Henri's Bakery & Deli — Restaurant in Atlanta

I just recently moved to this area and was walking my dog this Saturday morning and happened to come by this bakery. I opened the door to the bakery and my first inquiry was are dogs allowed inside. Two employees and someone I’m assuming was the manager all stated yes. I wish I had gotten the managers name because she was extremely sweet and helpful. I chose a few items from the bakery and then made my way to the breakfast sandwich bar where i was greeted warmly by the two younger men working the deli, but when it came to the older gentleman he asked me if my dog was a service animal. I told him no and he stated that she is not allowed inside and asked me to wait outside while he made my order…. This was very confusing to me as I was just told dogs are allowed and who I am assuming to be the manager spoke up as well and stated that she said I can come inside. He proceeded to argue with the manager and wave his finger at her and stated you are not the owner and dogs are not allowed. Even as I was walking away from the deli he was speaking very rudely to the manager. This made me very uncomfortable as he was extremely rude during this interaction and asking a customer to wait outside after already being told you could enter is extremely unprofessional and made me really uncomfortable. It was also extremely cold out this morning it was 45 degrees and he asked me to wait outside….

I will say the breakfast sandwich was good and the bakery is adorable! I also ordered a few sweet treats for my family as I was excited to show them the new gem I discovered. Unfortunately, I do not believe I will be coming back here nor will I be recommending it due to the customer service experience I had with that deli member. The deli member was an older Hispanic man and I wish I had gotten his name. If I do come back it will only be because of the sweet manager who tried to smooth things over after the interaction with the man at the deli. Again I wish I had gotten her name, but she was a nice Asian lady and she was taking out the bakery items for the day.

As a dog owner I know animals are not allowed everywhere and if I was told at the entrance when I inquired about the policy I would have gladly taken my dog home and returned back to the bakery without her. However there is a way to go about reprimanding someone in a professional manner and unfortunately that mark was missed during this interaction. Hopefully this will be a learning experience...

It was my first time today at Henri’s and my overall experience was with very mixed feelings.

The food was OK-ish, dessert was good, decent service but I was missing a few things which could make one’s experience better if the owners would decide to pay attention to the details and nuances. Let me elaborate. This place trying to mimic an European cafe, that is very obvious. The setting, the vibe, the design and the selection of food and coffee tells me that someone involved with this place spent at least a week somewhere in Europe at some point in their life. Unfortunately they did not pay attention to the details.

Here are a few things I observed which some of them could be improved upon.

Ask the customer if they want to consume their drinks and food on the spot or take it away. I wasn’t asked and my order was neatly stuffed into a plastic bag, the sandwich I ordered was wrapped up in tin foil like in a deli on 3rd Ave in NYC for a construction worker who’s late from work. My espresso (and this is pretty much unforgivable) was served in a paper cup like at a craft service on a film set. I still have to find a place in Atlanta where the espresso is served properly; in a warmed up espresso cup placed on a matching saucer, with seltzer water and a small piece of dark chocolate or pastry. Serving espresso or coffee in general in a paper cup in a place like Henri’s, unless it’s made to go, is just low. It’s un-acceptable.

The food is decent at best and it is because the ingredients are pre-manufactured, not freshly made. My egg, cheese and bacon sandwich was made out of frozen egg patty and pre-fried bacon on a generic, supermarket bread. It wasn’t bad but again, the location and the setting (not to mention the prices) calls for something much better. Like real utensils (not plastic wrapped in plastic bag) and freshly made food served on a real plate and/or tray.

The best place to judge an establishment’s cleanliness is the bathroom and Henri’s bathroom was clean and tidy, I appreciated that.

My rating is 4 stars but this is very relative. In any European city it would be 2.5-3 at best but here in Atlanta Henri’s is...

Just drove in from St. Louis, place had good reviews. Ordered a turkey po-boy at the window. Folks at the line didn't make one. Someone who appeared to be managing asked of we needed anything, so we explained that we had ordered a po-boy. At the moment, someone was stepping out of a kitchen with a tray of po-boys. The manager then asked if we had ordered a special po-boy. This being our first ever food order in Georgia, we had not specialized our order. We just thought, since there was a deli with hot presses and people manning it, that we might get a freshly made sandwich. The manager deflected that whomever took our order should have told the folks at the deli to make the po-boy, as if we needed to know how the manager was supposed to be managing the place, and then said we could take one of the pre-made ones. The bread was dry. The assemblage was overly salty. The only greens were pickles. The meat slid off. We used a plastic knife to cut it in two. And the fruit tart was given to us in a small plastic container, yet we weren't asked if we were ordering to go, even though we had to ask for the utensils afterwards. So the fruit tart, which was precariously stacked with berries, disintegrated as we tried to awkwardly eat it with utensils, uncovering a hard foundational layer of chocolate beneath what tasted like sugar-free custard, so we disposed of it. One star for the seating and atmosphere, another because we saved our appetite for hopefully something better. Maybe I'm just spoiled, having grown up in the NYC area, but this is neither a good patisserie nor deli....