A French Pastry shop in LA

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Bottega Louie

This is my review of Bottega Louie, a French pastry shop and cafe located in downtown L.A. here in Southern California!

French Patisserie

Now I LOVE French pastries.  We drove to Strasbourg, France from Germany (not too far away) just to eat a real French croissant and some real French pastries.

Frequently I am let down by the American attempts at French patisserie making.  This has led me to try to make my own.

At Bottega Louie, I was not let down!

This is what greets you at the entrance:

Bottega Louie macarons

 

Bottega Louie macarons

bottega louie macarons

Here is a look at some of their pretty cakes…

On one side of the wall, they have all of their gifts wrapped up in beautiful packaging.

It’s like I stepped into a real French patisserie in Paris!

Who wouldn’t love to receive one of these boxes as a gift?!

The architecture is French, naturally. And I love it.

French counter

A look inside their pastry case…

French pastries at Bottega Louie

Look at all of these mouth-watering pastries! How do you choose one? You can’t!

French pastries

This is what I came home with… a box of macarons…

They wrap it up in pretty packaging which I think is a must for a macaron.  They technically aren’t cookies, they are little pastries. Little pastries need cute little boxes!  One thing I love about the French is how much is put into the presentation of things. Here we just throw things into an ugly plain white bag.

macaron box

Here are the flavors I tried…

macarons

Raspberry macaron – the inside tasted like a raspberry gel. it was quite yummy.
Pistachio macaron – I think mine are better. shhh!
Chocolate orange- good.
Salted caramel – good. But I like my salted caramel ones better.
White chocolate cherry – HEAVENLY. Wow.

I like the Laduree recipe better for macarons as the Laduree recipe has a more almond taste.

Now, I will say I put the leftovers in the refrigerator and I think that Bottega Louie’s macarons tasted better the NEXT day.  I think they were probably made fresh and macarons shouldn’t be eaten for at least 24-48 hours after they were made.

Next up… the raspberry blueberry fruit tart.  It was GOOD. How could it not be?

fruit tart at bottega louie

Now onto my FAVORITE French dessert OF ALL TIME….

Le Frasier!!  If a pastry shop can make an excellent Frasier then they will always win me over.  I love Frasier cake so much, it was even my wedding cake (which is pictured on the header of my blog!)

Let’s take a look, do you see the little fleck of gold leaf on the top? A little crumble of pistachio, strawberries, chantilly cream, honey, and a soft light cake.

Le Frasier at Bottega Louie

The verdict: MAGNIFIQUE! The Frasier was so good. I can rave about it for days. It was simply divine. You need to try one.  I wish I were eating one now.

A last look in the pastry case…

French pastries

Now, I did not have the opportunity to eat at the cafe. The line was too long.  Instead we got some sandwiches to go.  I had the caprese sandwich/baguette. It was really good.  Their bread was perfectly done.  I did not get to try a croissant.  I will need to go back and try one.  If they can make a good croissant, then I will be super impressed as I have yet to have one that rivals Paris.

My final review:

Macarons not my favorite but they were pretty good. Their other pastries were really really good.  Their sandwiches were really really good.  I highly recommend going to Bottega Louie when you are missing Paris.