Jeanne's Bakery — Restaurant in Winnipeg

Positives for our recent experience with Jeanne's Bakery on Notre Dame so I'll state those 1st. Customer service via the phone call to order pickup this past weekend, excellent. Cake was ready on Sat. & in my opinion, priced good for this day & age. There's no dispute for any increase in prices over many decades. So, we took it home & stored in a cool basement until Sunday, the day consumed. Note: we have NEVER purchased such cakes from anywhere BUT their Notre Dame location although we've seen them in stores. Now then, this cake as pictured. Fresh, blander than usual. Colour of cake is concerning since for many decades we've come accustomed to the dark chocolate cake look, similar to what a cheap box cake mix Devil's Food Cake would look like. This is fact, the cake used to be that dark. We once had a disappointing Jeanne's though and it was back when the original family owned it, someone appeared to have used the mixing bowl that contained a lighter mix (maybe for marble) and then failed to mix the dark in so it didn't even come out as marble but washed out chocolate. This latest cake reminds me of that and the chocolate or cocoa content was/is lacking. Again, it was fresh & that's a star for the bakery. The icing: it is what I've always known it to be, somewhat of a laxative. Many others share such an opinion & even back when the few generations of the Van Landeghem family owned it, it was always the case with the icing. So now the ingredients have changed for the icing (fact & had to change). A side note: an elderly neighbour now in his 80's & a retired baker who served in the Yugoslavian army for his mandatory 2 yrs, has told me on multiple occasions about what he was provided for food when on duty. Most of the time it was bread with lard & a little salt, if you were lucky. True story and also, had the effect that Jeannes icing has on many people. A positive: nicely decorated, the cookie base is somewhat okay but used to be "fluffier" or appeared to be more "airy" instead of the now hard-packed "slab" which appeared to be somewhat "shiny." Possibly the fat used & made it more "plastic" looking? Okay, so, in the 60's I had my first Jeanne's & prior to that our parents had them years before that. Over many decades we have had them for different occasions & even went so far as to just drop in and buy one off their rack OR order something for no occasion. Just past year 2000 & after Alan passed away we slowed it down & didn't order so much from this place. Our son went to school with one of their kids so we were actually quite faithful followers of this bakery. When Mr. Penner took over, we noticed changes and no matter what he says about doing it all the same way, it just isn't true. Over the years since 2003 we've definitely noticed inconsistencies with these cakes & each time we swear it's probably going to be our last time. Today is that time because for such a pale looking "chocolate" cake it failed & I suspect that either someone screwed up with the cocoa amount or this is par for the course & now a paler version? Since I highly doubt that a colorant is used in a cocoa/chocolate based cake mix, I have to question what you'ce chosen for cocoa because it's definitely weaker/blander than prior decades of product. I'm aware of the issues that many business who use cocoa in their recipes are having & costs HAVE skyrocketed but then again, cost to the consumer has also increased & I agree that it should anyway. I'm an admitted chocoholic, I love chocolate anything & even if it's very or too sweet. This one at the lighter colour is "weaker" and not very chocolatey in taste. "Weak" is the best word here & over the years we mistakenly ordered a marble one and found that to be more white cake taste than (of course) chocolate since it was in fact, marble. The p.s. before some changes that they might attempt to dispute: previously the interior cake WAS not far off from the colour of the chocolate shavings. See my photos, does this look pale or nice and "chocolatey?" 3rd is from someone who posted what it used...

I love this place, it's basically like another family member for us, everyone in my family (immediate and extended) have been coming here for generations ( I mean GENERATIONS I'm pretty sure my Nana was a customer of theirs from opening or sometime after, I would go so far as to say she probably knew or was friends with Jeanne and her husband Archie, I wanna say, I can't remember). I love the cakes and everything here. I gave 2 stars cause the service seems to have gone down hill majorly. Last year for my bday I stood in the store for 30 mins waiting for someone to come from the back, myself and another customer were like 👀 this is wild anyone could just rob them, or take a few cakes and walk out. It was so not the normal. Fast forward to now, I called to try and order a cake for my son's 1st bday, hoping to get him his own baby size smash cake but the guy (he is ALWAYS sooooo rude and condescending, I had to deal with him for my daughters cake years ago and I was just astonished! He was so rude to me, I gave in and said w.e just to keep the family tradition which no one should have to do, we are the customers, without us and our families this store would not be here this long, let's be real.) said no they don't do that. It's silly! How hard is it to grab a smaller bake pan and offer what your customers need for all ages!? I'm just super amazed that they aren't growing with the times. Maybe it's time to start a new family cake tradition. Or maybe it's time for them to take customizations from returning customers. I'm 38 and I've had their cake every year for my bday (except for the years we were in BC). I'm super...

What can I say, Jeannes bakery is staple in Winnipeg. Their signature cakes are like no other, whipped icing, cookie bottom and shaved dark chocolate that balances the sweetness. Nearly all birthdays in my household are celebrated with a Jeannes cake. Recently, last Saturday I was picking up a cake to celebrate a belated bday for my sister and a slightly early bday for my late father's best friend. I had ordered the cake in advance, went to pick it up in the morning, was met with friendly staff, property served by a cute young lady, and I was on my way. Nearing my home I was turning up Westwood drive and disaster struck!, a fellow in a Jeep Cherokee Ltd decided to cut in front of me from the shopping center parking lot that resulted in very hard breaking, the cake took flight, bounced off the dash and ended up on the passenger floor well.I got home opened the box to survey the damage, to my surprise the cake was intact!, but had landed top side down so the icing was destroyed, many words were spoken, nearly all were swears. I called the bakery to see if the cake could be repaired or reordered, the manager told me to come down and he'd help me sort it out. I arrived and presented my crash tested cake and the young lady who had served me earlier said its beyond repair, as I reached in pocket for another $20, she had returned to the counter with another cake free of charge. I was at a loss for words, businesses like this make Winnipeg worth living in, thanks to all the staff at Jeannes!

Best...