Here’s the deal: Houston baker/chef Anita Jaisinghani has a super popular restaurant named Pondicheri on the ground floor of the chichi West Ave strip mall in Upper Kirby. Like it’s recently opened NYC outpost, it’s fine, fine, whatever, but the good sh*t is upstairs—at her oft-overlooked Pondicheri Bake Lab + Shop. Here, the pastry cases are bursting with diet annihilators like gulab jamun donuts, spiced with mace, cardamom, and cinnamon, and then soaked in rose-cardamom syrup; besan mithai (chickpea fudge flavored with cardamom and topped with sunflower and pumpkin seeds); masala shortbread, fig and fennel cookies; and brioche buns made with chocolate, orange, and saffron. Dining in? Lucky you. How does a warm chocolate brownie with peanut and walnut jaggery caramel and salty lassi sound? Everything is made in-house, including takeaway jars of chutneys, pickles, and ghee. The selection changes seasonally—no, daily!—but the originality of Jaisinghani’s fusion creations (saag paneer kolaches, anyone?) never fails to impress.

2800 Kirby, Ste. B240, Houston, TX; 713-522-2012.