Eating Europe #2: Angelina, Paris

My travel buddies and I had seen Angelina and the famous chocolate drink on multiple Paris musts lists. So, our first day there, we all made a special trip to check it out at the Rue de Rivoli location, down the street from the Louvre. Hint to Paris newbies - Angelina is everywhere! On our remaining days in Paris, I saw the name several places, including Angelina cafes within the Louvre itself and Palace of Versailles. So this trip wasn't exactly necessary to simply try the chocolate, although the interior was quite lovely - all gold and white, reminded me of fancy hotel restaurants I've seen in movies, but cozier. 


Another note about dining in - at all the locations I saw, there was a relatively large additional charge on items that could be ordered take-away when dining in. For example, the Le Chocolat Chaud l'Africain, the signature hot chocolate drink, was around €8 when I had table service but €5-something when I got it to-go the next day. This was alright, because eating-in I also got enough whipped cream for two big dollops and, while I'm not sure if I actually got more chocolate, it felt like I had more since I received a fancy little jug of chocolate I could pour in my fancy little cup at my own pace. However, my friend ordered a chocolate pastry from a special menu that she had passed by on the way in and saw the take away price...so she was surprised to pay 50% more when the bill came!

The chocolat chaud was in a word - as expected - decadent. How could it not be - it was thick, creamy melted chocolate. The generous helping of whipped cream added to the richness and overall experience. There was nothing unique about the flavor. In fact, though it is not the norm for 'hot chocolate' in the US, I have been making a similar drinking chocolate on my own for years. Still, it was clearly a high-quality chocolate and a must-try for chocolate lovers, especially those from places like the US (and UK, from what I can tell...Spain however gets it right) where rich, thick chocolate drinks are not as common.

In addition to the drink, I ordered a sugared brioche bun to go with it. I was surprised to see that it the sugar was in small lumps, as I hadn't had something like that before. It was okay, not really that good and honestly just made me miss the brioche pastries from 85 C back home! I would definitely recommend just getting a light pastry like the sugared brioche though instead of something heavy or chocolatey - in fact the chocolate drink on its own was enough to satisfy!