Le Cafe Alain Ducasse

To all foodies out there, who hasn’t heard about Alain Ducasse?! The culinary legend is only one of two chefs to hold 21 Michelin stars throughout his career and had been awarded the Lifetime Achievement on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants List. For the UK, it has been one of five UK-sited restaurants to hold three Michelin stars since 2010. After all the successes, they are now launching something different. Following Ducasse Paris’ signature chocolate brand, Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, they are now opening one in London! And it’s not just about chocolate, the chocolatier comes with a speciality coffee shop – Le Cafe Alain Ducasse.

Le Cafe Alain Ducasse is opened at this new shopping/retail space called Coal Drops Yard at Kings Cross. The cafe section was not a massive space, with a coffee bar table making the majority of the seats and a few stools by the wall. There are also some seats outside available as well. It’s a pretty bright setting with different types of coffees displayed all over the shop.

Noisette

Noisette translates as hazelnut, but it’s not a hazelnut coffee. In Parisian terms, a noisette is an espresso with a dash of hot milk. It’s named Noisette due to its hazelnut colour.

The coffee was incredibly rich and strong. Whilst it’s a relatively intense hit, the flavours were never too overwhelming. The coffee itself was tremendously aromatic as well.

Hot Chocolate

Now here’s what we came for – the hot chocolate!

The hot chocolate was delicately served in a double walled glass mug, with milk foam on top. This isn’t just your ordinary cup of hot chocolate. They used two kinds of chocolate – 100% & 75% cocoa, together with a 100% cocoa powder and had them melted in milk and sugar. Though you can still taste some of the unmelted grains of it, it never disrupted the silky texture of the drink. It’s apparent that it’s top quality of chocolate, with the perfect balance of sweetness & mild bitterness.

Madeleines

We didn’t actually order these but the staff offered us to try some when they were serving us our hot drinks – so we thought, why not?

The Madeleines were freshly baked and we literally picked it out from the baking tray while it’s still warm. The Madeleine couldn’t be more perfect to pair with my Noisette coffee. It carried the perfect balance of sweetness and an alluring aroma of butter & vanilla upon every bite. You can clearly see the vanilla seeds in the cake as well. The texture was beautifully soft and spongy. All in all, I was absolutely in love with it!

In summary…

…everything we tried at Le Cafe Alain Ducasse had been great. It’s more of a come-&-go type of coffee bar instead of a proper sit-down cafe, but we enjoyed it regardless. Moreover, Coal Drops Yard seems like quiet a new cool spot to hang out in London so definitely go check it out!