Had afternoon coffee at Cocola on Santana Row, which is a French style cafe and patiserrie. We tried three pastries and the house mocha.
The pastries were not overly sweet as is typical of American style bakeries. The strudel was filled with custard cream filling with the “shell” having a nice buttery and airy mouth feel, similar to a croissant. The cake in the background had a caramelized, semi crispy topping with embedded almonds. The chocolate mousse cake on the left consisted of hemisphere of chocolate banana mousse atop a sliver of chocolate layer cake, which was then encased in a thin chocolate coating, which was then dusted in cocoa powder. While I expected it to be heavy, it was quite light, as the coating was super thin, the mousse nicely whipped, and the layer cake resembling more of a sponge cake in consistency. The mocha was smooth and a notch above what you would typically get at Starbucks. A great compliment to their pastries. Cocola is also a great place to just sit, have coffee, and people watch on Santana Row.
