I watch Gossip Girl. And I ship Chuck and Blair. So after several episodes of watching Blair pine for Laduree’s macarons, I finally gave in and tried to find the next best thing here in Manila. Ladureeis a cafe in Paris famous for their pastries, and most notably their macarons. I have also seen this place featured in one of the episodes of TLC’s current Now Boarding… Paris collection.
After a lot of googling, most blogs pointed me to Sweet Bella Cafe at Burgos Circle (Bonifacio Global City). So I ‘convinced’ my friend L to treat me to these wonderful things. Now, we’ve been to Sweet Bella before and I forgot the name of the cake I tried. It was supposed to be one of their best and was supposed to be a very rich chocolate cake. I could hardly eat half. It was too rich for me. Me! I couldn’t believe it. But I really could not make myself eat more. It was just not my type of cake. I like my chocolate cake moist and chocolatey, not mousse-y or filled with ganache.
But because of those good blog reviews on their macarons, I decided to give Sweet Bella another try. And was I glad I did!
Here is the picture of half-eaten macarons. The flavors are: Salted Caramel (yellow), Rose (violet), Coffee (upper right), Chocolate (lower right). They had a thin, crisp outer shell, chewy interiors, and generous fillings. They were also very flavorful. I was rooting for the Salted Caramel since salted caramel is my favorite flavor, but the best of them happens to be the chocolate macaron. The rose was also pretty good. I like rose-flavored things so I didn’t mind the intense rose flavor, but it may not be to everybody’s liking. L found the macarons a tad too sweet. Yes, they were sweet, but that is just fine with me. They are P60 each, a bit steep, but you don’t need a lot. I was satisfied with half of each macaron (since we ordered 4, that means I ate the equivalent of just 2 macarons, okay, 3, since L only took small bites). They are good that you don’t feel the need to gorge on them. They are a very nice treat indeed!
So obsessed with the macarons was I, that I totally ignored L’s order! I am so sorry, L. I didn’t even take a picture! All I remember was that it was like a tart/pie with berries on top..
The other nice thing about hanging out at Sweet Bella Cafe is the free Wifi! Just ask the friendly staff for the password! And the couches are comfy and purple!
