Ever since moving to Pune, I have been exploring cafes both in and around my locality and in other parts of the city as well.. the book I was a part of used to meet at a cafe in Koregaon park or in Baner depending on the people who came for the meeting.
Thanks to this club, I got to explore quite a few cafes in Koregaon park – some of which have been designed keeping Instagram in mind and some that had beautiful open spaces.
But since the club kind of fizzled out, I have been doing it on my own. Recently a friend I made through Instagram was in town.. I reached out asking if she wants to catch up for coffee.. The conversation turned towards meeting for breakfast on Saturday and the venue was The French Window Patisserie in Koregaon park [kinda equidistant for both of us].
I have heard of this place from others and seen it in the lists featuring cafes to visit in Pune.. the reviews and photographs were quite impressive. Keeping an open mind, I headed towards the cafe on Saturday, took me close to 45mins. Since they opened only at 9, we made plans to meet around 9ish. I reached 1st, found a table and ordered a Flat white (hadn’t had this in a while & was hungry) while waiting for S.
She arrived in a few minutes and we got chatting. First thing we did was look at the menu and try to figure out what we want to eat since both of us were quite hungry. I noticed shakshuka on the board near the cafe entrance and S chose the mushroom omelette. We also ordered a plate of hash browns topped with avocado and sour cream. While we waited for the Coffee and food we chatted away, almost as if we known each other for years and were meeting after a gap..
The flat white coffee was really good – it is probably the closest to our South Indian filter coffee – in terms of coffee brew and the whole taste. Following that, we went on to order a Vietnamese coffee each (which is basically black coffee poured over a generous spoonful of condensed milk)
Since it was a patisserie, we obviously had to try something baked & sweet. We chose a cake with mango and passion fruit, which was moist & delicious. What was supposed to have been just a quick breakfast meet turned to become a 5hr meet.. 🙂Â
The place was kind of packed and the service was quite slow which give us a lot of time to talk and get to know each other. Overall, the food was good, the coffee was very good and the place had a nice feel to it.
It was not as wow or breathtaking as the photographs I’d seen online but like most cafes across Pune, a smallish main space with the patisserie along with a table or two and an open outdoor space with plenty of seating. There was a canopy as it is with most places considering the summer sun.
The place was pet friendly, they had 3 Indie girls wandering about freely. They were super friendly as well. So, if you wish to go out and take your pet along, this is an option.
Total bill [including some baked goodies S bought for her daughter]- 2500Rs
When driving down the road, you will wonder where the cafe is located. It is in the lane right next to Malaka Spice.. walk down and you will see it at the far end 😜
(Park on the main road cos there’s nowhere to make a turn inside the lane)
Address:
The French Window Patisserie
Lane Number 5,
in the lane next to Malaka Spice,
Koregaon Park,
Pune – 411001
