I stumbled across Pierre Marcolini in the early 90s on the Place du Grand Sablon, in their little humble shop, and couldn't believe how good it was. Some of their things were about the best money can buy. This is before they built what looks like a museum (the newer store) down the street, and everything became so perfect. Their stuff is still great, but it has lost a bit of its appeal to me.

Leonida's is average. There is a store in SF which I went to last year and bought a few pieces, and it seemed pretty average, even by US standards (although there are several very good artisan confectioners in the area, so maybe by standards have changed) because it wasn't even as good as I remember it from Europe several years ago.