Paul Restaurant, Café and Bakery — Restaurant in Vancouver

I recently visited Paul’s Bakery here in Vancouver, thinking I was in for a treat as I've never had a single issue at any Paul in France, regardless of location. Every single one I've been to has been great, and I've been to many, many Pauls over the past few years. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for this Paul, and I feel compelled to share my experiences over three visits.

First Visit: My first experience was mixed. The food was fantastic—I ordered the lobster eggs benedict for breakfast and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, the service left much to be desired. My server wasn’t rude, but her demeanor felt cold; she didn’t smile or engage with me after taking my order, which made the atmosphere uncomfortable. I tipped her 20% nevertheless, as I know tipping culture is a big thing in North America.

Second Visit: On my second visit, I opted for takeaway. The café wasn’t very busy initially, but as I waited, more customers arrived. The lady at the counter started off friendly but seemed to become irritated towards the end of my transaction. After she prepared my bag, she gestured for the next person in line to come forward and plopped my bag of food in front of me without saying a word or even looking at me. She even threw away my receipt straight from the credit card machine without asking if I needed it. Okay, fine—I figured she felt overwhelmed by the sudden line that formed after me. This still, however, left me feeling a bit unpleasant. Also, the pastries were all very dry and stale. They were definiteley not fresh, and I paid full price for them too.

Third Visit: The third visit was the final straw. I came with a friend and was told to find a seat on our own, which we did. We chose a table, and I remember walking towards it while one of the servers stared at us from a distance as we sat down. That same server then approached us as soon as we sat down, asking us if we were sure about sitting there. After we confirmed, she went to another server and pointed at us while discussing our choice, which I found quite rude. The other server then came to our table and insisted that we needed to move to another table, otherwise they would have to set it up. This left me confused and frustrated. Why should I, as a customer, be inconvenienced like that? We were told to choose any table, but then we can't choose the one we wanted? Telling us, "Otherwise we would need to set up this table for you," felt so odd and discourteous. What’s the issue with setting up a table for us? They would have to set it up later anyways, and there were only five other people in the café since we arrived quite early. The time it took for the servers to watch us walk to our table and discuss our choice could have easily been spent preparing the table we wanted.

To top it off, when our food arrived, my lobster eggs benedict was cold and contained very very little lobster, while my friend rated her waffles a mere 2.5/5. We also overheard the table next to us commenting that their food was quite bland. To add to the discomfort, we noticed one of the servers—the same one who moved us—attempting to rush them out by trying to take their plates multiple times, even while they were still eating.

Overall, my experience at this Paul café has been very disappointing, and I don’t plan on returning any time soon. I sincerely hope management addresses these issues. It’s such a shame to see such a well-regarded franchise underperform this badly. I of course do not expect a 5* hotel experience, but I've had better service at McDonald's and Timmy's than...

I went to Paul's today and was sorely disappointed in my experience. There were 2 key issues with what went wrong.

Poor layout.

You walk into the restaurant, and on the left is a display case with pastries & bread you can order at the cashier. On the right is a large seating area where you can enjoy whatever you order. The room for the lineup to the cashier is way too cramped. There's realistically room for like 5-7 people, so if you come in with a group, it's so cramped. Also, when you finish getting your food, you have to walk back past the line to get to a table or leave the place. But it's so cramped you have to push past people when people are holding hot coffee or pastries on a small plate. Past the cashier area on the left, there's a seating area in the back.

I went into Paul's to try the poutine, so it's so confusing if you wait in the line for the pastries because there's all this restaurant seating and servers walking around. This is where i encountered my Second Major Issue: The Customer Service.

So i already mentioned there's this tiny area for the cashier and where you line up but to make it worse the staff seems completely untrained. There were maybe 5 sets of people infront of me and it was taking 5-7 minutes per group to take orders and process payment. Two of the groups infront of me just left after the slow service.

