La Maison du Chocolat – Ginza

Premier chocolate shop and café in Ginza. La Maison du Chocolat is a famous chocolate brand that opened their first shop in Paris.
So Japan is crazy about premium chocolates. Every February, people (mostly women, but more and more men as well) flock to chocolate stores to buy their Valentines Day Chocolates. It started as a tradition for female to confess their love by giving a chocolate to a guy, but now it is more festive (thus less romantic).
I know that my friends chooses excellent quality chocolate to give out, not because they have have huge crush on someone, but to impress them about their chocolate knowledge. You don’t want to choose a mass produce chocolate that is sold everywhere. Unilocalers want to say, «hey, I bet you never heard about this chocolate shop.»
AS A GIFT TO COMMON PEOPLE:
La Maison du Chocolat would certainly impress «regular» people. These are non-​Yelpers. Most of the people buy their chocolate at a super market or basement floor of department stores. They probably do not know about this place; or perhaps they heard of the the name but never purchased anything here because it is too expensive.
AS A GIFT TO SWEETS FANS:
Too famous to be cool. All sweets fans knows about La Maison du Chocolat and would not look original. You need to dig deeper. After all, there are about 30 branches worldwide.
WHY ONLY 3 STARS:
I know that this stuff is supposed to be «the best». It is worldly famous. However, I never felt wowed by their products. Is it that good?
MATSUYA-​GINZA BRANCH:
In Tokyo, they have 4 branches to my knowledge: Roppongi Hills, Marunouchi’s Kokusai Building, Omotesando near Ao Building, and this branch. As with other branches, there is a shop section and café section. Café is non-​smoking. Their drinks costs about 800 Yen, while their sweets costs around 700 Yen. You can get their combos, which will run about 1500 Yen. Seating area is a bit small; although not too tight for Ginza standards. I wouldn’t come here to spend hours to relax. It is one of those, eat and go kind of places.