Le Pain Quotidien — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Probably the most bizarre experience we've ever had at a cafe/restaurant. All was fine at first, we ordered etc. We were sat near the kitchen. I ordered an almond croissant and an iced latte, and my boyfriend ordered an iced chai almond latte and their French toast.

Boyfriend's French toast showed up about 10min later with the bacon missing, which was a part of the dish. We asked the waiter to bring it, which she did. Then things started getting strange.

The kitchen seemed to descend into chaos, with plates of food being ready but nobody taking them. The waiters then started doing so, but one of the waiters started arguing with the chef.

After 10 mins I asked where my croissant was, and was told it was coming. Another 20 mins of chaos passed, with me asking a few more times when it was coming, and was told in a moment. Meanwhile everyone around us was getting their food with no issue. Then eventually a waiter told me they were 'baking them'.

I was starving, and my boyfriend had been waiting for me for a long time now with his breakfast getting cold. I asked if I could have something else, and also where were our drinks? There seemed to be someone new on the bar making coffee as he kept doing it incorrectly, with the other barista getting increasingly more annoyed with him. I asked for a pain au chocolate instead, and was bought one quickly, but it was on the cold end of lukewarm.

We were finally given our drinks, mine was nice but my boyfriend's didn't taste of anything, not even coffee, which he was disappointed by.

We were then told to go and pay at the counter, and waited for about 10 minutes being steadfastly ignored. Eventually I had to ask to pay, and was told unless it was by card we'd have to wait 10 minutes. Looking at our deeply confused faces, the waiter then said 'f*ck it' to us and put our charges through on the register to pay. This was after we witnessed him turning two women away as they were "closing for the day" - probably due to the chaos that was happening!

We're so confused and disappointed, as most of the other reviews here are lovely. Certainly wasn't worth the 20 euros we paid. We went to the coffee shop next door to de-stress - and actually had a much nicer coffee for considerably less.

2 stars for the cheerful service, but nothing more for...

This isn’t a quaint family run establishment that I thought it was; it’s an international chain, with annoyingly slow service, lacklustre staff and expensive food of average quality. My wife and I had a terrible experience at this restaurant. We went for brunch, the place didn’t look too busy and we were directed to a table straight away. We then waited for ages for our order to be taken. We both ordered eggs on toast, a breakfast muffin to share, one coffee and one green tea. From that point it took at least 20 minutes for our drinks and muffin to arrive. We waited a further 30mintues before I asked the waiter if there was a problem with our order. I was informed that there had been a problem with the printer in the kitchen but our order was just being prepared. A further 10 minutes went by until I found the manager and asked what was happening. I was given the same excuse and again told our food was just being prepared. At this point I asked to cancel the order and asked for the bill. The manager was very apologetic and said we could just leave (hence the two...

I feel scammed. I bought a package through Too Good Too Go - an app which helps businesses which serve food to earn money on things which were left that day and would have to be thrown away. They are supposed to offer food for 1/3 of its value. For 5 eur, I received one medium bread and a piece of cake. I can't believe they are normally sold for 15 eur and if so, then you scam people badly. Your competition - two different brands - for 5 eur offers much, much more. Example of a package for 5 eur from a shop with bread and cheese on Elandsgracht: 2 baguettes, 2 medium size breads, one big breadroll, 10 croissants OR One bread, two pieces of pain au chocolat, a breadroll and package of cheese and little bottle of truffle olive oil! If you don't believe, send your worker to see what packages they prepare. Quality costs but your bread, even if still quite fresh and tasty, is not extraordinary. The cake was delicious. For that, not 1...