Madeleine Office Party

While recent activities have ensured that I'll be eating at home for quite some time, I am by no means ready to not experience deliciousness each and every day. Today, I was in charge of picking up treats for a meeting. Off to Cafe Madeleine I went in search of baked goods.

This is, hands down, the most beautiful fruit tart I have ever purchased. I'm so glad Whole Foods flaked out on me. That's right, I called yesterday to order a tart, and at 7:00 a.m. this morning they called and told me the tart would not be ready for my pick up at 8:00. This is the first time that Whole Foods has so shamelessly dropped the ball on me. They didn't even offer to comp me something different. Oh well. Good thing it occured to me that Madeleine makes tarts, because I had my heart set on something with fruit on it for an early-ish meeting.

Madeleine's fruit tart is $29, which is a few dollars more than at most bakeries. But they use at least twice as much fruit as anyone else, and an incredible assortment to boot: strawberries, pear, mango, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, apricots, and kiwis. All the fruit was very ripe, juicy, and large considering it's the middle of February. The whole tart was lovingly glazed with both a red berry jelly and a clear jelly to keep all the fruit moist and shiny. Delicious. Making myself a fruit salad of this caliber would probably cost over $10.

The only strange thing about this tart, if it can even be called strange, is that it the filling is not a custard. Instead, it was sort of a cross between your average custard tart filling and a cake: dense, moist, and flavored with a hint of almond. It was very nice, just not what I expected. The amazing fruit more than made up for any preference I might have for custard.

I got some pastries as well. The scones (cranberry and blueberry) were perfect: not overworked, not too sweet, moist, with large berries. The cruller-shaped elephant's ear thing was my favorite because it was so airy and crispy. The almond croissant was fine, but not as good as Tartine's even though I prefer a less burnt croissant than Tartine's version. I didn't try the strawberry danish or the bran muffin, but was assured that they were great.

So yet again, Madeleine came through with flying colors. There are three branches in the FiDi, but I've only been to the one below

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43 O'Farrell Street

San Francisco, 94108

(415) 362-1713