Ladurée: Macaron
Address: 1141 Robson St, Vancouver, BC
Phone: 604-336-3030
Not everyone may know, but Ladurée finally opened it's doors in Vancouver - it's first location in Canada. Now I was silly and decided to drag my good friend to wait in line on opening day. Suffice to say we endured the horrid lines (2+ hours) outside and then more lines inside (1 hour, but only because these 3 Asian ladies were holding up the entire staff behind the counter for 30+ minutes).
Now, suffice to say, the lineups are not nearly this bad anymore (it's been a few weeks), however on weekends there may still be a lineup as tourists and people off of work will be more likely to try and stop by. During the week however, it's much emptier and you can just walk right in (thank goodness).
The decor is pretty much what you would expect to find from a high end brand patisserie (even if it isn't a full one) - painted ceilings, brass/gold accents with the clean white spaces, all very European in feel.
The back area is where the sit down service is provided. The price tag is somewhat jaw dropping considering Afternoon Tea Services elsewhere get you much more bang for your buck.
So there are a plethora of items you can purchase from the front end of the shop - macaron key chains, reusable lunch bags, reusable shopping bags, candles, perfumes, honeys, jams, teas, chocolates and more. It's quite overwhelming if you're not going in for something specific.
However this wasn't the time to try it out so I simply purchased a box of 6 macaron and two of their teas (violet and rose black teas) to take home with me.
The box doesn't cost anything extra (unless you want whatever limited design box they may or may not have at the time) and they have a number to choose from, I went with the black since my very good friend in Seattle likes black and gold designs (no so much the macaron from Ladurée). There are 17 flavors total, a couple of which are seasonal/limited flavors (and yes there are different boxes for different amounts so you don't have to haul about 3 small sized boxes if you want 18).
So just talking about the macaron here (I won't go into detail on each flavor though to save you all from reading a horde of information) some were ok and others not so much. At $3 a pop, these are the most expensive macaron in the city (though cheaper than at other Ladurée locations around the world funnily enough). Pictured above was the Strawberry Candy Guimauve - the white filling is a marshmallow filling so it's springy and a bit chewy while being very sweet. The shell on this particular macaron didn't quite get to temp as it had the tell tale section of air between the outter shell and the chewier innards. Otherwise it was ok in taste, but I wasn't sure I enjoyed the filling. The sugar granules made for an interesting mouthfeel.
So shown above, was the special maple flavor that was released for the store. Out of all the macaron that I had bought, this one was surprisingly the best. Typically I cringe at maple flavored items as they tend to be overly sweet and far too strong in maple flavor (like someone distilled maple syrup for too long and packed as much of the resulting stuff in as possible). However this one was light in flavor, but gave enough of the maple push to give you the feel and taste of maple. The shell was well baked, and the filling was a great silky texture. As for the mouthfeel of the macaron, I think I prefer the Ladurée macarons in Tokyo - there was a strange granular gathering of the sugar/almond flour in my mouth when the initial bite and feel is quite smooth. I think it may have been the humidity that day as it was quite rainy.
Other flavors I had notes on - the Marie Antionette flavor, Ladurée's tea flavored macaron, is quite heavy on the floral scent and taste. If you don't like overly flowery flavors this one is not for you. For me personally it was a little over the top, and probably why I didn't buy the tea itself (the violet tea is quite mild and lovely though). The salted caramel flavor was delicate and not overly salty, though perhaps a touch more would have enhanced the flavor more.
Overall for most of the flavors (Marie Antoinette and Citron aside and the well balanced maple) needed a touch more oomph to them if you're planning to eat more than just one. The flavor profile can be very subtle in some of these flavors, and perhaps not as well suited to the North American taste-bud. Also due to the strange texture/mouthfeel of the macaron I had that day, I would say that these are not my favorite macaron. I may go back and try them again but even comparing to the ones I had in Tokyo, there are better macaron in the city to be found for much cheaper.
