L’Artisan du Chocolat

Pretty expensive. The macarons looked terribly crafted, all lopsided and misshapen.
Instead, I went with CHOCOLATES. They have some fun flavors, but I’ve seen them elsewhere and wouldn’t make the trip for these.
$ 10 before they take credit cards

As hubby and I were browsing inside The Market for the first time, I saw my favorite macarons, those ohhh-​so-​delectable goodness, through the glass wall and had to try them. We got the chocolate and pistachio one, along with a piece of dark chocolate peanut bar and blueberry chocolate.
The macarons were absolutely perfect. The meringue cookies were light and flaky, not chewy, right to the last gulp, and the cream inside had the right amount of sweetness and creaminess. I had to close my eyes to savor each bite while imagining unicorns galloping over a rainbow. The chocolates were rich and tasty too. The blueberry one had a beautiful lavender design on the top.
The total for 4 items came out to $ 7.10 (the macarons were $ 1.80ea). It’s a good thing that we don’t live close enough to visit on a whim or else we’d be broke.

I walked into this store with a smiley, happy face, same face everyone has when entering a store that sells chocolate. I left mad and disappointed. As soon as I walked in I tried to get an understanding of what was offered, different types of chocolate, macarons, prices and so on. The guy behind the counter (owner I suppose) kept rushing me to order something when I had told him that I needed more time to decide (only another person was in the store with me and was already being helped by someone else). When I asked about the price for the chocolate, he said it was about $ 1.5 average. Tired of him asking I went for the first two pieces I saw and ordered them. He looks at me and says: «that’s it?» I didn’t even know what to say so I just said «yes». TWO tiny little squares of below the average chocolate and I was charged $ 5. Seriously? One of them looked exactly like a ferrero roche and it didn’t taste nearly as good. This is the first time I have left a poor review, but this one is very well deserved. Bummer.

I have never seen more beautiful candies — and the taste is beyond belief! This, coming from a true choco-​holic. Amazing nut covered truffles, and unique lavendar and rose flavored chocolates — Yum! Of course, the prices trump grocery store candy, but they seemed really reasonable for what it is, hand made specialty sweets, with the pure ingredients that I look for.
I know where I will be going for gifts for the holidays. Good enough to send to folks in Europe!
Beautiful eye candy that is utterly delectable. My new guilty pleasure!

The chocolate is not bad, not great. The attitude of the sales staff, however, left a bad taste in my mouth.

Oh, a shop that specializes in truffles and macarons, how awesome… and expensive!
L’Artisan du Chocolat is a small shop located at the Santa Monica Place Mall, inside of the Market. Right when you walk into this tiny place you come face to face with a display case full of colorful truffles and French macarons and a few other pricey gourmet sweets.
My wife, my best friend and I split an order of ten French macarons and also picked up a hazelnut truffle. This is what we purchased from L’Artisan;
Crème Brulee Mac
Pistachio Mac
Praline Mac
Raspberry Mac
Chocolate Mac
Caramel Mac
These Macs were not as good as Lette’s but they were still very tasty. My favorite was definitely the Crème Brulee, which tasted just like a Crème Brulee dessert. The hazelnut truffle was freaking amazing. Way better than those Ferrero Rocher candies.
As expected with this type of shop, the prices at L’Artisan were sky high. It set me back twenty bucks for ten French macarons and one hazelnut truffle.
The staff here was really friendly though, which was a plus.
If I ever find myself walking around the Santa Monica Place Mall again I will definitely stop by L’Artisan. However, I don’t think I will ever make a special trip here. Only Lette’s Macarons get that kind of special treatment.

The Great SoCal Macaron Throwdown Continues!
In case you missed this:
On my way back from Jin Patisserie, I scanned my Unilocal app for another potential macaron spot. I would have never guessed another food court would be the home of a French Chocolatier!
I was able to confirm two things about L’Artisan du Chocolat: Owners are from Paris, France; Chocolat & macarons are made by them in Silverlake.
Remember, this review and rating is solely based upon L’Artisan du Chocolat’s macarons. I had no further capacity to eat more sweets! I will pay them another visit in the future for their chocolat.
**Here’s my convo with the owner (you have to read his lines with a French accent):
LAdC: Hello, have you tried a macaron before?
Me: Yes, I’ve tried many. Thank you! Are you from France?
LAdC: Yes, from Paris. Are you from there as well?
Me: (thinking to myself…“are you kidding me?) No, I’m not, but my brother recently came back from there. He brought me back some macarons from Ladurée!
LAdC: Oh, our’s are better than Ladurée. Plus, you don’t have to fly all the way to Paris to get them!
**End convo
Oh boy! Okay, you have to be joking right? If not, these better be frickin’ amazing!!!
Selection was limited to 6 flavors, but I only chose 4:
Caramel
Pistachio
Raspberry
Rose
The good: L’Artisan macarons have a shell that rivals ‘Lette. ***BEGIN SIDEBAR*** I thought I said long ago that I would exclude the name ‘Lette from future challenges? Oops! ***END SIDEBAR*** L’Artisan fillings are ganache and have the perfect sweetness! They are also traditionally sized.
The not so good: It’s fair to say these macarons were a little dry. Their cookie center was not moist enough and lacked good chew. Furthermore, although their flavors were distinguishable, they were all weak.
If I had to pick a flavor, I’d go with the Caramel.
You can purchase 6 macarons for $ 10.
I feel guilty posting this because I am rating them with an item they do not specialize in. Again, I will have to make a return visit to try their chocolat. Of note, I did manage to sample a saffron based chocolat that was full of saffron goodness!

This review is only for their macarons, the chocolates looked delicious and I wish I had tried them but alas I did not. I was drawn in by those delectable little colorful cookies… and I was not extremely impressed.
I tried the following flavors and will rate them each:
Green Tea (taste was a 5 but texture was a 2)
Rose Water (taste was a 5 but texture was a 2)
Pistachio (3 all the way)
Praline (3)
Raspberry (4)
Caramel (4)
I paid $ 10 for 6 cookies.
All in all, not the best I’ve had but A-​OK

Wow this place is definitely my «must-​go» spot when I visit santa monica! I tried the sipping chocolate, and boy it is VERY rich. I can see why they give you such a small cup for $ 3…it’s definitely enough! It’s literally semi-​sweet chocolate melted and slightly more liquidy than the normal melted chocolate.
Macarons were overall incredibly sweet… too sweet. But they were still pretty good. The pistachio and green tea were both very WOW so much flavor yum! Rose was light and refreshing, and crème brûlée was only «ehh» to me.
The chocolates are all quite delicious, especially the green tea (I love my green tea!) I wouldn’t go for the cognac though, as I couldn’t pick out the cognac flavor.

Among the chocolate confections, most of the selection are flavored bon bons with only a couple truffles. (Note: Other Unilocalers are mistaking bon bons for truffles.) I hand-​picked a box of 10 confections for a flat rate of $ 22.
The dark rocher tasted stale and had peculiar flavors. The Cognac truffle wasn’t deep and decadent, the smallest truffle I’ve ever had and again had more peculiar flavors. And it’s not like I didn’t pair with a snifter of cognac. The hazelnut crunch was very good with balanced flavors and crunch. The regular hazelnut bon bon was also good, but could use a darker chocolate. The salted caramel was also good, but I didn’t like the salt flakes. Avoid the cucumber vodka. Chocolate with cucumber is revolting and they should stop selling this item.
At $ 2.20 per chocolate, they need to completely change their packaging. They used a brown paper bag and put their sticker on it. The container was a generic gift box with another logo sticker and a tacky elastic gold string around it. The tray divider inside the box didn’t match the box dimensions. There was no insert with a product description. See’s Candy has better packaging and that’s not a compliment.
The server even asked if I wanted a bag. It’s not like I was already carrying a bag I could put a box into to save a tree. So yes, I need a bag because I’m not going to let my hot hand warm the box of chocolate. I guess they just don’t care about maintaining the quality of their chocolate. Or they are so cheap they won’t even give out their cheap bag.

Macroons FTW! It was $ 1.85 for each macroon or you can get 10 for $ 6 which wasn’t terribly expensive. We sampled each of the six flavors and I really enjoyed the crème brûlée and and the caramel. I loved how the caramel macroon actually had melted caramel in the center, while the outside of the macroon had a nice soft crust on the outside. All of the flavors were relatively good as well. I didn’t get a chance to sample the chocolate, but I will next time. Great place to take friends!

I am craving their macarons !! Soft and just the right portion of sweetness. Definitely coming back for the crème brûlée, raspberry, and pistachio, as well as to try all the others !

They have macarons!!!
Popped by here at the Market at Santa Monica Place, i happily tried some samples of their chocolate. Seeing their fancy designed chocolates and unique flavors, i remembered having quite a few of them at the Unilocal Elemental Party last year. They are very rich and very yummy, and worth checking out, if you like exotic flavors like lavender, chili, garlic, bacon chocolates…
I got to try their rose macaron and it was nice and light. They ran out of pistachio. I saw they also had raspberry and praline and a few others.
I believe they were about $ 1.60 each. It was $ 10 for six. Every marketplace should have macarons and i think they do a pretty good job!

Review is for the macaroons because when you purchase the chocolate it’s based on pounds; about $ 1 to $ 2 each. At least with the macaroons its a set price. I got the macaroons (6 for $ 10).
I got various macaroons (ranked from favorite to least favorite):
1. Praline: so good… I should have gotten more of this.
2. Chocolate: only if you like dark chocolate
3. Raspberry: melts in your mouth like raspberry liquor
4. Green Tea
5. Pistachio
6. Crème Brulee
I really like the top three because you can taste the flavors really well, bottom three not so much as it was a bit plain…
I editted because I found very delicious macaroons some place else: D

This review is just for the macarons, since i was in the mood for that, and not chocolates that day. But i will return soon for their chocs.
The macarons are good– comparable to respectable macarons shop elsewhere. I tried all the 8 available flavors on that very day. Which do i like best? Raspberry, Green tea, pistachio I will get again.
Cheers!

