Miel Bakery

Lamination is the first thing you see: trays of all-butter croissants, pain au chocolat, pain au raisin and cinnamon and cardamom buns coming out to a counter that also carries sourdough loaves and seeded rye. Miel bakes from scratch on site with a small team, working with traditionally milled Normandy flour, Poitou-Charentes butter, British free-range eggs and Valrhona chocolate, and pours Assembly coffee beside the pastry case.

French training behind the counter

The bakery was founded by Shaheen Peerbhai, whose classical training came from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and London and Ducasse Education in Paris. That background explains the narrow focus: enriched doughs, lamination and patisserie rather than a broad cafe menu. Peerbhai also runs pastry workshops in the bakery, so the lamination on sale at the front is taught over a bench at the back.

What the case is built around

Signatures do a lot of work here. The Pistachio and Chocolate Swirl carries pistachio pastry cream, toasted pistachios and melted chocolate. The Pecan Praline Cruffin folds pecan praline feuilletine and a 64% Valrhona dark chocolate mousseline into a croissant bun. Kouign amann, the caramelised Breton pastry, is a fixture, as is a glossy dark chocolate tart the bakery calls Shiny AF. Almond and ham and cheese croissants sit alongside the sweet lamination, and the bread side runs to sourdough loaves and a seeded rye sourdough. Smaller bakes rotate through choux à la crème, canelés, madeleines, lemon loaf, cookies, focaccia and sausage rolls. Opinionated About Dining added Miel to its European list in 2026 and placed it at #94 among the region's cheap eats.

How to order

Timing shapes the order. Viennoiserie appears first, so an early stop is croissant territory; tarts, kouign amann and canelés fill the case as the morning goes on, which makes a later visit the patisserie visit. Outside is a dusty-blue frontage, inside French boulangerie tiling and a handful of pink tables, and seating is limited enough that most people take a coffee and a pastry standing or carry the box away. If you want the version of Miel that best explains the place, take an all-butter croissant and an Assembly filter first, then come back for the Pistachio and Chocolate Swirl or the Pecan Praline Cruffin, and pick up a sourdough loaf on the way out.