Pascal Epicerie

Pascal’s Epicerie is now CLOSED. Sign on the door says he is relocating to San Juan Capistrano in April.

I go to Pascal’s often for lunch, and often met associates there for meeting if the weather is warm. Their outside patio is lovely, and it is a wonderful place to sit and soak up the sun for a little while when you have the chance to get out of the office. For those of you who are careful about your diet, this place has plenty of options; the chicken salad as well as the salmon salad are fantastic and only cost around $ 9.
My only issue with the place is that the service, at times, leaves something to be desired. That being said, it is a «French» establishment, and maybe they have different norms when it comes to speed and efficiency.
Overall, I highly recommend.

The store is very sweet and romantic, especially for a short lunch-​break option. It’s conveniently located in a shopping plaza next to my office building. The shop is decorated in a French style and has small circular tables and wooden chairs for those eating-​in. Some mellow French tracks play on the background.
The food was quite pleasant too. I ordered the soup of the day which was mild and creamy and a spinach quiche which I really enjoyed. The crust was flaky and the filling was perfectly seasoned and had the right, mushy texture. I also got a free palmier for checking in on Unilocal (thank you!).
However, the service was a bit rude. I told my coworker afterward and she experienced the same thing. She joked, «I thought they were rude because they were trying to recreate the feeling you get in France.» A joke! No offense! I kid, I kid!
When I waited to have my order taken at the cash register, the cashier would hardly look at me and without a few words dropped my number onto my tray. When I got the free palmier, he handed me the pastry (very buttery and flaky) without a word. Doesn’t he know that he should treat Unilocalers well?
Good food, nice restaurant layout and ambiance, but not-​so-​friendly staff. ***

Come for the MACARONS??? No no no no way Jose!!! I had their macarons before and they are horrible but let me shine some light… this review is for their café foods. Keep reading other Unilocaler’s review for the Macaron piece but you won’t find any review for them in mine.
Lunch came and we accidently drove in this direction to find something eye-​catching! More like tummy-​turning but nothing came to our minds so we pulled in and decided to give this place another chance in hope the food can redeem it’s horrible reputation of pastries or sweets.
I ordered the following on this trip:
01. French Onion Soup — 3.5 Stars
— Darn it… this soup was piping HOT! I cracked open the cheese to let some heat out but it literally took me 30 minutes later to eat it. That is some crazy heat retention. It was tasty, not too salty like some places. There was plenty of gooey cheese, onions and gooey-​ness! I liked it… not the best I’ve had but decent & tasty.
02. Arugula, Prosciutto and Gruyère Cheese Panini ($ 7.95) — 3.5 Stars
— Pretty darn yummy. I liked that they prebake their baguettes just to form its shape and once ordered, they press it in the Panini Grill to a golden brown crisp. This makes the Panini so good and melts all the good things that needs melting! I will def come back for another Panini.
I learned at the other visits, just ignore the Macarons and you’ll be safe. Salads are pretty expensive but the Paninis, Sammies and soups are pretty decently priced. Odd right… a salad is more substance & higher in price! I thought the same, something is wrong with this picture!
If you hate the Macarons here, you might want to try their food.
SERVICE — Pretty horrible, they are kinda rude in general especially the lady that is there all the time. The young guys are moody as hell but it just makes it more consistent with this place’s vibe. Don’t expect great or speedy service.
COFFEE — Decent but ask for a taller mug or glass, the tiny lil coffee cups always spill over.

Pascal has been around for awhile and it is understandable why. Met a girlfriend for lunch and I really enjoyed the food. They have a large selection of salads and sandwiches and I have no complaints about the food. They have outdoor seating and it is a dependable spot to meet a friend for breakfast or lunch.
The macarons are quite good and they have a variety of flavors.

Trying to park at lunchtime is an absolutely savage experience. It’s a small parking lot in a strip mall that serves 3 restaurants. That should have been a warning of clear and present danger.
On to lunch, what a sad experience! All these other people must know a secret to the good stuff. When choosing the salads they appear all fresh and yummy, but when they arrive on the plate they are all swimming around in each others dressing’s, and with the blending they all sort of taste the same, bland and watery. The quiche was disappointing because it appeared better than it tasted, AND the mini pizza wasn’t a pizza at all, the crust is like the quiche dough or a pastry dough, hard to tell. Alas, we will not dine here again, historically Pascal’s used to carry a great name in the culinary divide, but NO MORE!

