Paillard

Paillard
1097 Rue Saint-Jean
Quebec City, QC G1R 1S3 
http://www.paillard.ca/

Paillard is a cafe, bakery, sandwich/soup, lunch, take-out, patisserie all-in-one.  It is conveniently located in the heart of Old Quebec, walking distance to major attractions and hotels.  The place is fairly large and packed with locals.  A great place to stop for lunch, especially we find that Quebec's restaurants tend to be on the higher end of things.

From our googling, we were going to go to Le Croquembouche for patisserie.  But Le Croquembouche is very far away from Old Quebec, and we would need to take the car out to drive there.  So while we were just walking around Old Quebec, we saw Paillard and lots of people inside, meaning it's a great place to try.  At first I was skeptical with it being a touristy location, but it turns out it is packed with locals with families and kids enjoying lunch there.  Since we already had lunch that day, we decided to get some take-outs.  We bought an almond and chocolate croissant for next day's breakfast.  And we also bought two mini cakes and macarons to share with the Campbell family when we arrive at Montreal. 

Almond croissant ($2.95) - voted the best croissant in Quebec 2010.  Loved that it has a sweet creamy filling inside, not many places do that.

Chocolatine ($2.95 ish) - super flaky and yummy

First off, I absolutely enjoyed the croissants very much.  For once I enjoyed the almond croissant more than the chocolate one!! Surprise surprise.  This is because Paillard's almond croissant has a sweet almond paste filling inside the almond croissant, which prior to this I have found it really rare to have.  It went perfectly with the Starbucks coffee from the hotel.

Don't remember the name =( ($3.95 ish) Dark chocolate mousse with blackberry flavours - delicious!

Bombe marron au caramel fondant ($3.95) chestnut mousse with a white chocolate cover - a bit too sweet for me

Box of assorted macarons ($1.55 each) - there's lemon, chocolate, salted caramel, passionfruit, strawberry, pistachio, vanilla, and coffee.

The remaining desserts were enjoyed with the Campbell family.  When Roxie first saw us unwrapping the desserts, she immediately went and hold the box of colorful macarons.  I guess this is her first time seeing such cute colourful little cookies.  I didn't try all the flavours, so I couldn't tell you how they all tasted.  I tried chocolate and vanilla.  They were very nice and crisp, and moist with chocolate ganaches.  The flavours weren't as strong as the Montreal's La Maison du Chocolate ($2 something each?), but for the price I think Paillard is mighty amazing too! I'm very happy Stepehen, Avery, and Roxie enjoyed them very well for their first time.  We liked it so much, we went to buy all the ingredients the next day to make chocolate macarons  with Stephen's new stand mixer.

Then we tried the two cakes while watching a movie.  I enjoyed the dark chocolate cake more.  The other one was bought because during the trip I learned that "marron" means "chestnut". and decided to try anything chestnut.  The chestnut one taste a bit like the Chinese chestnut angel cake but sweeter.

I enjoyed Paillard very much, found it super affordable and casual but with great quality!  Can't wait to try their made-to-order sandwich station with fresh baked breads and soups next time.