Pinwheel Cafe & Bakery

Pinwheel Bakery opened recently. It is where the former L'Amande Bakery (best ever) used to be. We have been waiting as the signage has been there for some time. Sandi and I have been there several times to try various items. The place is cute; different decor from L'Amande but still inviting. They have a variety of baked goods from nice looking French breads to croissants. They have soups and sandwiches; Croque Monsieurs, French Toast, Waffles, etc. etc. I met the owner, Sophie, a French lady who was very sweet.

The first time Sandi and I went, we ordered the Croque Monsieur. She had hers with the green salad and I had mine with the tomato soup. The salad dressing was too tart for me. The soup was nothing special. The sandwich was not cooked enough for us but that's just a preference. We like ours almost burnt on top. Service was slow even though they were not that busy. It took some time for my coffee to arrive but they apologized and gave us some Choquettes on the house. Those were excellent. They were airy, nice and very light. We also ordered a trio of mini croissants. They were good but again nothing special.

On our second trip, we ordered a French Toast and Chocolate Waffles. We also ordered a Lemon Poppyseed Scone which looked good. We would have liked the Brioche bread to have been cut thicker. Thin French toast just doesn't do it for us. The strawberries were sour. The waffles were too sweet. In all fairness, a plain one might have been better. The Lemon Scone was a good size one but it came alone, unaccompanied by anything. I had to ask for some butter. One small triangular piece came which was enough for 3 bites. Scones have to come with butter, preserves or better yet, lemon curd to go with it.

A few days ago, Sujata, Cynthia, Sandi and I saw an early movie at the AMC and when we got out, we all decided to have a snack at Pinwheel since we had a tub of popcorn. The 2 ladies have never been so I didn't say anything since I did not want to influence their opinion on anything. Two of them ordered the Lavender Hot Chocolate. Both Cynthia and Sandi couldn't believe that the small order was truly small. It was tepid, not hot and had about 2 sips of the chocolate milk, the lavender flavor was undetected, and lots of foam on top (notice the small cup was not even full). Cynthia ordered 6 of the Choquettes to share which everyone enjoyed. I ordered the French Onion Soup. I have to say it was disappointing. The cup was small and it had the piece of French bread floating inside.I have had numerous French Onion Soups and I expect very good ones from a French restaurant/bakery. Usually, they are overflowing and dark and crusty rich with onions. This was far from it. Sandi had the trio of mini croissants which were o.k. There was a Chocolate Caramel Tart that looked gooey so I got a slice for everyone to try. It was good but I couldn't help comparing it to the salted caramel tart from L'amande that was rich but not too sweet.

I did buy a baguette to take home and that was good. Both Sujata and Cynthia were not impressed. Sandi and I gave it three tries. The bakery is good but it just didn't blow me away. It's not like I wanted to tell the whole world to go there ASAP. I spent a lot of money when L'Amande opened since I was blown away. I literally was there almost every day if not eating there, I was buying the goods for my friends to try. I so wanted this bakery to be the next L'Amande but unfortunately, it falls short.

Pinwheel Cafe is located at 2553 Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance, California.