The Baker Restaurant Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Los Angeles

The aroma of Jose's fresh-baked breads, croissants and hand-rolled baguettes envelop the no nonsense dining room, caressing like grandmama's embrace. Here, baking is art. Your eyes devour the pastries long before the pleasure passes your lips. THE BAKER RESTAURANT BAKERY & CAFE is a terrific "brasserie."

(I absorbed a petit French vocabulary watching Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, and Oscar Levant in the MGM musical, "An American in Paris." Incidentally, the film was photographed in the early 1950's, on 44 sets in Culver City, California, about ten miles South, down the 405.)

The servers understand that they are serving quality and respect the customer's subtlety of choice. Chef Adnan's sandwiches are thick and delicious. His interpretation of a classic French omelette is, according to my wife, terrific. His salads, also generous, are fresh and crisp. There are a few vegan items on the menu. The Baker's coffee, their espresso brew, is magnifique.

Your server greats you with an assortment of freshly baked breads and a tray of condiments. My wife enjoys the whipped butter and cheese spreads, while I munch on the salted olives, and spread their homemade jelly on the warm whole wheat breads. (Sometimes diets be damné.)

My wife ordered the omelette and I the vegan, veggie sandwich and lentil soup combo. The sandwich is available with a choice of a side salad, fries, fresh fruit, or a choice of soups.

The bowl of rich, slightly spicy, vegan lentil soup, complemented with cubes of boiled potato, is more than satisfying.

My wife's golden-yellow omelette and crisp bacon arrived steaming warm and delicious. She also ordered her favorite coffee drink: a single shot of decaf espresso, placed into a large cup. Then, non-fat foamed milk is scooped into the cup, to its rim. She enjoys it with a spoon.

The large veggie-hummus sandwich, containing avocado, tomato, cucumber, red onion, and roasted red peppers, is served on a hummus coated, freshly baked baguette or thick bread slices. I selected raisin/walnut bread. Déleciux!

Under Jackie's ownership, The Baker Bakery Restaurant & Cafe has expanded, adding additional seating. A children's menu is attached to the regular menu. Outside, tables hug the front window, inside, the dinning area has increased by a third and their kitchen area has doubled. The pleasure of their meals and baked goods have remained magnifique.

A meal at the restaurant runs $20 or so. I usually eat only half of their generous serving, and take the rest home. If you have dietary requirements, ask. Chef Adnan will do his best to create a dish for you to enjoy.

STUFF: A selection of Jose 's still warm breads are displayed. Take a loaf home. It will be sliced to order. There are no booths. For kids, smiley face pancakes are available. Everything is wheelchair accessible, including the gender-neutral bathroom. Parking is free, although limited. Street parking is available. When using street parking, there is an slight incline...

I came here for the first time yesterday and was very disappointed. My lunchmate and I were having a business meeting. When I arrived at 1:10pm, there were two waters on the table with my colleague. We proceeded to wait 20 minutes before anyone asked us about drinks. I ordered a vanilla latte, which came about 15 minutes later, and it was room temperature (?). The food took forever. Finally, my "stuffed" french toast came, but it was overcooked (burned on the outside and no creme left at all on the inside). I asked the server if this was the stuffed french toast, as there was no creme inside. She affirmed that it was and offered to get me the manager, which seemed like an odd suggestion. She did not simply offer a side of creme or to have the dish remade. I ate about 4 bites of the soggy toast.

My colleague's Greek salad took another 15 minutes (?) after my food arrived, so my food was cold by the time I ate it. We then started getting the "we're trying to close" vibes from the staff, as it was approaching 3pm, their closing time.

Throughout this experience, there was never more than one other table in the whole place, and the three staff members stared at their phones. One was watching loud videos about half the time, which echoed throughout the mostly-empty restaurant. We all know how incredibly annoying that is. I work in a service job, and I have nothing against staff looking at their phones when it is slow, we all have lives, but dang, use an earbud if you want to watch videos while people are still in the restaurant, and try to notice if you are ignoring customers.

Apparently, my colleague eats here all the time, so I am sure this was a fluke, but wow. I was impressed at how bad the service was yesterday. I hate leaving bad reviews and would normally have just quietly pulled the manager aside before leaving, but being that I was in an important meeting and the conversation with my colleague was flowing well, I just let it go and left hungry. I went to get food somewhere else immediately after. Leaving 2 stars and not one in the hopes that it was...

👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻They must be having new ownership over there the young girl , I think sirian the Persian. Girl was more friendly and more smiling service was terrible i ask for shakshuka i am from israel and I know about shakshuka the red sauce was watery no flavor full of is salt no spices and it came cold they never gave me water.I had to ask for it and I asked for just bagget bread. And they gave me other is bread 🍞. She never asked me how things are she gave coffee to other tables, but never gave me a refill.I had to ask for her. And I have to ask for my water. No communication english barrier i asked. For sweet and low she brought me splenda i asked for regular milk she brought me packages cream millk. Basically she did what she wanted to do.And what is in her convenience the young assyrian girl. Spend 27 for a horrible breakfast.. If you the owner then you care about your place or you train your people to be service orientated.And to listen to the patron declambs.Or you're going to lose your business?Because people like me and others will not tolerate that.It will not come back to your place especially when the food is mediocre and the chef doesn't know how to make shakshuka. I don't think i'm coming...