La Midinette — Restaurant in Saint-Jean-de-l'Île-d'Orléans

What an awful experience. My partner and I visited this bakery for the first time this weekend. We love to go to different bakeries in Quebec and this one obviously came up during our visit of the island. I always love to take my time to look at what a bakery has, the way their pastries look like - don't expect this from this place, the employees completely rush you to take an order. Super stressful. They also completely disregarded me when I asked what kind of pizza they had - the lady only pointed to the board which wasn't easy to see in the first place. Not only that but she barely listened when I told her the ingredients we wanted and ended up messing up the order... This is more of a "touristy" bakery, if you are looking for good quality "viennoiseries", believe me, this is not it. Their almond croissant (which to me is the ultimate test of a bakery's skills for viennoiseries), is awful and not done...

It is my go to stop for continental breakfast on the island. The staff is pure franca phone so be warned. If you are not conversant in french you better be good at pantomime.if you are looking for obsequious bilingual service go to Quebec city. The service is efficient and while the staff is not effusive they react very happily to a merci and s'il vous plait. This is not a table service but counter take out service situated in the old Manse of the Parish. It offers both inside and outside casual seating for about 45 people. Coffee is individually brewed in a large professional expresso machine and superb. Hand made individual pizza is made on demand and takes about 15 minutes. The croissants are excellent and especially the almond paste. Brioche are likewise excellent but the real treat are the canelle cakes. As for wait times it depends on how many people have...

The number one expectation of eating at a bakery (especially a French boulangerie) is FRESH bread.

We ate a full lunch and ordered the assorted bread basket. What we got was toasted day old baguette bread and a piece of foccaccia. When I asked if I could possibly get a fresh slice of the beautiful type displayed in the front, I got more old bread.

Aspargus is in season and abundant on the ile right now and that was a feature of the salad. I got what might be two skinny stalks chopped up, minus the tips (did the cook eat those?)

The a la carte $18 sandwich was less than exciting. The pizza looked good, so maybe that's what reviews are mainly based on.

We're getting tired of paying premium prices for cafes that maximize profits by cutting corners. When you charge high, just do better....