Ladurée boutiques and tea salons originated in Paris and have spread to select urban centres throughout Europe, America and recently, Canada. Vancouver is lucky enough to have two Ladurée locations: one on Robson Street, and the other, inside Holt Renfrew. This was our first time visiting a Ladurée and we chose to try the Holt Renfrew location first, primarily due to the fact that we could park easily in the underground parking. Ladurée is mostly famous for their beautiful macarons and macaron-inspired desserts.
The Afternoon Tea is $50 and a total of $60 if you add champagne or a cocktail. Make sure to tell them about any dietary restrictions when you call to reserve. They have an allergen information book that you can request to see, so that you can make informed choices. They do not have set gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan options.
You can view their full menu by clicking here.
Drinks
There are a number of coffees and teas that are offered as part of their Afternoon Tea service. However, they do not make lattes with frothed milk. Café au Lait is the closest you can get. They have a good selection of teas, ranging from fruity to traditional. The full menu can be viewed here.
Café Crème Ladurée: Lily decided to sample the coffee. She thoroughly enjoyed it and ordered a second round. Surprisingly, there was no additional charge for the second serving.
Mélange Spécial Ladurée Tea: This Tea is described as “an elegant combination of Chinese black tea, citrus fruits, floral notes, light spices and vanilla. A delicious, sumptuous and delicate blend.” Melanie was pleased with her choice. This is a very nice tea blend and does not need the addition of milk or sugar, as it is not bitter in the least.
Fruit Salad and Macarons
This afternoon tea does NOT come with scones. Instead, each guest is given fruit salad and chooses two macarons from the macaron menu.
The fruit salad was excellent. The portion was sizeable and the freshness of the fruit was evident. It was a treat to start tea with such a refreshing and delicious salad.
We chose the following four macarons and shared them:
Orange Blossom: Although it was a beautiful color, unfortunately this macaron was too strong for our tastes and so ended up tasting very floral, which reminds one of soap.
Marie-Antoinette: This blue macaron was a mix of floral and tea flavours, and again was too strong for our liking.
Chocolate: The chocolate macaron was decent, but nothing too exciting.
Raspberry: The raspberry was by far the best of the macarons we ordered. It had a wonderful fruit flavour.
From this experience, we would recommend choosing classic-flavoured macarons instead of the more floral and tea-flavoured choices, unless you like very strong favours.
The consistency and appearance of the macarons is perfection. It might be worth trying a few and then buying your favourites “to go” as a gift for a friend. They are stunning.
Savouries
Each person chooses two of the four finger-sandwich options. Between the two of us we tried all four. In general, we found the sandwiches to be relatively plain and dry, and all were served on white bread. They obviously had been stored in the fridge which took away a bit of the freshness. We would recommend choosing the apple and avocado options.
Cucumber and Granny Smith Apple: This was the best of the sandwiches. It tasted similar to a traditional cucumber and cream cheese sandwich. It was light and crunchy.
Avocado and Piquillo: This sandwich had the most flavour from the red pepper, but still not as much as we hoped for.
Ham: The ham sandwich was essentially a slice of real ham on two pieces of white bread. There was a very scant addition of mayonnaise which did not add any moisture.
Smoked Salmon: The smoked salmon itself tasted good, but once again, on white, cold bread it doesn’t get elevated to anything special.
Sweets
Each person chooses two mini viennoiseries (pastries) and a choice of one full size Ladurée creation or pastry. This is where we ran into a bit of trouble. The mini Pain au Chocolat and the Milk Chocolate Eclair were already sold out for the day. Apparently this location gets a lot of traffic in the morning and they don’t seem to restock once they run out of an item. That is definitely something to keep in mind when deciding what time to make your reservation. However, the server did allow Lily to have one large Pain au Chocolat instead of two different mini viennoiseries.
Viennoiseries:
Pain au Chocolat: A well made croissant with a small amount of chocolate in the centre. It was very tasty and quite filling.
Mini Croissant aux noix: Also well done and had a nutty flavoured icing on the outside.
Seasonal Financier: Tasted very good initially, but in the middle it was rock hard, and therefore almost inedible.
Ladurée Creations/ Classic Pastries:
Ispahan: Described as “macaron, rose petal cream, fresh raspberry, lychee”. This is an exquisite looking dessert. It is absolutely gorgeous and it is one of their patrons’ favourite desserts to post on instagram. However, once again, we found the rose flavour to be overpowering.
Pistachio Religieuse: This is also a beautiful dessert and just looking at it is a delight. It is described as “choux pastry, pistachio cream and pistachio icing.” The pistachio icing was delightful and full of flavour. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same for the cream, but the choux was expertly prepared.
Ambiance, Service and General Experience:
Ambiance:
It seems a bit odd to be having tea in the middle of a clothing store, but Holt Renfrew is not just any clothing store. It is quite beautiful in itself. Therefore, we didn’t feel that this aspect really took away from the afternoon tea experience. In fact, it was fascinating to watch people browse and try on items— a people-watcher’s dream. The cafe section is elegantly decorated in white, pink and blue. The music playing in the store was not exactly tea time listening, but it wasn’t too loud or obtrusive. With regard to the facilities, the bathrooms were very difficult to find and were not close by.
Service:
This is where Laduree really shone. Our server, with an authentic French accent, coached us through all of our choices with patience and care. He was always polite, attentive and personable. Due to this service, the experience was elevated from an somewhat disappointing afternoon tea, to a pleasant vacation from the everyday grind of Vancouver life.
General Experience:
In general, we enjoyed our time at Laduree because of the ambiance and the service. The food was ultimately not as pleasant as we had expected. We would recommend skipping the afternoon tea and simply ordering a pastry and a tea/coffee and enjoying the experience.
A few more images:
