by isabelle ouyang and paulina farley-kuzmina
Located in the tiny and unassuming Danor Plaza down Maple Avenue in Vienna, Crêpe Amour is a recently-opened cafe that serves an assortment of crepes and beverages. The new crêperie might not look like much from the outside, but upon walking in, we were greeted with minimalist-urban decor,shelves of Nutella, smooth jazz and a chic-looking crêpe bar all facing the glass entrance. To say Crêpe Amour is on the small side is an understatement. The crêperie is only slightly bigger than a typical street stand, providing only nine seats, but allows for just enough room so that customers can avoid any awkward encounters with other tables.
Luckily, the store was empty, allowing us to browse the menu slowly without having to wait in line. On a busy day, this may prove to be more of a concern. The overhead music is nice, but can contribute to loudness. The chalkboard menus, which add a cozy charm, are missing the prices. Grab a paper menu instead, located next to the register. The menu offers a wide variety of specialty beverages, and two types of crêpes: savory and sweet. The prices are a bit of a splurge, but won’t put a major dent in your wallet. Upon ordering, there was some confusion: instead of chocolate milk, we were served hot chocolate. The staff was polite and apologetic, and immediately brought us the correct order.
Our first two savory crêpes took about five minutes to make and were brought to our table. We ordered the spicy Bachan crepe, a curry-filled crêpe drizzled with cilantro sauce and fruity chutney; and the DaVinci, which had chicken and tomato covered in a fresh pesto sauce. While the fillings were tasty, the crêpes themselves were soggy at the bottoms and crusty on the sides, which will leave much to be desired by a regular crêpe enthusiast. The DaVinci was pretty standard with an ordinary taste, but good nonetheless. The Bachan was spicy and flavorful, and paid homage to the Indian origin of the family that owns the restaurant. The sweet crêpe, a fruity Madagascar crêpe and chocolatey Bananalicious, arrived minutes later. They tasted significantly better, and were not as soggy as the savory ones.
Overall the crêpes were enjoyable to eat, the restaurant proved to be a pleasurable environment and the prices were somewhat reasonable. Nonetheless we were lucky to have arrived on a day that was not busy, otherwise our experience may have been quite different.