Review: LEGO 10362 French Café
8
It’s always an exciting time when LEGO Icons debuts a new sub-theme/format that’s geared towards adult builders. 10362 French Café is the first of what I hope are many “Restaurants of the World”, a compact bookshelf display model that’s aimed at LEGO fans who want an aesthetically-pleasing structure, without the space and/or budget that you’d typically need to invest in LEGO Modular Buildings.
I built my model and walked away very impressed, even though the set is mostly just a facade of a atypical French Cafe, it still managed to surprise and delight me with incredibly complex, clever and challenging build techniques that seasoned LEGO fans will absolutely adore.
10362 French Café will be released on 1 March 2025, and will be available from LEGO.com or your local LEGO Store.
See below for pricing and product pages:
- 10362 French Café [US] – US$79.99
- 10362 French Café [AUS] – AU$129.99
- 10362 French Café [UK] – £69.99
- 10362 French Café [EU] – €79.99
- 10362 French Café [CA] – CAD$99.99
Let’s jump into this review!
Special thanks to LEGO for sending this set over for review. If you’re planning on purchasing or pre-ordering this set, please consider using the affiliate links in this post. I may earn a small commission with each purchase that helps support the work I do on the blog!
10362 French Café Set Details
10362 French Café
10362
French Café
N/A
1,101
US$79.99 / AU$129.99 / £69.99 / €79.99
1 March 2025
Đặng Hoàng (@know.your.pieces), Graphics by Nathan Davis (@obvian)
Here’s a look at the instructions manual, which has a brief introduction to Cafe Fleur, the fictional and picturesque French Cafe that you’re about to build.
The manual also has a brief introduction to set designer Đặng Hoàng (@know.your.pieces on Instagram), a relatively new LEGO Designer who currently works on the Icons team who most recently, designed the Retro Radio, an exquisitely designed set that’s one of my favourites from 2024, and after building this set, I’m even more convinced that he’s one to watch in the LEGO Icons team.
Building the LEGO French Cafe
The French Cafe has zero stickers, which is always a great omen that you’re about to build a really good set and I hope that this trend continues for more LEGO Icons sets.
There are new printed pieces such as this flag which serves as a chalkboard, and also a delightful signboard, which contains a LEGO Flower and really nice serif typography.
The decorations on this set are immaculate, and those include these transparent window panes, doors and even book covers which elevate the set design in a subtle manner.
There are 9 bags in the build, and here’s a step by step album on how the French Cafe comes together. It was a really fun build, possibly one of the most rewarding building experiences of 2025 since the Tudor Corner, but at a much smaller and finer scale.
The build sits on a slim 8×38-stud black base, which works as a standalone base that has a minimal look, to draw your eyes up to the beautiful nougaty building.
The one thing I really liked about the build is that it felt just right for an enjoyable experience. It’s something that you can knock out in a few hours of leisurely building, and I marvelled at each bag and the clever geometry, ingenious build techniques and little flourishes that were added along the way.
For example, this incredible technique that you encounter at the start of the build for the pavement, built sideways and cleverly using negative space for the leafy details.
For fans of LEGO geometry, there are plenty of fun angles to work with throughout the build that speaks to some of the crazy math/engineering work that’s gone into the design process.
Here’s the completed model, and it’s a really gorgeous set. The French Cafe’s primary appeal in my opinion is the colour scheme, which leans heavily on Light Nougat, with green and dark green for contrasting pops of detail, and Medium Nougat and Pearl Gold for complementary accents.
The facade, especially the curved arch on the front which has a very organic design looks brilliant, but I’m not a fan of the use of the white string with grips that curve around, as I think it detracts from the brickwork and lines surrounding the Cafe Fleur signboard.
The light nougat leaf is a really subtle but great-looking detail that’s just hiding in plain sight.
Throughout the build, there are plenty of fine details – I really like these little arches on the side, which has a pearl gold bucket handle on the inside, plus the transparent awning for added details.
The entrance features some lovely curves on the pillars that flank the door, and the green frame and transparent doors also look exquisite.
There’s actually some tiny space dedicated to interiors on the inside, but they’re not really functional interiors – more of a if you peek through the doors, you can see some stuff inside, such as a cash register, table with a cupcake on it, and a chair.
And on the outside, there are tables and chairs with coffee, pastries, and newspapers, which really give the set a Parisian vibe.
