La Pomme Patisserie

I wish I could give praise and high marks to La Pomme.  I walked into the 6 October location and immediately felt I had found my pastry home.  The displays were beautiful.  Attendants stood waiting for our requests.  There was an air of formality, suggesting the experience would be professionally handled, and rewarding.


What happened could not be further from my first impression.


Ahmed dove in, requesting samples of konafa, basbousa, baklawa. and so on.  As I browsed the visually beautiful desserts, he called me over to hand feed me, as is our custom.  I was a little surprised that nothing tasted great.  Everything was okay, but certainly nothing special.


When I buy desserts, I like to try a sampling of a lot.  I like variety.  I'm used to having many choices, so why limit myself to a kilo of one item?  I approached the petit four counter, and Ahmed asked on my behalf each of the flavors.  I selected five or six, each different.  The attendant seemed annoyed.  I didn't know why.  Ahmed told me that Egyptians typically buy a lot of one item.  I guess any deviation from the norm caused irritation to La Pomme's staff.


We wanted to get a few more things, so we approached the mounds of cookies (or biscuits, depending where you're from) and asked to try a few.  This is where I'll let Ahmed take over:

Ahmed: "I wanted Becky to try the kahk covered in powdered sugar.  I brought the kahk to her mouth for her to take a bite.  The crumbly kahk fell off the corners of her mouth, and she suddenly realized she had bitten more off than she could chew.  Her initial reaction was to let out a sigh through her nose, as her mouth was busy, of course.  That resulted in the powdered sugar flying off the rest of the kahk in my hand, in one big ball of powdered sugar, creating an airborne mess. Her second reaction was to burst right open with a huge laugh, blowing a mouthful of crumbs that complemented the airborne sugar ball by sending ballistic missiles of crumbled kahk in all directions.  As they landed on the carpet, Becky was stomping her feet, laughing.  The vendor gave her a dirty look of contempt and appeared to stereotype her as the loud American girl who is careless and rude."  

What can I say?  Kahk crumbles like none other.  I cupped my hand under my mouth, attempting to catch the crumbs, but kahk is kahk.  The only neat way to eat is to eat it whole (I know that now).  I blew through my nose, like, uh oh... and when powdered sugar blew, I lost it.  I laughed while keeping my lips pursed, which made the brrrrp sound, blowing crumbs now.  I couldn't help it, I laughed even more, and yes, I do tend to stomp a foot when I'm laughing hard.  Mashed the crumbs right into their expensive rugs.  I looked up, expecting a small smile, empathizing with my embarrassment, but La Pomme's attendant was in no way amused.  He looked at me as if I was a cockroach crawling over the beautiful pastry displays.  


There are many patisseries in Cairo.  La Pomme won't see me again (not that they'd care).

• Location: Remote part of 6 October, inconvenient parking.  Ladies will have to walk in front of tire and paint shops, which are staffed by men only
• Atmosphere/Vibe: Stuffy, pretentious, but pretty displays
• Service:  This was my first visit to La Pomme, and also my last.  If we had been treated respectfully, I would have returned to try other items
• Menu Choices: Varied.  Oriental sweets, bosomat (bread sticks), petit fours and cakes
• Value: Of course higher prices than Hyper One, but definitely not worth whatever we paid (tried to forget the experience soon after it happened)
• Quality of Food: Eh.  It's typical Egyptian pastry.  I've had better basbousa from Metro
• Bathrooms: N/A
• Check/Goodbye: They seemed happy to be rid of us.  The first cashier at the rear of the store, a young girl, was the only one who smiled
• Ease of opening doors: No problem getting in, but almost walked through a plate glass wall thinking it was the exit

Central Mehwar
Beyond Hosary Square
6th October, Giza

Tel: 02-38352962, 02-38352961, 02-38352968
No website found, but items can be ordered through otlob.com

Tel:

Delivery (all areas): 16131 Other Branches: 18 El Mosalamany St. El Manyal, Cairo Tel: 02-23651636 56 Makram Ebeid St. Nasr City, Cairo Tel: 02-22741403 23 Rd. 106, Hadayek El Maadi Maadi, Cairo Tel: 02-25252959 3 B El Tharwa El Maadneya St., Hadaeq El Ahram El Haram, Giza Tel: 02-39744205, 02-39808233, 018-6002226 386 Faisal St. Faisal, Giza Tel: 02-35836711, 02-35824747 519 Giza Sq. Giza, Giza Tel: 02-35725663, 02-35697905 238 A Sudan St. Mohandeseen, Giza Tel: 02-33450238