I can gush about Levain patisserie for about the longest time. The café scene in KL till now has been not particularly strong, much to my dismay- but I am seeing some improvements in the recent years with several decent cafes developing around towns, Antipodean, Ginza café, just to name a few.
What makes levain patisserie stands out among the rest is their interior and overall café façade. The gorgeous ambiance of French settings with European scenery paintings, flowery sheers, and colorful flowers uplifted the already vibrant atmosphere. The careful use of wood colors and down tones for furnitures make this café warm and friendly, all suited better for both family hangouts and friends gatherings.
Stir to left upon entrance, and you’ll find yourself engulf amongst the freshly baked goodies. Already people were busying themselves with heaping varieties of breads, tarts onto their tray (yes everything is self service here). By the stove oven, an open display of the production of bakeries can be seen and the pastry chefs were happy and quick to assist to recommend their freshly baked items.
Bread aside, there is also a wonderful selections of desserts to indulge in. Cheesecakes, fruit tarts, and macaroons displayed delicately making it hard to resist.
The weather was breezy that afternoon with mild rain drizzles; it was naturally perfect for me to settle myself comfortably at a table by the outside garden. Crazieapple is in charge of the orders, and I gave her free hand to order whatever she wants. It comes to no surprise her pick comes with 5 choices of macarons (what’s with her recent macaron craze and all), mango and passion fruit tart, chocolate truffle cake, mentaiko bun, cheese croissant, and turkey mushroom pizza. I was going to order 4 more desserts on top of this but was restraint by Crazieapple as we were going to head to a Ramadan Bazaar after this. But the desserts were so sinfully good. AUGUSTDINERS WORDS. Go try them.
Chocolate Truffle cake was a delight to eat. The taste was rich and semi-sweet, with what we suspect to be some grounded coffee beans hidden inside. I love it, love it, and love it!
Mango and passion fruit tart was equally visually appealing. The fruits were mildly sour (in a good way), and I like how the tart is slightly dense but easily forked though at the same time. I’m not much of a fan of flaky, crumbly tarts.
What frustrates me, however is their coffee. It took forever to arrive, I think It was 20-30 minutes and by then my chocolate truffle cake has melted and the texture became gooey. (I always save my desserts to pair it with coffee as I enjoy the bittersweet taste of mixing both together). It was unfortunate that the coffee did not flair as well as i'd have liked, the temperature was too hot, and lacks aromatic flavours.
Macaroons- the context of augustdiners household this month. We talk macaroons, buy macaroons as gifts, learn to make macaroons, and planning to sell macaroons for charity later! Hahaha, talk about being obsessive. Definitely we were anxious to try the ones in Levain and compare. Unfortunately the ones in Levain did not flair as well as Nathalie's. The macaroon shells were too soft, the garnish within is too unrelenting sweet. Definitely a NO-GO with the macaroons here, we didn’t even finish it.
All the bakeries picked were satisfactory with no complaints.
P/S: For those doggie lovers looking for a place on doggie day out- i believe Levain is a dog friendly place (outdoor)!
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