They’re there not just for exterior details, but to invoke the vibe of people-watching as you sip coffee on the streets of Paris, people-watching as the city hums.
Here’s the back, which is quite ugly but in quite a intentional way. LEGO are clearly designing this for fans and adults who just want a pretty display model to admire, or use as a decorative element in their home.
These are adult fans who don’t really want to interact or play with a set after they’re done, and are perfectly happy displaying this on a bookshelf, or against a wall, so you know what, I don’t really mind the lack of anything on the back, because I have plenty of LEGO sets in my own home whose backs are against a wall.
There are these little headlight bricks on the back on the sides of the base… which look quite intentional. I think that if this set proves successful, and we get more Restaurants of the World sets, this might be a clue to future connections that will be possible.
The scale is a little odd as it’s not quite minifigure scale, although in some ways, it does seem minifigure-scale, mostly because of the chairs, and accessories that are in use. The size of the doors also really point to this being minifigure-scale, and I think the set does look fine with minifigures added to breathe some life into it, and make it look less like a lifeless sterile model.
Funnily enough, I tried adding some Fabuland minifigures… and they actually work slightly better than LEGO minifigures!
Chatting to the LEGO Designer in a roundtable interview, Hoàng did say that it was the LEGO Design Team’s intention to differentiate it from other minifigure-scale Icons sets. Based on research done internally, it was found that people didn’t really associate roleplay features (such as minifigures) with decorative items, so the decision was made to not keep this to minifigure-scale and instead, make the scale and proportions something completely new.
What I liked:
- Gorgeous architecture and colours make this such an aesthetic model
- Very fun build experience with techniques and geometry that experienced fans will love
- Decent value plus all printed-elements
- Looks attractive on display
- Compact and not particularly intimidating
What I didn’t like:
- White string around the arch looks awkward
- Feels a little lifeless without minifigures
Final Thoughts
10362 French Café is an entirely new concept within LEGO Icons, that I think has plenty of potential. It’s clearly aimed at LEGO fans or fans new to LEGO who prize aesthetics, and want something cute and pretty to display on their bookshelves or homes, much like LEGO Botanicals.
I do think the Botanicals were the impetus for this Restaurants of the World collection, as there are a lot of similarities in the type of consumer LEGO has in mind for this nascent theme.
The set’s accessible US$79.99 / AU$129.99 price tag is quite welcoming, and I think this is a great way to introduce complex LEGO building and architecture without having to splurge hundreds of dollars on the latest LEGO Modular building.
In many ways, it does feel like a condensed LEGO Modular. You’re still getting really fun, challenging and interesting build techniques with a sole focus on facade architecture, but within more compact footprint and a less intimidating price-point.
I’m a big fan of the size, and the 1000-piece count, as it’s not a set that you have to spend a whole lot of time on (at the detriment of losing space on your dining table for days), and the end product is sleek, and easy to display. The easy to display drawcard cannot be stated enough. For many of us long-time LEGO fans, our main challenge is finding space for all these new exciting releases, and the 10362 French Café‘s small footprint assures that you won’t need to stress too much about creating space for it.
I do think the lack of minifigures ultimately hurts its appeal, especially to longtime LEGO fans. For so many of us, LEGO = Minifigures, and they represent an inseparable part of the LEGO Hobby, and so it does feel quite jarring without them, especially for a model that’s called a French Cafe. The lack of minifigures does make the model feel very static and a little lifeless, but that’s a relatively easy problem to fix if you like me, insist on having minifigures!
10362 French Café represents an exciting new possibility for LEGO Icons, taking many of its winning ingredients – nice parts usage, advanced build techniques and a beautiful model, and shrinking it down into a small but charming model that’s more accessible to new fans, while at the same time, delivering a lot of value and joy to even veteran fans like myself.
If you were on the fence about this set, I would definitely recommend it, mostly because it won’t break the bank, but you’ll likely be surprised by how much you’ll enjoy building the 10362 French Café, and how different yet familiar it feels to the Modulars. It does kinda feel like the love-child of a LEGO Modular Building and LEGO Architecture!
I can’t wait to see what other Restaurants of the World fit into this series, and for various countries and regions to have their architecture and culture celebrates in this new form factor.
Final Score
Audience rating
10362 French Café will be released on 1 March 2025, and will be available from LEGO.com or your local LEGO Store.
What do you think of the LEGO French Cafe set? Do you see and get the appeal of models like this?
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