Dalloyau : Phantom of the Opera....Cakes

This famous Parisian pastry house since it was founded by a king in 1682 is known for its Opera cake and macarons. It has quite a number of outlets all over Japan but the main building is located in Ginza.

Yes, I must say that the Opera Cake is really good but not for the macarons. They are rather inconsistent. The rose flavour was too crunchy while the Salted Caramel was so chewy that it could get stuck to the teeth like chewing gum.

However, I decided to give it a second chance by trying out its other creations. It came as a major surprise that a French patisserie could handle the sophisticated matcha so well in Verrine Uji Matcha. Bitter matcha gelee sauce, velvety matcha mousse, moist sponge and a semi-translucent Kokutoh (black sugar) jelly base. Everything came together like a highly synchronized orchestra.

Zen

Called Zen but there is none of the usual suspects such as red beans, black beans or even matcha mousse. Appeared here as bitter moist sponge, matcha is paired with GUAVA! Never have I encountered guava in mousse cakes, and most definitely not the matcha-guava combination

However, there is an unspeakable splendidness in this cake. Fruity guava mousse, sourish raspberry, substantially thick matcha sponge all draped in a baby lotion-like white chocolate cream.


The Chocolate Tart is nothing special except for the cute warrior figurine. That said, the chocolate ganache is truly  intense and no wonder it comes in such a small size.

Chou Cubique The Vert

Nearly made me "nose-bleed" when I saw the amount of matcha inside the cube. This is actually Dalloyau's classic choux Cubique series and there are other flavours like raspberry and vanilla. It looked like bread but was crusty choux pastry shaped like a square.

Unlike some cream cube buns that I've come across in Singapore, this is way more generous and yummy for 90% is filled with the rich matcha cream.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see this? I immediately thought of pig brain because of the neat, intricately piped chestnut paste that has been air-sprayed with a nice chocolate tan.

What excels in this is the tempered sweetness and a lovely rum aroma that is not found even in those by Mont Blanc specialist Angelina.

The Le Jardin Fraise conjured the images of a garden with pink rosy flowers. I thought it would be a boring cake but the vanilla mousse was elegant. It was speckled with lots of vanilla beans that led to mildly sweet scents but yet the sweetness is highly restrained.

This is a commendable thing because most pastry chefs tend to throw in too much sugar when they use vanilla beans (eg. Creme Brulee)

Last but not least, Matcha Melon Pan!

Made with Suzuka Matcha from Mie prefecture (click here for more info on Suzuka Matcha), the melon pan has a very well baked crust that emits an attractive fragrant unlike most matcha melon pans.

I love the deep flavour that corresponds to the bold dark green crust, even though the spiraling green interior was tad rough. Would be ideal if there was some matcha cream filling.

Overall, Dalloyau is another potentially delicious patisserie that exhibits creativity and quality for almost everything sans the macarons.

Dalloyau

6-9-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

1F Retail Store and Bakery Daily 10am-9pm (Till 10pm on Fri.Sat.Eve of PH)

2F Cafe/Restaurant Daily 11am-9pm (Till 10pm on Fri.Sat.Eve of PH)

Other outlets: Jiyugaoka, Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, Mitsukoshi Ginza

http://www.dalloyau.co.jp