Patisserie Cacao et Paris

A squirrel on the sign, a case of French cakes and a room with only a few counter seats: Patisserie Cacao et Paris is a Tokyo patisserie built around choosing a cake rather than settling in. It opened in Nakameguro in December 2006 and added a second address in Musashi-Koyama in June 2020, keeping the same premise throughout, which is French pastry finished one piece at a time.

French pastry finished one piece at a time

The kitchen is French in reference and in method, run by a French chef-owner who has kept the range to classical patisserie rather than widening into a cafe menu. Cakes are made and finished individually, which in a shop this size means the same hands doing the same work every day. The Choux Cube Vanille is the signature, and the fastest way to understand what the counter is aiming at.

A small room where the case does the talking

The shop works as cake counter, dessert stop and patisserie at once. Seating amounts to a handful of places at the counter in a non-smoking room, and most of the traffic is people choosing cakes to carry out. The squirrel mark gives the packaging a light touch, but the baking behind it is straightforwardly classical, and the display is where the shop makes its case rather than in decor or seating.

How to order

Start with the Choux Cube Vanille. From there, order by what is out and finished on the day rather than arriving with a list, then have a second cake boxed to take away, which is how most of the counter's business is done. Two Tokyo addresses now run on the same idea, so the format travels: a short French range, made in small numbers, sold across a counter.