The flavors sounded wonderful, but the chocolates were only okay — I expected better for the price. I still miss Leonidas — it was hard to rival the smoothness of their chocolate. If you love exotic flavors, I would head over to Jin Patisserie on Abbot Kinney in Venice — the flavors are more intense and the chocolate is of higher quality.

I love the «idea» of buying truffles. So I bought 10 pieces, in flavors like banana, earl grey, lavender, rose, passion fruit, lemon cream and others… The lemon cream and the passion fruit were good, the others were ok. I also bough one praline macaron that I didn’t like that much.
I haven’t tried the hot chocolate, so maybe I will check that some other time. The service was very friendly and the display of sweets is visually striking.

L’artisan-du-Chocolat is a great chocolatier! I have been a fan of theirs for a little while now. I discovered them while picking up an order at Valerie Confections near Silver Lake (they are next to each other) and now they’ve got their own stall at the new Market in the Santa Monica Place mall. L’artisan-du-Chocolat is the perfect gift for the chocolate-​loving foodie in your life. They have outrageous flavor combinations and all of their products are absolutely beautiful. I got a small box that had flavors like Rose, Mango Wasabi, and Earl Grey– an absolute treat! Some of the flavors that I was a little less enthusiastic about weren’t because they weren’t good– they just weren’t my taste. Like the Kalmata Olive and Dark Chocolate, which my friend loved, but I hated. I would like to come back and try their Hibiscus and their truffles. These chocolates come with a heftier price tag, but when a devout chocolate lover– you must at least try once. I wish they offered a lavender milk chocolate of sorts (perhaps I just didn’t see it). The service behind the counter was friendly, but I think I will still drop into the east side location more.

A Taste of Paris in Santa Monica
My kind of chocolate often requires a passport, so I’m thrilled that L’Artisan du Chocolat is now in the new Market nearby. Beautiful French-​style truffles in a broad range of appealing flavor profiles line the counter, accompanied by visually striking macarons in nearly a dozen flavors. Some supporting players like a chocolate fountain for fruit, drinking chocolate and packaged specialty chocolates add to the lovely display, but the truffles are rightfully the stars.
French-​trained Whajung and her husband Christian have been respectively making and selling gorgeous and often unique truffles since 2003 in a tiny Silverlake shop, which, although tough to find, is well worth the trip. Flavors such as Thyme, Mango Wasabi and Shitake (sic) might pleasantly surprise, while their classic truffle line far from disappoints, with creamy, rich, perfectly bittersweet ganache. I’m thrilled that these well-​made and –presented chocolates are now within reach.
I visited the Market location three times over the opening weekend and saw a broad range (though not the full range) of crowd-​pleasing truffle and macaron flavors. I do wish more of their Farmers’ Market line was on offer, as I like more eclectic flavors, but I imagine they’re focusing on more popular ones for the opening. Lavender was balanced, Aztec Chili was bold, and Espresso was rich. The classic truffles were textural heaven, melting and spreading in my mouth just as they should. I planned to share my picks, but somehow the box next to me is now empty!
I bought a half dozen macarons, as well, which were huge hits, from my grandmother to my very young cousin. The Crème Brulee macaron literally sparkles, the vibrant green Moroccan Green Tea macaron is decorated with a swoosh, and the other macarons wore their pretty pastel colors beautifully. Spot-​on taste and texture… of course.
I had a bit of confusion during one of my trips (heads up that the gift-​boxed price could cost you double the per-​pound bag price), hence the third trip to address the issue, but Mary behind the counter was entirely pleasant, appropriately concerned and totally helpful in fully correcting the issue.
So, go get a lovely taste of Paris without the passport the next time you’re in Santa Monica.

this cute chocolate shop inside the santa monica market had so many kinds of desserts:
— chocolate drink
— chocolate dipped waffles
— chocolate dipped strawberries
— freshly made macarons
— caramels
— all kinds of pieces of chocolate
and much more!
i really enjoyed their lavender chocolate. it was milky with a very pleasant lavender aroma. the aztec chilli had a nice heat to it all the way to the end. the coconut chocolate was chocolate on the outside only and the inside had a very subtle and sweet coconut filling with a few pieces of coconut. the raspberry macaron was very fresh and there were raspberry seeds in the filling. lastly the BACON CHOCOLATE — i was expecting more bacon flavor, but the inside was this beautiful and smooth chocolate ganache with a somewhat flavorless bacon that tasted more like paper, ahaha. that was too bad, but it was worth the try. everything else was very delicious!