la Madeleine — Restaurant in Houston

UPDATE: June 10, 2021 I received a nice reply form la Madeleine Guest Relations. They would like to address my concerns and requested that I provide them my information at lamadeleinecomments.com That seemed to me a reasonable request, so a went to the site to offer my information. SURPRISE! it was a survey. No thank you! My comment is below. Now, you don't need my information either. Just address the situation with the Bakery & Café. Even the "Golden Arch" can make the food look like the picture,

Two Stars ONLY because there is no option for 1-1/2 Stars and because the ATTEMPT at producing the "NEW" Seasonal "Strawberry, Almond, & Goat Cheese Salade used the same ingredients as described beside the example photograph on the menu (see accompanying photos). "Spring mix topped with balsamic glazed strawberries, toasted almonds and fresh goat cheese. Served with French Vinaigrette" As advertised in the menu photograph, the chicken appears to be "chicken Strips." My take out version of this "NEW Seasonal Salade" (with the chicken added option) contained what appeared to be crumbles of chicken "not presentable enough" to be served to an inhouse patron. Two (+/-) medium balsamic glazed strawberries (9 slices) are tossed in one corner; a glazed almond chicken clump as garnish. More drizzled almond slivers are on top of some exposed greens, while stuffed between the two scoops of goat cheese rest the container of dressing. The "Spring mix" may not be the familiar, self described, pre-packaged salad greens in the home fridge, but neither are they the freshly prepared in house greens one might expect from the reputable La Madeleine. Even so, the green wilt barely covered the 4" x 6" bottom of the container. The simple "size and shape" marketing ploy of the clear container (top 8 x 6.5 not including the snap together edge) is a nice container.

One STAR for the "nice" container. 1/2 STAR for the same type of ingredients as pictured on the menu. 1/2 STAR for two excellent croissants I purchased separately @ $2.69ea.

BTW $9.68 was to much to pay for this menu item purchased for takeout at la Madeleine French Bakery & Cafe Tanglewood Houston, TX...

It pains me to write this review because I’m a fan of La Madeleine and have enjoyed their food at other locations.

A friend invited my wife and I to lunch and we were near this location and decided to try it out. The restaurant is set-up a little different than the other La Madeleine’s in the Houston area.

I ordered the Cafe Sampler ( 1/2 Entree / Cup of Soup / one side ) and my wife ordered a Salmon Spinach salad with avocado added ( extra $1.59, not bad ). I had hot tea, she coffee.

I ordered the 1/2 chicken friand with mushroom sauce, French onion soup with no croutons and the side was strawberries & cream ( Strawberries Romansff - which they up charged me $1.29 - whatever ).

So … Chicken Friand was luke warm at best and mushroom sauce was cold. They of course had the croutons on the top of the soup, sent it back and they were gone but no cheese on the top - the cheese was now in the bottom, so guessing someone scraped off the cheese and took out the bread and returned it. Disappointing. I was looking forward to the strawberries, but found a couple of my strawberries were overripe and mushy - bleh. On my hot tea, they didn’t have any black tea ( like an English Breakfast tea ) just green tea and caffeine free tea. Settled for green tea - sigh.

For my wife, it wasn’t much of a salad for the price ( $13.79 ). They forgot to add the bacon and the salmon was cold and tasted old / fishy. She also ordered a cup of tomato basil soup that she said tasted “off” / sour.

Table service was good and staff was overall friendly. Just issues with the food.

Again, we’ve both eaten at a variety of La Madeleines in Houston and had great experiences. Maybe they were just having a bad day, but we’ve scratched this location off our list.

Total bill was just under $45 with tip for the 2 of us - which is getting up there for a simple lunch. But everything seems to be going up.

Overall, food standards just were not what I’m used to / expect from a...

This place has gone downhill, it’s definitely not your typical La Madeleine standards. When you walk in an odor hits you like it’s not clean almost and when you look around, it needs a deep cleaning. Today I went to the counter and waited while some slow poke wearing a bright pink Looney Toons sweatshirt took her time to make a cappuccino for someone. No one was waiting, she ultimately could have taken my order and then continued to the coffee since it was dead but whatever. Mostly, she should have acknowledged me and at a minimum, moved at a faster pace. You almost have to work at being that slow. In the meantime two ladies to the left of me are just carrying on a conversation in Spanish. Finally, several minutes in they both try to help me at the same time. The one in slow motion and out of uniform ultimately won, I’m not at Disney I am at La Madeleine and looking for their cute black uniforms and berets, not obnoxious looney toon characters. At this point I have decided to eat elsewhere and get a coffee to go for my trek anywhere else but here. As I was leaving, the one who rang me up was leaned back on the food preparation table as if she had worked a double at busy restaurant waiting tables…it’s 9am and you have rung up a few breakfast plates. The fact she was shaking her head no at me as I left would tells me she didn’t appreciate my zero tip but I didn’t tip because there simply wasn’t anything to tip on, in my opinion. I hope they can get some good management in there to turn things around, I have always enjoyed having it in the neighborhood and have been going there...