Le Fournil de Sébastien Hilversum — Restaurant in Hilversum

Friendly staff. Lovely store, good presentation of the products and clear pricing. Wheelchair accessible (wide entry, no threshold). Parking in the area is a bit of a problem on a Saturday. We tried their croissant, baguette tradition, pain aux raisins and sacristain.

Croissant: Good. A fine, well-made and well-baked croissant with a very good texture. Has a rather neutral flavour: not leaning towards sweet (which is a good thing in our opinion for croissants) but also lacking a savoury note and a more pronounced aroma of (cultured) butter. But to be honest: we are absolutely spoiled when it comes to croissants.

Pain aux raisins: Disappointing. It was overbaked, too dark and too dry. Lacked flavour other than slightly burned.

Sacristain: Good. Crispy and a bit dry, but a surprisingly good texture. Reminded us of kouign-amann but the sacristain has a crispier texture. Nice.

Baguette tradition: Very good. We were very pleased with the soft inside, a lovely sour sough texture with a pleasant mild aroma. We should have bought more of these to put in our freezer.

Conclusion: if we are in Hilversum again, we will certainly stop by to buy some baguettes and maybe some croissants and...

Excellent bakery operating in the French style. French ingredients, French methods, French bread styles. You can see the bakers at work from the shop. Very French, except the service staff which is Dutch. If you want the staff French, you need to go to La Gourmande in Bussum. They also serve amazing patisserie. I especially love the Canelés. This is not a cheap bakery but you get what you pay for. Parking is usually quite easy in front, and there is a big shopping area on the street to buy other stuff if you like. People in wheelchairs can get in no problem. The sunscreen outside was hung too low when I was there and that can give nasty wounds to taller people. They promised to look into it. The air in the shop felt quite heavy, so I am not sure ventilation...

Lovely bakery with some really nice staff. I have been told the bakery is run with actual French bakers. Unfortunately either these are the French bakers that did not make the cut in France or they have been way too influenced by poor Dutch baking. The chausson aux pommes looks, feels and tastes like Dutch appelflap, which is a completely different pastry. No cinnamon in them, the butter was so little it was missing, and it was baked to a complete crisp. Don't bother with the bread as well. It is crusty, unlike Dutch bread and tastes slightly better, but that is where it ends. It is a reasonable bread for a high price.

Disgracefully enough Lidl is the best place to get...