I did happen to dress up for opening day, in my Angelic Pretty one piece dress (aptly named French Cafe for the outing). The workers there (specifically the ones from headquarters in France) seemed to quite enjoy my dressing up, so I take it that they would be quite happy to have several of us turn up for tea one day.
Now, suffice to say, the lineups are not nearly this bad anymore (it's been a few weeks), however on weekends there may still be a lineup as tourists and people off of work will be more likely to try and stop by. During the week however, it's much emptier and you can just walk right in (thank goodness).
The decor is pretty much what you would expect to find from a high end brand patisserie (even if it isn't a full one) - painted ceilings, brass/gold accents with the clean white spaces, all very European in feel.
The back area is where the sit down service is provided. The price tag is somewhat jaw dropping considering Afternoon Tea Services elsewhere get you much more bang for your buck.
So there are a plethora of items you can purchase from the front end of the shop - macaron key chains, reusable lunch bags, reusable shopping bags, candles, perfumes, honeys, jams, teas, chocolates and more. It's quite overwhelming if you're not going in for something specific.
However this wasn't the time to try it out so I simply purchased a box of 6 macaron and two of their teas (violet and rose black teas) to take home with me.
The box doesn't cost anything extra (unless you want whatever limited design box they may or may not have at the time) and they have a number to choose from, I went with the black since my very good friend in Seattle likes black and gold designs (no so much the macaron from Ladurée). There are 17 flavors total, a couple of which are seasonal/limited flavors (and yes there are different boxes for different amounts so you don't have to haul about 3 small sized boxes if you want 18).
So just talking about the macaron here (I won't go into detail on each flavor though to save you all from reading a horde of information) some were ok and others not so much. At $3 a pop, these are the most expensive macaron in the city (though cheaper than at other Ladurée locations around the world funnily enough). Pictured above was the Strawberry Candy Guimauve - the white filling is a marshmallow filling so it's springy and a bit chewy while being very sweet. The shell on this particular macaron didn't quite get to temp as it had the tell tale section of air between the outter shell and the chewier innards. Otherwise it was ok in taste, but I wasn't sure I enjoyed the filling. The sugar granules made for an interesting mouthfeel.
So shown above, was the special maple flavor that was released for the store. Out of all the macaron that I had bought, this one was surprisingly the best. Typically I cringe at maple flavored items as they tend to be overly sweet and far too strong in maple flavor (like someone distilled maple syrup for too long and packed as much of the resulting stuff in as possible). However this one was light in flavor, but gave enough of the maple push to give you the feel and taste of maple. The shell was well baked, and the filling was a great silky texture. As for the mouthfeel of the macaron, I think I prefer the Ladurée macarons in Tokyo - there was a strange granular gathering of the sugar/almond flour in my mouth when the initial bite and feel is quite smooth. I think it may have been the humidity that day as it was quite rainy.
Other flavors I had notes on - the Marie Antionette flavor, Ladurée's tea flavored macaron, is quite heavy on the floral scent and taste. If you don't like overly flowery flavors this one is not for you. For me personally it was a little over the top, and probably why I didn't buy the tea itself (the violet tea is quite mild and lovely though). The salted caramel flavor was delicate and not overly salty, though perhaps a touch more would have enhanced the flavor more.
Overall for most of the flavors (Marie Antoinette and Citron aside and the well balanced maple) needed a touch more oomph to them if you're planning to eat more than just one. The flavor profile can be very subtle in some of these flavors, and perhaps not as well suited to the North American taste-bud. Also due to the strange texture/mouthfeel of the macaron I had that day, I would say that these are not my favorite macaron. I may go back and try them again but even comparing to the ones I had in Tokyo, there are better macaron in the city to be found for much cheaper.
I did happen to dress up for opening day, in my Angelic Pretty one piece dress (aptly named French Cafe for the outing). The workers there (specifically the ones from headquarters in France) seemed to quite enjoy my dressing up, so I take it that they would be quite happy to have several of us turn up for tea one day.
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