[Shanghai] Ladurée
Ladurée | Dianping
Address: 虹桥路1号港汇广场1楼中庭 – 1F, Grand Gateway Mall, 1 Hongqiao Lu (徐汇区 Xuhui District)
Date visited: 2014.05
Price: RMB¥23 per macaron
Will return: Yes
Famed macaron shop Ladurée finally comes to Shanghai. Having previously visited a Ladurée shop in New York and received a box of macarons that survived a flight from the Paris airport, the Shanghai shop is quite on par with the two. While La Maison du Macaron in New York is my favorite macaron shop thus far, I would say Ladurée is probably the best macaron option in Shanghai right now.
This Ladurée sells only mini macarons (and no other pastries as far as I can tell) and is a stand in the middle of Grand Gateway Mall with no seating so you buy macarons and you go. They don’t pack the macarons with cold ice packs so it is best to not linger outside for too long before storing them in a cool place or better yet, just eating them. We took them upstairs to Din Tai Fung for dinner and ate them as dessert an hour later; some of them had slightly melted centers already.
If you buy macarons individually for RMB¥23 each, they pack it in a paper bag or a soft box depending on how many. Nothing wrong with that. If you buy macarons in a fancy hard box set, you can choose from several choices beginning at RMB¥180 for a box of 6 or RMB¥280 for a box of 8 and so on. Okay, here is where the math stops making sense. The RMB¥180 box of 6 comes out to be RMB¥30 per macaron; factoring in a premium for the box at RMB¥23 per macaron, that means you are paying RMB¥42 for the box (what?). The RMB¥280 box of 8 comes out to be RMB¥32.50 per macaron, which means you are paying RMB¥96 for the box (is this real life?). The increase is not proportional here and the bigger box only holds 2 more macarons. So unless you are gifting this to someone who has a box fetish, I suggest taking whatever container they give you for free.
Macaron keychains, which can be yours for the extortionist price of RMB¥420 each.
We bought five macarons so we just got a paper bag. We ate these upstairs at Din Tai Fung, who kindly provided new plates after dinner. That 10% service charge wasn’t for nothing.
And then we realized all except one were shades of brown. The bright pink shades tend to be the fruity flavors. Here we have: Marie-Antoinette (green), coffee, salted caramel, praline, and vanilla.
My three favorites are:
Marie-Antoinette Macaron (RMB¥23), which is a limited-release black tea flavored macaron. I am not sure how long it will be out for as Ladurée seems to release it for certain periods of time in previous years.
Vanilla (RMB¥23)
Salted Caramel Macaron (RMB¥23), which actually has a layer of caramel inside.
As for the other two flavors, we thought the coffee center had a weird grainy texture as opposed to a smooth center while the praline flavor was a little too nutty. I am sure everyone has their own preferences when it comes to macaron flavors and textures. Still, it is nice to see an established macaron maker come to Shanghai.
