Carlsbad French Pastry Cafe — Restaurant in Carlsbad

My 81 year old mother and I went here for coffee and breakfast today. We have been coming here for years and we are local residents of Carlsbad. While eating, my mother needed a knife to slice her croissant. The ladies were busy and the nearest employee was at.the table next.to us. It happened to be the girl with winged eyeliner. My mother tried to get her attention and ended up "touching" her with the tip of her finger. She is actually still hesitant to touch anyone because of covid and her age. The girl immediately turned around and said, "I don't like to be touched, don't touch me." Understanding this, my mother apologized and asked for the knife. The girl then went to her manager and seemed to discuss this with her. After eating, my mother needed to use the ladies room and the same girl was at the door of the bathroom. I told her I thought someone had just gone in and she said no, there is no one in there and that the toilet was clogged. My mother, being hard of hearing did not hear her say this and walked over letting her know that she needed to use the bathroom. The girl then asked her if she wanted to see the clogged toilet. My mother understood and sat down. I walked up to the counter to speak with the girl to let her know that it was inappropriate for her to ask a question like that and explained that my mother is older and can't hear very well and did not hear her when she said the bathroom was clogged. She then brought up that she was already bothered by my mother touching her and said that my mother had slapped her on the back of her arm. This was a lie! When my mother went to speak to the blonde Owner/Manager, she ignored her. She is certainly friendly with the male customers though! Another employee turned.to my mother and said, she is NOT going to speak to you! We tried to explain the situation, that the girl has some mental issues being that she lied and the manager ignored this. The other employee began to have an attitude and said that my mother should not have slapped her arm. We.tried to tell them that no one slapped the girl, it wasn't even a poke!! It was a touch. I told them that we had been coming there for years and this is not the way to treat a loyal customer that has referred many people to them. The girl then said, well, we have other customers, if you dont want to come here. What the actually heck? I will not be going there again and I urge anyone not to go there! Go to the Paris Baguette on El Camino Real! Their pastries and everything that I have tried, so far, are very good and so is the customer service! Even Cafe Topes! They have some of the best breakfasts! Their fish lunch is outstanding! There are so many other restaurants in the neighborhood to go to that actually show appreciation and respect...

I'll start by saying that my family has been regular customers: picking up lunch a couple of times a month, buying birthday cakes/treats, buying/giving gift certificates to teachers and friends, and providing word of mouth, which I know has resulted in loyal customers, as well. After my experience over the weekend, I will never go back.

I called and ordered our usually lunch, picked it up, but when I got home, I realized that the order was wrong. I called right away to take the food back and get our correct order. The person on the phone said that the order was repeated to me, and I agreed and paid for the food. This is a blatant lie: I would never agree to an order that I didn't place, yet alone pay for it, get it home and then call to explain the situation. They took no responsibility for the error and said over and over that the manager verbally told us the order and that we accepted it. That doesn't even make sense, and I definitely didn't speak to the manager. More lies: 1) They said that someone else picked up our order, and that that customer did not call to report the mistake, so the blame was clearly ours and 2) The sandwiches were there waiting for us. Which is it? They were picked up or they were sitting there? They did offered to make our lunch again, but insisted that we pay for the new (original) order because they cannot afford to waste food. I do have some sympathy to this statement, and if the mistake was on my end, I would have paid again, but this was not my fault. They were super rude, raising their voices, insisting that the problem was ours alone and wouldn't budge with any sort of compromise. Sad that they are willing to lose a loyal customer over a $25 mistake on their part. I just cannot get over how rude they were.

In addition, the owner always wears his mask below his nose both inside the restaurant and back in the kitchen. Worse yet, I witnessed him remove it completely to take a phone call and again to talk...

The place looks nice on the inside but it was so cold inside on a beautiful day that people trying to enjoy this cafe had to be in coats. It was colder than a hospital. Poor service, they kept rushing me to order when nobody was waiting in line and when I had questions their response was “I dont know,” the correct response is “I don’t know but let me find out. Now onto the food, all I can say is this is a low end bakery trying not hard enough to be a French Bakery. If you want phenomenal tasting French desserts and parties and great customer service I highly recommend Paris Baguette in Carlsbad. I ordered the pear tart, blueberry fruit tart, tiramisu cake and a chocolate croissant. I am from Europe where we have phenomenal food so trust the review. -The tiramisu cake was underwhelming and the cream on top was gross so I have to remove it. -The pear tart was very dry and the pears had no tase to them. -the blueberry fruit tart also disappointing because the cream wasn’t that good and there was barely any of it in the tart because they add in this grain junk under it when it’s only supposed to be the crust, cream and blueberries. The only pro was that the blueberries were really good. -The chocolate croissant was pretty good. Buttery and flakey and the right amount of chocolate. My total was only $23 which is very low but it makes sense with the low quality food. I will definitely never return and continue going to Paris Baguette because the cream they use in a lot of the pastries is phenomenal! Definitely not like the Boston cream crap at Dunkin Donuts. Yes Paris Baguette is pricey but you get what you pay for and they have a rewards program which is awesome. I would have rather saved the $23 and gone to Paris Baguette (no I don’t work there, it’s just the food is amazing!)

I have attached pictures below, the last pic is everything we chose not to continue eating and tossed it and the cream was taken off...