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As you all know, I’ve been a little bit obsessed with Laduree’s macarons. One of my top priorities when visiting Paris was to visit the Laduree tea salon on the Champs Elysees.
Not only do I have their Sweets Recipe book, I had poured over numerous websites trying to decide what I was going to eat when I arrived! Now settle in, I have a lot to say about Laduree!
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| a review of Laduree Paris |
We had made a reservation for breakfast at the Laduree’s tea salon on the Champs Elysees in the morning. We made it around 9am in the morning, which I guess according to how empty the salon was, it was *much* to early to eat breakfast. However, for these jet-lagged Americans, 9am was perfect timing. We made a reservation through this website.
We knew we had arrived when we spotted the pretty green metalwork outside. How cute!
Although Easter had already passed, they still had their Easter displays up complete with cute chocolate chickens. While we were there, they did change their displays to a Mikimoto display, which I forgot to take a picture of.
We bypassed the row of viennoisseries and patisseries and headed up the stairs to the tea salon.
We were seated next to this beautiful antique French clock.
I did not take too many pictures of the upstairs as I was trying to be discreet.
Below is a picture of the (free) bread they give you… and wrapped up in that pretty green package is not candy but… butter!
Now, deciding what to order was a bit difficult. The menu was pages and pages long. I *highly* recommend looking at the menu before you go. You can browse through the menu here.
The Tea Room Experience
We had both coffee (which was good) and the Melange Laduree tea. The Melange Laduree tea is the house signature tea which is a mix of black teas, rose petals, and essence of orange, caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, bergamot, and black currant. If you like Earl Grey, you will like this tea! I loved it so much I bought some to bring home. (The tea is for sale downstairs)
To eat, we started off with some pastries. We had a little pastry with raisins, an apple turnover, and a chocolate croissant. They were yummy!
For breakfast, we had the plain French toast, raspberry French toast, and an omelette. The plain French toast was very good; it was a nice brioche with pure maple syrup. But then I tried the French toast that had fresh raspberries with raspberry coulis… oh boy, that was SUPER good. I highly recommend trying that. But, what I really loved was their omelette. It was perfectly cooked. It also was very thick but fluffy at the same time. It was the best omelette I’ve ever had! I think they probably use more yolk in their omelettes (With all of that macaron baking, they will have a plethora of extra yolks). I read some poor reviews about the omelette about it being cold and I feel sorry for those people because mine was delicious!
After the waiter allowed us to enjoy the salon for several hours, we headed downstairs. A note about dining in Paris – you must ask for the bill. They won’t present it to you automatically. It is considered rude to force someone out of their seat, so the waiters will wait for your signal. A lot of Americans think that the waiters are being rude and ignoring you, when in fact, they are being nice to you and not rushing you through the wonderful dining experience! Imagine it from their view: you are paying top dollar to dine in a fine tea salon on the most famous street in the world! No rushing here!
We headed downstairs after eating to the store. Enjoy some eye candy…
After staring for a while at all of the sweets, we eventually we were able to choose some macarons to take back and enjoy later. We arrived early in the day to the tea salon and store which I highly recommend! Later in the day, i.e. in the afternoon, there will be a VERY long line to get in to not just the tea salon but the store downstairs. We had no line. That was around 11am.
I highly recommend choosing a pretty box so you can take it open as a souvenir!
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| Laduree Paris Macarons |
Macaron Tasting Reviews
For all of the macarons we tasted, they all had perfectly baked cookies with perfectly smooth tops and perfect feet. We did not have a single one that was bad. They are fragile and got beaten up a bit as I carried my loot around Paris all morning, but that’s okay.
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| Laduree salted caramel macaron |
Salted Caramel Macaron – The salted caramel macaron as delicious. It was one of my favorites. I have nothing bad to say about it. You MUST try this one.
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| Laduree cherry blossom |
Cherry Blossom Macaron – The cherry blossom macaron was very pleasant. It tasted, like, well, cherry blossoms! I didn’t know what cherry blossoms would taste like, but if I were to go and eat them I am guessing they would taste like this! This one is not a must-try.
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| Laduree pistachio macaron |
Pistachio macaron – The pistachio macaron was very very good. The shell had pistachio in it to give the pastry more pistachio flavor. The pistachio cream inside was very pistachio tasting as well. Sometimes other places’ pistachio macarons do not have enough pistachio in them for my taste. This one was VERY good. Must get this one if you love pistachios!
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| Laduree orange blossom macaron |
Orange Blossom Macaron– Onto my *favorite* macaron from Laduree… the orange blossom macaron! This is one of their original and signature flavors. It really does taste like an orange blossom. But it isn’t too floral. It is REALLY good. REALLY REALLY GOOD. You MUST try this one. You can also check out my blog post which features their recipe if you can’t wait ’til a trip to Paris.
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| Laduree lemon macaron |
Lemon Macaron – The lemon macaron was okay. There wasn’t anything special about it. It wasn’t bad, but… there are other flavors that are more amazing that I recommend!
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| Laduree raspberry macaron |
Raspberry Macaron – The raspberry macaron was really good. I love raspberry macarons. The tartness from the raspberries go really well with the almond shells. Can’t go wrong with this one.
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| Laduree Lily of the Valley macaron |
Lily of the Valley Macaron – I was surprised at how much I loved the Lily of the Valley macaron. I bought it as a last-minute decision… and I ended up just loving it. It has a really nice refreshing taste. It does taste like the smell of lily of the valley. This flavor was just REALLY good. I’ve tried to find a recipe for it online and haven’t yet…. I guess I’ll have to make my own essence of lily of the valley. This is a must-try.
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| Laduree macarons |
Other Flavors that we tried but I forgot to take pictures of because we ate them too fast…
Mikimoto Macaron – this is a rose lychee macaron and was okay. I don’t love rose nor lychee things, so I didn’t expect that I’d love it. However, Pierre Herme’s rose lychee ispahan croissant is to-die-for.
The Marie Antoinette Macaron – the blue one in the picture above. It tastes like an Earl Grey tea. If you like earl grey tea flavored desserts, than this one is for you. I just felt like they had other flavors that are worth your money and calories that you should try first.
Ice Cream Review – Yes, we tried their ice cream. I shouldn’t call it ice cream, it’s more like a sorbet. It got hot one day and naturally we had to try it. We tried both the raspberry and lemon flavors. They were REALLY good. The raspberry was very intense in raspberry flavor. The lemon was tart but sweet at the same time. I feel like their glaces do not get enough praise. If it is a hot day in Paris, it is worth getting some!
FINAL THOUGHTS – What is not to like about the perfectly packaged patisseries from Laduree? People have complained they are over-priced… um, yeah, duh. I wasn’t headed to Paris with bargains in mind. Are there other macaron bakers in Paris that are good? yeah, sure. But do they come in cute little boxes? No. Do they have an orange blossom macaron? No. I HIGHLY recommend going to Laduree on your trip to Paris. They have several tea salons throughout the city and then several macaron selling carts scattered about in popular areas… including one in the Louvre museum and another in the airport so you can pick some up to bring home to your friends (oops, then you eat it on the long 12 hour plane flight, sorry friends!) You don’t have to do dine in the tea salon to get the experience… it was just something special I wanted to do.
My 6 recommended macaron flavors to purchase for your perfectly packaged box are: salted caramel, orange blossom, lily of the valley, pistachio, raspberry, and oh, another orange blossom!
I’m reviewing Pierre Herme next and will also try to answer the burning question… Which macarons are better, ones from Pierre Herme or Laduree?
If you’ve missed a Paris trip post, catch them ALL RIGHT HERE !
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