The French Quarter Patisserie

The French Quarter Patisserie

Shop 1/570 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, VIC
Di Bella coffee


I've been wanting to try this newly opened patisserie for a while. However the last time I called around 12pm on a Saturday, the girl said it wasn't serving breakfast anymore. Imagine the thoughts running through my head when I realised they are open 7:30am to 5:30pm daily.

Anyway, the venue with outdoor furniture replicating the cafes along the Champs d’Elysee is famous for its coffee and hot chocolate - apparently the best outside a chocolatier in Melbourne. I've tasted better Di Bella coffees and while the hot chocolate scored top marks for its presentation (especially the chocolate crumbs), and it was slightly thicker than the normal cafe hot chocolate, it was made using milk not dark chocolate and the chocolate stick was powdery and had a weird taste.

We realised it was the same chocolate used for the sides of the Mini Chocolate Truffle cake ($4.95), which should not be called a truffle cake. It was a an extremely dense flourless chocolate cake - nothing good about it.

We tried the Egg & Proscuitto brioche - the proscuitto was nicely cut up so flavour was all around. The brioche was sinfully good (just below Dench's though), but the egg was baked til hard and chewy.

The sweets make any customer spoilt for choice. Escargot, Pain au Chocolat, Almond and Apricot Brioche, Croissants (plain or filled), New York Baked Cheesecake, Strawberry Tarts amongst others are on offer. The Almond croissant was not as expected. It wasn't crisp on the outside, and the inside filling was extremely sweet and I couldn't even finish my half.

There's also fresh baguettes and bread loaves on sale. The white loaf ($5.95) we bought back was pretty good. Even after 2 days. A nice surprise after expecting a let down like Dench's breads.