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Ladurée Sydney

Last Tuesday, after much anticipation Ladurée Sydney opened for business at Westfield Sydney. The late arrival of the highly celebrated French patisserie was due to happen in August among whispers of launch events and grand parties.

Now that the macaron giant has graced our city, I can’t help but feel a little cheated.

Ladurée Sydney
Ladurée Westfield Sydney

It isn’t the long queues snaking their way around the shopping mall that are reminiscent of Zumbo’s Macaron Day and Zumboron day. Nor is it the $3.30 price tag per macaron that some see as hefty or the fact that they are imported frozen from a Swiss factory. It’s another poignant point as distinctive as their pale green signature colour. What Ladurée Sydney lacks is ambience.

Ladurée Sydney
Ladurée Westfield Sydney

I have been to Ladurée in Paris. I walked straight into Ladurée Champs-Élysées on a Sunday and joined a slow-moving queue at Ladurée Bonaparte. Both times, I was greeted with an opulent interior, mood-lit macarons, three dimensional gateaux I wanted to bring home and the opportunity to taste them in a luxurious salon. The entire operation ran like clockwork, from the finger-wagging woman near the entrance declaring no photography, to the patient young man who took my order and the girl behind la caisse when I paid.

Ladurée Sydney
Ladurée Westfield Sydney

When I heard Ladurée was to open in Sydney, I had similar expectations of lavish premises, perhaps a salon in which to partake in delicacies, longish queues and a little romance of Paris in the heart of Sydney. But the location of Ladurée left me cold. The space it occupies in Westfield Sydney is literally a space that has seen pop-ups such as the Pommery Cube and the Christmas Cracker pop-up bar/restaurant. In other words, it is open, noisy and bustling with the ebb and flow of shoppers.

Ladurée Sydney
Ladurée Westfield Sydney

If this version of Ladurée is designed to match Australia’s laid back attitude, it leaves me disappointed. With its open surrounds and lacklustre atmosphere, it may as well be located in a sterile airport terminal.

Ladurée Sydney
Ladurée Westfield Sydney

As for the macarons, I have not yet braved the queues to make a purchase, so I will reserve that opinion until I do. In the meantime, I will hold on to the romantic memory of my visits to Ladurée Paris and secretly hope that Ladurée Sydney finds a new home that is not an open space.

Ladurée Sydney

Ladurée Sydney
Level 3, Corner Pitt St and Market St
Westfield Sydney, Sydney CBD
02 9231 0491
www.laduree.com

Photographs by Kevin Burke @ Gourmantic Copyright: All rights reserved.

About the author

Corinne Mossati

Corinne Mossati is a drinks writer, author of GROW YOUR OWN COCKTAIL GARDEN, SHRUBS & BOTANICAL SODAS and founder/editor of Gourmantic, Cocktails & Bars and The Gourmantic Garden. She has been writing extensively about spirits, cocktails, bars and cocktail gardening in more recent years. She is a spirits and cocktail competition judge, Icons of Whisky Australia nominee, contributor to Diageo Bar Academy, cocktail developer and is named in Australian Bartender Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential List. Her cocktail garden was featured on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia and has won several awards. She is a contributor to Real World Gardener radio program and is featured in several publications including Pip Magazine, Organic Gardener, Australian Bartender and Breathe (UK). Read the full bio here.

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