Back in September 2021, I saw a lot of sponsored Instagram posts about macarons. So I decided to embark on a project: to discover the best macarons in Athens. I know “best” is a word with a heavy meaning. But it makes for a catchy blog title isn’t it?! A blogger has to do what a blogger has to do! Without further ado let’s start our review, shall we?

When I embarked on this project, I wanted a way to judge those macarons. I’m in no capacity a professional food critic, but I love desserts. To make this project better I wanted a set of criteria and this post on Serious Eats helped me a lot. To sum it up that’s what I look for in a macaron:

  • Cookie-to-filling ratio must be between 1:1 and 2:1
  • The filling should be smooth, firm, light, and not sticky
  • Smooth surface
  • Thin cookie crust
  • Cookie’s texture should be light, just a little chewy
  • Sweetness should not take over in macaron

I added another criterion as well: taste. Because let’s be honest, a macaron can be technically good but lack on taste. I decided to score each criterion out of 5 and then give an score out of 5 for each patisserie/bakery I visited. For the sake of space and ease of reading I’ll give you only the final score.

Bon Bon Fait Maison

Price: 1,5€/macaron Tastes tried: Hazelnut, Salted Caramel

Final score: 3,8/5

Bon Bon offers a variety of flavours and since it’s very close to my office I’ve visited it more than once. The macarons pictured have a buttercream filling instead of the typical ganache one. On both occasions the cookie has a thin crust and the texture is mostly light. The hazelnut macaron was more chewy than the caramel one, which was a bummer. The filling was light on both cookies.

I have to admit that rating this place troubled me more than anything else. I’ve tried more than the two macarons featured here to reach my conclusion. Their flavours are nice, but I expected more. As far as the cookies go, some are chewy which is always a bummer. I feel like the quality is not consistent in all flavors.

Conclusion: I’ll buy again macarons from Bon Bon Fait Maison. Occasionally.

 

Melt

Price: 1€/macaron Tastes tried: Pistachio, Forest Fruits

Final score: 4/5

I liked that the pistachio had crushed pistachio on top. The texture has very pleasant and the macaron wasn’t smashed in my mouth. It was a bit chewy though. They store them in the freezer and you have to let it come to room temperature. Thad could be the cuplrit for chewyness. The purple one has forest fruits ganache and compote of strawberry-raspberry. Its taste was very interesting and refreshing .

Conclusion: I’ll buy macarons from Melt again.

 

Kayak

Price 1,3€/macaron Tastes tried: Chocolate, Pistachio, Vanilla

Final score: 2/5

I’ll start by saying that I was not impressed. The macarons had very chewy texture and the taste was nothing to write home about. In any of the three (3) I tried. The only surprise was the little bit of hazelnut cocoa spread inside the pistachio macaron. If you visit a Kayak store go for the ice cream. It’s amazing.

Conclusion: Too pricey for what you get. Unfortunately I’ll not be buying macarons from there again.

Paul

Price: 1€/macaron Tastes tried: Pistachio, chocolate

Final score: 3/5

I expected more from a French patisserie. To be honest when I embarked on this project I believed that they’d be the best macarons in Athens, but no. The cookie wasn’t very light in both cases. The chocolate macaron had little but dense filling. It’s true though that chocolate macarons don’t perform best. The pistachio was ok but did not wow me.

Conclusion: Next time I visit a Paul bakery I’ll stick to the puff pastry they have on offer.

Tsirou

 

Price: 0,8€/macaron Tastes tried: Vanilla- chocolate, caramel

Final score: 2/5

The taste of the macarons was just ok. The caramel one had a more interesting taste than the vanilla-chocolate one. The macarons’ shape was a hit or miss. Texture wise the cookies were more chewy than needed.

Conclusion: Unfortunately I’ll not be buying macarons from there again.

Duree du Gout

 

Price: 48,5€/kilo (roughly 1,2€/macaron) Tastes tried: pistachio, rose, lychee and raspberry

Final score: 3/5

Let’s start with the cookie: it has a thin shell and isn’t chewy. The pistachio macaron had a light filling with nice taste and a bonus nut inside. In the rose macaron you don’t get to see the filling from the outside, as there isn’t a lot there. The cookie was more chewy than the pistachio one. The filling was dense and I could only taste the lychee and a bit of the rose in the shell.

Conclusion: Too expensive for what you get. Unfortunately I’ll not be buying macarons from there again.

Fresh 

 

Price: 0,9€/macaron Tastes tried: pistachio, toffee

Final score 4,5/5

Technically, Fresh macarons hits all the spots. Taste wise as well. The cookie crust is thin and the cookie soft but not chewy. The toffee macaron, really tasted like toffee without being overpowering. The pistachio was very tasty as well but I’m put off by the bright color. My only pet peeve with Fresh is that for some flavors they use bright colors. Those colors not necessarily correspond to the flavor. Take the pistachio for example, the other macarons I tasted were closer to the actual nut color.

Conclusion: I’d definitely buy from Fresh again (already have).

Grande Bretagne

Price: 1,5€/macaron Tastes tried: pistachio, vanilla

Final score: 3/5

I am disappointed. Really. Grande Bretagne is a synonym of (old) luxury. I’ve tried their desserts by Arnaud Lahner and enjoyed them. I’ve had afternoon tea in the hotel and loved it. But the macarons? They were underwhelming. Their surface is not smooth and then the taste is a hit or miss. The pistachio macaron was lovely but the vanilla lacked in taste.

Conclusion: Unfortunately I’ll not be buying macarons from there again.

