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| - Stop #4 on my "OMG WHY HAVEN'T I BEEN HERE SOONER" day of reviews.
I made an attempt years ago to visit Patisserie Manon, but it wasn't meant to be. When I arrived that day, I was disappointed to find a sign on the door explaining that the business was "on vacation". I finally had a chance to stop by last night. We had dinner plans leading into a night at Myron's Cabaret Jazz. With dinner ending earlier than planned, we stopped at Manon on the way to the Smith Center for coffee and dessert.
There's a mannequin at the door that made me do a double take while both coming and going. Just a word of warning for anyone who might be a bit jumpy. Like... me.
The venue is massive and a bit misleading. It looks and feels like two restaurants - a bakery and then a sandwich/quiche/hot food spot - all under one roof, but it's really all the same venue. We ordered our coffee and dessert at the first part of the bakery.
Man, oh man. When we first entered, my in-laws audibly gasped; both were in awe at the wonder of cases upon cases of beautiful pastries. Even with a lighter than usual selection due to Easter, I still found myself frozen for a second trying to decide what to order.
My husband and I settled for macarons and an exotica cake.
Here's the thing with the macarons. I love almond paste, chocolate, and pistachios. I also love Levain cookies. The chocolate-pistachio macaron, to me, is the Levain cookie of macarons. I'm in love. I equally loved the pistachio macaron.
The exotica cake hit that hard to reach mark; most but dense, sweet but not too sweet, rich but light, flavorful but balanced.
All of the dessert was well enjoyed with cappuccinos.
The service was so attentive and warm that it was confusing for a second. This is to say that it far exceeded my expectations.
I ordered a peach tart to enjoy with coffee the next morning. Despite being stored in the fridge overnight, it was still amazing.
I missed out of the strawberry cake but can't imagine I won't be back soon.
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