L’Éclair de Génie is the newest sweet addition to join the dessert scene in Vancouver. Located in the heart of downtown, this Paris-based pastry shop is best known for their rotating flavours of unique éclairs. This is their first North American location with over twenty locations worldwide to date. For those of you who are unfamiliar, éclair is a long French pastry made from choux pastry, filled with pastry cream, custard dipped in fondant icing giving off that gleaming, beautiful glaze.

The moment you enter, you’re immediately drawn to their selection of éclairs. They currently offer 10 of their 200 flavours available.

Other side features their housemade chocolates and french pastries.

Here’s a close up 😉

Really curious to see if they taste like croissants…

Cute display of jams and sweets you can take home with you 🙂

Espresso bar tucked in the corner

Interior of the cafe. It’s relatively small with only a few scattered tables and booths. Luckily, it wasn’t busy!

Cappuccino ($4.96) with rock sugar stick. This was a pretty solid cup of cappuccino and the sugar stirrer was a nice touch. One thing that bugged me was that I completely forgot that they offer their drinks in either regular or large size and the barista automatically charged me the large size. Oh well.

Update: Only the large size is available for dine-in.

Assortment of éclairs! They range from about $5.75-$6.75. Total amount paid was $26.

Printemps Mure Myrtille ($6.25) blueberry and blackberry confit with vanilla mascarpone chantilly. While Jorjor and I were picking out flavours, this one definitely caught our attention with its intricate floral glaze pattern. Despite being visually appealing, this one was a slight disappointment. The choux pastry was soft and soggy throughout and the texture seemed a bit off for me. They do claim they make them fresh daily however, it tasted stale and bland.

Matcha Bambou ($6.25) matcha cream and white chocolate. For those of you who follow me on instagram, you know I love matcha so of course I had to get this one! Unfortunately, this one was also a huge letdown! The sweetness of white chocolate and earthiness of matcha almost always makes the perfect pairing. However, the white chocolate definitely overpowered the matcha as the taste was subtle- almost nonexistent.

Caramel Beurre Salé ($5.85): salted caramel and mascarpone cream. One word: salty.

Praline Noisette ($6.75)caramel mascarpone cream, hazelnut praline, and caramelized hazelnuts. Being the most expensive out of the bunch, you could say I had high hopes for this one! Thankfully, this one delivered! Had the perfect balance of sweet and salty and I loved the crunch from the caramelized hazelnuts.

Overall taste was mediocre based on the hype given the amount of media coverage they had!

Location: 
1210 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Rating: 3/5
Service: n/a
Price: $$
Reservation? No
Website: http://leclairdegenie.ca/