Tous les Jours serves Frenchasian-inspired baked goods
The dizzying arrays of pretty pastries at Tous les Jours — French for “every day” — aren’t an acquired taste. In fact, those sweet and savory, crowd-pleasing treats seem engineered to generate love at first bite. But getting that first bite hasn’t always been easy at frequently busy Tous les Jours, a newcomer attached to The City apartment complex near the Ohio State campus. ● Frankly, Tous les Jours was so regularly packed with customers when it opened at the end of last year that I almost wondered if its shoppers thought the end of the world was near, too. If crowds have become more manageable lately, this branch of the South Korea-based, website-described “bakery & cafe franchise specializing in French-asian-inspired baked goods” remains a super magnet for pastry fans.
My advice: Try visiting the gleaming white cafe/bakery with lounge-like seating before noon on weekdays. Whether on a grab-and-go mission or hanging out with a very milky cappuccino ($4.25) or a purple ube latte ($5) tasting of cereal milk, an early-bird strategy has presented short or nonexistent lines on recent pop-ins.
Tous les Jours operates like a bakery shop where everything is tempting, so I recommend perusing the myriad options before piling up goodies, which is done with the grab-your-own white plastic trays and tongs awaiting patrons near the entrance.
Perusers able to look beyond the showcased beauties will notice brutally honest cards providing calorie counts and ingredient lists for most items. It’d be interesting to study their effect. Because the appearance of ingredients like margarine, soy lecithin and “skim milk powder” didn’t seem to slow any shoppers down during my visits. This included me, but I was, you know, doing research.
Unless you want a meal of exclusively sweet pastries (I salute everybody this describes), head to the heated case of savory pastries. That standalone box resides beside refrigerated beverage cases facing the counter along the wall lined with shelved goods.
The selection of freshly baked savories will vary (ditto for sweets) but the kid-friendly croque monsieur ($4.50) is usually available. It’s essentially a grilled American cheese sandwich with ham, sweet notes and crispy toasted Japanese milk-style bread with one blistered-cheese exterior. Comparing this irresistible, populist riff to its fancier and more decadent classic French antecedent
(which features Gruyere, Parmesan and bechamel) made me think about Cyndi Lauper entertainingly singing opera.
The sausage onion pastry ($3.95), which invites comparison with an oversized pig in a blanket, could’ve been called a “hog on a cot.” It’s a whole smoky frankfurter nestled into a flaky, golden-brown pastry “bun” garnished with ketchup, mayo and chopped onions. Sure, this might make a Chicagostyle
hot dog zealot cry, but I was smiling.
Mushroom tart fans should target the mushroom onion cheese pastry ($3.75), which has a characteristic-for-thisplace flaky, gently crinkly and slightly sweet glazed base. This was the most impressive savory item I tasted.
Both the kimchi croquette ($3.25) and curry croquette ($3.25, with a veggie stew-like filling) evoked savory jelly doughnuts with soft-yet-nubby exteriors. Both were enjoyable, and the kimchi croquette was surprisingly spicy.
Moving to sweet treats, and more Korean-parisian fun, the honey cheese mochi pancakes ($4.50 for three) are basically hotteok — lovable, little Korean-style pancakes — with a sticky honey glaze and light, cream cheese filling.
The sweet potato pie ($2.95) encased in puff pastry and the delightfully chewy “sweet rice donut” ($2.50; think glutinous doughnut hole with adzuki bean filling) provided more textural entertainment and easy-to-like flavors. So did the very respectable, pre-wrapped cream butter scone ($3.75) and a light, airy confection with strawberry shortcake flavors called “spoonable” strawberry cake ($8).
The crustier, sweet cheese and blueberry Danish ($3.75) and alluringly intense “chocolate avalanche” ($3.50) were standout French-forward pastries I could eat, umm, “tous le jours.” I wonder if my doctor would sign off on that?
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