Store Review: Debailleul

Established in 1983 by Marc Debailleul, Meilleur Ouvrier de France (best craftsman of France), Debailleul is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and has strong French roots. It is now acquired by chocolatier Hans Pauwels (who is MD) and his wife Reinhilde Gielen, Debailleul's creative director.
 
The first Debailleul (pronounced as deb-aah-yawl) store in India, the Belgian chocolaterie /patisserie has been brought here by Writer Lifestyle, an entity of Writer Corporation.
 
Debailleul's decor borrows heavily from French design and the patisserie boasts of four product lines: hand-crafted pastries including gateaux, tarts and macaroons; bonbons and friandises; ice creams, sorbets and ice-cream cakes; and viennoiseries (baked food, similar to bread).
 
Talking about Debailleul's Indian outpost Pauwels says, "Debailleul has been extremely well received in the other parts of Asia where we have a presence. Coming to India was the next logical step for us and I am looking forward to introducing our products to the increasingly savvy consumers here."

We give high marks to the Princesse chocolate, a smooth dark chocolate filled with a fruity, raspberry centre and were pleasantly surprised with the Amber chocolate, which blends passion fruit and white chocolate; clearly proving Hans' promotion of fruity chocolate.
 
A sampling of the lemon tart proved to us that it wasn't very different from what you get at any of the other patisseries.
 
So while they're pretty experimental with chocolate, we've been told, the next baby they're planning to bring out is a coriander flavour chocolate. Now that's got us confused and anxious.
 
Debailleul, Emca Sadan, Appasaheb Marathe Road, Near Ravindra Natya Mandir, Prabhadevi, Mumbai