Maison Kayser [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Maison Kayser 
Address: 1 Chome−1, Abenosuji, Abeno-ku, Osaka 
Website: http://maisonkayser.co.jp
Style: French 
Price: $$-$$$ 

This booth inside Abeno Harukas is listed as closed, even before I got the chance to review it. Darn it. However, Maison Kayser's Japanese offshoot still has many locations, most of which are in and around Tokyo.

Completely bewildered by this department store floor of bakeries, patisseries and sweet shops, I wandered around at a loss, having no clue which one to pick. Normally, I'm more reluctant with these worldwide brands and Maison Kayser (operating as Eric Kayser in its hometown of Paris) is a big one with multiple locations around east Asia and New York. Really, that's not my thing at all, but as I stood there, recalling having attempted that aforementioned Eric Kayser and finding the location I picked closed for August holiday, I knew I would inevitably have to try something, even as the line grew and grew. That being said, it's clear that the two are not quite the same, though Maison Kayser, unlike many homegrown "French" bakeries, tends to keep things pure, traditional, and strictly French. They do also focus more on rustic breads than sweets, which are mostly limited to croissants and pains au chocolat. The addition of the French names was very appreciated and -- at last -- made deciphering everything so easy. ;)

I have a soft spot for "pain perdu" (bread pudding; 260 yen) and found its presence a bit unusual amid the more standard fare. Naturally, I had to try it. A nicely sized square with a textured top covered in powdered sugar, I found the rest of the cake lacking that typical chunky texture; even in the picture, it was very homogeneous: a dense, chewy dough that needed a bit of spice to make it more interesting and yeah, it really needed that special something. Was it worthy of exporting the Kayser name to another continent? Not so sure...

Rating: **1/2