SO, if you read my last post you're gonna think I'm the biggest hypocrite hahaha. BUT as you read on you'll see it was pretty much by
chance I ended up at
Ladurée! I know I said I reckon I'd head over to the newly opened
Ladurée in
Westfield in the City,
AFTER the hype died down....well, I found myself in the city early this morning to pick up some stuff from Victoria's Basement, and I thought "Hmm I might as well just go see what Ladurée looks like", and I had my camera on me so I thought might as well. So, I headed off to Westfield to check the place out.
When I got there, there were a couple of people milling around, just looking at the displays as I had intended to do. To be honest I was expecting like some sort of huge line outside the place, but maybe it was too early, since it was like
9:15 or something. So I took my snaps of the place - it's pretty
cute, set in the open space of the shopping centre's 3rd floor, the little dining area looks like a cute garden haha.
 |
| Love how cute this place is!! |
The macaron towers were
adorable, and it seems they sell lots of other products apart from their macarons, such as milk chocolates, jams + preserves, even a
cookbook!
The macaron menu was placed on the counter to show which flavours were on offer, and there were
14 flavours listed.
I was looking at the macarons on display, just taking my time....and then I looked over my shoulder and realised
a QUEUE had formed behind me! Hahaha I was like
WTF, and then I turned to ask one of the ladies behind the counter what time they opened, and she said
9:30....so I looked at my watch, to see it was like
9:25am! Hahah I was like "
OH. Well. Since I'm
apparently the head of the line, I guess I'm
OBLIGED to buy some now =P".
I was surprised how quickly the queue grew actually! Like I said, one minute I'm just milling around just looking at displays 15 minutes before the place opened with no one around....10 minutes later and I'm heading a queue of about 10 people. And once I had finished ordering more and more people had joined.
Crazy!
Anyways, I picked out quite a few....actually, I got a
box of all the flavours on offer haha
(lol they're not for me ;) - I pick out a few extra for myself). The minimum you can purchase in a box is 8. And you can also get
different box designs which cost (alot!) more.
One thing I will say, before I ordered, the lady that looked like she was in charge said there were
13 flavours on offer. I noticed there were
14 listed on the menu. So when I asked for a box of all the flavours, I asked another lady which flavour was missing. Now, I should mention that while I was looking at the displays earlier, there were staff running around everywhere, talking to each other in fast paced French. When I asked this lady which flavour was missing, I'm pretty sure
she didn't understand what I had said, and mumbled something back which I didn't understand at all. I clarified the questions and she chose to pretend she didn't hear. I get it,
keeping with the standards of a brand name is important, but if your
staff can't communicate with customers you have a problem. Lucky I'm not the fussiest person, and they are a newly opened store so not everything is perfect, otherwise I would have mentioned it to the lady at the register who looked like she was in charge. Instead I asked her, and she said that the
strawberry marshmallow macaron SOLD OUT over the weekend and they weren't getting any for another
month!
WOW! Crazy Sydney-siders eating up all the macarons!
Also, I believe Ladurée was
meant to open a couple of months earlier, however obviously things must have happened to cause the opening date to shift. The staff on hand (well, at least behind the counter, I can't speak for the waiters in the dining area)
didn't look like they were trained, and they were quite slow. Shouldn't they be showing them things like how to pack the macarons
BEFORE they opened the shop? Or even before they open for the day?
There were plenty of them around before 9:30....
Despite these little set backs, I was happy to leave with ample bounty. Although I was slightly put out with the
dent in my bank account -
$3.20 per macaron ain't cheap!
Now! Onto the macarons! The verdict - I'm slightly disappointed. Firstly, they are
sorta small for $3.20. Secondly, most of them look a
little wonky don't you think? It looks like the shells are all
uneven! They don't have flat bottoms, like they weren't baked on a completely flat surface.... I'm not sure if its because they're
shipped all the way from Switzerland, or if that's how they make them at Ladurée....hmm.
 |
Left to Right: 1st Row - Lemon, Lemon Lime Marshmallow, Licorice
2nd Row - Orange Blossom, Vanilla, Violet Marshmallow
3rd Row - Blackcurrant Violet, Almond Marshmallow, Salted Caramel
4th Row - Raspberry, Strawberry Poppy, Pistachio
5th Row - Ghana Chocolate, Coffee, Salted Caramel |
HOWEVER, they do taste quite nice!! The flavours are quite traditional, with the small exception of the
marshmallow filled ones. My favs were the
Ghana Chocolate which was really chocolatey and not very sweet, and also the
Strawberry Poppy. They were
really soft and delicate and like I said, tasted really nice. Nothing too amazing though. So yea,
verdict is so-so. I don't think they are worth $3.20. But I would go back again just as a
treat, or if they brought out
different flavours.
 |
Left to Right: Blackcurrant Violet, Lemon Lime Marshmallow, Violet Marshmallow, Salted Caramel
Strawberry Poppy, Raspberry, Ghana Chocolate, Lemon |
Hopefully, like I said in my last post, as time goes by they'll get into the swing of things and the staff get a bit more experienced and the place will run like a well oiled machine =). In the meantime, I'll probs be getting my macaron fix from
Cafe Cre Asion.
Ladurée House
Level 3 Westfield
100 Market St
Sydney NSW 2000
http://www.laduree.com/
=D xx
