I've been craving macarons in Eindhoven; and unfortunately, they aren't easily available in the…read moreNetherlands. So when I googled this place, I was super excited to check it out! Once you arrive on Halvemaanstraat, you'll see a big industrial warehouse-looking complex; Pinkie Patisserie is located within the renovated/partitioned warehouse, with the entrance around the corner. The place itself is small, but there are places to sit if you would like.
But on to the macarons! I arrived close to closing time, and it seemed that instead of being able to pick from a spread of flavors, you just directly buy the prepackaged box (either 6 or 12). Of course, there are small bags if you only wanted to buy a few. Each macaron, regardless of packaging, is 1 euro. That's a real steal! Almost as cheap as at French McDonald's hahaha.
The flavors available that day were: Vanilla, Lemon, Salted Caramel, "Blueberry" (?), Violet, Apricot, Pistachio, and Cherry. Blueberry is in quotes because the man at the counter (the patissier, I believe) told me it was Blueberry; but considering that blueberry is already so rare in the Netherlands, I'd venture that it was actually cassis. It certainly didn't taste like blueberry. I wanted to switch out one of the macarons in my box, but instead of switching it out, the man was super nice and just gave me the other one I wanted, on the house. Six euros for seven macarons?! Also, I asked him if they were made on-site, and he said, "Yes, I spent all day making them!"
The macarons were generally good, though the texture varied a little. In some, the shells were perfectly crunchy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside; but in others, the inside was a little more dry, with the foot of the macaron almost as tough as the inside of a meringue. But that's okay, they were still yummy.
My favorite would have to be the Violet. It was freaking amazing. The flavors brought back so many memories of eating taro ice cream in my childhood (for some reason the two flavors are similar), and even after I ate other ones, the violet stayed on my tongue. One day I will go back and pre-order an entire box of violet macarons.
"Blueberry" and Apricot were my least favorite. Mostly because the fillings were jams. I didn't have Cherry, but presumably that one is also a jam. Also, "blueberry" had a salted taste to it, and almost reminded me of sweet soy sauce. Finally, the salted caramel macaron has caramel as the filling. All of the other ones were flavored buttercream, I believe.
I would have given this place four stars for the macarons themselves (already a good rating!), but because (1) the patissier was so nice, (2) this is literally one of the only places I can get macarons in Eindhoven, (3) it was so cheap, and (4) I will definitely be going back, five stars!
