Ladurée — Attraction in Toronto

I was excited to try Ladurée as they are known worldwide for their macarons. The store is really striking - gorgeous displays, ornate decor, pastel palette, huge chandelier. We waited about 15 minutes to be seated (mid afternoon on a Saturday). The hostess was professional, but not at all personable, and even a bit stand-offish as though it was more of a bother to have to deal with us. Two tables opened up and one was at the end with a bit more room - I asked if we could be seated there (my daughter and I were celebrating an event) but she said they reserve it for customers with strollers. Not 5 minutes later she seated other customers there, sans stroller - not impressed. The servers were polite, but not very attentive, which is surprising given the small size and how few tables there are. We shared the Tea - consisting of 3 Macarons, 2 finger sandwiches, 2 Madeleines, Croques Monsieurs, and a small selection of other treats. The Earl Grey tea tasted more like Orange Pekoe - not very good. The finger sandwiches were bland. The other food was good, but not great. The macarons were very good - on par with Nadege and some a bit better (Orange Blossom, Passion fruit, Salted Caramel, Vanilla were all exceptional). The hot chocolate was absolutely amazing! In all, I don't think the Tea is worth $50 per person, but we overall enjoyed the experience and made the best of it. We bought some macarons to take home and they were wonderful. Maybe they need a bit more time to fine tune front of house staff, servers and service - if that improves to be on par with macarons and decor, Ladurée will be a fantastic place for a special treat. Definitely worth experiencing...

Came to Laduree Paris at Yorkdale Mall for a coffee and desserts after our lunch at RH courtyard restaurant and several window shoppings. The gorgeous pinkish and pale green coloured theme interior and the sumptuous dessert window displays really lure passersby’ attention including me.

We ordered two puff pastries and latte： 1.puff pastry, Choux paste, light pistachio custard cream, pistachio whipped cream $13.50 . A perfect pistachio custard cream was enjoyed by people who love pistachio flavoured everything. However we found the custard cream was not strong enough to satisfy our taste palette. Millefeuille : caramelized puff pastry with vanilla pastry cream $13.50. The Millefeuille pastry was surprisingly crispy and fluffy with a hint of vanilla cream sweetness.

My sister tried the avocado toast a while ago and she said it was much tastier and cheaper as compared with the RH courtyard restaurant. There was only one waitress to serve 6 people in the shop during our visit. She should be able to handle the patrons easily. She was busy making tea or coffee or something else in the kitchen whilst we were waiting patiently for her to give us our bill. Finally we went to pay at the cashier directly. She was still in the kitchen when we left the shop. An invisible waitress.

Overall we found that the coffee and dessert experience was just fine. The small pastries was a bit on the pricey side, however we thought that it is important to achieve a balance between delish food and good service. Thus this could make people’ culinary experience memorable...

Not happy with the Vanilla Millefeuille at this branch as they over caramelized the puff pastry layers making it over-baked and clearly burnt (darker than the normal colour and tasted burnt) and yes, I clearly did not look at the pastry carefully in the store otherwise I would not have bought it. When I called to inform the Yorkdale branch, after arriving at home, to give them a heads up, the representative Jody (either truly couldn’t hear me and put me on hold twice,) then suddenly heard me clearly when I took a more stern and firm voice to report that their pastry was over-baked and burnt. I did not appreciate her saying to me “well we did not notice anything when we baked this this morning and sorry that you feel that way.” I corrected her that it’s not a matter of me feeling that way because when you look at the pastry properly it is darker than what is normally expected from this brand! She said the manager would follow up tomorrow to address this issue…we shall see if they take some sort of responsibility because I have not had this happen at the King St. West location. Am I salty? Yes, because at this price point and long history of “a perfect flavour balance”, this brand shouldn’t have over baked caramelized puff pastry-smh.

Update: Applause to the manager who came through and is doing her job to check on the quality control. Things look assured that when I visit this branch later this month I will be able to enjoy my Ladurée dessert fix I know...