Paris pastry shops

[robyn]

I was more interested in the chocolates at Jean Paul Hevin. And I really hate caramels (no offense to those of you out there who love them - everyone's sweet tooth is different). What I really enjoyed doing in Japan was going to the better food basements - and buying a couple of these - and a couple of those - and coming back to the hotel with a small pile of exquisitely wrapped small packages that I could sample over the course of a few days (not exactly eco-friendly - but very beautiful and very delicious). Any place in Paris you can do that? Note that I thought that the French pastry/chocolates in Japan were extremely high quality. If they are as good in France these days - I will be one happy camper. Robyn

[plafield]

I'd be interested in reading where are everyone's favorites for classic mille-feuilles, and why.

[julot-les-pinceaux]

That's a really tough one. Great puff pastry and crème patissière or mousseline. I must say that, in my memory, Hermé's was quite good, though he also had a praliné version that is too heavy.

Le Moulin de la Vierge has a nice one, with crispy and thick pâte feuilletée (not the lighter than air style) and a light mousseline. Pichard of course, master of pâte feuilletée. Dalloyau, for an opulent, very classic version.

Best mille-feuilles are in restaurants, freshly prepared: Senderens, Savoy, Rostang have great ones.

There's that fancy pastry in rue Saint Dominique that is specialised in pâte feuilletée. Can't remember the name.

[olivier]

My favortie mille-feuilles would probably be Aoki's, however, I havent had it for some months now, and I don't remember what exactly made it so good.

One of my staple is the one from Secco: very good puff pastry (although it has been subpar a few times, maybe because it stayed in the shop the whole day...), the creme is perfect in taste and texture, and not too sweet.

As a follow-up to this thread, I went to Pichard last week and had a very good one, quite close to Secco's version, but I still prefer the latter.

I tried Herme's a few weeks ago and was underwhelmed: it's good overall but too stuffy for my taste.

Had the one at Senderens, and thought it was awesome, too. This is the kind of pastry that benefits a lot from being ultra-fresh, I guess.

One that is very astonishing is at Le Pressoir, a 1-star restaurant in Caen (Lower Normandy). It's called something like "mille-feuilles haut comme un gratte-ciel" ("skyscraper-high millefeuille"), and it indeed is enormous. Not easy to eat at all, but it's excellent. They also pour some vanilla syrup which I would like to be able to take home with me. But I'm partial to anything vanilla.

[Fibilou]

Regis on the Rue Montmartre (near to Mova in the Les Halles district) makes great croissants, for which they have won awards - all neatly displayed in the vitrine.

the religieuse are also good

[Fibilou]

Regis on the Rue Montmartre (near to Mova in the Les Halles district) makes great croissants, for which they have won awards - all neatly displayed in the vitrine. You can sit outside and watch the world go by with your coffee - and if you get there early enough a bag of chouquettes.

the religieuse are also good

Edited May 5, 2008 by Fibilou (log)

[plafield]

Here's a report on our pastry/bread/sandwich tastings during our 11 days in Paris.

For croissant, pain au chocolate, millefuelle , chocolate éclairs, sandwiches and miscellaneous pastries we tried:

Miss Manon, Au Levain du Marais, Pierre Herme, Gerard Mulot, Pain du sucre, Julien, Kayser, BE, Secco, Dallyou, and one whose name I forgot, around the corner from Spring, where I bought a great looking millefuelle that was disgusting and thrown away after one bite. Soggy pastry and gloppy cream.

It was really hard to find that perfect millefuelle. Gerard Mulot had the best cream, very eggy, creamy and just the right sweetness with no frosting, but the pastry wasn't very crisp. Secco also had great cream but the pastry, while crisp, had a burnt butter flavor. Au Levain's pastry was excellent but the cream was not sweet enough! Julien had the best balance of sweet frosting and not too sweet eggy cream but the pastry wasn't crisp enough. Miss Mannon's millefuelle was terrible, a gloppy gelatinous filling like the horrible on in the 9th. I think if we had gotten one right after being assembled, Gerard Mulot would have been the best of the places we tried.

Kayser had the best croissants (plain and chocolate)very flaky, buttery and crisp. I was disappointed by the sandwiches there, however. I remembered from my last trip many really special choices, but this time, the two days we traveled to there to buy sandwiches, they only had a few choices of very ordinary ingredients.

The sandwiches and the ham and cheese croissants from Secco were killer. As were the chocolate eclairs. In fact, I would say that Secco was the best overall for selection, price and quality of the places we tried.

Au Levain du Marias had excellent pain au chocolate and great sandwiches too. They also had a killer almond/chocolate croissant.

Herme had a glazed croissant that was to die for, reminiscent of a Dunkin' Donut to the enth degree.

We hit BE one day after the lunch rush (2:00PM) and were disappointed by the almost empty display cases. We bought a chicken and pesto open face sandwich which they heated for us and took it to Parc Monceau and enjoyed it but wish we could have had more choices. We did have a delicious chocolate finacier from BE for dessert. Unfortunately, they were out of the passion fruit tart that Julot raves about.

I'm sad to say we didn't try any macarons (other than the ones on the dessert cart at Guy Savoy's) but we ate enough other pastry to more than make up for it, including a fabulous vanilla eclair called a Lili at Pain du sucre.

Here are some pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26819563@N02/sets/721