Flour Bakery + Cafe — Restaurant in Boston

5/5 Food 5/5 Customer service 3/5 CHAOS during lunch rush on a weekday

Went here around 1 pm on a Sunday and around 12:30 pm on a Wednesday last week.

I am from out of state and visiting my boyfriend on my summer break. When we arrived 1 pm on a Sunday, only 2 people were in line before us. I ordered a homemade hummus sandwich and small iced oat milk latte. The latte came out within 2-3 minutes and sandwich ~5-10 minutes after ordering. The iced oat milk latte tasted refreshing and high quality. The hummus sandwich tasted like Vietnamese banh mi sandwich but with an americanized hummus twist. I loved both!

I went here by myself on a Wednesday around 12:30 pm. Every single table outside was occupied and there was a crowd of people (10-15) inside who already ordered, standing around by the cashier. I am from LA and I felt as if I was back home in LA on a weekend haha. When I walked in, I was the 10th customer waiting in line, and luckily it went by fast (waited in line 10-15 minutes?) there were 2 members operating the cashier. After I ordered (this time a homemade hummus sandwich and small iced almond milk latte) I sat on a bar stool by their bathroom area--it was much less crowded there because there were customers EVERYWHERE. The only thing was, it was a little hard to hear staff members shouting out names for pickup. It took ~20-25 minutes for my sandwich to be ready and apparently they called my name for my latte earlier but someone else took it. Which is understandable--Emily is a common name... they do ask you for the first initial of your last name but this happens to me all the time. Anyway, when I informed the staff member this, he was very kind and immediately asked the barista to remake my drink. They made it right away and gave it to me in a large, even though I ordered a small. This was nice, but I like small sizes because of the balance between the espresso and milk but it was still a kind gesture and delicious nonetheless.

Overall, AMAZING food. If I lived in Boston, I would come here all the time. Just maybe not on a weekday during the lunch rush. My recommendation would be for them to implement a speaker system or microphone to say names instead of having to shout names over crowds of people when orders are ready. Definitely will be returning again though when I'm back...

Delicious as always! It's been a good while since I had Flour and as usual they do a fantastic job. Ordered the chicken sandwich with jicama (my favorite) and a limeade (hadn't had before). Both were excellent. I didn't get a cookie or pastry this time around but also recommend.

Good To Know: If ordering online (probably applies even offline too) would recommend trying to time your order before or after the lunch hour for this location (Back Bay) on weekdays since in my experience it gets pretty crowded!

For the Restaurant: Recognizing I'm not an expert and there may be really good reasons for the process in place, I thought of something while enjoying my sandwich:

During the lunch hour, particularly at this location, it might be worth dispensing with the usual process and putting items from online orders on the pick up table as they come out of the kitchen instead of trying to call names/waiting for the customer to provide theirs? It might also be worth adding clear instructions somewhere for what the customer should do when they enter the restaurant so they don't end up waiting around for their name to be called instead of providing it at the counter or whatever you decide they should do. Its a pretty small space for a large crowd!

Here's why: I ordered online during the lunch hour and it seemed like your staff were doing an amazing job keeping up with preparing the orders, but weren't using the customer accessible pick-up table. The result seemed to be a lot of people waiting around for their name to be called or needing to go up to the counter to provide their name. A friendly but somewhat stressed looking staff member was heroically taking everyone's names, trying to find the right sandwich on a table behind the counter for the right item, then signing off on the handheld (which i assume sends the text message). The result of all of this was that I waited probably an extra 15-20 minutes for a sandwich that might have already been ready. Hope this helps. Appreciate you all; thanks for a...

I'm new in town and trying to explore local places, this place came highly recommended to me.

I got a BLT for lunch and took home a cookie, a slice of the lemon raspberry cake, a lemon scone, and a slice of the apple cake. I was so overwhelmed by the pastries I forgot to even order a coffee, however, the BLT was delicious and the atmosphere was great. I went to the cafe on Clarendon St, it is wheelchair accessible, and the outdoor tables are pleasant to dine at next to the park.

The chocolate chip cookie was great, they make them with discs of chocolate rather than chips which in my opinion, is the best way. My only critique would be to add more variation in the type of chocolate, more bittersweet or dark chocolate, but I'm not gonna take off a star just because I prefer to make my cookies one way.

The lemon raspberry cake is best eaten at room temp because of the buttercream. The cake has a really good balance between the tartness of the lemon and raspberries and the sweetness of the buttercream. Speaking of the buttercream, it is an italian meringue (i think), there's no powdered sugar graininess that comes with american buttercreams. The cake wasn't over-iced with a 1cm thick layer of frosting, a feat that I know that can be difficult at times. The layers of cake were a moist lemon, and it was filled with tart raspberries and lemon curd, i think. We ate it so fast I can't remember XD.

I had the lemon scone the next morning for breakfast and when I bought the apple cake I didn't realize it had nuts in it so after one bite I had to pitch it. The scone was great! All in all this is a great lunch spot and if I can I'll go back for...