Paris Baguette is a French-inspired bakery cafe offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner, made famous for its baked goods, cakes, and coffee.
Paris Baguette Bakery Cafe opened its first branch in 1986 at Gwanghwamun, Seoul. It is a company owned by SPC Group and markets itself as "Your neighborhood bakery cafe," offering friendly services, a strong community approach, and a warm environment for patrons to dine and shop. As of May 2022, there are 3,600 locations in South Korea, 240 in China, 99 in the US, and a smaller number of branches in Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Soon to open are locations in the UK, Europe, and the rest of Southeast Asia.
The bakery cafe features a self-service style restaurant, where customers line up to order their menu, and a Bread Island Display is found in the middle of the cafe where freshly baked bread and pastries are presented and customers can pick them out, place them on a tray, and pay for their items through the cashier counter.
What Makes Paris Baguette Different?
Paris Baguette is a Korean bakery cafe but it serves French-style food. They offer cakes, cake slices, deli offerings, coffee, and other food items that allow them to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Though a Korean brand, their food items are very European, using bread and pastries derived from French bakers. They hire master cake makers and decorators in each location, creating specialty cakes and special occasion cakes that feature their original and signature recipes.
Though the major draw of the cafe is its bread and pastries, they also offer deli offerings where customers can sit down and have a full meal via the salads and sandwiches that they offer in-store.
They also offer catering services, where customers can order their party platters for special occasions.
The Paris Baguette menu is varied, with a mix of deli offerings, drinks, bread and pastries, whole cakes, and sliced cakes. What makes their menu interesting is that, while it's a French-inspired cafe, they do have unique Asian food pastries that other French-inspired cafes don't have. Some of these include red bean bread and Korean cheese garlic bread.
The categories found in the menu include the following:
- Coffee and Drinks
- Whole Cakes
- Cake Slices
- Freshly Baked Bread and Pastries
- Soups
- Salads
- Gourmet Sandwiches
- Packaged Roll Cakes and Castellas
What Makes the Paris Baguette Cakes Popular?
The Paris Baguette cakes are popular because they're aesthetically pleasing but also equally as delicious. All of the cakes in all of the locations have the same signature flavors and designs. Master bakers are hired for each location who are trained to make the signature cakes, as well as the specialty cakes that are made to order. For customers who want to order special occasion cakes, they need to place their order at least 2 weeks prior.
Special occasion cakes are limited to the specialty cakes already available on the cafe's menu. Their cakes have a signature look of being minimal but topped with fresh fruits and other goodies such as macarons. Their cakes vary by flavor, but they're mostly made with layers of moist sponge cake, buttercream in between, and the icing on top, with fresh fruits, macarons, biscuits, and other goodies.
While they serve whole cakes, customers can also get a taste of the signature cakes by purchasing sliced cakes from the signature cakes. The signature cakes include the Rainbow Cake, Mocha Cake, Chocolate Cake, Cappuccino, Souffle Cheesecake, Mixed Berry, and more.
What is the Most Popular Part of Paris Baguette?
The Bakery Island Display is the most popular part of dining or buying at Paris Baguette. Every day, each location bakes its very own items, which include a healthy and diverse assortment of baked goods and pastries. Some of these include tarts, pies, croissants, sausage rolls, tiramisu tarts, soft cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, sweet rice donuts, classic donuts, matcha donuts, and other pastries.
The Bakery portion of the cafe offers a rich mix of sweet and savory options that customers can eat at the cafe or take home. The Display is located in the middle of the restaurant, where customers can get a tray and pick the items themselves. Paying for the items require customers to fall in line as Paris Baguette is a self-service cafe.
One of the things customers love about the baked goods and Paris Baguette, in general, is that they can purchase these French-style pastries and bread without breaking the bank. Most of the food items at the cafe are priced below $10.
Paris Baguette offers a varied menu so it can be overwhelming to choose which items to order if you've never dined at the cafe before. However, they do have a list of bestsellers that keep customers coming back for more.
Aside from their signature cakes, the following items on the menu are the most popular in the cafe:
This is the most popular food item in Paris Baguette. It is a unique Korean bread that consists of cream cheese and buttery garlic spread over a simple bun. It's creamy and savory, soft and filling, and offers the perfect mix of butter and garlic on top of crusty and chewy bread.
- Cranberry Chicken Pastry Wrap Sandwich
Paris Baguette has perfected the sweet and savory fusion of flavors because many of the items on the menu feature this very combo. It includes this sandwich made of chicken breast, cranberries, and a light dressing, wrapped in soft and flaky bread with a slight crunch on the crust.
- Egg Mayo and Avocado Sandwich
Another sweet and savory offering, this sandwich consists of a croissant with avocado slices and egg mayo.
Does Paris Baguette Offer Delivery?
Yes, Paris Baguette offers online ordering and delivery. In Asia, customers can order through Grab, a delivery platform, as well as online at the Paris Baguette official website. Catering orders can also be done via email or phone for faster transactions.
What are the Opening Hours of Paris Baguette?
Paris Baguette is open from 9 am to 10 pm with some branches opening from 8 am to 9 pm. Check with the location to see their specific operating hours as it varies depending on the branch.