Chocolate Monkey Bread

We have visited tonnes of restaurants in the past couple of weeks and it was high time to take a break. Since we need to be surrounded by food at all times the only choices were gaming parlors and café/bakeries and we chose the latter!

This was officially the first time we organised a bloggers meet and it was a mixture of excitement and nervousness but thanks to everyone for joining in and bringing out the best in us! Since winter is actually here and Christmas is approaching it’s time to change focus from the restaurants to bakeries and Au Bon Pain has come up with a whole new range of items in its menu fitting the occasion.

The new range of items have been named as the “Winter Hotties” and if you have dual thoughts: good for you!

There are about 14 new additions to their regular menu which include bakery items, sandwiches, drinks and desserts and we’ll let you know which ones to try for sure and which ones you can do without.

It’s time to start off with our views on the Winter Hotties ;):

We started off with the Monkey Bread, Chocolate Monkey Bread and the Double Chocolate Croisbun.

The Monkey Bread was fun to look at because although it had a more or less constant shape, it had designs on top which were random. Taste wise, it was like a normal bread like the name suggests but it was a bit stiff, slightly chewy and dry. The Chocolate version of this tasted a lot better. First of all: 

Chocolate and then the stiffness and chewiness was not there so we would choose the chocolate over the non-chocolate Monkey Bread any time.

The Double Chocolate Croisbun also looked good. It looked like a muffin with 3 sectors topped off with chocolate cream. What more: there is a separate chocolate layer inside as well which can be experienced only if you have it. The fresh Croisbun was spongy and was complemented with the chocolate inside-out. If you try this out, do insist on a fresh piece as otherwise it loses its charm.

Double Chocolate Croisbun

Monkey Bread

Next up, the drinks and the “wiches”:

Their new menu consists of two varieties of Bubble Tea: Passion fruit and Strawberries, Mulled Wine and a Toffee Latte. Out of these 4, 2 exceeded expectations and the other 2 need improvement. The mulled wine is brilliant: it’s non-alcoholic but tastes similar to wine. It also has a tarty after taste like red wine, has a rich dark red colour and is a warm drink. It sure hit the spot and is definitely a must try!

The bubble tea concept is becoming quite familiar as most cafés and tea joints have this item. It is a pretty refreshing drink with fun bubbles which burst in the mouth and release the flavour of the drink. In this case, the passion fruit tea had the characteristic flavours and tasted great but the strawberry was not quite up to the mark. It did not taste like strawberries first, and second the flavour really doesn’t go well with these drinks. The Toffee Latte is a coffee based drink with caramel. The whipped cream and caramel had the good old taste but the drink itself was quite watery. Taste wise it is the way it should be and if they cut down on the water, this has potential!

Start-Wiches!

Strawberry and Passion fruit Bubble Tea

Mulled Wine

Toffee Latte

Now they have 2 types of sandwiches: Start-Wich and Flavour Burst sandwiches.

The Start-Wich has two variants: vegetarian and with egg. We tried the egg variant and it has a good mouth feel. It has roasted vegetables, eggs and mozzarella. The egg start-wich has poached eggs in it which complements well with the mozzarella. The usage of more cheese would have been it even better. The Flavour Burst sandwiches were brilliant. The Chicken and the Paneer both were extraordinary and lip smacking. Chicken and Paneer were in abundance and along with the beautifully caramelized and flavoured onions, this deserves nothing less than a thumbs up. The nomenclature is perfect as well because with each bite you get a burst of peri-peri.

The last two items were presented well but the taste told a different tale. The Harvest Chicken & Veg Salad was very well presented. It had a good crunch of almonds and pumpkin seeds along with fresh greens. The feta cheese added a bitter element and overall it was well balanced. The salad dressing however ruined the salad as it was too pungent and not suitable at all!

Peri Peri Flavor Burst Chicken Sandwich

Harvest Salad

Lastly, the Dark Lava Meltdown was the only dessert item in their new menu. It looked very appealing but had a similar problem like that of the Harvest Salad. The chocolate cake tasted good but there was no lava oozing out. The edges were a bit too hard and there was molten chocolate in the centre but no lava. Except for these, it did taste good but the whipped cream on top was tasteless and its texture did not go well with the main thing.

Dark Lava Meltdown

Positives and negatives aside, we did have a lot of fun. This was our first FLB meet and there are many more to come!

We hope we could help you out in what to try and what not to try from the new Winter Hotties collection.

Do try out the items we recommended and you won’t regret it. Let us know about your experience if you do!

We’ll be back soon with more news on grub.

Till then—stay tuned and bon apetit!