SAINT-JEAN Bakery — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Awful experience, AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!!

After paying a silly amount for some overpriced vegan pastries (looked nice, but were dry and very disappointing), the staff were absolutely hopeless and left a customer in tears!

This is a form of complaint: After paying over €35+ for a few pastries we were told that if we wanted to sit we had to go across the road (which we and the other customers did). After waiting patiently for around 25 minutes to be seated, a blonde female staff member (sounded like she was from Manchester) said we couldn’t sit down unless we bought something, which was confusing and incredibly frustrating that she decided to only tell us after a seat became available when she knew we were all waiting to sit down right from the start. Other people overheard what she said and frantically ran to the till to buy something to skip the queue and have preferential treatment. Of course this resulted in people being very annoyed and specifically with her! She was rude, unapologetic and did not have a handle on what was happening and should NOT be in hospitality without proper training on how to deal with avoidable challenges such as this.

Due to her shocking management of the situation it resulted in people crying and several people storming out in outrage! I am incredibly tolerant of people, but without doubt, I will NEVER step foot in this disgraceful place again, and would urge people to go elsewhere, especially when there are plenty of other options in Amsterdam that I would strongly argue are much nicer!

Sort it out Saint-Jean, as other reviews have commented saying the same thing, which makes it 10x worse!!!

P.S. there is space in both buildings to add further seating, especially if you remove some of the oversized furniture. Can’t image how dreadful it must be during winter when everyone wants...

Lovely little french pastry shop near the city centre. We went on a saturday around 1:30 pm, and there was a small queue. The queue went reasonably quickly, so we only queued for around 10-15 mins. Whilst queueing, we saw at least 2 new batches of pastries being brought out and more batches of raw pastries being brought in to the kitchen - so I think they have a lot of supply (this was 1:30pm). Ship has limited seating area (only around 6-10 seats and 3 mini tables. We ordered a flat white, matcha lemonade, salted caramel cruffin, kouign amann, pain au chocolate, and a peach brioche.

1. Matcha lemonade: surprisingly quite nice and refreshing. The lemonade was quite sweet, but the matcha wasn't, so the combination was just right. Make sure to mix it well.
2. cruffin: super nice. It's very sticky and a lot of the caramel dribbling everywhere, but i loved it. The pastry was flaky and had a lot of layers (like a croissant) but shaped like a muffin, and the centre had a caramal flavoured cream. I believe it was supposed to have pecan (or some other nuts), but i don't think I tasted any actual pieces of nuts in it. Advice: For takeaway, put it in the oven for a few mins, and the pastry will be extra crispy, but the cream will melt.
3. kouign amann: kinda like a stodgy version of a croissant and layered with a lot of syrup and shaped in a .... flying saucer shape (?). It was nice - not as good as the cruffin, in my opinion, but nice if you want something a bit more simple. It is a little harder due to the sugar. Advice: if takeaway, put it in the oven to heat up for a few mins and it'll be less hard but more crispy.

It is very instagramable if you manage...

What a reason to be alive. I visited Amsterdam for a week and there was only one morning where I wasn’t here. The selection of pastries is just overwhelming, being vegan has never been so easy when there’s so much to have!!! The pistachio products are as good as their reputation if not better, although I also adored the peach/lavender croissant tart and the hazelnut pain au choc.

There’s two sides, one for the sweet and one for the savoury - both worth as much of a visit as the other. I had an amazing BBQ seitan & pineapple ciabatta - the flavour combo was insane! I also adored the truffle mushroom focaccia, sooooo scrummy. The seasonal soup was a wonderful pumpkin peanut blend which you can get served with 1/2 a sandwich too, and I paired it with the T.L.C. The sandwich fillings have definitely inspired me to recreate them!

They have a very large retail stock available to purchase too, some beautiful spreads, glassware, merchandise, and more. I bought the hazelnut butter and the pistachio spread to take home as souvenirs! I can’t wait to put them on my toast!!

The staff work very hard in a very busy and demanding atmosphere, there are fresh pastries coming out every moment you look at the counter and the queue is always very long, and rightly so! Bente was my favourite, she was extremely kind and clearly very dedicated to ensuring wonderful service. She makes fantastic coffee, I can’t praise her enough.

I cannot wait to come back to Amsterdam, I would truly come back just for this place. Much love - Long...