Artist Bakery — Restaurant in Seoul

This was the most miserable experience that made me wonder if I was participating in some sociological experiment; the place is so poorly run that it made me laugh. I have never left a negative review in my life, but I was so flabbergasted I just had to share.

Was staying at a hotel nearby and decided to stop by in the morning, had no idea about the hype. Having stood some sort of a line that didn’t seem bad, it turned out that the line was actually to scan a QR code to join the virtual queue. The waiting time for dining in was 3 hours (came at 8am) and the line for takeout was 20 minutes, supposedly. After which was told to join another line, though for what it was unclear, because eventually I had to just walk up to the front and read out my number as the people in front of me had a longer wait time than me (?). Wait time eventually took 45 minutes not 20.

Then, once inside, there’s actually nobody checking if you were there to dine in or take away. I kept thinking I should have just sat in as nobody cared, but decided to not be too rebellious as am a tourist. People inside were piling up on top of each other and taking pictures. Then there’s a line for cashier, at which point they take the bread you picked and put it away, then call your name out in about 7 minutes after meticulously packing it into a plastic box. Why? Unsure. At the cashier was told coffee will take extra 10 minutes, it took 20.

The yet best part about this was that while you stand there waiting for one thing after another, the said tables for which people are waiting 3 hours? Those were 80% empty, inside and outside, the whole hour I have spent there. Pictures enclosed.

And, to top it all off - you guessed it, the bread wasn’t even good, it was cold. Proof it was not just my sentiment was that at the tables that were eventually graced by customers, most had unfinished bread on the tables after leaving.

While there is plenty of staff inside and outside, they were inefficient and unhelpful (see above re the lines outside) and all had a lot of attitude. For a place that is as pretentious about bread as this one was, while fine you can excuse the rude service by saying you are trying to be French or whatever, this ridiculous inefficiency means 1. you are not respecting your customers and 2. you are not a legitimate bread bakery - cold bread laying around (remember I was there at 8am not at 4pm) means what you serve might as well be what they sell at the news stands at the airport.

Idk who they paid for the hype or reviews, but I think someone is...

I tried the salt butter bread last year, I like it so I came again. I joined the waitlist for eat in through catch table app at 9am on Sunday & was asked to wait near the store at about 10:30, the app is convenient.

Something happened and I was not satisfied with the arrangement of the restaurant on that day. I told the staff at the entrance about my arrival, I waited near the door as requested then was asked to enter the restaurant, I put my bag on a seat then to line up for choosing bread. When I was still lining up to approach the cashier, a male staff took my bag from the seat and asked the bag belongs to whom. I raised my hand and was asked what is my table no, I replied I was just asked to come in, no one gives me table number, he did not return the bag to me or explain what is going on, he took my bag and put it to the corner behind the cashier then went away, I was asked to keep lining up to the cashier. When it was my turn, I asked the female staff what was happened, I gave her my waitlist no, followed her to check the record in their tablet at entrance. They said it seems like the handling staff didn’t know me who entered the restaurant and no seat had been arranged for me.

I really thanked to that female staff who helped to find out what happened, she comforted me and apologised for convenience caused, but I felt not being respected because of that male staff, I don’t know why he has the right to take my personal belongings and keep it behind the cashier which I was unable to approach , he didn’t explain anything to me and acted like I did something wrong when they had to figure out what is going on at the moment. How rude he was, was this my fault for letting you staffs not being aware of my entrance, it was your...

An extremely disorganised and utterly horrible service with this bakery/cafe. Highly NOT recommended for tourists !

First of all staff did not possessed any basic English language to service the international crowd. Second of all, the female staff directing the trafflic for payment is the worst traffic controller ! She acted and behaved like a robot without emotional intelligence, no flexibility to direct the customers whom are ready for payments to the cashier. Instead she held all the customers both ready for payment and those customers whom are still selecting at the cream cheese refrigerator section. This in turn messed up the crowd within the tiny room, witheld alot of unnecessary crowd within that tiny space due to the staff’s inability to think on her feet ! Basically, the foolish staff acted like a robot merely following the flawed operational procedures ! A total waste of time to held back customers whom are ready to pay together with the bunch of customers still in the bread selection. The female cashier is useless in counting cash, kept insisting that we are short of 1000won when she has miscounted and is hopeless in MATH ! Again, the foolish cashier repeatedly asked for our name instead of focusing on her only 1 task on hand, to collect payment via card or cash. And get this task accurately done.

The male manager Keun is equally useless in managing unhappy customers, unable to comprehend, converse in basic English. This is an easy fix instead of ooerating like imbecile staff and their operational protocols !

Completely worst horrible bakeery...