Sunday 15 January 2012

Des Lys

Des Lys is a small patisserie which never seems too busy but it's really good so I'm not sure why it's not busier.

We were going to go to the Fat Delicatessen as our first review, we haven't been there together for a while, but that was full, so was Bertie and Boos and so was Tartine. We'd been to Des Lys recently and we were keen to try somewhere else but we knew we'd be able to get a table there so that was that.

So the verdict...?

Starting with the coffee. I ordered a single espresso and a cappuccino. Mrs Spiller had a mocha. The coffee was good in the way that European coffees are good, strong if a little lacking in smoothness and lasting flavour. All the drinks were really hot which was a great start. The aroma of the coffee was good as was the flavour. The cap on the cappuccino was pretty strong with a good sprinkling of choc powder. So the coffee performed well if not exceptional

Des Lys's strong point though has to be their cakes, made on site, they are very special. We had a Genoise cake. Neither of us had tried this before so it was a bit of a risk but we were well rewarded. It was yum and one piece between two was probably just right. The cakes at Des Lys are clearly fresh, we saw them throw out a whole tart while we were there to make room for a new cake which had just been iced. The cakes here really are a special, fancy treat. Mrs Spiller described the cake as having "the perfect balance of creamy heaviness and the lightness of sponge."

Looks good to me, don't be put off by the colour of the cake, it is yum.
Another strength of Des Lys it the atmosphere. It's small, quiet, comfortable, relaxed and unusually for Balham it never seems busy or rushed. A real plus. The couple that run it are really sweet. They are not especially chatty but friendly and polite. Another thing I like about them is they move slowly but deliberately. They never seem in a rush but seem to be very efficient. There are never any messy or dirty tables. New customers are greeted warmly. I imagine it's not the place to go if you wanted a take away coffee in a hurry but that's not what they're going for so that's fine. In fact I think the single best thing about this place is that you don't feel rushed.

As well as the cakes, coffee and bread there is a small list of panini options and also a selection of bottled juices and fresh squeezed orange or lemon juice.

Another thing I like about Des Lys is they have a good selection of The Economist, and given you don't feel rushed you really can get through a couple of articles while you're there.

The biggest negative we could find was two displays of chuppa chups, not quite sure why they'd have that trash in their store but there you go. While it wasn't a problem for us and never has been, I expect it would get quite cramped if it was busy. As it was we could wedge our pram in no probs and so could another mum. 
I hope he went in and bought something, this is a local business worth supporting

The more I think about it and write about it the more I like Des Lys, the coffee isn't going to make me rush back but pretty much everything else would.

Better put some scores down based on the criteria I mentioned on my previous blog, all scores will be out of 13.

Coffee
Hot: 12/13
Aroma: 6/13
Flavour: 7/13
Texture: 8/13
Presentation: 7/13

General
Service: 10/13
Food: 11/13
Location/atmosphere: 10/13

Overall
9/13

Click the link below to see what others thought about Des Lys on Urban Spoon.
Des Lys on Urbanspoon

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