la Madeleine — Restaurant in Houston

I visited the Town and Country La Madeleine's at 770 West Sam Houston plwy3on Dec 6, 2018 at 5:53 pm. I ordered my meal without any issues. Actually the male and female servers behind the counter were very courteous and friendly. After paying for my meal, i selected a seat near the fireplace. There were several costumers sitting nearby. As i proceeded to enjoy my meal i noticed one of the waiters. an older gentleman with grey or blonde hair walk to each table to check on costumers to see if they needed anything. The gentleman passed my table up a total of 7 times as he catered to the customers around me. It was if I was invisible. I continued to eat my meal. I was in the restaurant for a total of 1 hour and 50 minutes and the gentlemen never said one word to me as he cleaned tables, delivered item's, and made small talk with other customers surrounding me. Upon finishing my meal I placed my plate and utensils on the tray and pushed it to the end of the table. The gentleman walked by my table 3 more times, never acknowledging me or my tray and proceeded to pick up the tray at a nearby table. The customer at the nearby table pointed to my tray as he noticed that the waiter was ignoring me. At that time the waiter came over to pick up my tray. When he reached for the tray I said thank you. He did not look at me nor respond. I said thank you again in which the waiter stopped and glared at me snatching my tray off of the table angrily. As he walked away he turned around and angrily glared at me again. I was so disturbed by his actions that I asked to speak with a manager right away. The manger (a female with black curly hair) approached and I began to explain my dinning experience, the waiters negative behavior towards me, and how uncomfortable his actions made me feel. The manager apologized and proceeded to minimize my experience and feelings by stating that the waiter was from Albania, everyone loves him, he has great rapport with everyone. It must have been a language barrier. I explained that I witnessed him cater to and communicate with the neighbouring customers consistently. I also explained that I witnessed other customers say thank you and he responded to them. I told her that the way je glared at me and snatched my tray off of the table was rude and unprofessional. She responded with " I will speak with him, but all of the customers love him." At that time I gathered my things and left. I will not be returning to this restaurant and caution others who may not look like this gentleman to try...

Expectations have to be managed when walking into a la Madeleine, but in general this is one of the better locations. There's a nice fireplace in the dining area and it's reasonably big in comparison to the one in the River Oaks area (for example).

If you're not familiar, you order at a counter, pay, and bring back a marker - then they bring your food out to you. They have complimentary jam and bread; neither is anything great the bread is hard and the jam is prepackaged. Drinks are also self-serve and includes tea, soda and water. There's also wine but that you have to order.

As part of my search for good food with calorie counts listed, I came here several times in a row trying different combinations of soups and sandwiches. Here are the sad results: the soup is best.

Tomato basil: ridiculously salty. I can't believe they sell jars of these; do people water them down when they get home?

Country Potato: actually pretty nice; but be careful if you're calorie counting they will add cheese and bacon etc. to the top; ask for the soup without the toppings if you want to save on calories. Otherwise it's a nice filling, thick soup.

Jambon-Buerre: I tried the ham and the swiss separately to figure out which of them was providing that almost chemical taste to my sandwich. I concluded that it was both. I'm scared to try the croque-monsieur because I assume it's made with the exact same ham and swiss. There was an exorbitant amount of butter on this. The baguette is actually really lovely. You might consider just getting a baguette.

Chicken Salade Croissant: Oh so sad. The croissant isn't buttery or flaky at all; rather something waxy like the ones they have a Walmart. The chicken salad is also pretty sad; flavorless and drenched in mayo to mask the lack of quality of the chicken.

French Dip: Horrendous roast beef quality. The best thing about this sandwich was also the baguette. The stale taste of the poor quality roast beef is doubled by the fact that it is served hot.

They accept...

I never, ever write negative reviews. It's just not something I do. I love writing positive reviews, but this time I cannot hold back.

I feel so nostalgic about La Madeleine. I remember a time with the food was incredible. Fresh, beautiful, wholesome. But they have clearly sold their soul and cut every possible corner but kept prices high. My business partner and I had breakfast for $45 for two French Country Breakfasts, French toast and two cups of tea. The eggs were ordered over-medium and came out looking like shoe leather all tough and brown. They were entirely inedible. I was raving about the potato galette but ours had sat on the warming plate so long (this is still only 9 am) and were tough and chewy.

La Madeleine used to have the most marvelous strawberry and blackberry jams - made with real fruit. Now you get served a plastic thimble filled with a liquidy sugar that has some strawberry or blackberry juice. Overly sweet with no taste of the fruit.

They used to have rotisserie chickens but corporate gutted the soul of freshness and realness and now they use factory-made, frozen chicken in the salads.

I used to love the lemon tarts - but now for $4+ dollars they give you the tiniest of tarts that is mostly sugar cookie shell. Just not worth it. It's the classic sweetened condensed milk + egg+ lemon tart. I can make a whole pie of that for less.

It is just so sad to see this once shining star of the "fast casual" dining experiences just go down the drain. I never minded paying their premium for the food because it used to be good.

We seriously would have gotten better hash browns at Ihop or McDonald's. Just don't disappoint yourself and unload your wallet at the same time. You don't need to add...