This week, our macaron journey stops to take a look at Bel Café, sister restaurant of Hawksworth Restaurant in Rosewood Hotel Georgia. For a small cafe located amidst the buzzing in Downtown Vancouver, Bel Café offers elegant ambiance for those who want to sit down, sip on a drink, chat with friends, and of course, nibble on some macarons. It was almost easy to walk past this place, but a bright sign with macarons signify ” Come here!”
When you enter in Bel Café, you have the option to wait to be seated, or go to the back of the café and order your food to go. From the menu, you can choose sweet, savory, or drinks. From my last dine in, a friend and I ordered four macarons to share- Black Sesame and Yuzu, Rose and Raspberry, Cookies N’ Cream, and Vanilla Bean. Each macaron is $2 each, including tax.
When the macarons arrived at our table, I noticed the smooth shells. After five seconds of admiring the aesthetics of the macarons, we dove right in.
Left to Right: Vanilla Bean, Cookies n’ Cream
If you love Oreo cookies, Hershey’s Cookies n’ Cream bars, McDonalds’ Oreo McFlurry, Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzards; this Cookies n’ Cream macaron is the epitome of a high class combination of chocolate and vanilla. It was similar to eating room temperature ice cream (in a good way), and every moment was savoured. The Vanilla Bean macaron was not sweet, but it still had a vanilla bean taste. I would prefer it to have more of the “bean” taste to it.
Left to Right: Rose and Raspberry, Black Sesame and Yuzu
These macarons were my personal picks. The Rose and Raspberry macaron paved the way for trying more rose flavoured food in the future. It had a fragrant, strong rose taste, with light raspberry flavouring. What I liked was the raspberry bits inside the buttercream. The Black Sesame and Yuzu macaron had good texture and the two flavours fused deliciously. A bit of sweet tartness mixed with the graininess of black sesame – it’s a lot better than you think!
On a latter visit, another friend and I went macaron shopping and went to Bel Café to get some macarons to go.
Left to Right: Raspberry and Vanilla macaron, Vanilla Bean macaron, Cookies n’ Cream macaron, Pistachio macaron
The Pistachio macaron tasted quite authentic, but a bit on the sweet side. The pistachio seeds found in the filling definitely made it more memorable. The Raspberry and Vanilla macaron had a heavier vanilla taste than raspberry.
The macarons at Bel Café were very creamy, and the shells were filled. It was also a bit fluffy on the inside.
Unfortunately, my bag of macarons crumbled instantly when I put it in my bag. They are quite delicate. I took a picture to show the size comparison of the macarons my friend purchased that day. The sizes were not uniform. The Cookies n’ Cream macaron was definitely bigger, although no complaints there. If only they all were as big as the Cookies n’ Cream one!
Left to Right: Cassis macaron, Cookies n’ Cream macaron
Bel Café embraced macaron madness deliciously. These macarons are great to go with the hot drinks Bel Café serves; 49th Parallel coffee and SPOT Tea.
Address:
801 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
(Located at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, Corner of Howe and Georgia.)
Phone Number:
(604) 673- 7000
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 6:30am-7:00pm
Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays: 7:00am-7:00pm
Website:
http://www.belcafe.com/
Twitter:
@Bel_Cafe
Pictures and Article by: Whitney Hong, (@wheetnee) Blogger of WandsAndPliers
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