Chaumont Bakery & Café — Restaurant in Beverly Hills

I am extremely disappointed and heartbroken after our visit today at Chaumant Vegan. We had been looking forward to experiencing this café for many months while visiting from Vancouver, BC. As a vegan of nine years, I love supporting vegan cafés — and it’s very difficult for me to leave a negative review for one, because I know there aren’t enough of them.

The reason I feel compelled to write this review is to bring attention to something deeply important: how much of an impact front-of-house service staff have on a restaurant’s reputation and guest experience.

We arrived at 2:30 PM and placed our order. The server mentioned the café would close at 3 PM, which we understood. However, our food did not arrive until 2:50 PM. At exactly 3 PM, the server came over and told us we had to wrap it up because they were closed. Another guest behind us kindly spoke up, pointing out that we had just received our food, but the staff member insisted we still needed to leave since she had warned us earlier.

This left us shocked and extremely disappointed. If the policy is that guests cannot dine past 3 PM, that should have been made clear before we ordered — or, better yet, the café could show a little understanding by allowing a reasonable amount of time to finish the meal. For example: “We know you just received your food, so please take 15 minutes to enjoy it before we begin closing.” That type of approach would have left us feeling respected and valued.

Unfortunately, the way we were treated ruined what should have been a long-awaited and joyful experience. It’s not about the food — it’s about how we were made to feel unwelcome. And because of that, I will not be returning.

I truly hope the owner reads this and recognizes how critical good service is, especially in a community as passionate and loyal as the vegan one. A café’s success depends not only on the quality of the food but also on the warmth and respect shown...

We’ve been loyal customers of this bakery for years, and recently, we made it a tradition to visit every Friday for brunch with my kids. We’ve always enjoyed the food and atmosphere, and I’ve appreciated being able to support a local business.

However, today’s experience was beyond disappointing. While my kids might make a bit of a mess (as kids do), it’s never been an issue before. Once, they accidentally broke a plate, and we immediately apologized and offered to pay for it. That’s part of running a restaurant—things happen, and there are employees who are paid to handle these situations. As a restaurant owner myself, I would never expect paying customers to clean up after themselves, especially in an establishment with full seating service.

Today, however, an employee rudely approached us and told us to "make sure to clean up after ourselves," even bringing up the broken plate from last time. To make matters worse, at the end of our meal, he actually handed me a broom and told me to "make sure to clean every little crumb." This level of disrespect is completely unacceptable and unheard of in any customer service setting.

While the owner did come to apologize, the damage was done. It’s frustrating to see how little family values are respected these days, and even more so when employees refuse to do the job they’re paid for. If you want to keep loyal customers, make sure your staff understands basic hospitality. It’s too little, too late for us—we won’t be returning. Have a chat with your employees or I'll have to put a leash...

This used to be our favorite French bakery in LA. Ordered for pickup and drove all the way from Encino only to throw our $80 order in the trash when we got home.

I live with an extremely at-risk elderly parent and rarely leave the house. I can't take any chances. When we do "eat out" we get delivery from establishments we trust. The Chaumont Bakery & Cafe website states, "In these troubled times we are taking all possible steps to keep our guests, employees, and community safe." Because we know how the restaurant operates and trusted the owners, we decided to treat ourselves. Delivery was not an option, so we ordered for pickup.

Curbside pickup was not offered. Customers were not respecting social distancing or mask-wearing rules and employees made no attempt to enforce them. Employees were interacting with these careless customers and then handling food. The pastries are out in the open behind a sneeze guard that is not very tall and I witnessed a customer go around the sneeze guard to point out what they wanted. Ultimately, we did not feel comfortable consuming our food and threw it all out due to the abhorrent behaviour of their customers and the establishment's lack of caution or care to combat it. When we called to express our concerns, the staff was dismissive and rude. We have been patrons since it opened in 2013, but that was our last visit. If you are at all concerned about SARS-CoV-2, please think twice about...