Desserts at Bouchon Bakery

After having a wonderful lunch at Highline, we took E, Y, R, B & W for a treat at Time Warner Center where Bouchon Bakery is located. This was the first time for our friends to come here, so they were pretty excited to try the dessert themselves, especially after hearing my praises all these time.

R, B & W arrived there first and reserved some seats for E, Y, my husband and me as soon as the tables were available. When we arrived, as usual there was a line at the take out counter, but it was not bad. I like to browse their display cases since most of the sweets are always new items that I haven't tasted yet. Since I was the one who would pay, I went to order for everyone while they sat down.

R and B have a chance to see the display before we came so they knew what they wanted, which were strawberry parfait, chocolate macaron and seasonal fruit tart. W came with me to the counter since he didn't know what to order yet as well as to help me carry the trays. E wanted chocolate croissant, while Y asked me to pick for her considering I came here quite often. As usual my husband let me get what I wanted and help me to finish them since he knows that I always buy more than one goodies :-)

After looking at the cases W said that he would like to try the pistachio apricot tart. Now for me (and everyone else who was willing to try what I got), I bought key lime millefeuille, seasonal macarons (peaches & cream, fruit of the forest, yuzu), boston cream donut, strawberry parfait, and last but not least the chocolate tart. As for the drinks, we had some coffee, tea and fruit juice soda.

Assorted pastries

When I placed the orders, the nice and friendly lady behind the counter was looking at me curiously. Beside ordering a lot of desserts (total of 12, in case you are wondering), I also told her that everything was for here instead of to go. As soon as I realized that, I told her that I was not the only one who would eat that. I assured her that there were 6 other people waiting at the table who would help me to finish all of these. She started to smile and said that she was concerned about how I was going to finish everything by myself :-)

I tried a little bit of W's pistachio apricot tart, it was wonderful, the pistachio cake was moist and the apricot filling was not too sweet. The boston cream donut was as fantastic as the last time I tasted it, the donut was moist but dense, the custard was creamy.

Pistachio apricot tart and Boston cream donut

The key lime millefeuille was tart, light and coconuty, it was pretty good but the puff pastry was not crisp anymore, a little bit soggy. There was always different kind of millefeuille everytime I visit, so far my favorite is still mocha millefeuille. It was the first dessert from Bouchon that I've ever tasted 1 year ago, unfortunately I don't see it anymore on my visits.

Key lime and Mocha millefeuille

Regarding the macarons, it was okay, nothing special. The texture was a little bit dry, but definitely better than what I usually got from here. The taste was nice though, the peaches & cream was creamy, the fruit of the forest was sweet (and the only one that had moist texture), the yuzu was chocolatey with a hint of citrus. I guess after tasting Pierre Herme's macarons during his special 2-day class in Chicago last month, other's macarons were disappointing.

Seasonal macarons: yuzu, fruit of the forest, peaches & cream and Chocolate macaron

The chocolate tart was still increadible, the tart was flaky and the filling was smooth and chocolatey. I took the strawberry parfait home since everyone was full already. It was sweet, light and creamy, but the gelatin layer on top was too thick and a little bit too gummy. I didn't try the seasonal fruit tart, chocolate macaron or chocolate croissant, so I couldn't give any comments. However the last time I had their chocolate macaron, it was chocolatey but very dry.

Chocolate tart and Strawberry parfait


Seasonal fruit tart and Chocolate croissant

With a very high sugar rush and after hanging out for almost 2 hours, we decided to go on our separate way. When we arrived downstair we were surprised to see a very heavy rain pouring outside. I guess we were too focused on our conversations before and didn't pay any attention to the thunderstorm. R, B & W decided to take the subway, while the rest of us had to wait. We were thinking to get a taxi to go to our car that was parked few blocks away, unfortunately there was no taxi at all.

While waiting for the rain to stop or at least to die down, Y and I decided to go to Whole Foods since I needed to do some grocery shopping. Almost 30 minutes later finally there was a guy selling giant umbrellas outside. We were happy to see him, especially since not a single store in there sold umbrellas. My husband bought 1 for him, so that he could go to get our car since the rain already started to trickle down.

Finally after my husband came, we all got in the car and heading back home. Along the way, the rain poured heavily again, luckily we were already safe inside the car. We all had a lot of fun that day, what a wonderful weekend...

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Bouchon Bakery
Ten Columbus Circle, Third Floor
New York, NY 10019
(212) 823-9366
http://www.bouchonbakery.com/