I had read about Jacques Genin's patisserie in an article by the Guardian and in one of my favourite blogs, Paris Patisseries as being one of the best. Genin specialises in chocolate and pastry, and the salon de the within the shop serves just that. Prices are high but this place is certainly popular as there is a queue to get a table and the shop is busy.


Whilst I was waiting, I had a sneak peek at the pastries and decided that I would go for a classic French pastry- the Paris Brest. This consists of two layers of choux pastry- the top layer in a ring shape, filled with praline cream. Now this is not the sort of cake I would normally choose, and I was rather tempted by the tart au caramel-miel et moix but I admit that the Paris Brest looked the biggest of all that was on offer and when paying over 7 euros I wanted to get my moneys worth- ha!

When my pastry arrived, I wondered how I should tackle it. As this place was rather posh I though I ought to use my knife and fork and try to eat this monster of a cake 'like a lady'.

Well it was as good as I expected- the praline cream filling had a beautiful nutty flavour and was studded with small pieces of praline which gave it an added texture in the mouth. The choux pastry was tender and melted in the mouth- to be honest, with that amount of cream filling there was no way it would be dry! The top of the pastry was dusted with icing sugar and sprinkled with roasted hazlenuts which gave it the perfect finish.

I thoroughly enjoyed my cake, but as this is my first taste of a Paris Brest I have nothing to compare it to!

Overall, my experience with Jacques Genin was good but I did feel slightly uncomfortable in this extremely modern and spacious tea salon- it was almost like sitting in an art gallery and I much prefered the setting in Angelina. However, that would not stop me returning in the future as I would love to try the tart au caramel next time!