Angelina, Paris

The tea room known as Angelina is renowned for its hot chocolate above anything else. It is actually said by many that Angelina has the best hot chocolate... IN THE WORLD! This special concoction is known as the Chocolat Africain. Of course, moi had to judge for herself. I absolutely shudder to think that there may be some amazing treat out there that I am being denied!

When you walk in, the first thing you see is a little counter selling all manner of sweet treats. Here you can also buy some of their famous hot chocolate in bags to take home. I am sure it would make an awesome souvenier for any chocoholic.

Once we were seated in the salon du tea, I must say Hubby and I were quite impressed. The dining rooms have a lot of old world beauty. It has a kind of air of faded glamour.

I ordered the world famous hot chocolate and a croissant, and hubby got a cafe creme and a Mont Blanc (which comes quite highly regarded in many of the blogs I read). The hot chocolate was without a doubt excellent. It was sooooo thick. I would say that somebody probably melted a few bars of chocolate in a teeny bit of milk. It was incredibly luxurious, and the lovely cloudy mass of cream it was served with surely added to the indulgence. But you know what? I wouldn't actually say it was the BEST chocolate in the world. Believe it or not I preferred the simpler hot chocolate at Le Deux Magots. That one had a much thinner consistency, and was less sweet, but I actually think it delivered better on the chocolate taste. It also did not overpower any accompanying food like the Angelina one did. The Angelina hot cocoa should be drunk as a desert in itself, because drinking it with something sweet would be totall overkill (and if you haven't noticed daaaaahlings, I can totally take my sweets). Nevertheless, I would absolutely recommend this to any die hard chocolate fans. You guys would probably swoon!

As for the Mont Blanc, we weren't really sure what to expect. Basically the coating of the desert is made up of a chesnut cream which houses a filling of deliciously cool whipped cream sitting on a meringe base. That cream on the inside was my favourite part. It really was nice, but I can't say that I found the desert as a whole particularly amazing.

I need to admit something to you guys though. There was one thing that I really did not like about Angelina, which may have effected the enjoyment of my food there, and that was the service. I want to note that this was the only bad service experience we had while in Paris. Normally, I'm all about the food, and I'm not too bothered about service in the way a lot of other foodies are. But what happened here was really strange. In the middle of enjoying our treats, the waiter came to our table and gave us the bill. He insisted that he needed to be paid "right now", rather than after we finished. I couldn't help but wonder if he was worried that we were going to try and run off without paying our bill or something. This made me feel kind of uncomfortable.

That being said, I still think you should visit Angelina if you get the chance. It's right next to the Louvre and would make a super fun pit stop after browsing the museum. Sitting there you can almost imagine yourself in a bygone era (where the waiters are total plebs ;)).