Φλέιβορ (Flavor)

Price: 0,8€ Tastes tried: lemon, pistachio

Score: 1/5

At this point I’ve tried many macarons for this project. In all cases they were presentable. These are the first ones that do not look good. The shell is not smooth and has cracks. The cookie is very chewy and there is little flavor. The filling is cream (not the typical for macarons ganache) and doesn’t have flavor.

Conclusion: I only tried them for my “project”. I will not be buying macarons from there again.

Ourse Athens

Price: 1,2/macaron but they sell boxes of either 6 or 12 macarons, Tastes tried: yuzu, peanut butter, pistachio

Final Score: 4,6

Macaron feels very light at first bite. The shell is thin and the cookie melts in your mouth. The Yuzu one had light and interesting taste. I was wary about peanut butter about but they nailed the flavour. Filling was very light and peanut taste not overpowering. The pistachio one was strange. It was different than all the pistachio macarons I’ve tried. As I bit the cookie, the inside was almost black. The pistachio flavor was light but didn’t feel fake.

Conclusion: I’ll be definitely buying from Ourse again.

Macaron Lonis

Price: (approx.) 0,7€/macaron Tastes tried: Bueno, Pistachio

Final score: 2,5/5 (the score is about the French macarons, I don’t score their own style)

Macaron Lonis are actually known for their almond cookies with cream called εργολάβοι (ergolavoi). They do make French macarons too and these are the ones I rated. The cookies were ok, but chewy. There wasn’t much filling and it was sticky especially on the Bueno one. Overall there was little flavor and in the pistachio one I expected more.

I tried their own “macarons” as well (pictured above), which are filled with lots of flavored cream . The cookie is a typical almond one. The filling is light and abundant. They are very fresh and tasty. But they are not French macarons.

Conclusion: Unfortunately I’ll not be buying macarons from there again.

Cookie Land

Price: 1€/macaron Tastes tried: Pistachio, Cookies

Final score: 2/5

Let’s start with the filling. The filling is not enough for the size of the cookie and its difficult to taste it. I had to take a separate bite of the filling to understand its flavor. The cookie the hardest shell I’ve encountered in all my trials. It also had an overpowering almond flavor which lingered for a long time in my mouth.

Conclusion: I’ll stick to the rest of the desserts they have to offer.

Related: Cookie Land, Athens

Terkenlis

Price: 1,1€/macaron Tastes tried: Pistachio, Praline

Final score: 3/5

Terkenlis is famous for its ganache covered tsoureki. Its a place I always visit in Thessaloniki, where this pastry store originates. In Athens they have a couple of stores in the northern suburbs. The one I visited is in The Mall Athens. Let’s start the review with the cookies. Their shell has a medium thickness but the cookie underneath was chewy. The cookie also had a strong almond flavor that covered that of the filling. The filling was nice, especially in the pistachio cookie. Taste wise they were both ok, but nothing memorable.

Conclusion: I’ll stick to the tsoureki!

Zuccherino

Price: 0,8€/macaron Tastes tried: Pistachio, Lemon
 
Final Score: 2,8/5
 
Let’s start the review with the filling. Zuccherino’s macarons have the most dense filling I’ve encountered in this project. Ιt wasn’t evenly distributed between the cookies. Taste wise the lemon filling was amazing. It reminded me of lemon pie. The pistachio was just ok. As for the cookie, the crust had a medium thickness but their texture was dense and borderline chewy. The macarons do not have a uniform size not a smooth surface. What also bothered me was the way they were presented in store. They were placed one upon another on a tray and not carefully displayed in rows.
 
Conclusion: I might buy the lemon one again for the taste. Otherwise, I won’t be buying macaron from Zuccherino again.

Georgios Galifianakis

Price: 1,1€/macaron Tastes tried: Toffee, Lemon
 
Final Score: 2,5/5
 
I’ll start my review with the cookie. There is a lot of cookie there but little filling. The crust is smooth but not very thin and doesn’t crack easily. The cookie itself was very chewy and not light at all. The filling was slightly sticky. I had difficulty tasting the filling because of the cookie. The toffee macaron had a slight flavor. Initially I thought it was the raspberry flavor because it is purple. The lemon had a better discernible taste but it wasn’t exceptional.
 
Conclusion: Unfortunately I’ll not be buying macarons from there again

Best Macarons in Athens?

5 months of trials, 15 stores visited and more than 40 macarons consumed. After all that, I finally concluded with the top places for macarons in Athens. That would be Ourse Athens followed by Fresh. Those places have high marks on the 6 points mentioned in the beginning of the post. They also have interesting flavor without being overpowering.

Ourse is a boutique pastry store with accomplished pastry chefs behind it. It makes sense that they make stellar macarons. They also have a small range of desserts. They are not spreading themselves thin and focus on quality over quantity. Fresh on the other hand has 18 stores around Athens. I can’t help but to note that out of all the places I visited, it is the only chain of pastry stores. They mass produce macarons, but make them great. Thanks to economies of scale, they are value for money as well.

Through this process I found a lot of common points between the macarons that I’ve rated with 2 and 3 out of 5. Those macarons have more almond flour than meringue. That’s what makes them dense and chewy. I also realized that I don’t like that in a macaron. I want a cookie that is light and airy. Taste wise I was disappointed a lot of times as well. The filling had little to no taste at all.

Τhere are a lot of places for macarons in Athens. Even more than those I tasted and rated. Very few of those places are worth a (second) try. I hope that my project gave you a guide where you can find the best macarons in Athens.

Let me know…have you visited any of them? What do you think?