Angelina

There is usually a line outside, but you can reserve on LaFourchette. You can get a hot chocolate and pastry to go, if you want to.
The interior and the hot chocolate are good, but the service and the rest of the food isn't very good.

A better experience would be to go to Laduree on Champs-Elysees. The room is very lovely, so is the service, and the food is much better. Reservations are taken for the upstairs restaurant, but not the tea salon - you can reserve on LaFourchette.

There are a wide variety of opinions here about Angelina. Although I haven't been in a few years, I find their Chocolat a l'Africaine to be unique and a guilty treat. I have no doubt that Laduree might have a purer cacao taste to the Feinschmeker, or a higher percentage assay of cocoa liquor (or whatever), but that won't change my loyalty.

I have seen many locals, not only tourists at the Angelina on Rivoli. I hope to visit another branch sometime to compare. I've only made a reservation once, because we had limited time. Usually we just go. I would comment that reservations are, especially in Europe, a sort of "respectful" gesture that can pay dividends in greeting or seating location. That's assuming you are on time!

I have been to the Angelina located on the edge of the Luxembourg gardens by the art museum. Tiny but lovely.

Agree with chexbres about Angelina. It's worth looking at the decor on your way elsewhere, even if it is in all the guidebooks. That said, I'll still pop into the small one June mentioned to try the African chocolate Tim mentioned, but I don't expect any gracious service a la française.

It's a wonderful guilty pleasure. I love it.

We each got hot chocolate and a pastry to go; I didn't even know they served lunch but I don't feel like I'm missing out. The hot chocolate was so freakin' good, nothing savory could top it.

Their Africaine is out of this world. A millefeuille and l'Africaine....a match made in heaven.

Had the Angelina hot chocolate after seeing the exhibit in the Luxembourg Museum this morning. No line, most customers were Parisian musum goers, service was done correctly, so to conclude--poke your head into rue de Rivoli to see the beautiful room but imbibe elsewhere either Angelina, Hevin, or other.

Funny story about Angelina...we were told by the greeter who let us into our apartment that the hot chocolate was a "must". We stopped into the Rue de Rivoli location and got a hot chocolate and pastry to go. Imagine my surprise when I took the first sip and it tasted exactly like the chocolate my grandmother in Kentucky used to make to pour over homemade biscuits. While it is to die for, it is not unique to Paris!

The mythic "Africain" has changed completed and been re-formulated. It is available in bottles at Angelina and at Le Bon Marche, as well as in airports.

About 15 years ago, you were served a pot of hot cream with an unsweetened dark chocolate bar sticking out of it. You were to stir it until it melted, add whipped cream, then drink it. It was extremely dark, not sweet, and like pudding.
Apparently, not many people cared for it, so when Angelina underwent a management change, the formula was changed to suit them.

The combination of hot chocolate and a Mont Blanc pastry is suicidal.