Cafe Bonaparte — Restaurant in Hermosa Beach

This place is the self-declared "pâtisserie française" of Hermosa Beach... or Santa Monica... or LA. Who knows, they probably don't either.

Now, when a place claims Parisian roots, it sets the bar somewhere between the Eiffel Tower and pretentious perfection. So no, I'm not giving five stars for the croissant, tarte aux fruits, or pain aux raisins. It doesn’t look French, it doesn’t smell French, and it definitely doesn’t taste French. But that’s okay, because this isn’t Paris - it’s California, where "authentic" often just means it came with almond milk.

That said, on the other hand, their smoothies are the absolute stars. Better than anything I’ve ever had in Paris, where a smoothie usually means someone just handed you a room-temperature banana and shrugged.

The pastries here had been American-sized for your pleasure. Quality may have taken a back seat to bulk, but hey, that’s the same trade-off they make in France when they try to serve a pumpkin spice latte. Balance in the universe.

Big points for their veggie-packed salads, giant samosa variants, toast game, and pretty solid scrambles. But if you’re going to offer gluten-free options, maybe don’t look shocked when someone actually asks for one. California dreamers are used to chasing kale clouds and oat milk rainbows, and this café fits right in.

So sip, lean, stare into the ocean - and if you're pretending to be in Paris, don’t worry. Everyone else here is pretending too. Bon appétit, or at...

A very diasappointed experience. Today a young lady cashier was beyond rude since the minute we placed our order. At any question we had, she responded with a “humm?” Not even for a minute she was polite or let’s say professional trained to deal with customers.

After finishing our coffee and dessert, I proceeded to ask for the bathroom key, again I asked her for the key, and her response was “hum??” So a young man working next to her said, sorry but the bathroom is not working since the morning” I said really?? I just saw somebody coming out of the bathroom, they start laughing at me on my face!

I saw the coffee place has cameras, I would ask the manager or owner to please review Today’s video and see how unprofessional his working staff is, and how disrespectful they are towards some customers.

Thank you in advance for considering retraining their staff to treat the customer with respect regardless of race, gender...

Incredibly expensive and mediocre quality drinks and pastries. I don't recall being asked what size to choose from for the matcha latte, so we were charged $8.75 for the (presumably) size large matcha + $1.50 for oat milk, which is absurd. According to the menu outside, the largest size should have been $7.75 (medium being $6.75 and small being $5.75), however there is an asterisks at the bottom of the menu stating they may increase prices due to costs of ingredients. Regardless, we had to go back for an itemized receipt because we were in disbelief of how a single pastry and a drink added up to $17. The almond croissant was pretty but did not taste very fresh, I feel that we could get the same quality from a grocery store. The matcha is a dull green color. There is plenty of seating available outside and it's dog friendly, and the service is solid. However, I will not be coming back here and I would not...