car-full of hangry people, we arrived at this joint to devour all the breakfast pastries.
The website talks about a lunch deal and there is no such thing. I also called asking about reservations and you know, maybe the lady could have helpfully told me there is no seating area at all. But nope, I go in expecting to order a lunch and eat it there but there's standing room only. I still made the most of the trip by ordering an assortment of pastries though. Here's my review of that:
-very fresh
-authentic assortment (no doughnuts allowed here!)
-taste was good
I tend to judge French bakeries based on their execution of the ubiquitous pain au chocolat. The appearance was puffy and magnificent. The taste was not bad--most of the pastry was air, but I did like that it was not as sweet as Panera's version. The smell though and the smell of the bakery itself was definitely lacking. I believe I had the pleasure of smelling most bakeries in Paris and they would completely astound passersby. The smell was so strong it was almost visceral, like imagining melting butter and flaky pastries...
The best thing here was the almond croissant thingies and why the heck did I only buy one? The cream puff was also amazeballs but next time I will skip the apricot tart and the coconut bread cupcake thing. Next time, bakery, we will meet again and I will treat this as a whole day trip.