I’m bugging out. Ladurée, the amazingly-cute French restaurant, has gone…. VEGAN!?!?!!??!?! Seriously, this sounds like a weird dream. Like, “Oh, I had the best dream last night. Ladurée went completely vegan so we could eat all the cute macarons and desserts in the world.” But nooooo. It’s not a dream. It’s true.
Vegan chef Matthew Kenney (of the famed vegan Italian restaurant, 00+Co) teamed up with Ladurée Beverly Hills to create a completely plant-based experience!!!! Sorry for freaking out. Actually, I’m not. I am literally obsessed with French food and have never been able to find a good vegan French place until now… and it’s good thing Ladurée is King/Queen of French cuisine.
Now, for all of you with a Ladurée in your city, don’t get too excited yet. The only 100% vegan location is the one in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. However, a little birdie did tell me that the company is planning on adding vegan options to all of its locations worldwide. So hold tight, my little vegans. Delicious vegan macarons will soon be coming your way!
Ok, onto the review. My sister, friend Catherine, and I wanted to try a variety of things on the menu to give a full review, so this is what we got:
- The chocolate french toast
- The mini-burgers
- The croque-monsieur
- A hot chocolate and cappuccino
- A few macarons (flavors: Pistachio, salted caramel, chocolate, and vanilla).
Let’s start easy with the drinks. Bella LOVED her hot chocolate. She said it tasted like the hot chocolate from the famous Parisian hot chocolate shop, Angelina. She said it was decadent, chocolatey, and delicious. My cappuccino was good. Not bad, not excellent. Just a fine cappuccino. But again, Ladurée is not a coffee shop, so I wasn’t expecting anything mind-blowing.
Now onto the entrees. Ummm, Ladurée, we have a problem. Before I get into the specifics, let me just say this: if you go here, get desserts and drinks as opposed to the food. So yeah… it wasn’t great.
The burgers were fine. Not great, not terrible. I’m generally not a fan of traditional veggie burgers (I prefer the Impossible burger because Imma #veganburgersnob), but for those who prefer traditional veggie burgers as opposed to mock-meat, you might love it! On the bright side, the fries were DANK. 10/10.
The chocolate French toast was also good. Not great. Not bad. We loved the flavor of it (banana-chocolate) and how light/fluffy it was, but it also didn’t really have the texture of French toast. It felt more like soft, sweet bread. The chocolate sauce it came with was great though! That chocolate sauce with some strawberries or bananas would be everything.
The least favorite item we had was the “croque-monsieur.” I went to Paris a few times as a kid and have had non-vegan Croque-monsieurs before, so I know exactly what they’re supposed to look and taste like. For those who don’t know, Croque-monsieurs are basically ham and grilled cheese sandwiches with crispy cheese all over the outside.
The vegan version at Ladurée was literally terrible. It was two pieces of greasy bread, slathered with mustard, a flavor-less cream sauce that was allegedly “cheese,” with slices of unseasoned tofu. How this was supposed to replicate a croque-monsieur is BEYOND me. I really wanted to love it but… it just felt like they didn’t even try for this dish. It was so unlike the original, I thought they brought us the wrong dish. Also, it was also the only dish my non-vegan friend didn’t like.
Last, but not least: the macarons! I love macarons, so I generally loved them all, but my sister and I both agreed that the Pistachio flavor was KILLER and the salted caramel one was also amazing. The chocolate was good but a little too decadent and we weren’t the biggest fans of the vanilla.
So there you have it, folks! A 360 review of Ladurée Beverly Hills. I give them an A for effort, but a B for execution. However, I don’t want to be too hard on them. They literally opened this week and I’m sure they will just keep improving with time… and don’t get me wrong, I’ll 100% be back for fries and desserts. I’ll just skip on the main courses if you know what I mean.
Leave a Reply