While waiting in line i saw all these servers walking around to tables so i asked one of the servers if i needed to wait in line if I was eating dinner. He told me no and i could take a table and he'd bring me a menu. So I asked to use the outside seating and he said ok. I went outside and a couple minutes pass and he comes out to tell me they cant serve dinner outside. I needed to get back in line and order at the cashier. Thankfully the other people in line let me back in.

So I wait 15 minutes total in line to order my food and eventually get to the cashier. She was so confused that i wanted to order poutine and had to ask her manager to help. He advised her and she was able to put my order into the till and bill me. I was given a table number and said i could choose any table.

Past the cashier if you keep going theres another large seating area that's not really noticeable from the entrance. So i sit down there and wait for my food. I notice that the servers walking around do actually bring some people menus and take their orders at the tables. I was so shocked. So i waited 15 minutes in line when i could have just sat down and been served!!

Regarding the food, i ordered the Poutine with Chicken Breast added on. They do a build your own poutine for 14.50 + extras. The base poutine comes with fries, chicken gravy, parsley, cheese curds, & crispy quinoa. The poutine itself was really good, large servings of fries, cheese & gravy for the price. It honestly would have been a 10/10 but the chicken gravy was so bland. It needed a lot more salt or chicken juice when it was made. I've tried a lot of poutine places across Vancouver and the most important part is the gravy, if it's bland the entire dish is meh.

I'd give it a 7.5/10 for the food but accounting for the customer service & layout I'd give my experience a 4/10 as a whole. Really dissapointing. I hope management sees peoples feedback and can fix these issues...

TL;DR - Not bad. A more subdued flavour compared to others, also more pricey. Come later when there isn't a long wait. Wait a bit before looking at reviews since a lot of the 5 star reviews right now are from before they even opened...

I tried Paul's out on their soft opening week as I have been on the lookout for this place since they started renovations early last year.

Long wait aside (everyone else seems to be excited too), they're currently only doing bread, pastries, coffees and pre-made pizza/salads for takeout. The baked goods are supposed to be on a rotational basis so you might not get what you see on the pictures on the day of. I've been told the dine-in menus will start later once COVID restrictions change. That's fair.

I ordered a mocha, a croissant, a heart shaped brioche bread, and two fruit tarts (strawberry and mixed berry). Was about $35 in total.

Mocha was nice, for a non-coffee drinker it wasn't as bitter as other places, but also not as sugary, a nice balance.

The croissant... I think some people won't like it. It's a rather subdued taste. There's not much of that buttery flavour that most croissants have, and it wasn't crazy crisp or flaky. I personally liked it since I'm not a big fan of butter, but I can see people not liking it as much. Also on the smaller side for croissants. My favourite croissants were from Quantum (when they still existed :c ) and these are not up there with them.

Brioche bread - I don't normally buy specialty bread but I gave it a try. Was soft on the inside and crisp outside so I liked it, but I don't have a good comparison for where it stands relative to the competition.

The tarts - a little disappointed here. They don't taste like anything special, and for the $8.25 price they should have been. I liked the custard in the tart for its smooth but not super strong taste, but the fruits were....kind of a letdown. No sugar which is fine, but the fruits themselves were actually a bit sour and not very flavourful. When I think of the few other bakeries that sell fruit tarts in Vancouver, these aren't on the top of my list.

Overall it was an okay experience. The renovations are really nice but we can't use them yet. Seems like most of the price charged is in the brand name and not so much the baked goods. Never had them when I travelled to France, but today's experience doesn't make me want to either.

I'll come back in a couple of months to try a sit down experience and some other things, but I've lowered my expectations to be more "I'm paying for a brand name that I don't know about" rather than "I'm paying for amazing food". Could be just me though, I don't really care for the storied history and what not and really only here for the food.

Also note, it was a little weird and off putting seeing... what were maybe the owners or managers just sitting out on one of the table skinda staring at us and commenting the entire time. It was like they were just evaluating staff there (on like what, day 2?) and not exactly helping out. Never worked at a restaurant before so I don't know if this is normal, but it sure looks weird as a frequent cafe visitor.

Oh also, their take out boxes all reference the French website and address and not the Vancouver one....