The name is a joke about texture. Croquer is French for to crunch, and the croque monsieur has been a café standard for more than a century on the strength of that one quality: classically a hot, grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and the whole thing rests on the outside being crisp when it reaches you. Ours is made to order from $18, which is the only honest way to serve one.
Why it is made to order
A croque monsieur cannot sit in a cabinet. It softens as it waits, and once it has softened the name no longer applies, so we do not make them in advance. You order at the counter, it is assembled and cooked from that point, and it takes about ten minutes to reach you. That wait is not an inconvenience to apologise for; it is the reason the thing is worth ordering. The kitchen here is open plan, so you can watch the work while you wait rather than staring at a buzzer.
The rest of the savoury list
The croque is the most substantial thing on the savoury side, but it is not alone. The savoury range runs to three quiches, Lorraine, mushroom and caramelised onion. A stuffed sfiha is a Lebanese-Brazilian filled pastry, one of the dishes Levantine migration carried into Brazil and left there. Cheese and spring onion potato bread, a sausage scroll, creamy chicken bread and ham and cheese bread fill out the rest. And a Brazilian cheese scone arrives warm with hand-whipped butter and guava jam, and it is the most Brazilian thing on the savoury list.
Saying the dietary part properly
All three quiches are made with no added gluten, and so is the cheese scone, which is built on cassava rather than wheat and always has been. That is the accurate wording, and we use it deliberately: New Zealand's labelling rules changed, and we no longer make blanket dietary claims about any of our items. What we can say is narrower and more honest, which is that we have not added gluten-containing ingredients. Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease. Nothing we make is made with no added gluten and no added dairy at the same time. The wider list is in our No Added Gluten Cakes and Desserts collection.
Lunch is better with a witness
Ten minutes is an awkward wait alone and a short one with company, which is the practical argument for not coming here by yourself. The better argument is that a table of two can order across the menu: one croque and one quiche, halved between you, and you each eat two things instead of one. Add a coffee, made with the Terra Nova fair trade organic blend from C4 Coffee Co here in Christchurch, or a Zealong teapot from the only tea plantation in New Zealand. If you are showing someone the city, this is a lunch that explains itself: an 1880s building on Welles Street, a plant-filled room, tables that move to seat four to eight, two low tables and high chairs for children, and a water bowl and metal table legs for clipping a lead, because the room is dog friendly.
Then stay for the cabinet
The reason to eat lunch in a patisserie is what happens afterwards. The mini desserts are each a single serving, so two people can take two different ones and compare without dividing anything. The full menu covers the rest. One more thing worth knowing if you are feeding a crowd rather than a table: savouries can be supplied fresh or frozen for heating on site, which is useful for events. We have written more about lunch and the savoury range, about what separates a patisserie from a bakery, and about coffee and cake.
Ordering and visiting
The croque monsieur needs no notice at all. It is made to order on the spot, so walk in, order at the counter and allow about ten minutes. Anything ordered online for collection needs two days, with three for some larger desserts and seven for petit four trays, and the checkout date picker only offers dates the kitchen can meet for what is in your cart. Collection is in person from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street in the central city, one block south of the Bus Interchange, since we do not deliver. We are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturday.
