Le Comptoir, Ritz Paris

Le Comptoir on the rue Cambon is the Ritz Paris pastry kitchen sold over a marble counter: François Perret’s madeleines, the marble cake, the tarts of the season, and a few café tables for those who cannot wait.

The Ritz opened Le Comptoir in 2021 around the corner from the place Vendôme, on the rue Cambon side of the hotel where Coco Chanel once walked to her atelier. It is a bright, modern counter with a long marble display, a small salon and a menu that changes with the pastry kitchen upstairs: the Ritz madeleine in its shell of gold, the marble cake, the honey and the vanilla desserts of François Perret, croissants in the morning and a lunch of savoury tarts.

The prices are a fraction of the salon’s and the pieces are the same. The queue forms at opening on weekends and again at four; the calm hour is early afternoon on a weekday.

What to buy

• The Ritz madeleine, six in a box
• The marble cake, whole or by the slice
• The strawberry tart in May and June
• The honey cake
• A croissant before ten