Food
Ranging from salads, sandwiches, and paninis to crepes, savoury galettes, and a few breakfast options, the food menu at Baguette is interesting as one can get. If this is not enough, they also have a showcase-full of other sweet and savoury pastries and buns – bagels, croissants, tarts and éclair whatnot. We went ahead and ordered a bunch of stuff.
Featured here is the Le Milano (Rs. 920) – a Campagne bread stuffed with Milano Salami and Gherkin.
Pain de Campagne is essentially France's homely equivalent of Sourdough, so the crusty exterior can be expected here as well. But what follows that is a soft bread, very light in texture, and unlike some kadey paan, it will not make you feel annoyingly full.
Smoky, gamey and with a hint of salt and pepper, the Milano Salami they use here is of high quality, and they are quite generous with it. The playful pieces of pickle lent that much-needed tang to the overall flavour, making everything even more interesting.
Flaking off to light, crispy chunks, Baguette's Mini Croissant (Rs. 140) is a treat to have your morning/evening cup of tea/coffee with. It's the perfect puffy pastry with well-defined layers and golden brown in colour while the gentle swirl of sweetness it carries nicely compliments the rich butter notes. Not crispy nor hard, but soft, yet not sogged up, the Bagel (Rs. 170) had just the right texture. We quite enjoyed pairing it with Baguette's homemade jams.
As of now, they've got 3 flavours of jam – Marmalade, Strawberry, and Passion Fruit. Priced at Rs. 120 a tub (30g), all of them were packed with fruity flavour. The marmalade was citrusy and zesty as promised, the strawberry had chunks of strawberry, while the passion fruit was delightfully sweet, sour and featured seeds of the said fruit.
The Chocolate Éclair (Rs. 400) was simply brilliant! Topped off with pieces of dark and milk chocolate placed on a bed of chocolate cream, this oblong choux pastry was filled to its brim with the same decadent chocolate cream filling.
The pastry itself was soft in texture, yet had a nice crunch to bite, and the filling was mostly on the chocolaty side, and not very sweet.
Decorated with a crunchy caramel shard on top, the Vanilla Choux was an airy pastry full of creamy vanilla. Right after that satisfactory crisp given by the pastry, it's like biting into a vanilla flavoured cloud, all thanks to the light, smooth cream filling. The sweetness of the vanilla cream was milder than we anticipated, which was ideal as the caramel shard provided all the sweetness we needed.
Drinks
*Pictured above – Belgium Hot Chocolate (left) and Cappuccino (right)
Baguette does a range of hot and cold coffee, along with juices, mocktails and smoothies. Given that we needed a good pick-me-up on a Saturday (yep! that happens, ya know?), we went with the Belgium Hot Chocolate (Rs. 500) and a Cappuccino (Rs. 450).
Let me start with our absolute favourite out of the two – the Belgium Hot Chocolate. This one was a glassful of pure chocolate bliss! With rich chocolaty notes of high-quality Belgium chocolate emerging through the fluffy, velvety milk, it is one of the BEST hot chocolates we've had. From the first sip to the last, its chocolatiness was consistent. It might look pretty ordinary, but do not let that stop you from indulging it in.
The coffee at Baguette is made with Tusker coffee blend. Our Cappuccino had a neat layer of microfoam, but unfortunately, the coffee flavour was a bit on the bitter side, while the milk was not as fluffy as we expected.
Ambience & Service
This is where the Cup Cafe used to be, but they've changed the interior to fit the vibes of this French bakery.
I prefer this ambience than the one that used to be in their Havlock Town branch. It's neat, very chilled out, and adjusted well to enjoy your meal at peace while listening to some good music. The theme is all brown, grey and white, which goes together very nicely.
This is what catches your eye as you enter the room – a pile of freshly baked bread displayed on top of the showcase. Their smell is enough to hook you up to this place.
The service is one of the best there is. They were absolutely friendly and will treat like you've been to a place of your own. The French lady behind the counter was quite enthusiastic and explained each and everything they had on the menu so it will be easy for us to select the best food that goes with our appetite.
Conclusion
Well, as we always have, we are in love with the new Baguette. Their new goodies follow the suit of the old ones by being incredibly fresh and delicious. Coupled with the excellent drinks, helpful service and calm ambience, one cannot simply go wrong with this place. We highly recommend.