Uhhhh, why are you guys going here. It’s pretty bad. Honestly, the service was really slow and there wasn’t even a line, so I don’t know why that was happening.
We ordered the ham quiche, tomato mini pizza and an assortment of the salads. For starters, the quiche in the display that you pick from IS NOT the quiche you get. The display shows cute little circular quiches that you get all to yourself, when they serve it to you, you get a slice of a giant pizza-​like quiche. UH NO. I want a cute little quiche to have cute little quiche time… I don’t want to eat some slice of a larger quiche that has been doled out to other customers like some sort of ANIMAL? WHAT AN OUTRAGE.
Also, the salads (we got the cole slaw, kale, asparagus, and couscous) were a bit overdressed and wilty… Not that much flavor. They had definitely been sitting out for some time.
The tomato mini pizza was probably the best, but still, it was cold and the crust had the consistency of a croissant, not a crispy little pizza.
So, I’m not impressed. I will be taking my quiche business elsewhere.

My work usually orders lunch Pascal’s when we are catering– a cute little French deli.
We’ve ordered from their various sandwiches, paninis, salads, and cheese platters. I’ve tried the Smoked Chicken Panini, Proscuitto Panini, and the Chicken Spinach Salad. I love how the paninis are prepared with Kalamata Olives, Gruyère, and Tomato– 3 things I always love in my paninis! The smoked chicken was dry but the proscuitto was delicious! The spinach chicken salad tasted great, especially with the avocado. The only complaint I’d have is the dry chicken. (
).

First time here was on a Saturday afternoon. They had their weekend brunch menu. I had the «Oeuf en Cocotte» — which is two poached eggs in a tarragon cream sauce served with wheat croustinis. I wasn’t quite sure if I would like it as I’ve never had anything like it but actually it was quite tasty. The tarragon cream sauce was very light and quite delicious. My sisters also had items off the brunch menu and thought they were tasty. I would definitely come back again to have brunch.
My only slight irritation with this place was that they have a check-​in offer for 1 free small palmier. I asked the guy for it twice. The first time was when I was ordering. The second time was after we received our food. He said he would bring it to me but he never did. What’s the point of having a check-​in offer if you don’t give it to me and you make me feel bad for asking for it?
Other than that, not a bad place to have a nice meal.

After the nice experience I had with my buddy on Saturday, I decided to try Pascal for lunch.
AI-​YIE-​YIE! It was hellish.
Trying to park at lunchtime is an absolutely savage experience. It’s a small parking lot in a strip mall that serves 3 restaurants. That should have been a warning of clear and present danger.
The entry was jammed with 20 people milling around with no clear way of knowing who was waiting to order, who was waiting to pay and who was waiting for food.
The process is as inefficient as possible. You work your way through the madding throng to the counter where you place your order. Then, you elbow your way back through the crowd to find the line where you wait to pay for your food. After paying, you desperately search for a place to stand where you’re out of the way of people waiting to order and out of the way of people waiting to pay.
It nearly gave me a panic attack.
After ordering, it took about 10 minutes for me to get my food. The flavor of my sandwich was okay but was soggy and lukewarm – not awesome qualities for a toasted panini.
Would I go back to Pascal’s on a leisurely afternoon – definitely. Would I go back at lunchtime – not if my life depended on it.
Still recommend but not for lunch.

En route to Juliette… what’s this? Homemade macarons? In PUMPKIN? Okay I’ll bite. I got a lemon too.
Both, very crunchy/​chewy. Nothing delicate, nothing melting in my mouth. The pumpkin was under spiced to put forth the effort. The lemon was tart enough to buy them an extra star. But I’m not sure I’ll be back.

