Luxbite - Best Macarons In Melbourne?

38 Toorak Road
South Yarra, VIC 3141
Ph: 9867 5888
Website: Luxbite

The word "best" is very hard to use. For something to be the best, you have to had witnessed everything else and then definitively measure it against the others and be able to show its superiority. With sport, this mean winning the race or the tournament. With macarons, I think it can be measured by the number of blog posts.

Luxbite has only been around for a number of months, but they have definitely created a stir and captured the blogging hearts and mouths of Melbourne. Just look at the sheer scale of reviews by Serena, Penny, Ashley, Cindy, I-Hua, Liz and Michelle.

Let me start with my verdict and work my way back. I haven't tried every macaron in Melbourne, but from the many places that I have tried, I would say that Luxbite do the best macarons in Melbourne. The macarons aren't all perfect, in fact there are a couple I don't like. But the ones that I do like are spectacular. The flavour combinations are very innovative, presentation is good and texture the way I like it, slightly crunchy outside and soft inside. It gets close to the macarons from Pierre Herme and Laduree that I had in Paris. I thought the Luxbite macaron was still just a tad under those, but the latest macaron, the Vanilla Creme Brulee comes extremely close. My view is definitely biased by the memories of sitting in a Parisian park in the beautiful sunshine and munching on my macarons.



I love the way that Luxbite present their macarons, like jewellery. Yen and Bernard, owners and makers of the macarons, told me that they were so in awe of the Pierre Herme shops in Tokyo that the decided to start a shop themselves and model it on those stores. They are both classically trained at Le Cordon Bleu and have created a very defined image for their shop. It has a feel of luxury and elegance from the fitting of the store, to the displays, to the boxes that they use to store the macaron. Look at the beautifully backlit macarons in the special glass case they got made.


I went a couple of times and bought many macarons each time to try out as many flavours as possible.


I thought that the Kaya Toast was my favourite but I have a new champion, the super pretty Vanilla Creme Brulee. This one had a wow factor from both the looks and the taste. It is now my undisputed favourite.


Luxbite do quite a number of innovative flavours and here are my verdict on the ones I have tried:

Sensational
*Vanilla Creme Brulee - My favourite of all the Luxbite macarons. The sexiest looking and tasting macaron.

*Kaya Toast - Their house made kaya tastes great and there is definitely the toast flavour. Love it.

*Salted Caramel - Lovely salted caramel flavour and texture is fantastic.

*White Peach and Jasmine - I love this macaron as I adore peaches. And I think this one has the best texture too as the filling is a bit wetter and oozes together with the shell. The jasmine does shine through and add a fragrance.

*Raspberry and White Chocolate - Another one of my favourites, the raspberry really shining through the white chocolate.

Excellent
*Watermelon Yoghurt - This was the biggest surprise for me. I didn't think you could capture the essence of watermelon as it's quite a light flavour, but boy this macaron packs a punch in flavour, beautiful.

*Passionfruit - One of the best passionfruit in Melbourne. Very intense passionfruit flavour and I liked that it wasn't paired with chocolate as usual. I actually don't find the passionfruit/chocolate combination very nice.

*Vanilla Creme Caramel - A very good macaron with a nice flavour, but pales in comparison to his cousin the Vanilla Creme Brulee.

Good
*Rose & Lychee - I think it's quite good but the rose flavour is a bit too strong for my liking.

*Peanut Butter and Jelly - You gotta love peanut butter and jam together to enjoy this. Luckily I did. Tasted just like the sandwiches I used to make.

Dislike
*Strawberry Cream - I thought this was too sweet. Yes, it sounds stupid to say a macaron, made of sugar, is too sweet. But the filling was too much for me.

*Kaffir Lime - I love the flavour of the lime, but the extremely dry shell means I didn't like this one at all.

Untried
*Choc Cherry
*Toby's Mocha
*O-o-oreo
*Sicilian Pistachio
*Choc Freckles

Luxbite don't just do macarons though, they also do a lot of mouth watering desserts. The Caramel Slice with Salted Caramel Macaron is to die for, literally. You can feel your arteries clogging up as you dig into the super rich caramel with the ultra sticky chocolate layer. But man, I don't know what they do with the caramel but it's one of the best I've tasted. I tasted a hint of coconut and Yen confirmed that it did contain coconut. The Raspberry Tart was also very good, with fresh perfect raspberries sitting atop a good shortcrust pastry and pastry cream. I love the little snowflakes and snow sugar that just makes it look so adorable.



So there's my wrap-up of Luxbite. Whether they are the best macarons in Melbourne or not, it doesn't matter. I know which macarons I love to eat and will be going back to them many more times to eat them. Yen and Bernard are very generous with their time and will answer questions and take feedback. They are also very active on Twitter so let them know your thoughts.