La Forêt: New Bakery in Burnaby

When I saw my social media feed light up with posts about a new bakery located in Burnaby, I just had to see what the whole hype was about. La Forêt is pretty close to Metrotown but is tucked away on a side street just off Imperial Street. The thing that hits you immediately is how large this bakery is.

The interior has tall ceilings and plenty of seating with natural light beaming in through their windows and glass garage door panes. The large planter in the middle of the cafe adds a nice touch of greenery to contrast the large wood beams and white table tops.

When we visited, there wasn’t many pastries available (there was a large display that was completely empty)… guess I’ll have to try and come back sometime to try their other goodies. In either case, we wound up grabbing a few items to go, including the Chocolate Kuchen, Matcha Madelaine, Matcha Canele, and Cream Cheese Bacon Garlic Bread.

Kuchen is the German word for cake and, at first, I thought this looked like a lava cake. Instead, this was just a regular dense chocolate cake topped with chocolate. I found it to be rather dry. On the other hand, the matcha madelaine wasn’t too bad. I think the best of the bunch was the matcha canele which is soft and chewy on the inside with a dark, thick, caramelized outer shell. I didn’t really enjoy the cream cheese bacon garlic bread as I found it a bit hard with too much cream cheese.

I came back early one morning (their pastry selection was still very limited) and ordered a Green Tea Latte ($4.25) and a Brownie Bun ($4.50).

The Green Tea Latte was quite good and had a smooth and creamy finish.

The Brownie Bun was also a good selection. The brownie was quite dense with a chewy centre and a slight sweetness that was contrasted by the crunchy nuts.

So, it seems that things can be a bit hit-or-miss here depending upon what you order. The interior space, however, is reason enough for most if you’re looking for somewhere to past the time. Fair warning… this place is quite popular now and it can get super busy (and loud).

6848 Jubilee Ave
Burnaby BC

www.cafelaforet.com