The French Kitchen — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

A friend of mine took a cooking class here and recommended it to me so I jumped online to look over the website. I happened upon an image that looked like a bear claw and have been craving one lately so I decided to stop in not only for the bear claw, but to look into maybe a cooking night for a date. Standing at the counter an older, reddish haired lady asked if she could help me. I said, "I was on your website and it looked like you had bear claws." She rudely replied, "no, you're wrong...you're dead wrong." "Okay, I just saw what looked like one on your site so I thought I would check." I responded rather taken aback by her rudeness. "Are you sure you were on our website?" As I pulled out my phone to check she shot at me, "oh now you're going to show me the picture." I tried to remain cordial as I simply showed her what I was referencing. "No, that is an almond croissant NOT a bear claw." she snottily told me. "Um, okay...just looked like one so I thought I would check. And really, you could have said it a little better instead of how you did." Trying to give her the chance to provide a modicum of proper customer service and apologize...she didnt say a thing as another woman came over and interjected about some other pastries in the cabinet. "Okay thank you" I said after the other woman was done telling me about what was there and the initial rude woman told me how all these were made fresh everyday by the pastry chef. "Well is there anything else I can help you with?" She inquired as I started to move away from the counter. "No thank you. You could have been more polite and have said all that better though." Given her yet another hint at my dissatisfaction with the service and interaction. She said nothing and talked with the other woman.

I do a lot of work with small businesses and like to support local but service is everything, and this place failed miserably. Not only did this woman demonstrate a clear disregard for civility and manners but also cost this business future event bookings from me or anyone I host parties with. I'm not sure what her problem was or what prompted such horrible service but as a customer, it doesn't matter...you get that one chance to make an impression. A lot of people say millennials don't understand customer service but this old lady proved it isn't specific to an age demongraphic.

I highly recommend spending your money where the employees actually appreciate and respect the customers. As a recommendation to the owners, hire people with service mentalities or your business is going to fail. Word of mouth, especially for bad service, gets around fast. Products can be fixed or made right but a bad attitude and poor first impression lasts forever.

In reading other less than positive reviews on here it seems poor service is a trend and the responses from the business never address the actual concerns, come across as defensive and snotty, and use the response to taut the business or market it, just...

We went to the French Kitchen for the first time last Friday (1/25/19) for a Sauces cooking class. We had an absolute blast and would totally recommend them.

Here are a couple remarks, however: the food is delicious (we had a few pastries before class - students get 10% off on the day of class), fresh and made with high quality ingredients. On that note, the only thing that for a split second made us think about a 4 star review instead was the interaction with the employee behind the counter; she could have been a little friendlier. As a complete opposite, Christie (one of our cooking instructors) was super welcoming and all smiles, back to 5 stars! Chef Blandine was at first a bit upset for we signed up for an advanced class without taking their recommended other 3 prior classes (we won't hold that against her. Without knowing our skills she could only imagine we would make the experience harder for everyone else). She was, however, pleasantly surprised that we could hold our ground in the kitchen and after that initial impression she was very helpful and welcoming, with a ton of knowledge to share (and here the 5 stars were reaffirmed).

As far as the class, we left knowing that we would have not enjoyed a class any little bit less challenging. The Sauces class did not leave us a single minute to spare not even for a picture to take as a keepsake from the night. It is indeed challenging and we understand why they ask for previous experiences with them. We are, however, in our kitchen all the time and would rate ourselves as reasonably advanced cooks: that made for a night where we learned a lot and left with a taste for more.

Well deserved 5 stars. We will come...

I will never order a sandwich other than the jambon beurre! I cannot imagine any other could bring me more joy! Bread tasted like it was from the Boulangerie’s Citroen that would honk in my grandmother’s courtyard for us to pick the daily breads. The white ham tasted so familiar, as did the butter. I think my quiche is better (Sorry friends, et merci maman) but that is not stopping me from picking up 2 bundles for my grandson’s dedication next month. Saves my time, energy, and the bundle gives a variety of flavors. I’m not a lazy person, but again, because I would prefer not to make it myself with a house full of guests for Christmas, I ask you please start making “to order” normal sized bûche de Noël! PLEASE! Last year, I was in line (w/2 others behind me) listening to the person behind the counter tell the customer you only had the tiny ones. That was 4 large bûches you could have sold in 10 minutes who left empty-handed. Three of us left before stepping up to the counter. I made mine and it was beautiful and delicious, but would have preferred you make it and I play w/my grands!! 😁 Enfin, thank you for keeping a beautifully clean school, boutique, café, and bakery. The added space is wonderful, and your products a pleasure. See you soon for my next ham/butter sandwich, and the catering...