Paris Baguette [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Paris Baguette 
Address: 57-1, Sinchon-ro, Sinchon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
Website: https://www.paris.co.kr
Style: Korean 
Price: $ 

As a bakery reviewer and ardent supporter of local businesses, I hate the mere concept of something like Paris Baguette. This massive bakery franchise with a zillion locations throughout the country is a lean mean marketing machine -- I'm genuinely amazed they haven't expanded to other countries -- and their concept is a rather simple one: just stick a Paris Baguette anywhere and everywhere. You're regretting not popping into that Paris Baguette location you passed 5 minutes ago? No worries; there's bound to be another one right across the street! After all, for every one independent bakery, there has to be 5 Paris Baguette (and perhaps 2-3 Tous les Jours, their slightly less ambitious rivals).

So why am I writing about it? At first, I was passionately against the idea: no way am I stepping into a small-scale bakery killer like Paris Baguette! People, however, really seem to like them. It's quite hard to find an empty Paris Baguette, even in back alley locations. So are the baked goods actually any good or are people just suckered into how bloody convenient they are? The self-professed bakery expert had to investigate... even if it was reluctantly and with a look of disdain.

So of course it's not as good as an independent bakery (as a rule; there are of course bad independent bakeries as well). Yes, these baked goods are generally cheaper than their humble competition and due to their ridiculously long opening hours, they're always churning out something fresh. I'll admit the honey ball (700 won) was pretty good; it had a nice crunch and good texture, especially with that sugary outside. The strawberry cheese "doughnut" (1600 won), however, didn't fare as well. Cotton candy pink with an equally cotton candy-like dough consistency and a creamy cheese filling that in itself wasn't bad.

Convenient, yes. Horrible, no. Excellent, by no means. If you want a baked good without putting any effort into the search, Paris Baguette gets the job done. At any rate, it's better than Tous les Jours....

Rating: **1/2