Canele, The Chocolate Patisserie at Paragon

SPECIAL MENTION: They do create beautiful wedding cakes. They do have set lunches (S$20).

PRICE: about $20 per person

FOOD: Average

I was very excited about going to Canele this afternoon. The shop space is rather small, with only enough space for the display of pastries and chocolates and about 6 small tables. The menu was rather simple and elegant. However, some of the items on the menu do not have description. Thus, it makes it a little difficult for patrons to choose.

I ordered a Mont Blanc (Crepe with chestnut ice-cream, vanilla cream chantilly, black currant coulis and almond crumble) and Iced Honey Lemongrass drink. The drink came rather quickly. I love the drink a lot! Unlike other similar drinks with honey, it wasn't overpowered with honey. The lemongrass taste was definitely there, I sure hope it was ground lemongrass because grinding brings out the flavour more. The lemongrass added just enough spice in the drink. It was extremely refreshing on the tastebuds.

The Mont Blanc

Some of the desserts require waiting times of up to 15min so be cautious not to order those if you are in a hurry. My dessert took about 15minutes. Frankly, I do not mind waiting for good food. The appearance of my dessert was pretty with the coulis dripped around the crepe. However, the chestnut ice-cream was a tad disappointing because I could not taste the chestnut. Both my lunch partners couldn't too. The almond crumble was lovely because it added some crunch to the extremely smooth ice-cream. The black currant coulis was cloyingly sweet. They gave a lot of vanilla cream chantilly. The chantilly cream made with real vanilla beans was delicious. Nonetheless, too much good thing can be a bad thing. Too much cream can be a turn-off. The crepe was good though, thin enough and not extremely doughy. The small cookies served with the crepe were yummy! They were warm and fresh, a fantastic contrast to the otherwise cold dessert.



My lunch partners fared better than me in their choices. The set lunch was pretty good with minestrone soup (which you can't go really wrong with) and a Le Royale cake. The Vaccherine Glaze dessert was meringue with chocolate ice-cream, strawberry ice-cream and vanilla ice-cream. The chocolate ice-cream was really good, could taste the cocoa, appropriate for a shop named The Chocolate Patisserie.



Next time when I visit, I will probably ask for a recommendation instead of blindly choosing and buy some of their oh-so-pretty cakes for my mom. The shop in itself, is a very novel idea.