This is the point in the series, dear reader, where you will say “That’s not a king cake!” And this is also the part of the series in which I tell you that we embrace all king-cake related items here. There is no king-cake related thing I won’t try… except king cake vodka. My mind is made up on that. But anything else, I’ll try it and I’ll write about it here!

Wait, do you hear that? Is that the sound of my food photography improving?

Yesterday, I called one of my favorite coffee shops, French Truck, to see if they had king cake slices. French Truck is some of the best coffee in town and is THE best in terms of larger commercial operations/chains. It’s what I drink at home. It powers most of these reviews. I love French Truck. The kind barista informed me on the phone that they had “mini king cakes”… but then added that they were actually croissants. They also had only one left (!) and promised to hold it for me (!!) so I ran in quickly and grabbed it along with an oat milk NOLA iced coffee. Apparently, French Truck also sells filled versions of these but mine was cinnamon/traditional/plain.

Important side note: call ahead + be nice = everyone wins.

IMPORTANT KING CAKE NOTE: this is NOT a review of the Maple Street Patisserie king cake!!!!!!! I have not tried their king cake before (rare!) but I’m pretty sure it (1) exists and (2) is highly regarded locally. I will definitely try and review their real king cake this year. Hold me to it!

This was a croissant with sugar on top and not much more. Let me be clear—it was a fine croissant. But I’m not really a big croissant person. I’ve enjoyed my fair share of pain au chocolat, but I don’t think I’ve ever thought to myself, “wow, I could really go for a croissant right now, I should get in my car and go buy one.” It’s not that croissants aren’t good, but they certainly are not my favorite.

The silver lining here was that my body really needed a break from the excess sugar today. My little Haydel’s Monday mega treat resulted in a full-on blood sugar crash at about 3:30pm when I ran out of a work meeting complaining that I was “so hungry” for “anything but king cake.” And… I may have also had a tiiiiiny final slice of Dong Phuong before slicing the rest up to give as gifts.

But, alas, I wanted this to be king cake and it wasn’t king cake. Not even close. As far as croissants go, this was buttery and delicious; however, I really wanted it to be king cake which was a little disappointing in the moment. I was honestly considering giving this 2 stars (in terms of its placement on a continuum of king cakes and king cake-adjacent food)… but then I put a piece in the microwave and I remembered that warm croissants are WAY better than I remembered (and definitely better than cold croissants). It was, in fact, a really delicious croissant and I ate at least three more bites than I intended to eat. So 2.5 stars for [the microwaved version of] this festive, perfectly lovely croissant that has Mardi Gras colored sugar and is absolutely not a king cake.