Authentique Boulangerie - Tufnell Park — Restaurant in London

A great go-to local French bakery for excellent chocolatines (otherwise known as pain au chocolats), croissants and pains aux raisins. I first tried it in 2022 having just moved to the area and almost felt transported back to France. The baker at the time was from La Rochelle and there was a French lady from Toulouse (where I’m from), so it felt like home.

I still think it is a great place to visit, but in 2023, the prices of their products have noticeably gone up (making buying a pain aux raisins an occasional treat rather than a weekly thing that my partner and I used to get every Sunday). Customer service is now sadly hit or miss. Some days staff will be lovely and others they’ll barely say hello or acknowledge you. Just last week, I went in and ordered 3 pains au chocolat. I wasn’t paying attention when the lady served me, walked 10 minutes back home and realised she had only given me 2 pastries but charged me for 3. I walked back again 10 minutes to the bakery, explained the situation, and the only reaction I got was “ok” as she took the bag and added the missing pastry. Not even a “sorry about that”.

I hope service improves as it used to be so friendly, and I loved that some of the staff could speak French as it made the experience extra special and add a bit of nostalgia (although I understand that having staff who can speak French isn’t necessarily a must).

I do recommend however their wine bar/restaurant/épicerie Authentique. The quality of products is always great, and the staff are fantastic, super knowledgeable and always...

I stopped here this morning in the hope of picking up a couple of simple commoner garden croissants. They’d sold out having had an unexpected rush so I bought what was left and suitable for me and my friend. A sausage and mustard croissant for him and an almond pain chocolat (a bit OTT but again that’s all that remained) for me. I wanted to pick up a hot cross bun as they looked appealing but the price of £2.50 for one left me cold. I settled for a large seeded bagel for £1.60 seeming cheap in comparison! When I expressed my puzzlement at the price of the hot cross bun (you can buy 4 x m & s ones for £2) the lovely lady who served me said it was because the owner had said ingredients had gone up. This seems nowadays to me to be the excuse for greed. Ours didn’t have prices on them but there were prices on some of the other pastries which were all around £2.30 ish so I assumed the two that I’d chosen would be similarly priced. The till ringing up £8.30 later as the two chosen pastries were £3.90 and £3.50 a piece I joined my friend for breakfast. Whatever the opposite of cherry on the cake is his sausage wasn’t even a sausage but a hotdog type frankfurter. Disappointed in every way other than...

It is incredbily sad that I have to leave a one star review because this place looks so vibrant and lively.

I bought a loaf of bread and some other items a couple of days ago. At first I thought the price was a little steep but since it was an "authentic french bakery", I set my worries aside. To my horror, when I got home and I sliced open my bread I found that the inside was completly raw. This was not what I expected from a bakery that seems to be held to a high standard.  My son also remarked that the carrot cake was incredibly dry which is extremely disapointing given the miniature sized slice.

On another note the alternative looking young lady with the black and white hair behind the counter was on her phone when I walked in and she took quite some time to acknowledge me and seemed to be disintrested while she was taking my order.

Overall my experience at this bakery was very poor and I'd recommend you save your hard earned money and visit your local supermarket instead. To be honest I wish it was possible to give zero stars given this...