le ba-ta-clan

I read about this shop in my television guide. This cafe not only serves meals during the day, drinks at night, but also serves macarons during tea time.

The macarons reminded me of PH (Pierre Herme), and after reading up about the patissier, Marc Glaisse, I knew why. He studied with Laduree and Gerald Mulot in Paris and also worked under PH in Tokyo. These macs are good!

I bought the 13 mac set, this had one of each flavor (12) plus an extra mac--2730 yen (about US$27.30)
Each was chewy and delicious. Flavors were strong and distinct. There have been some macs that I have tasted in which you couldn't pick out what flavor it was supposed to be.

There was lime shiso (perilla)(light green), lemon cheesecake (white), raspberry (red) & passion fruit (yellow). The lime shiso started off tart like lime then the shiso flavor ever so discreetly appeared...different but delicious. Lemon cheesecake was creamy with a hint of lemon. The passion fruit had actual seeds in the cream!

Earl grey (light brown), yuzu (yellow), orange (mustard yellow) & Tiramisu (beige with cocoa dusting). The earl grey had bits of tea in the shell. Yuzu was tart and citrusy. Orange was the only one that didn't taste like orange. The tirimisu had a chunk of coffee ganache in the center.

Matcha (dark green), bitter chocolat (dark brown), cassis violette (purple) & caramel chocolate (light brown).

Matcha was bitter but that is how matcha is supposed to be. The bitter chocolat ganache was a very high quality dark chocolate. Cassis violette reminded me of raspberry but without the seeds. And the caramel chocolate had a bit of saltiness to it but in a delicious way.

My favorites were....all of them! I think if I have cravings for PH macarons, I'm going here, closer than going all the way to Tokyo/Paris.

Le Ba-ta-clan
Mint Kobe 2F
Phone: 078.231.3622
Open 9:00-23:00
(UPDATE: as of 1/11/2010, the chef that makes the macaron has opened his own shop, so this shop no longer sells macaron.)