Fendu Boulangerie
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
14 reviews for Fendu Boulangerie
My permanently hungry coworkers introduced me to the pastries here. They are expensive, but they have the best danishes I've ever had (and I don't even like danishes). What makes them so good is the delicately buttery, flaky texture of the pastry. I highly recommend the chocolate pear mascarpone danish, lychee danish, and pear almond tart. I heard the chocolate croissant is very good as well.
They seem to take a lot of pride in their work as they preferred boxing up each pastry in its own plastic container even when I asked otherwise (the food's just gonna end up as mush in my stomach anyway). Right, who cares about extra refuse and the environment when you can have perfectly flaky puff pastry?
This is one of those times when I really wish I liked the place better than I did.
Tried the mushroom bread, which has a little extra crust on the top to look like a mushroom cap. Cute, but kind of hard. Despite the hard crust, the bread had a nice texture and flavor.
The scones were good, perhaps very good, but not great. Also tried the breakfast bread (sugary crunchy topped off a medium crumb bread) was good, but nothing special. I did like the peach pastry which was buttery and flaky with a silky cream filling.
I will probably go there again when I'm in the neighborhood, but not really worth a special trip.
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LOOOve the fresh baked goods that are produced here!
I have been to France several times, and in French culture it a daily ritual to purchase a fresh baguette for dinner. I love this!
Every pastry, bread and pizza I have tasted, is filled with rich, quality ingredients. I am curious if they could try a wheat or gluten-free bread
Andrea, who works in the front is extremely knowledgeable about the product and knows exactly how to fill you're craving!
I wish there was more of a cafe environment, with French music and outdoor seating.
This Boulangerie is a staple to the Manoa Market Place
Their breads are tasty, but I believe I just wasted $10 on their sandwiches.
Their chocolate croissant and the tasty French bread were delicious. I thought I'd try another one, and got a sandwich, noticing their new newspaper article, "Top 10 Sandwiches under $10 dollars." Was it worth the $10 dollars? Hmmmmm...
As soon as I went outside, I noticed a Hawaiian guy with a white suit smoking. It just ruined my appetite. (Smelled like pot!)
Don't believe their "freshly made bread." The "rustic" bread is a bunch of bull. There were black pieces of things that I could not recognize. Due to my experience in many other sandwich shops, the bread was peculiar, and had a weird scent. I bit into the chicken, and was stale. It was cold, and just the taste of it...
I heard their owner talking to a friend. He said something about their left overs.
I don't see what all the fuss is about for their sandwiches. Maybe it is my tongue. Maybe the French-ness of the owner ruined my appetite. Or suppose the smoker did. Either way, I'm not looking forward to coming back again.
Its hard for me to give a newly made restaurant such a low rating. Maybe I'll try again.
A little advice, if you want to make quality sandwiches, visit their adjacent store, Island Subs and Burgers it has soooo much better sandwiches than this bull)
We went there on Saturday and ordered the garlic shrimp pizza, chicken curried sandwhich, chocolate croissant and pear mascarpone tart.
Pizza - nice size for $10 but quite honestly, I was really disappointed. It lacked flavor big time. Yea, it had shrimp, slivers of garlic, bell pepper, tomatoes but it tasted very plain. Definitely needed some salt. The cheese had no discernible flavor, as if it wasn't even there. And the crust was, again, ok. I was really bummed since I had read so many raves about their pizza. But for me, it just wasn't that good.
Sandwich - it was good. Top Ten decadent sandwich in Honolulu as the TGIF mag in the local paper said? Not for me it wasn't. I mean, so, they added curry to the mayo. Used spring greens not iceberg. Used a thick pocket bread they called naan (nothing close to a chewy light naan). It was good but not top ten. C'mon.
Pastries - very good. Light, airy, crisp, some chewiness. Definitely 4 stars. Worth a special trip to Manoa? Definitely not. You can get just as good chocolate croissants from a few of the bakeries at Ala Moana Mall.
It's a nice place, staff was courteous and pleasant but I wouldn't order the pizza nor the sandwich again even if I were in the area. I'd just try something else from another establishment.
