Review: Treat yourself with sinful French desserts at the newly-opened Feu, in Jubilee Hills

Serving more than 15 curated French desserts each day, the café also boasts of a live counter where the chefs plate and decorate semi-made pastries right in front of you.
Exotique
Exotique

One of the best things about a dessert parlour is that you can start and end your meal with desserts, doing justice to each one, unlike a regular restaurant where you are mostly stuffed with main course and appetisers. This is one of the reasons why we’re excited to visit the newly-opened dessert parlour, Feu (pronounced Fa). 

Serving more than 15 curated French desserts each day, the café also boasts of a live counter where the chefs plate and decorate semi-made pastries right in front of you. Eager to experience this and other delicious treats, we make our way to the outlet on a Friday evening. With the main entrance in the bylanes of Road no 1, Feu could be an easy miss, obscured by beautiful trees of the sidewalk. However, once you spot it, you are promptly drawn into the 50-seater. 

Interiors of Feu
Interiors of Feu


Apart from the large French windows looking right onto the street, it’s the aroma of freshly churned Belgian Chocolate that welcomes us in. This quaint little café is the latest dessert bar in town and has become a crowd-puller already. The aesthetically pleasing flower pot arrangements and cosy black and white cane chairs are some of the other highlights that add to the ambience, which evoke a sense of an urban oasis on the bustling Jubilee Hills road. “We want to give our customers a happy café vibe. Since it’s a French dessert bar, a lot of the interiors are inspired by France. Most of it has been done by me, along with a team that helped me in the initial days,” says Shilpa Datla, who owns Feu with her cousin, Madhavi P. 

Sweet beginnings
All good things come in small packages and Feu is a proof of that. Although the desserts are quite filling, the sizes are small, making it easier for those with a sweet tooth to try as many as they want. The dessert menu alone offers a range of fusion combinations including macaroons in flavours such as buttermilk and gulkand paan, along with the original French flavours, chocolate, vanilla and pistachio in éclair, among others. 

Shilpa
Shilpa


“I did a few trips to Europe to understand the cuisine and desserts better. However, I also knew that we needed something slightly Indian for our folks to enjoy it as well. That’s when we got Mumbai-based pastry chef Sanjana Patel onboard, who trained our chefs. While most of our desserts are authentic, we do have a couple of ones that have been tweaked to suit the local palate,” shares Shilpa.

Isapahan
Isapahan


From the pastry section, it’s the Isapahan (raspberry, litchi and rose) that catches our attention first. With a white edible flower and thin wall-like layer of raspberry around the pastry, this pink coloured dessert is of the ‘too-pretty-to-eat’ kind. So we first click a few pictures for Instagram, before digging into it. Although we expect it to be overwhelmingly sweet and heavy, the layered cake doesn’t overpower you with its flavours. Rather, it’s the bright yellow-coloured Exotique that is strictly for those who do not mind a sugar rush, courtesy the rich ripe flavours of mango, pineapple and passion fruit.

Clockwise: Blueberry Cheesecake, Truffle Caramel and Strawberry Charlotte
Clockwise: Blueberry Cheesecake, Truffle Caramel and Strawberry Charlotte

For chocolate lovers like me, Toffee Caramel is a must-try — smooth and creamy, the subtle flavour of toffee works well with the golden caramel mousse. Don’t miss the signature Blueberry Cheesecake crafted out of Japanese cheesecake base and topped with a layer of soft blueberries! That apart, it’s the specially curated selection of tea-time cakes such as the banana walnut cake, carrot cake, and green apple caramel tart that sets this dessert bar apart from the others in town.

Those looking for some small eats can choose from their menu comprising sandwiches, smoothie bowls, baguettes and croissants and beverage options including coffee and hibiscus tea. We, however, stick to the sinful Blueberry Cheesecake and keep up with our promise of starting and ending with a sweet indulgence.

Price for two: Rs.400.

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