Darlington - Robineau Patisserie

I once read an article buy a restaurant critic, saying reviews for really good restaurants were the hardest to write.  I think the point that the critic was making is that it's easy to write witty comments about places that make lots of mistakes, but when the food is perfect there's only so many superlatives that you can use.  If the same applies to good food shops, then this post is going to be one of the hardest I've ever written! 

Jane, and her French husband Frederick, own Robineau's patisserie in Darlington, and this business would compete with some of the best in London or Paris.

Their shop is less than 5 minutes from the A1(M) so, if ever we're on that road in future, a visit will be a compulsory detour. 

They sell savoury items like quiche and salads

and delicious home made soup: 

We had pea, ham and mint soup, and it was exceptionally nice.  To go with the soup, there's also proper home-made artisan bread:

There's handmade chocolates including caramels, ganaches and pralines, and a fantastic range of fresh patisserie which is freshly made every day. 

The only problem you'll have is deciding what to buy. The picture at the top of this post shows a vanilla éclair, a lemon and passion fruit tart and a chocolate praline coconut torte. 

Or there's items like mango lime and pineapple cheesecake, strawberry raspberry and blackberry charlotte russe and Robineau chocloate gâteaux:

and millionaire shortbread:

At the back of the shop there's a café where you can have breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea.  The same attention to detail goes on in the café as the shop. 

As we were going to climb the 325 steps to get to the top of Durham cathedral, we decided a chocolate assiette was called for:

I'm not going to try to describe how good it was, please go there and try it yourself!

Robineau Patisserie 
27 West Auckland Road
Darlington
County Durham
DL3 9EL 

Tel: 01325 489129

Web: www.robineau.co.uk