Jeff de Bruges

The chocolates are good. Not amazing but what sets this apart is the service. The manager Raks is very helpful. He did me a special order for my 50^th and has since done corporate gift orders. Even calling me to confirm delivery by DHL. The clients were delighted by what they received. A good shop with unusually helpful service.

This Belgian chocolate boutique seems perfectly situated on the trendy yet upmarket street of South Molton. The chocolates are trying to be high end, yet modern and with a bit more kick. Sophisticated packaging in brown and blue and some cute holiday shaped chocolates allow it to stand out from the norm. Yet… the the first blush of excitement misses the mark somewhat and not because of the chocolates which are tasty enough.
What threw me was the unnecessarily pretentious attitude of the shop assistant. He felt the need to take the simplest thing and complicate it with long winded explanations all in an attempt to make it sound bigger, better, and brighter. I think he fancied himself a Public Relations assistant for chocolate of some kind. He is the sort of guy that, for example, if it had been a pastry shop and you asked for a slice of chocolate cake, he would have said «That is not chocolate cake, it is a tarte au chocolate…» In other words it is the exact thing you said it was but he has decided to dress it up in a bow, give it a French pronunciation and somehow make it appear some how a bit more flash. Not to mention taking a perverse joy in correcting you. He is that type of guy. I asked where the chocolates were made. A simple answer would be to name a place, he instead opted for some sort of politically correct answer by saying the chocolates were «made in Bruges (a slight pause) but with a special French recipe…» Hmmmm… Bruges, home of world wide fame to chocolate would have done it for me, but now these are made with a French recipe… does that make them better? or a case of too many cooks in the kitchen type of problem. It was these sort of statements along with the need to make even the simplest answer more complicated that made me want to get out of there fast. I bought a couple small items and ran.
And while the chocolates are very nice, smooth, and creamy, Neuhaus chocolates is 2 doors down so I think I will go there next time where a candy bar is still called a candy bar.

Jeff de Bruges is a well known French chocolate chain although strangely enough all the chocolate is made in Bruges (hence the name). This is the only store they have in London and they are quite proud of it.
The chocolates are quite tasty but as this was the last stop on the chocolate tour they weren’t enough to really push it past some of the delights sampled earlier in the day.
The parts I did like were the creativeness in the design of chocolates. The Easter specials went beyond the typical eggs (which you can fill with smaller chocolates of your choice) to cool cows, fish, hens, pigs, and ice cream cones. Not sure what they all had to do with Easter but I enjoyed the variety regardless.
Another cool touch was the hot chocolate stick. you basically buy the stick in either milk or dark and then get a boiling mug of milk. As you stir the milk with the chocolate blob at the end of the stick, it dissolves and within minutes you have a steaming hot cup of drinking chocolate. Brilliant!
They will shortly be opening their ice cream stand and that is something to go back for as the quality and variety of ice creams, gelatos, and sorbets are a winner that puts them ahead of the pack. More to come on that soon!

I was at the Jeff de Bruges today, i must say the young lady there was very helpful, I was looking for chocolate truffles, sadly, according to the french, truffles are for Xmas.
She’s very attentive, although, i didn’t get what i was looking for, instead i bought their specialties Rochers & Ecorces, they look scrumptious!
Unlike many other so called ”commercial’ shop assistants across central London, she was very sincere!
I’m looking forward for my truffles & their VIP event the end of the month.

Jeff de Bruges is a national chain representing the cheaper end of the expensive Belgian chocolate domain, if that makes sense. You can pick your own selection or just grab one of the ready-​wrapped ballotins (little boxes) that are sold by weight. They do tasty soft-​whip ice creams in the summer months too.

Jeff de Bruges est situé en face du centre Jaures et peut donc attirer beaucoup de monde avec sa vitrine alléchantes Vous y trouverez toutes sortes de chocolats (blanc, au lait, noir) mais aussi des boites de chocolats idéales à offrir en cadeau, ainsi que des glaces à emporter et d’autres friandises. Seul hic: les prix élevés.