VanFoodies.com

Last year, a pop-up bakery took Vancouver by the storm with a cookie made with the Asian White Rabbit candy. This summer, Chef Andrew Han turned his pop-up into a cafe. Kouign Cafe is now open in Chinatown.

Since its opening, many have followed the white rabbit and tried the various cookies and pastries Kouign Cafe has to offer. The original vision for the cafe was to offer dine-in options with the addition of sandwiches and beverages. At this point, they are only offering pastries to go. I suspect Chef Han’s plan, like many others, was disrupted by COVID-19. The shop has been very popular, though, and some items would even be sold out before closing. While I was in the area, I swung by and purchased one of everything that was available at that time. I’ve never bought pastries from their pop-up shop before so this would be my first time trying them.

Food

I got to try four items:

Lunch Box, a spicy peanut butter cookie with Chinese sausage, pork floss, nori (toasted seaweed) and toasted white sesame. By far this was my favourite cookie. It was moist with nice crumbs. I loved the sweet and savoury combination. The crispy pork floss and nori brought umami flavour, and there’s a hint of sweetness from the Chinese sausage. I also tasted subtle heat from the cookie.

Their most popular and iconic item is the White Rabbit, and words on the street are that this cookie sells out frequently. It’s a mochiko and wheat flour cookie with dark chocolate chips and white rabbit candy⁠. It actually reminded me of the Chinese shortbread 光酥餅. Crumbs were finer and the texture was more cake like. The candy added creamy, vanilla flavour. As their signature item, I was actually a bit disappointed by this cookie. I thought the flavour was on the light side, rather one-note and not much going on.

Next was the Cosmos. It’s a brown butter and black sesame banana bread with dark chocolate chips and cinnamon streusel⁠. Wow it’s thick like a hockey puck! With its colour, you would expect something rich and decadent like a brownie but it wasn’t the case. It was chocolaty yet with prominent banana flavour. I’m not a big fan of banana anything, but I would eat this again. It’s a moist piece of banana bread.

The cafe is named after kouign amann, the French buttery laminated pastry, so obviously its namesake would have to be on the menu. The Kouign has a coconut butter mochi heart, with a caramelized sugar crust, chrysanthemum honey drizzle and toasted black sesame. This was my first ever kouign so I didn’t know what to expect. For me, this was a bit too buttery – it actually felt greasy as I was eating the dough. I did enjoy the coconut mochi heart; it was soft and gooey. That being said, I’m not sure if I would pay $7 (again) for this. For the size of it, as well as its taste, I didn’t think it’s worth it.

They also have something called Golden Lantern and it sounds really good — tender brioche dough, coconut bun filling, cream cheese and speculoos icing. Unfortunately it wasn’t available when we went.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the pastries were good and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. The flavours were very unique and inspiring. However, I feel that they are rather pricey. Four items came to $26 after tax, averaging each piece at $6+. For the size of each item, it’s difficult for me to justify the cost. I can easily go to a patisserie to buy croissants and other pastries for the same price, if not less, and those pastries would be bigger and of similar or even better quality. With no doubt, I see the appeal of the pastries. I would buy the Lunch Box again, and maybe try the Golden Lantern, but now that I’ve tried them once, I don’t know if I would return to Kouign Cafe anytime soon.

Kouign Cafe
18 East Pender Street, Vancouver
604-633-8333
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