"Paris Baguette supplies European-style bakery products to our customers. The brand's philosophy focuses on offering the highest quality products with only the freshest ingredients and the best customer service."
(http://www.jem.sg/feed.php?CategoryID=140&StoreID=367#sthash.ltTzHnaV.dpuf)
Paris Baguette JEM opened in June 2013. It's basically a bakery that originates from Korea and the way the whole shop is set up is quite similar to what is present there. I'll mention about a few stuffs and try to give a review(somewhat).. If i missed out anything I'll add it in another time :)
Layout
(www.nanyangchronicle.ntu.edu.sg, thedaintycandy.blogspot.com)
It's a really comfortable and chillax atmosphere there. Decorated really well, it's bright and cheery, the seats are SUPER COMFY, tables are rather small(for coffees, and cakes rather than meals) and of course there's the Korean background music.
So you start queuing from the right side, pick your sandwiches/salads, choose the breads/pastries that you want to have it there or take away, and continue queuing til the cakes section, choose the cakes that you want, move ahead, you'll see the puddings, grab your puddings, then pay at the cashier. If you are ordering anything on the menu that is positioned next to the sandwich area, you'll only be able to order it at the cashier.
If you don't understand how the whole thing works, you can also ask the crew there. They'll explain it to you accordingly.
Opinion: There's obviously not much seats so if you're there during peak hours, do take away instead.. If you'd like to try something from the menu I suggest going there from Monday-Wednesdays at 11am or 1-2pm. You can also try going from 8.30pm to 10pm as there's much lesser people.
If you'd like to stay there for quite some time, do grab the seats that are inside. This way you won't have others standing around you waiting for you to leave because they want your seat!
Culture
(ooohh.. hardworking..)
PB is from Korea so the Korean-looking people in black are indeed Koreans. Not all of them speak fluent English and definitely not Singlish. A part of this ooh-overseas-exotic bakery is that you get to experience a bit of that Korean culture where PB came from. Some people, especially the older ones, do not know of this and get very offended when them black shirts can't seem to understand them or seem to be ignoring their requests.
Most of the time, the black shirts would ask the local service crew for help in translating and stuff like that. So don't worry, the black shirts are actually real pleasant people.
The bakers are also Koreans so wowww you're eating freshly baked bread and food from people all the way from Korea~ (ok most kpop fans gets excited at this)
Service
If you don't already know, it's more of a self-service concept kinda cafe. The waiters and waitresses only serve things on the menu. PB doesn't ask for service charge. Seats are to be found by yourself (so if you're one of those who can't stand to wait or are used to the restaurant kind of service where you are assigned to your seats on a first come first serve basis, i suggest that you do take aways instead. Otherwise, visit PB JEM during non-peak hours or go to the one at WISMA.)
The service crew usually asks if you'd like to have the breads/cakes/puddings there or not. "Having here, take away?~" Well and you choose one. Don't worry about eating there and not finishing your food (because you may have been too excited and ordered too many) because you can always ask the service crew to help you pack whatever food you have left.
During peak hours when the queue seems to be going slow, service crews sometimes don't go according to the first come first serve basis. They will approach those who seem to have decided on which bread they want and take the customer's order instead. There's no point in who goes first because the queue is basically not moving... SO... Anyway during non-peak hours, the service crew may take order from customer 1 and jump to customer 2 because customer 1 i still deciding. I guess it's their way of being efficient??
Service at the bread/cakes/puddings/drinks may be fast or slow not only because of peak or non-peak hours, but it also depends on the number of crew that are available on that day. The least I've seen is like 4people serving maybe?...
Bread
I actually don't have a lot of pictures of the bread sold there...Maybe when I have the time I'll try to get all and describe every single one. I'll just talk about the popular ones and recommend my favs.
Popular:
-UFO (a buttery biscuity UFO shaped bread that has custard in the middle)
-Bacon roll (a loaf of bread wrapped in bacon. there are cubed coiled eggs inside)
-Apple pastry (circular palm sized pastry that reminds one of a pizza. not as sweet as it looks.)
-Cheese half pan (half a loaf of bread that has cheese inside. this is good esp if its hot~)
-Seafood chowder (bread bowled seafood chowder. ask them to heat it up hot hot~)
-Korean Power Garlic Baguette (must try!)
-Hannam-Dong (sausage and beef wrapped in Taco/prata-like skin. eat this while hot too~)
My Favs:
-Soboro (traditional korean pastry. has like muachee-ish nuts on top.)
-Cheese half pan~~~
-Condensed milk cream bread (simple long stick of bread with cream inside. i like simple stuffs)
-Milky Almond Cubic (i hate almonds but there's no almond smell or taste in this. there's some nice not so sweet cream inside and i love the taste of the cream and the bread/pastry like thing)
-Softness white bread (slice it up, toast it, apply butter/any toppings you like. EAT YOUR HEART AWAYYY)
-This cream bread (topped with tiny pieces of bread remains(breaded cake??). bread like bun with cream inside!)
Puddings
So far I've tried original, chocolate, coffee, durian, mango and strawberry. Personally i love the original and like the coffee one. Chocolate's a bit sweet for me.
They usually have up to 3 flavours available to your selection. Then they would swap one flavour once every 3weeks maybe? If you're a fan of milky soft sweet puddings stuff then you'd probably really love this. Though i must admit the price is just too damn high!!
They're really famous for their puddings so do try it~ (the bottles are also really cute. I have like 2 of them at home hurhur)
Cakes
Expensive. One slice is priced at about $6.50-$8. Moderately delicious for some flavours, others are really yummmm!~ (also depends on what you like)
-Oh my baby crepe (this is sooooo popular idk why but it's not that good)
-Oh my god chocolate
-Crunch crunch coco (U LUVE CHOCOLATE U LUV THIS. it's not too sweet as a choc cake)
-Mango Napoleon thingy (THIS IS GD)
-Lemon tart?
-Earl grey cake
-Tiramisu cake
-i can't remember the others....(pics another time)
Drinks
Hello I'm Patbingsu. 팥빙수~
I'm not sure what's nice but i always order caramel macchiato...Tried the patbingsu and it's nice! i like it cause it's milky with ice. i actually hate red bean but the above combi is really nice.
That's about all for today...
Severely lacking in pictures, but I hope this helps!
PS. I don't understand why the KPOP youngsters are not visiting this shop!! There are really cute Korean crews there......
