Fauchon, Abu Dhabi

Fauchon needs no introduction. The french house founded in 1886 in Paris, became a world known delicatessen-cafe-pastry shop with more than 650 franchised stores, 

Fauchon sells a wide range of products. You may find, depending on the store, delicatessen products, cakes and pastries, bread, chocolates, macarons or confectionery. You can find their products in many airports too but mostly only the pre-packaged ones, alongside Godiva or Lindt.  

Some stores offer, catering or cafe-bar-restaurant service, like their flagship in place Madeleine that I regret not visiting while in Paris. 

In Abu Dhabi, Fauchon has a cafe inside the Etihad Towers (seen above) on the ground floor, where most luxury boutiques of the city are located. 

The location is very convenient and the fact that it closes at 1am makes it easy for tourists to visit. We went after the Ray's bar on the 62nd floor of the same building to grab a dessert for take away. 

Fauchon is famous for their eclairs. You can find many different flavors, seasonal or inspired by the location. Their most famous, the Mona Lisa eclair. 

We chose a coffee one and the Mona Lisa. The latter has a chocolate and hazelnut praline filling, with a thin chocolate printed cover on top. The chocolate praline flavor was intense, although it seemed a bit artificial. The choux pastry was fresh and not soggy at all. Generally it was magnificent, one of my best eclairs.

The other eclair was also flavorful with coffee aromas, while being light and not too sweet. 

I regret not buying more of these or other flavors, (there was one with a local fruit filling that looked very interesting), but they were a lot more expensive than in Paris, at 8,5 euros.   

Fauchon Website