They’ve suffixed the word Lab to La Folie’s third outpost. The month-old Bandra branch is the patisserie’s first store with an open kitchen, where you can stand by and watch the cooks tinker with dressy desserts and inventive savouries (such as chive and parmesan churros) in between assembling orders off their a la carte menu. While a lab suggests something clinical, the interiors, executed by architect Rooshad Shroff who also designed La Folie’s Palladium mall branch, is anything but. Here, terrariums and potted plants are interspersed with wood and metal furniture and walls that serve as canvases for illustrations of pots, pans, spatulas and an army of cute Lilliputian stick-figure chefs. The place has a charm missing from the cold set-up of the high-end patisserie’s other outlets.
Around noon – we got there soon after breakfast service ended at 11.30am – the coffee machine and KitchenAid were the hardest at work in the lab, while Bob Marley crooned softly about love in the background. It’s definitely love that we felt for La Folie’s croissant croque monsieur (Rs340), which would win a approving nod from the French. A pink slice of smoked ham was buried beneath layer upon buttery layer of flaking croissant sliced and glued together by warm gooey cheese. The equally indulgent veggie equivalent, the croissant Caprese (Rs330), was burrata-laden and made moist with an excellent basil pesto.
Their savoury offerings are a good mix between the calorie-heavy and healthful. Among the latter is the chicken orzo salad (Rs390), a guilt-free toss up of rice-shaped orzo, grilled basil chicken, Kalamata olives and parmesan shavings minimally dressed with a distinctly nutty olive oil. The savoury millefeuille (Rs330) was a khari biscuit made from scratch and prettied up with dukkah-spiced roasted pumpkins, arugula and blobs of goat cheese. Everything atop the khari was tasty, but unless you eat it immediately, you’ll be left with soggy puff pastry. We could spend an entire summer noshing on just their tart salmon tartine (Rs440), a gorgeously assembled cold snack of beetroot-cured salmon, pickled radish, cucumber curls, capers and tzatziki.
The mood shifts perceptibly after 6.30pm, when the savoury menu is discontinued and desserts, which are served all day, take centre stage at the lab. From a buzzing breakfast venue, La Folie converts to a date spot, where you can woo your sweetheart with their pricey sweet treats. For the wooing or appeasing we recommend the decadent 100% chocolate cookie (Rs190) that is made with their own signature blend of chocolate sprinkled with sea salt and topped with house-churned vanilla. You can tell the cookie has made a quick journey from oven to table because it arrives hot and fudge-like in their pretty Auroville crockery.
Exclusive to this outpost of La Folie are plated desserts that take up to 20 minutes to prepare. These include the 100% chocolate cookie and the Kyoto (Rs290), an elaborately contrived and confusing mish mash of yuzu and mango sorbet, ginger crumble, combava basil parfait, cream cheese foam and lemon ginger salt. Despite its many fancy-sounding parts, it tasted like a cloying jumble that we disliked.
The shell of our dark chocolate eclair (Rs130) was disappointingly thick, but the luscious chocolate ganache within saved it from being a complete misfire.The homey desserts like the 100% chocolate cookie and the pecan pie (Rs240) fared better than the exotic ones. We were served a large greed-inducing slice of pie with a garnish of the seasonal nut; the maple-soaked sponge was textured with more pecans and decorated with a sweet and spicy white chocolate and cinnamon Chantilly cream. The tart Folie lemon (Rs220) crowned with the fluffiest meringue zested with lime was the requisite amount of tart and sweet. It’s evidently easy to get carried away at La Folie Lab. Luckily the sugar rush helps numbs the pain from the sticker shock – a dessert with coffee or tea can you set you back by Rs500.
Get: Croissant croque monsieur (Rs340), chicken orzo salad (Rs390), salmon tartine (Rs440), pecan pie (Rs240), tart Folie lemon (Rs220).
Skip: Dark chocolate eclair (Rs130), Kyoto (Rs290).
It is our policy to wait at least a week after an establishment has opened before we review it.
Prices exclude taxes.
La Folie Lab, Shop No.1, Libra Tower, 70 Hill Road, opposite Saint Peter’s Church, Bandra (West). Tel: 91679 37019. Open Monday to Friday, from 8.30am to 11pm and Saturday and Sunday, from 8.30am to midnight. Get directions here.