Giofreddo W.
Yelp
I have a tradition of getting my wife and son macarons for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, the macaron places I used to go to have closed shop, so I was forced to try a new (to me) place, and with Miette having good cupcakes and being relatively close by, I thought I'd give 'em a try. Sadly, their macarons were disappointing, and I certainly wouldn't get them again.
But before I get into the unrelenting mediocrity of their flavors, my biggest complaint is that someone at the shop got their varieties of macarons mixed up, which meant that we ended up with several of the wrong flavor.
See, Miette keeps their macarons in these big, clear glass jars on top of the counter. Each jar is clearly marked with the flavor, so you can easily see which ones you're getting.
Out of six chocolate macarons I ordered, *four* of them turned out to be orange-chocolate, a flavor which we all find to be vile. Yet, I watched the woman pick six macarons from the jar labeled "chocolate," which means someone screwed up and put some orange-chocolate ones into the chocolate jar. The chocolate and orange-chocolate macarons look nearly identical, so one can see how a mistake like this could happen. But it's still wholly unacceptable to pay for one flavor and wind up with another, especially when it's as gross as orange-chocolate. (I mean, who wants a macaron that tastes like cough syrup?)
The same thing happened with the vanilla and pistachio macarons, which also look indistinguishable from each other. Out of six pistachio macarons, *four* of them were vanilla! I watched the woman pull six macarons from the pistachio jar, which means, *again*, someone screwed up and put some vanilla ones in the pistachio jar. The two flavors look similar enough that they're hard to tell apart, but this is unacceptable when you have paying customers. I felt ripped off because we got a bunch of flavors that I did not ask for or want.
The other problem is that these macarons were incredibly bland; none of the flavors popped in the way that good macarons do in Paris, nor were they anywhere near as flavorful as the pretty good macarons from Chantal Guillon, which sadly closed its San Francisco location recently. Also, the cookie parts had an odd flavor, which tasted stronger than the filling!
So, c'mon, Miette - get it together! This kind of flakiness is inexcusable, especially when these macarons aren't cheap. I paid $60 to get two sets of specific flavors, and I did not get what I ordered.
And why go to the trouble of making and selling macarons if you're not even going to get them right? If I ever go back to Miette, I'll stick to their cupcakes.