Pascal offers some cute pastries, including some cheap macarons for about a dollar each!
The macarons are a little bit on the small side, and the texture isn’t as chewy as I like, but they’re not bad. I tried the strawberry, chocolate, coffee, and passion fruit. The strawberry had more of a jam filling, which I’m not a big fan of, but the others had the ganache filling. I liked the passion fruit and coffee ones best.
We also had some palmiers, which were pretty crispy and good.
Nice, friendly owner. Plenty of parking! :)

After teaching Traffic School a few times in the Irvine/​Newport area, everyone kept recommending for me to go to Pascal.
In all honesty, Pascal is nothing to be raving about. The pastries were good, but not great. The macaroons were not what I was looking for in a macaroon. At least they got a cool check-​in deal…

Great

Their macaroons are unfortunately very disappointing. Azya C., who is a fiend for these things, got $ 20 worth of these cookies for a family event. We were halfway home before she had a Plan B to make up for the measly offering she had inadvertently purchased.
The chocolate ones were okay, but the pistachio was overcooked and stale.

Fellow Unilocalers, it pains me to write my first ever one star review, but it would be a travesty if I did not share my experience yesterday at Pascal Epicerie with you.
Being the HUGE macaron fanatic that I am, I thought there would never be a day I’d come across a macaron I didn’t like, let alone abhor!
Well, thanks to my recent impromptu stop at Pascal, that horrible vision has become a reality.
After running a handful of errands in the Newport area, Pascal’s signage caught the attention of my peripheral vision and I quickly made a b-​line turn over to their bakery. As I stepped inside, I was charmed by the provincial French bakery décor and the welcoming staff. As I was greeted by the sweet girl at the counter I inquired about the French macarons. She smiled and pointed to a small section of the refrigerated bakery display. Although none of my favorite flavors were available, I always considered myself a pioneering guy open to new discoveries, so I opted for two of everything they had to offer. At .95 cents a macaron, I figured, «What a steal!»
Well, once I opened the box and tried them, I immediately realized why my friend MiYun wrote such a scathing review regarding her experience with their macarons. The first ones I tried were iridescent blue colored banana chocolate macarons. As I held the smaller than normal macaron nimbly between my fingers, i softly pressed my digits into the outer shell to test for firmness and textural integrity. It indeed had a nice firm shell that lightly cracked as I sunk my teeth into it. The filling was creamier than what I was accustomed to, less almond paste texture and more like a soft butter cream consistency. The chocolate banana flavor wasn’t quite noticeable but it appeased my sweet tooth nonetheless. Just wasn’t sure about the correlation between the bright blue color & chocolate bananas?
Now here’s where it ALL went down hill! While sitting in my car, I reached into the box and picked up the chocolate macaron, which felt strangely light and extremely firm. I also noticed that the footing looked strange, there were an excessive amount of blisters on the shell surface, and the macaron had a peculiar peak at the top. But with all looks aside, I figured it was all about how it tasted. So, I threw caution to the wind, and went in for my first bite.
Holy Smokes!!! My teeth couldn’t even break it!!! With unrelenting determination and the added force of my incisors, the shell did indeed break… into hundreds of crumbled pieces all over my lap and my brand new car!!! Arrrrrgggghhh!!! DISGUSTING! I was thinking alright, it’s late in the day, maybe I got a piece that was a tad too close to the refrigerator fan or something. I went in for another piece. I picked up the macaron and cautiously bit into it… AGAIN?!? Hard, Hard, Hard!!! ACK! And it was indeed «crispy and hollow» as other Unilocalers have described! I was fuming at this point! I reached back into the box and started squeezing the remaining macarons and they all crumbled like sawdust!
I should have came back inside and showed them the atrocity inside my box, but I was spent from a long day and was nearly home. So, as soon as i got back home, I brought them into my kitchen and into the trash they went!
So, what did I learn from this experience? Follow the wisdom of my fellow Unilocalers so i can avoid horrendous experiences like these from ever happening again!
Pascal’s macarons = Two Thumbs WAY DOWN!
Happy Eats… I Think Not

