La Joconde is a bakery on Inverness Road in Browns Bay, North Shore City, Auckland, rated 4.7. A proper French-style bakery is judged heavily on its viennoiserie: a genuine croissant needs dozens of thin, laminated layers of butter and dough, and tearing one open should reveal an open, honeycomb-like structure inside rather than a dense, bread-like crumb, which is the giveaway between one made from scratch and one that's come from a frozen, pre-laminated block. Morning is the best time to get that kind of pastry at its best, since the layers lose their crispness within a few hours and don't recover once they've gone soft. Delicate tarts and cakes also need careful handling on the way home, since a French patisserie piece is usually built to be eaten within a day or two rather than kept for a week in the fridge. On Inverness Road in Browns Bay, La Joconde is a local option for that kind of baking.