LaHave Bakery — Restaurant in LaHave

We visited the Lehave Bakery last year while on vacation and while buying our own Nova Scotia property because we were in love with the area. We were also in love with the LeHave Bakery it had the most delicious food and the atmosphere and authenticity seemed out of a storybook. So maritime and also so unique in and of itself. Unfortunately the experience yesterday on our 2nd visit, I can only compare it to the saying, “never meet your heroes” because you’ll be disappointed. Last year when we were given buzzers I remember thinking “wow this place must be that good, it’s so busy they’ve come up with a system to combat the rush” So this time, enthusiastically we went into a line 10 deep to order sandwiches. We were given the buzzer again and told it would be only 15 minutes. This was good because we would have time to catch the ferry across to see Rose Bay, another quaint area on our list. We took the buzzer, it never buzzed and after 20 minutes we asked a staff member what happened and all she did was explain how the buzzer worked and offered no other explanation at all. We went back to the side window to see if the order was there, there was no one. After the 30 minutes we found another employee who said they would look into it and said they were having problems with the system and took the order again without admitting the order had never been taken in the first place. So an hour later we had our lunch, we’d missed 2 ferries and the sales staff didn’t offer any compensation, lacked empathy and we left feeling extremely sad the memory we had of LeHave bakery from a year ago, was not the same place. Now the the buzzers only remind me of East Side Mario’s. The casualness of the employees was once charming and now feels uncaring and a bit pretentious. What a shame this is truly a gem. The only thing we can think is something has got to give, the sandwiches are so nice but customer service is going to suffer. We acknowledge the staff is most likely overworked in the summer. If the manager is reading this, please give your staff the authority to give somebody some kind of compensation in a situation like this, ask them to try to use empathy and soften a bit when customers have to...

This restaurant was recommended to me for breakfast and I have to say that it was a major disappointment.

There were only two choices, a $4.50 bagel with cream cheese or the b wrap for $14.00. We choose the b wraps which were ok but not tasty enough they I would get another one.

Where I was most disappointed was the absolute lack of service. Full of kitsch to appear down home you had to order at the counter, get your own coffee ($1 to refill it yourself), they give you a gizmo they buzzed so you would come back to the counter to get your own meal (which was 6 feet from where we were sitting), and you are expected to bus your own table, also sorting the recyclables.

Having grown up in a restaurant family and having worked at that restaurant I can't abide poor service and that is what this spot provided. Won't be back.

The dead flower in the vase about summed up our experience here.

Didn't get any but the baked goods...

We finally made it to the LaHave bakery a few days ago, and I can see what all the fuss is about. We got some bread, savoury pies, jams, a mustard vinaigrette, some sweet baked goods and some coffee, and it was all wonderful. Like, all of it. Not a thing to complain about with any of it. I already can’t wait to go back to try more things - absolutely delicious!

Edit: We've been back twice since the original review, and the baked goods have been consistently awesome. The one thing that has been consistently less-than-awesome are their lattes - the espresso doesn't have that honey-thick syrupy deliciousness that you crave in a good latte. It's watery and a little burnt-tasting, and sadly leaves a bit to be desired. I'd give it a 2 or 3 stars, but the overall review still deserves 5 because everything else...