Bon Appetit Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Ellicott City

Used to be good before COVID. Not worth it anymore.

I've come to Bon Appetit many times over the past few years. Before COVID, they were a decent mom-and-pop bakery. The sandwiches and snacks were cheap, and the quality was good considering the price. The store itself was open everyday until 11 PM (excl. Sundays), making it a really nice place for late night studying if you were looking to get things done at that hour. From what I remember, there were actually quite a few people who would be there at 10:30 PM either chatting or working on their laptops. There was a self-serve coffee station, and as long as you purchased one cup of coffee, you could get unlimited refills. During this time, the owners played K-pop in the background, making the atmosphere feel unique and cozy.

Over the past years, prices have gone up, but quality of the baked goods and the atmosphere in general has either remained the same or decreased. The pound cakes and castellas are saturated with oil and are very greasy. Many of the cakes behind the glass counter near the register are stale. When I asked the cashier, he said that some of them come from outside the bakery. The owners changed the store's hours, and they now close at 9 PM. The self-serve coffee station has been removed. They no longer play K-pop and instead play the most boring classical music you could imagine. However, my recent experience with them is what prompted me to write this review.

Earlier today, I ordered a turkey club sandwich over the phone. When I picked up my order, the sandwich was in a very poor condition. It was oversaturated with mayo to the point where the bread was soggy. The orange plastic on the ends of the toothpicks in the sandwich was peeling off, and several pieces of plastic were interspersed in the pool of mayo dripping out of the sides of the sandwich. Additionally, the container the sandwich was enclosed in was smeared with oil, as if the person who prepared the sandwich didn't even bother to wash their hands after making it. I also ordered an eclair, and as I mentioned above, it was stale. It basically fell apart as soon as I picked it up, and the cream inside tasted old. I guess this is one of the deserts that they outsource.

All in all, Bon Appetit is an okay bakery. However, there are plenty of better and fresher options out there.

UPDATE: I had diarrhea a few hours after consuming the sandwich featured in this review. Do yourself and your gut a favor and refrain from purchasing the turkey club...

Beautiful and cute bakery! We were unfortunately treated badly by the cashier though when we were here. The cafe was relatively empty since we came in on a weekday right at 7 AM. Two members of our party of 5 were running 5 minutes late so we sat down inside to wait for them and then order. The cashier raised her voice at us asking us to order but she calmed down when we let her know we would be ordering in just a few minutes once everyone got to the cafe. While she was taking our order, she left midway while we were giving her our order, cutting us off. When she returned, I finished giving my personal order and then she left right away. I understand she was one of two people working at the time and might have felt overwhelmed. I was waiting for her to give me my receipt but she left to the kitchen while I was speaking - cutting me off midway again - so I just tried to extract my receipt myself to avoid inconveniencing her since now there was a line behind me. She saw me doing so and came out of the kitchen to raise her voice just short of yelling to ask me why I was extracting the receipt myself- which I explained was to avoid inconveniencing her since she was in the kitchen area but she still yelled at me. We stayed for an hour while talking and eating our food but left because we all felt uncomfortable as she kept looking at our table aggressively, it felt like we were almost made to get up and go due to her nature towards us. I think she was just having a bad day which is why I am leaving 4 stars but I just don’t think it is fair to treat customers like this. My intention with this review is just to communicate my experience at this bakery and why I will not be returning, but I do not want to hurt this...

I love this bakery. Everything they make is so delicious. I love their steak and cheese sandwich and Reuben sandwich. The chai boba tea is amazing!! They are a community conscious business who donate to community food drives too. The only thing which I sometimes find a little bothersome is that if I am in a hurry and want to order on phone so I can just grab my order and be on my way, there was a delay .I have tried being there around the time they tell me my order will be ready but still there was a delay .I have had to wait the same amount of time I do when I place the order on site. It could be because,they are busy as they have great items and lots of customers to attend to. I understand there can be a delay once in a while but this happened every time I tried to order on phone . My order was not ready and I had to wait. So you should go when you are in no hurry , so you can sit and relax while they prepare you order. Other than that they are a great business and they will give you helpful tips if you are ordering for the first time. We always order way too much because every thing they have looks so delicious and I don’t want...