Bakkerij Xavier — Restaurant in Antwerp

A day before our wedding we were to receive our wedding cake from bakery Xavier in Borgerhout (Antwerp). My husband and his uncle went to get it and drop it of at our venue. When they arrived at the bakery the owner told them the cake wasn’t ready yet. This was the first red flag.

The second red flag was raised when they didn’t package the cake carefully. The cardboard underneath wasn't one piece but actually two pieces and they weren't glued or tied together so everything was really wobbly and it glided around. They didn't even warn my husband about this.

The third red flag arose when my sister, friend and I saw the cake. That cliché feminine eye for detail... The cake was an absolute disgrace! I could not believe a professional bakery with tons of good online reviews gave us such an abomination.

The cake was obviously still hot when the fondant was put on top (at the top layer you could see the chocolate cake peeking out). The three layers weren’t symmetrically cut or placed upon each other in the slightest. They were wobbly cut because of freestyle cutting instead of using a mold. The fondant ribbon was placed without care. It actually accentuated how bad the cake was cut and the ends of the ribbon (visual rips) weren’t even placed on the same side to make it less noticeable. So it looked bad from all sides. It looked like a hobbyist had put something together really fast. We had asked for a Schwarzwalder filling but upon cutting the cake to look at the damage inside it became clear that there were almost no cherries to be found nor an adequate amount of cream. The cake itself didn’t really taste chocolatey but rather just sugary. So besides looking horrendous it didn’t even taste good. The cake layers started to drift apart and slide off after a while. Probably because the cake was still too hot inside the fondant outer layer.

So less than half a day before our wedding we found out that we had no...

This is one of the best bakeries in town. It has a very large assortment of breads, pastries, cakes and biscuits. The bakery also sells dairy products, eggs, bread spreads, charcuterie and candy. Some items can be a bit pricey compared to other places. It is best to order beforehand if you are planning to go on a Sunday, because the queue can be quite long. The staff is lovely and helpful if you have a diffuclt...

Het brood was de laatste keren dat we kwamen steeds niet genoeg gebakken. Je eet dus eigenlijk ongebakken deeg... Wij kwamen hier 5 jaar aan een stuk maar zijn hiermee gestopt. Wat mij stoort is het feit dat de prijzen enorm gestegen zijn en de broden steeds kleiner worden. De grootte van de pistolets is al helemaal om te lachen, dat zijn werkelijk mini-pistolets vergeleken met andere bakkers. De koffiekoeken zijn sowieso te vermijden. Dus jammer genoeg is Xavier aan ons een klant verloren. Als hij zijn pistolets verdubbelt (in grootte, niet in prijs!) en zijn broden deftig afbakt komen we...