For the past six years, Pooja Dhingra has been satiating Mumbai’s sweet tooth with Le15 Patisserie’s macarons and other delights. After opening three patisserie outlets, the Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) alumnus has now launched a café, along with her Colombian-Hungarian friend (also an LCB alumnus), chef Pablo Naranjo Agular. The menu features 10 mains, five desserts, and an extensive list of beverages (with a focus on specialty teas).
The good stuff
The ambience is that of a charming Paris café, done up in black and white, with big windowpanes and pretty patterned tiles on a part of the hardwood floor. The bright pink cushions add a dash of colour. The tables are set along the walls and there’s a patisserie counter in one corner.
We picked lemonades to go with our meal: Both the Elderflower Lemonade (Rs.160) and the Lemonade with Jasmine Syrup (Rs.140) were cool and refreshing, with just the right amount of syrup to bring in the floral flavour without being too sweet.
We began with the Beans & Seeds Salad (Rs.275), a substantial bowl of mixed beans (chickpeas, kidney beans, black-eyed beans), roasted seeds (sunflower, watermelon, sesame), pickled onions and radish, all doused with a house-made honey-mustard dressing. We see ourselves returning frequently for this one!
We also tried the Poached Eggs with Tomato Sauce (Rs.325). The eggs were flawless, with the runny yolk spilling out the moment we took a knife to the dish. The eggs sat on a crunchy Parmesan waffle, which was smeared with a thick tomato-basil pasta sauce. The waffle had a salty, cheesy flavour and the dish had a comforting feel to it. The café does a Teriyaki Pulled Pork (Rs.425) version of this dish as well.
Considering Dhingra’s expertise, we were looking forward to the desserts. There are five to choose from, each with a charming French name. We picked Lucie (Rs.225) and Amélie (Rs.350), both of which were stellar. The former is a tart filled with oozy dark chocolate stirred through with salted caramel, and lightly speckled with gold leaf. The tart itself was well made and the sweet-salty filling is a decadent treat. Amélie is a take on the milk cake/tres leches. The milk-soaked sponge cake was airy and sat in a pool of condensed milk. The tangy raspberry coulis provided a lovely foil to the sweet cake, the mint leaves brought a herby freshness and the pepper crumbs (made with a mix of flour, butter, pepper and sugar) gave a spicy kick, rounding off the flavours beautifully.
Dhingra, who recognized this reviewer, also sent over two complimentary desserts to our table. Carla (Rs.195) was a cutting chai glass half filled with the most delectable lemon curd we have had in a while. The sweet-sour yellow curd was topped with a lilac-coloured honey cream, some lavender shortcrust cookie crumble, complete with a smiling sugar bee. The small square of Carrot Cake (Rs.45) is perfect if you don’t want to indulge too much (it’s not on the menu but it’s available at the patisserie counter). The cake was moist and light, and the cream cheese frosting was just tart enough to cut the sweetness of the cake. The tiny sugar carrot on top was a nice touch.
The not-so-good
The Stuffed Gnocchi (Rs.370) was filled with spinach and was pillowy soft. It was served with béchamel sauce and some sautéed mushrooms, with a “tempering” of curry leaves. This gave the gnocchi a very Indian flavour, which was not unpleasant. What brought the dish down was the generously strewn pepper crumb, which was much sweeter than the one on the dessert Amélie. Though it gave an interesting texture to the dish, its crunchy boondi-like taste marred the flavours of the dish.
Talk plastic
Our meal—two beverages, three mains and two desserts—cost Rs.2,283, all inclusive.
Le15 Café, Shop No.18, Lansdowne House, near Apollo Hotel, MB Marg, Colaba (9769341994 ). Open from 11am-11pm.
