Le Pain Quotidien Bakery (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Almost every one of my friends has been complaining about the lack of quality French bakery shops in Hong Kong the last couple of years so when we heard rumblings about the opening of Le Pain Quotidien in Wanchai, everyone was holding their breathe a little bit. Originated from Belgium, Le Pain Quotidien specializes in homemade bread, tartines, pastries and salad (made with organic ingredients) very much like my favorite French boulangerie Paul's Bakery. Not only was the Belgian bakery chain very successful in Europe (Netherlands, UK, France, Switzerland etc.), their worldwide expansion was also an impressive one having covering North America, South America, Middle East and now Asia (Japan, Hong Kong and India) with more than 220 branches in 17 different countries. This time around, they've teamed up with Dining Concepts, the city's F&B giant for their foray into Hong Kong (perhaps China is also in the works!?).



We were given the stop sign when we tried our luck to check out this place last time. They had this big "training" signage on back then but everything is in full swing now.



Of course, I wasted no time checking out their collection of bread and pastries at the counter.




I knew I had to try their éclair somehow. While these didn't look as sharp or cute as L'Eclair de Génie's colorful éclairs, they actually tasted pretty OK and definitely not as sweet as most éclairs in the market.



To the contrary, their lemon tart was a lot sweeter than I anticipated.



My first encounter with a Belgian hot chocolate was an interesting one.



I thought they've mistakenly brought me a large bowl of steamed milk but evidently not! Looks like I am supposed to pour the hot chocolate into the bowl of milk. Not exactly how I draw it up. 



This was very light and foamy comparing to the typical French hot chocolate (Angelina!?)



Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop G40-41, G/F, Lee Tung Avenue, 200 Queen's Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Wanchai
Tel: +852 2520-1801
Website: www.lepainquotidien.com.hk