La Maison Francaise, Kuala Lumpur

Located in a quiet residential cul-de-sac, within walking distance from Pavilion Shopping Mall, is the French restaurant La Maison Francaise.

I arrived on a drizzling Saturday afternoon to try their high tea.

La Maison Francaise is housed in a restored, black and white 3-storey building.  The ground level is the kitchen and dining area.  Upstairs is a VIP room.  The lowest floor is a space available for events.

The décor is simple, classical elegance and continues the black and white theme of the building. It is a small intimate space and comfortably contains about 10 tables. 

Available only on Saturdays and Sundays from 2-5pm, La Maison Francaise serves French afternoon.  What this essentially means is that there are French sweets such as Madeleines and Cannele de Bordeaux.  

This is the menu I had.  The menu changes weekly.

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Butter, Jam and Honey

A small portion of fresh French gourmet butter and a selection of the finest jam and honey

Homemade Brioche

A highly enriched French bread with a rich and tender crumb

Club Sandwich with smoked salmon

A tasty home-made treat made with smoked salmon in a crispy toast sandwiches enriched with the flavours

Escargot in Feuillet with garlic butter

Cannele de Bordeaux

A cake with a rich custardy interior enclosed by a thin caramelized shell, flavoured with dark rum. 

Our home-made doughnut

A doughnut made from sweet yeast dough fried in oil with sugar and cinnamon

Madeleine with vanilla

Soft Madeleine with vanilla flavour

Nougat and Raspberry Mousse

Toast with Duck Pate

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You are able to pick the tea you like from a list.  The list includes Mint Green Tea, Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Ceylan, Lapsan Souchong, Gunpower, Soleil Vert, Jasmin.  I asked a waiter if coffee is available.  He didn’t seem to understand what I was saying.    ???????????

Of the items, the Escargot in Feuillet was very rich. Upon the first bite, you buttery flakiness of the crust immediately melts in your mouth.  On the other hand, I didn’t like the doughnut and wondered “What’s it doing on this plate?”  There was a certain tackiness to the doughnut (relative to other classier items).  It felt like it was fried in cheap oil.  Worse, they didn’t execute the doughnut very well—-the doughnut has a certain rubbery elasticity to it and oil seeped out of the doughnut as you bit into it.

What La Maison Francaise really excel in is traditional French pastries.  The Madeleines, Cannele de Bordeaux and Escargot in Feuillet, while not ground-breaking, are immediately authentic.

La Maison Francaise’s afternoon tea is available at RM38++.  There is a minimum of 2 orders (in other words, you can’t walk in and order afternoon tea for only 1 pax) because the tier the afternoon tea comes in can hold 2 plates. 

Tired of the usual afternoon tea?  Then French pastries and confectioneries might be a welcomed change.