Les Deux Garcons, Taman Desa – visit for great French croissants, macarons & cakes

On weekdays or weekends, instead of the congested Telawi Bangsar, Publika and Hartamas, take a drive to Taman Desa and enjoy superb French pastries probably unrivaled in this city of KL/PJ.

This particular branch of Les Deux Garcons is their ‘factory’ for the wonderful pastries, macarons and cakes you see at their Telawi, Bangsar branch.
Nestled in a row of nondescript shop houses, it provided respite from the hectic traffic, harried pace of life in the city and annoying humans.

Beautiful flaky croissants, coloured macarons and gorgeous cakes with unpronounceable teased me from behind the display counters. 2 – 3 tables are available inside providing air -conditioning comfort and 2 more are outside the shop for those who appreciate shady trees, cool breeze and chirpy birds.

I had tried some of their macarons and cakes before at the Bangsar outlet (Pictures –> HERE) and while it is admittedly costlier than your usual commercial cakes, I believe that you pay for top notch quality and workmanship.

Hooi Khaw and I ordered a croissant and a cake to share. A bite into the flaky, airy and rich buttery layers of the croissant made me regret asking her to share with me.
Good lord, this is simply delightful!
I have had fabulous croissants in Paris and even the famous Croissant Ispahan by Pierre Herme so I had an idea what good croissants should taste like.
These croissants from Les Deux Garcons are worth busting the diet and having your Personal Trainer add much dreaded push ups to your routine. It is worth the drive to Taman Desa from TTDI on a Sunday afternoon. And it is worth every ringgit of its price, which coincidentally isn’t that expensive taking into consideration the amount of work, skills, hours and premium ingredients used.

Coffee. Plain croissants (RM6). Cake – Printemps – hazelnut & sesame dacquoise, matcha ganache, matcha mousseline, clear mirror glaze & mini macaron.

Pray tell me if this doesn’t look like the perfect croissant to you?

For some French restaurants and boulangeries, more butter equates to better flavour. The Les Deux Garcons croissants  reminded me of Paris, where each layer are thin, buttery but never overly greasy or heavy. With each bite, the paper thin layers and butter melts on your tongue, but it doesn’t leave you feeling as if you just had melted butter on dough. And as you can see in the image above, the dreaded uncooked layers in the middle (a problem that plague most croissants we find here in KL) are duly absent.

My Printemps (French for spring, springtime) are made up of delectable layers of hazelnut & sesame dacquoise, matcha ganache, matcha mousseline, clear mirror glaze (the shining coat you see on top) & a mini macaron.
Despite its French-y name, I thought it was very Asian with sesame and matcha used. Does it somehow signifies spring time in Japan perhaps? Anyhow, this was good, not overly sweet yet carries distinctive flavours on each of its layers. I particularly loved the nuttiness of the dacquoise.

Half a croissant and a cake was not quite satisfying enough and that prodded me to take-away an almond version and another Pain au chocolat so I can further indulge in them later in the evening. Both cost RM13.

The Pain au chocolat could do with more chocolate for sure. I’ll stick to the plain croissant next time.

I have a confession to make. I hate pastries. Too doughy, too greasy, too sweet.
But I ate them for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner when I was in Amsterdam, Paris and Antwerp. And it seems that I’ll be eating pastries everyday again, here in KL, thanks to LDG. 😀

Les Deux Garcons outlets:
16 Jalan 2/109E, Desa Business Park, Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur, telephone: 03-7980 0200.
36 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur, telephone: 03-2284 7833
NEW: K01, Ground floor, Menara Shell, Jalan Tun Sambathan, Kuala Lumpur, telephone: 03-2282 1234.
Online orders can be made at: lesdeuxgarcons.com.my/store/
TIME: 9.30am – 6.30pm (Tuesday-Sunday)