Welcome to Malaysia, Paris Baguette! You might be familiar with Paris Baguette, a well-known French-inspired South Korean bakery chain with more than 4,000 outlets worldwide. Since the establishment of its first location in Seoul back in 1988, Paris Baguette has proudly offered fresh pastries, toasty breads, and delectable cakes to customers in South Korea, and around the world.
But you don’t have to travel all the way to South Korea to get a taste of the bakery’s delicious and freshly-baked goods because they’re now available in Malaysia!
Paris Baguette’s first Malaysian outlet is at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is the bakery’s fifth market in the region, which it entered through a partnership with Berjaya Food Berhad and Paris Baguette Singapore PLC. The iconic brand hosted its first store grand opening recently, with guests of honour that included Yang Berhormat Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living, His Excellency Mr. Yeo Seung-bae, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Malaysia, and Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Vincent Tan, Chairman, Berjaya Corporation Berhad.
So what can foodies look forward to at Paris Baguette? A variety of pastries, breads, cakes, hot dishes and desserts with European influences, including Mr. & Ms. Bear Madelaine, Signature Natural Yeast Bread, Fresh Yogurt Cream Cake, No 1 Sandwich Tart Cheese, Macaroni, and Cranberry Chicken Pastry Wrap, which are all freshly prepared each day with high-quality ingredients.
During the grand opening, we were able to sample some of Paris Baguette’s signature items – and here’s what we think:
Cranberry Chicken Pastry Wrap
One of our favourites! Starting off with the wrap – it is absolutely soft and buttery, which makes it easier to take a full bite out of. As for the filling, the chicken is perfectly mashed and mixed with mayo and cranberries. Adding fruit to sandwiches can be really tricky, because sometimes ,the fruitiness overpowers the entire meal. But this sandwich is different. Both the savoury and fruity flavours were very balanced, giving you the best of both worlds in every bite. Also, you can tell that the sandwiches are super fresh from the taste of them. Just so you know, we didn’t stop with only one of these!
Croissants
For tasting, they offered two types of croissant: plain and chicken slice croissant. The croissant is really good. If it’s soft, buttery and flaky, you know it’s definitely a good croissant. The filling is a simple. Some lettuce, a slice of tomato, a chicken slice and some cheese. Simple as it looks, this croissant tastes pretty good. We like how the croissant isn’t over-filled and so convenient to eat without making a mess. We’ll rank this third in our list.
Mushroom Soup
One of their signature items is the Mushroom Soup in Bread Bowl. But during the event, we only got to taste the soup and we see why – it’s their signature dish. The soup ain’t no regular mushroom soup. Trust us when we say this: once you try Paris Baguette’s mushroom soup, you won’t go looking for others. Although it’s just mushroom soup, it is packed with so much flavour. The soup is thick, creamy and has lots and lots of mushroom chunks. By itself, the soup tastes so good – and we went for more. We even dipped a croissant into the soup and it was just heaven! This mushroom soup wins first place on our list.
Cream Puffs & Choco Twist
For something sweet, we had cream puffs. The bite-sized puffs have custard filling. The pastry itself isn’t sweet, which we think is a smart move, because the custard filling is already sweet. So, you get a swee,t but not too sweet, kinda treat. Also, we love the generous amount of filling these puffs have. As you bite into them, you can see the creamy fillings oozing out of the pastry.
Another sweet treat we had was the Choco Twist. Cute in size, this pastry is wrapped with chocolate filling. However, for us, we find the pastry slightly hard to bite. Probably because it had been out for too long and would have tasted better warm. Flavour-wise, it was definitely sweet.
Besides the amazing pastries, we were also given a bag full of goodies. Some of the stuff we got include the Mr. & Ms. Bear Madelaine, Strawberry Soft Cake, Cheese Soft Cake, Red Bean Pancake and Signature Natural Yeast Bread. The most adorable items are definitely Mr. & Ms. Bear Madelaine. Look how cute they look together! Mr. Bear comes in Chocolate flavour, whereas Ms. Bear comes in vanilla. Both bears are too cute to eat, but they taste sweet and yummy!
The Strawberry and Cheese Soft Cakes are cottony soft, lightly-flavoured cheesecakes. They aren’t as cheesy as expected, but they have this unusual sweetness in every bite. Cheese cakes are meant to be cheesy, so we feel it’ll be better if there’s more cheesiness to it. As for the strawberry cake, it has a strong punch of strawberry flavour. Comparing both cakes, we prefer the cheese cake. Both cakes have a soft texture.
A loaf of Signature Natural Yeast Bread does so much good! Although it’s a yeast bread, it isn’t so – yeasty. You can eat it as it is, or make a sandwich out of it. You can use all sorts of fillings with this bread, and it’ll still taste good. The bread is soft and easy to slice. Oh, it smells good too!
Now, for the downside to Paris Baguette. For us, it was the pricing. Sure, it serves quality items and delicious sandwiches, but the price can be too high sometimes. Thankfully, this bakery also has certain low-priced items for those on a budget.
Paris Baguette is a bakery you should give a try at least once. Its atmosphere is outstanding, exhibiting a unique “urban” concept bakery-café with a striking colour scheme of blues, soft whites and black accents. Even the friendly staff is dressed in cute, Parisian-themed outfits. Brunch, lunch or anytime of the day – Paris Baguette is a must-visit bakery for fresh and tasty baked goods.
Visit Paris Baguette at Pavilion KL and follow them on Instagram for updates!