I’m actually sitting here trying to figure out a reason not to give this place 5 stars. I can’t really think of any unless I’m going to get nit picky and get into price. That’s all relative anyway…
Onto the review… I took the Unilocal recommendation of lamb sandwich. It wasn’t my intention to get it but when I walked in that was the only thing that jumped out at me! Excellent choice! I guess it’s not what I expected in any way– it was whole grain pieces of bread, it had all sorts of toppings inside that, when mixed together, made this a super sandwich.
I tried my friend’s pesto pasta, which was good. I normally don’t get it so I don’t have much to compare it again. I did, however, break down and go for the eclaire. I swear I might just order 5 eclairs next time and call it the day! Seriously dangerous stuff… I am normally pretty critical of them as my sister’s (who has culinary degree in French cuisine) are the standard for me and these were spot on! LOVED THEM!
The atmosphere worked for me– relaxed and still had lots of style and character. Perfect spot to enjoy lunch!

$ 0.99 Cents for Macarons???
Excited and Delighted. The throttle wide open with the pedal to the metal I raced down here as fast as I could. I called. They told me they close at 7pm. It was a little past 6. No sandwiches? That’s Ok. I came for macarons.
Dry. Crispy. Dry. Not very flavorful.
The lady was kind of rude. She said she was the baker. I am not sure if this is their normal standard or if Unilocalers just over rated this place. I read one review that said they didn’t know why there was such a big hype over macarons and they called these macarons boring. That poor Unilocaler tasted macarons here for the first time. I agree. These were boring and for the first time in my life I didn’t finish them. I took one bite from each of 6 macarons and left the ofther half there.
Not good at all. If I went on a bad day, well consistency has a great deal to do with business. My experience is «meh.I think not.» I want my 6 bucks back.

The Tale of the Marginalized Macaron…
Dear Pascal,
Did you break your mouth? Or, did you recently make a unilateral executive decision to screw tradition and to adopt American pop culture and build a French Oreo?
Whhhatt the heck is wrong with the macarons today? Did quality contol personnel have the runs, or something?
I was at a crossroads today because I was craving both macarons and the Vietnamese pandan cake.
Ultimately macarons won and I made the order and then picked up my dozen or so macarons.
I jump into my car and place a mango macaron into the closest orifice and and it crumbled everywhere — if I were not driving, I would have spit it out. Oh, how I regretted those calories as I took a big gulp. Arghh!!!
Shame on you Pascal and Co for serving those macarons to the public — I have got my EYES on you, buddy. You have put me into an irascible mood. Punk!
Cheers — NOT!

After a conference at UCI I drove to Pascal Epicerie, & it’s, what, roughly a mile or so distance of trying out these $ 0.95 MACARONS xD. Only 7 flavors were available at that time, & thus I decided to get each flavor, but got a dozen for $ 11.40 – for 12 o_​O?!
Together w/​the very creamy ganache here are the results for these über poofy yet so miniscule treats:
–Pistachio: Uhh, no way it can beat Paulette’s regal level (yes, all hail Pistachio of Paulette).
–Mango: Hummm, when I bit this one, it felt denser (Where’s that wispy crisp…), suggesting that not all of the macarons were cooked equal =/​. And I’ve definitely had a way better mango flavor elsewhere.
–Strawberry: Unless you heart this flavor w/​an utmost passion, it was grossly sweet & too candy-​like for me.
*****Luckily it gets gradually better!
–Chocolate: It’s decently tasty, but I was expecting more chocolaty flavor, & thus this may be very disappointing to hardcore chocolatophiles (& yes, I made that word up.).
–Coffee: By flavor it reminded me of those mocha cakes – yah, mocha – in Filipino bakeries (i.e. Goldilocks or Red Ribbon), in a good way! Plus, I liked how the ganache was neither too shy nor too audacious.
–Lemon: I’m incredibly fervid w/​very intense lemon flavor, & this macaron got it right.
–Vanilla: Yummy, yummy, yummy… I’m shocked that this very simple, shortbread-​like indulgence is my favorite of the PE group. This may be too partial, though, b/​c I did sense a teensy bit of lemon in it o. o
Yep, I ate all seven of those flavors, with the remaining still in fridge to eat 2 or 3 for today’s lunch, & the rest for dinner =P. That, among other caloric bloaters from a b-​day party, led to a serious wake-​up call: Fia, it’s BALLY FITNESS TIME x/!