The Best Hot Chocolate "à l'ancienne" in Paris

cup of hot chocolate When we moved to Paris, it was winter, and it was COLD. The last time we lived in Paris, we'd had a favourite place to get hot chocolate which sat on the Place des Vosges. Sadly, although the restaurant was still there, their menu had changed, and they didn't have the hot chocolate we had liked so much.

So we started searching, working our way down a list Time Out had assembled (link below), which it turned out was quite good. We also stopped anywhere we could that sold something they called 'chocolat chaud à l'ancienne'.

The Best - Angelina

We went to two locations for Angelina's hot chocolate ("Le chocolat chaud à l’ancienne dit 'l’Africain'"), because it was the first one we tried, and we wanted to be sure it was as good as we thought. The first place we had it was in the Renault showroom on the Champs Elysees. Yup. But it's a really interesting space and kind of crazy, and the chocolate is amazing. We then went to their cafe at Versailles, and it was as good as we remembered it.

Honorable Mention - Jean-Paul Hévin

Although there were definitely non-French speakers in the cafe, this one felt the most like somewhere French people go to get hot chocolate. Very refined.

Honorable Mention - Un Dimanche à Paris

Their small takeaway hot chocolate is the same as they serve in the cafe, and is both sized and priced right. Nice and thick, great flavor.

Others

Café de Flore - their Viennoise (they didn't have an ancienne on the menu) was OK, but for the price, you can do better.
Ladurée - their cafe near Opera has a lovely, lovely interior. Chocolate (with or without Chantilly) is excellent, but for our purposes not thick enough. We also had their hot chocolate at their Champs-Élysées location, and it was strangely gritty.
Foucher - Good. I got this as takeaway, so I'm not sure what their salon de thé is like.
Jeff de Bruges - we had the "intense", which is pretty thick. It was good, but in the end "Not Special". Nicely fruity, not too floral - 'way better than a lot of hot chocolates' but in this company, not good enough.

Avoid

Amorino - they offer a wide assortment of hot chocolate, including an ancienne, but it wasn't very thick at all. It may also have only been available for a limited time, or at certain stores, as I wasn't able to find it the next time we went. It also had a strong floral note, maybe lavender, that was much too strong for my liking.
Cafe Martini - I saw this place on someone's list as having the thickest hot chocolate in Paris. When we went, it turned out they don't sell hot chocolate at all (anymore?)

More info

In addition to the list Time Out made, My French Life also has a nice list of hot chocolates (and a map!).

Finally, if you find yourself in London try the hot chocolate at Apostrophe. It's not Parisian, but it's super-thick and super-tasty!

Please let me know if this has been helpful! If you've had a hot chocolate in Paris, tell everyone about it!

Content by David Barber - image by Robyn Lee and facebook image by Herrick under Creative Commons (because I keep forgetting to take a photo of my hot chocolates, darn it!)