Don't Waste Your Time And Money
TLDR: Lysée is a Korean-French dessert bar in Flatiron that doesn’t live up to the hype. While you won’t hate the pastries themselves, the experience is lacking and for the exorbitant price it’s certainly not worth it.
Image credit: ny.eater.com
I am not really a dessert person. While I eat and enjoy dessert, it’s not something I need the way I need a good salad. I hate most candy and am a certified chocolate snob (is below 70% cacao even chocolate?) so you should know that I would only be tempted to go to a dessert bar if I believed it would be the pinnacle of sweets.
Lysée promised to be that peak. I love patisserie (truly just sugary art) and as a Korean-French crossover, Lysée seems like it would have a perfect balance of beautifully crafted patisserie and delicate, unique flavors. Unfortunately – especially considering you have to make a reservation a month out – Lysée doesn’t hit the mark.
Walking into Lysée, you wouldn’t know you’d just stepped into a rave-reviewed sweet shop. The cramped dining area has an all white, partial-basement-hospital feel to it. The tempting desserts are displayed in the “gallery” on the upper floor where to-go orders are placed, so you don’t really know what you’re getting into. The energy feels a bit like an ER too – the staff appear stressed, rushed, and confused.
If you didn’t pre-book a signature tasting (as I failed to), you’ll be hard-pressed to snag “the corn”, Lysée’s most famous dish which looks like baby corn and supposedly tastes like sweet creamed corn. I went for the signature cake, a seasonal fig tart, the VIP (chocolate cake), and kouign amann instead.
Of those, the kouign amann was by far the best – crispy and flaky just as good pastry should be. The rest? It ranged from weirdly bad (could not cut into the tart) to just ok. Frankly, it all looked much better than it tasted and while I liked it, it would never occur to write home about it. Nor wait a month for it. Nor pay over $60 for it. You can see where I’m going here.
At the end of the day, this dessert bar isn’t a good enough experience, even if the pastries themselves are not bad. If I passed by, would I pick up another kouign amann? Sure. But really you should save yourself the trouble and skip Lysée. There's plenty of good dessert elsewhere.
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