I love the lychee danish, but then again, I think I would like any pastry that had lychee on it. Their danish is a little pricey at $2.00, but the dough is very crisp, light, and flakey and the filling is light and not too sweet.
Unfortunately, I don't care for anything else here. I was very excited to try their bread, because ever since I moved away from Paris, I haven't found a baguette or flute that even remotely rivals the quality of the ones I used to eat daily in France. Sadly, the bread here was disappointing. The crust was too soft and chewy and the inside too soft and not dense enough. I lived next to an excellent boulangerie in Paris and my friend's dad owned the best boulangerie in Monaco, reknowned for it's wonderful bread. The first time she brought me one of his baguettes, I just couldn't stop eating it. It didn't even need any butter or Nutella on it. I sat at the breakfast table for an hour just slowly chewing the bread and marvelling at it's perfection. It was dense and heavier than Americanized baguettes, with a rich, perfectly crisp caramel crust. The mie was moist and chewy and smelled heavenly, with a wonderful, full nutty flavor. I know that even in France nowadays, people prefer light, airy, fluffy breads that melt in your mouth, but that is not the original pain Francais.
It's funny because another reviewer wrote that she too lived next to a good bakery in Paris, but her views on good bread are the exact opposite of mine! I read an article lately on how bakers in France are changing their breads because the public prefers the lighter style now. It's such a shame. I think the bread at Fendu falls exactly between the guidelines of the other reviewer and me: it's not dense, but not light either, the crust is not right for either of us, and the mie is too elastic for her, but too soft for me. *sigh* My quest for a good flute or baguette continues . . . just not in Manoa . . .
The front of the house is simple, two glass cases and baskets to hold their loaves. I love to peek through and see the big oven they bake the bread in. I jumped the gun a bit, going in super early as I was jonesing for a treat. Their selection is better around lunch time than in the morning. Their chocolate croissant are delicious. I was a little miss piggie and got two. They keep okay overnight in the paper bag they come in. Their bread has good balance, I used some in a strata and some just with olive oil & balsamic. Yummm it was so good with the oil & vinegar.
I'll be back! I can't wait to try the other pastries.
So I'm not taking any stars away, but I was a little disappointed with the pizza I tried today. I ordered a small "Classic" pizza (tomato sauce, cheese and basil.) The crust was way too thick and bready. It had great flavor, but it was just too thick. Also, the tomato sauce needed a bit of spice, it was just tomatoes. The amount of cheese was good, but there was too much of what tasted like inferior parmesan on it. Not a fan...
I still love everything else though! And starting today, they make sandwiches. I'll try one of those next time, and there most definitely will be a next time! Chocolate croissant and almond bostock, people! That's where it's at!
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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3/23/2009
I went here on Saturday. Twice. Everything I had was delicious.
At 10:30, they had a lot of… Read more »
2 words: chocolate croissant
5 syllables: cho co late crois sant
15 letters: c h o c o l a t e c r o i s s a n t
Also recommended:
Sour cream pound cake also good, moist, pleasantly dense, not too sweet, with a subtle sour cream twang.
Bittersweet chocolate financier (not the Wall St. kine... they're just bitter). Again, not excessively sweet, with bits of carmelized orange.
Marscapone chocolate pear danish. It's nice to have a fruit-based pastry that doesn't just taste like someone squeezed out a McDonald's apple pie onto a stale croissant.
Macadamia nut crumb cake.
Hamakua mushroom pizza. Lots of eryngii(?) mushrooms. The crust was perhaps of a breadier style, but it's sort of I'd expected from an artisanal boulangerie.
They seem to be getting mixed reviews here, but I must have been pretty lucky so far since I have yet to be disappointed by anything I've tried.
Fendu is supposed to be upscale authentic French bakery.
Well...
Given the price, it is definitely upscale - $3.75 for a baguette - and they have some wall art with French words on them. But as far as I am concerned, the bread does not have anything special. It is as good and cheaper at Saint Germain, and I actually prefer the multigrain baguette from Whole food, or the sea salt filone (for $1.47) from Safeway.
