[Paris] Café Pouchkine Saint-Germain

Café Pouchkine Saint-Germain

Add: 155 Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris 75006 
Tel: n/a
Hours: 10am-10pm (open daily)
Website: www.cafe-pouchkine.fr
Price: [pastries] €7.90~10.20 [drinks] €6.10~6.40
Visited: Jan 2015

I’ve never been a fan of Café Pouchkine. Like I wrote in a previous post, the pastries here are real attention grabbers with their dramatic colors, sensual forms, and lavish use of gold leaves, but I personally find the taste to be rather disappointing. Having said that, its third and newest location in Paris, situated on the very posh Boulevard Saint-Germain, is rather attractive as it’s not just a boutique, but a salon de thé as well. Since most pastry shops in Paris don’t offer seats to customers, Café Pouchkine Saint-Germain naturally becomes one of the more interesting options.

There are about 35 seats in the 80m² cafe. It’s not an especially spacious room, but tables are placed at a comfortable distance from one another for Parisian standard (read: slightly better than elbow to elbow). I visited on a Sunday afternoon, and the space quickly filled up around 4pm.

One thing I loved about Café Pouchkine Saint Germain was the friendly and attentive service, despite it being a full house during my visit. From taking orders to refilling teapots with hot water, the staff always served with a warm smile.

The pastry selection is exactly the same as those at Cafe Pouchkine’s Printemps and Marais boutiques.

To fend off the winter cold, I ordered a pot of thé des moines (€6.30) a mix of tea, plants, and flowers, apparently created by Tibetan monks.

We first tried Tarte Priannick (€9.80), which consists of sweet almond pastry crust, figs, prunes, Priannick cream and caramel glaze. I have never heard of Priannick before and can’t really find any information online, but I assume it’s a Russian spice given Cafe Pouchkine’s Russian origin. The flavor is quite particular – I’m not sure if I really liked it – and the tart in general was quite sweet.

Rozovaya (€10.50) takes the pretty form of a rose, and consists of violet-flavored Japanese biscuit (?), vanilla mascarpone mousse, black currant compote, crunchy almonds, vanilla cream and blackcurrant jam. Again, a bit too sweet for my palate.

Like before, I wasn’t so drawn to the pastry style of Cafe Pouchkine, but I did enjoy the comfortable ambience and friendly service. If you are looking for the combination of haute patisserie + seats, consider this an option. And who knows? You might actually like the pastries – chacun ses goûts.