Petite Merveille (Hakodate, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

After enjoying an epic crab lunch at the Hakodate morning market, we slowly walked towards the city center to check out a number of the city's attractions including Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse (金森赤レンガ倉庫), a series of popular shopping complex consisting of four converted old red brick warehouses. 



While most of us got caught up with stuff from different souvenir shops, I had my eyes on Petite Merveille, a home grown French patisserie and café all this time. Interestingly, owner-chef Kaoru Endo (遠藤薫) was also in the house giving up samples of his beloved "Melcheese" cake and milk pudding.



There's no way I was going to turn down free desserts.

Petite Merveille is a French patisserie with a Japanese twist. Most of their cakes and desserts are made with high-quality Hokkaido milk which kind of explains why they're so silky smooth and rich flavored.



Chef Endo spent 23 years in Tokyo mastering his pastry-making skills. He returned to his home province Hokkaido to open Petite Merveille in 1995.



This is their best seller, "Melcheese”, a bite-sized cheese soufflé which is known for its soft, smooth and creamy melt-in-the-mouth texture (thus the name). It comes with all kinds of flavors including pumpkin, caramel, chocolate and strawberry.



I decided to check out their original, pumpkin and caramel flavors.



I thought the original flavor was easily the best out of the trio. Underneath the soft sponge-like cheesecake was a filling of runny cream cheese. Pretty nice.

Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: ￥￥￥
Address: 11-5 Toyokawacho, Hakodate-shi, Hokkaido, 040-0065 Japan
Tel: +81 138-84-5677
Website: www.petite-merveille.jp