New Cafe TiensTiens in Sanlitun Courtyard 4 Makes a Mean Pain au Chocolat

The latest addition to Courtyard 4 in Sanlitun is TiensTiens, a French-style bakery, dining spot, and coffee shop with an incredibly punny name (tiens tiens meaning 'well well' in French, and sounding like the word tian for 'sweet' in Mandarin). The window displays plenty of interestingly designed sweet cakes and pastries. Enter at your own risk ...
 

Staff are friendly, and will guide you through the few different seating areas on different platforms with a tree weaving through the middle and plenty of other greenery making for a relaxing environment and adding privacy. While it was relatively busy on a Friday afternoon, it seemed that most customers came in to take baked goods away.
 

We tried the pain au chocolat (RMB 18), and the prof es chocolats (RMB 48). The pain au chocolat was huge and almost worth the inflated price, but the profiteroles were slightly disappointing: they looked better than they tasted and cost an arm and a leg. The chocolate cream filling was a little bit too sweet, and one of the profiteroles tasted slightly of mint inside, an unpleasant surprise for someone who can't stand mint in chocolate.
 

My latte (RMB 30) was excellent though, and not much more expensive than other good coffee in the area. If that doesn't have you sold, you can drink their fairtrade GoodWorks beans with a clear conscience.
 

If you're looking for truffles (RMB 9 a piece), macarons (RMB 18 a piece) or caramels (RMB 8 a piece) they've got a whole range of those with stylish packaging available, as well as a selection of artisan bread (wholegrain baguettes at RMB 20, and pain au noix at RMB 38 per loaf).
 

While the prices of the cakes shocked us, we'll most certainly be coming to treat ourselves to the wholegrain breads and pastries, as there aren't many good carbie alternatives in the city. Next visit, we'll be checking out their salads and sandwiches.

TiensTiens
Daily 9am-10pm. Courtyard 4, Gongti Beilu, Chaoyang District (next to Rouge) (8587 8897)
朝阳区工体北路4号院（Rouge旁边）

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Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
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Photos: Margaux Schreurs