The macaroons are as good as ever and so is the tea and pastries. Nice to see Laduree expand to DC. This is in a nice part of Georgetown.
I am posting this because anyone trying to plan a lovely teatime should know Ladurée in Georgetown is NOT the place to go. I was waiting for the manager of this location to return my collective handful of emails and phone calls to discuss my feedback rather than posting a review. Now, the manager did call me to chat for a few seconds, but he said he'd call me back to have a more thoughtful conversation that wasn't rushed because he had just returned from travel and was in a rush. That’s totally fine but it's been several days, and I still haven't heard back, which is disappointing. Since February, I had secured a 90-minute reservation at Ladurée for a party of 6 in celebration of my sister’s bachelorette weekend. Initially, I thought this would be a great experience because the manager was responsive and worked with me to get the reservation secured ahead of time (including a back-up date in case there was rain). However, the experience that followed was nothing short of a letdown. Regardless of any special occasion, the service was awful. During the start time of our reservation, there were roughly seven (7) to nine (9) servers on the floor and only two (2) other tables of customers (parties of two (2) and three (3) each, respectively). It was impossible to get a hold of our server, and it felt like she was deliberately ignoring our table. She would literally walk past our table when one person said "hello" or "excuse me" while another one of us had to raise our hands (NONE OF THAT WORKED). Nevertheless, the server-to-patron ratio did not justify the poor service in case folks think this is due to servers being busy. About 30 minutes into the 90-minute reservation, our server FINALLY took our order. If you’re curious whether our server took a few minutes to share how ordering works at Ladurée, then I can confirm that she absolutely did not. Her annoyance with taking our orders was palpable. 1-hour into our 90-minute reservation, we were finally served tea; however, it took another 10-15 minutes for our macarons and ridiculously tiny tea finger sandwiches to arrive. And did everyone receive what they ordered? No, it was a team effort for our table to flag down another server and beg for what we ordered because some of us didn’t receive our tea, pastries, etc. Sadly, on top of all this, some of us had dirty glassware. Mine was fine but one of the other girls from our bachelorette party had to ask for a clean glass (yes, it took some time to get a clean glass). Seeing the debris in her water glass before teatime was not appetizing. It was an all-around disappointment. If you’re looking to dine in and enjoy teatime in Georgetown, go anywhere else but here. Though, if you’re just trying to pick up macarons and not dine in, then this place is fine.
First time here and i have a pleasant experience with staff: they are nice, they are professional, giving us full attention and, offering help,making sure none of us left behind. Furthermore, they are young and beautiful. I tried the rose macaron in Paris and it draw me here again for it. I think the macaron is a little bit more sweet than the one in Paris. Maybe they have customized it a little bit to meet American standard. Although, i don't like it much but it is acceptable A great plus for orange juice: we have ordered orange juice and we thought it is the orange powder or the canned one. To our surprise, i have been served with real orange juice, press squeeze from real orange. This is above our expectation, especially we are in the US, we are normally served the "fake" orange juice all over the country. I feel bad that i forgot to tip more to the waiter. Definitely, i will come back another time. Strongly recommend!
Macarons were good rose flavor wasnt that great though
I called in advance for a table of five very short notice and they told me they would try their best to seat us. When we go there it was busy but they were able to seat us fairly quickly and even asked if we wanted a different table when one became available. They were all so accommodating and kind. Amazing food and drinks. Will definitely be back again. Amazing women that work there!
Food isn’t that good (not an authentic French boulangerie /pastry shop) and overpriced. I came for the ambience and it this place smells like urine . I guess people only come here for their “name” - there are so better coffee shops in DC! Definitely not coming back to pay over $50 for eggs Benedict and herbal tea.