Granted, I am a bread purist (I used to live above one of the best bakeries on Paris, and I would get a foot and half long of golden crust perfection for 1.5 euros every morning !). Real good French bread is supposed to have a flaky golden crust that breaks into small crumbs when you squeeze it, and the white melts in your mouth with a distinctive nutty-buttery flavor. Gosh, mouth watering just talking about it !
The baguette I just bought at Fendu is nothing like that. The crust is too thick, and overcooked. The white is too elastic, and has barely any flavor.
Something weird: when I was there, the baker was telling another customer "I am happy of the bread today, yesterday's batch did not come like I wanted". Yikes. So I am lucky today, but tomorrow, I might shell out the same $3.75 and get an even crappier piece of junk?
Thanks but no thanks.
Other bakers must just shake their heads and curse the world. "Why can't I make a scone this delicate!!!!"
Fendu is good, really good. The scones are buttery, even the infamous bran muffin was good.
However they are a bit pricey. That comes with the territory when you are undoubtedly using good cream and butter.
I don't know, I'm on the fence with this one. It was really good but somehow it didn't blow my skirt up as much as I had hoped. Something was missing about this place it didn't have a vibe about it.
Seeing that this place is still new, I'll be nice and give it 2 stars. Take that as you will. We tried their pizzas today and well...I was pretty disappointed.
Garlic Shrimp Pizza - What garlic? There is no taste of garlic...even with the slices of garlic on top! What it mainly tastes like is the strips of bell pepper topping.
Cilantro Chicken Pizza - Dry pieces of chicken breast with sprinkles (sparse) of green on top. I love cilantro and and I didn't taste any cilantro...and now I'm reading some other ingredients...I didn't taste any truffle oil or brie cheese...sigh.
Hamakua Mushroom Mania - This is the only okay pizza because it lives up to it's name. It has mushrooms that you can taste.
So yeah that's where it is. I feel like the pizza is too doughy...and I can get better pizza at those fast food chains. Not recommended.
I finally came here because I was craving for a sweet pastry for breakfast and since I got here a bit early I just had to walk around the shopping center till 730a. When they finally opened another lady was waiting and she seemed like a regular because she knew what she wanted the moment we got it. Since it was still the early morning, there wasnt much of a selection but I knew i wanted a tart to begin with so that was alright with me. I got the mascarpone chocolate pear tart for $2+. They also have a lychee tart, biscuits, croissants, cookies, cakes, and breads. When I got in my car and bit into my tart i felt like i was in heaven because the pastry was so delicately flaky the pear filling was good and had this nice glaze to it that wasnt too sweet. The chocolate also added a nice touch but I could have done without. Overall i'd give it a 3 1/2 because the tart was small for $2 worth, and i dont know if it was just the morning, but there were no friendly greetings =(. However, I do want to give it another try some other time.
I don't like reviewing a place after only two trips, or in the first week it is open because I usually like to eat a few things off the menu and give the staff time to work out the kinks. So... I was going to wait a week or so before writing this review however I didn't want the only review to be the two star review below. I'll amend this review afterI visit in the future.
Fendu is a new bakery located in the food wasteland that is Manoa Marketplace. Neil Koep and his staff bake a variety of fresh bread and pastries. Thankfully the "fresh baked bread in Manoa" void left by
Beau Soleil has been filled.
I tried the baguette ($3.50) that the previous reviewer trashed and loved it. The crust was flaky and a great thickness. The bread it self had a great texture and a nice saltiness. I finished a whole loaf by myself dipped in olive oil! Great stuff! This should be excellent sandwich material. I also had tastes of some of their other breads, which were uniformly great.
I also had the shrimp pizza ($10.50 for a very filling eight inches of pizza) and came away disappointed. I prefer thin crust pizza with little cheese. This one came a bit overloaded with cheese to the point that I couldn't really taste the other toppings. Perhaps next time I'll order with half cheese.
My biggest gripe (aside from the pizza) is that there is no bread before 11am. I love having fresh baked bread for breakfast! If the staff would have a couple of loaves of bread ready every weekend morning it would be greatly appreciated!
Overall I am overwhelmingly happy to have a great bakery within walking distance from my house.