Croustille Café — Restaurant in Maryland

⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ Review: Croustille Café – French Bakery & Café, Baltimore, MD Subtitle: The croissants are flakier than the staff’s mood — and that’s saying something.

Let me just say it: The food? Great. The experience? A slow, beautiful, slightly hostile fever dream.

Croustille Café is a little slice of Paris dropped into Baltimore — if Paris had mild sanitation issues, passive-aggressive customer service, and a 13-year-old front-of-house manager with the soul of a disgruntled war general.

Let’s talk about that kid behind the counter. He might be 10, he might be 17, I don’t know — but he radiates the energy of someone who’s been managing Napoleon’s leftover troops. He’s angry. He’s efficient. He’s allergic to smiles. I asked a polite question about my sandwich. He blinked slowly, like he was calculating how many lifetimes I’d have to wait for an answer. I’m not saying he growled at me — but I felt spiritually growled at.

Now... the wait. We ordered two sandwiches and some pastries. Simple stuff, right? It took AN HOUR. Sixty full minutes. You could’ve baked your own sourdough loaf, proofed it, and hosted a tea party in the time it took to get that baguette sandwich. I kept checking to see if there was a cooking class happening in the kitchen or a croissant emergency, but nope — just a slow drip of indifference and maybe one overworked toaster oven. One baguette came out, the other disappeared into legend.

And don’t expect updates. Or apologies. Or eye contact. This is Croustille. You are on their time now.

Ambiance? Surprisingly charming! Soft music, café tables, vaguely European energy. Unfortunately, the tables are sticky, the floor needs a mop, and the vibe is somewhere between “cozy Parisian café” and “we’ll get to it eventually.”

Now for the good news — and it’s VERY good: The croissants? Flaky. Buttery. Perfection. The kind that shatters when you bite in, leaving a proud trail of pastry crumbs down your shirt and your soul. The baguette sandwiches? Delicious. Warm, gooey, fresh ingredients, perfectly balanced between crusty and tender. Once the food arrives, all your anger melts into cheese and joy.

Final Verdict: Croustille Café is a paradox wrapped in parchment paper. The food is glorious. The wait time is criminal. The staff is one existential crisis away from staging a revolution. The place is a little grungy. But would I go back? Yes — with a full charge on my phone, a meditation app, and very, very low expectations for interpersonal warmth.

Three stars for the chaos. One bonus star for...

We came twice in one weekend- Friday and Sunday.

On Friday the guys were friendly, but not efficient.

We ordered Macrons. Those were DEFINITELY bought and not made by Croustille. That is just misleading customers.

They were also almost completely out of pastries. Makes no sense for a French Bakery to be empty on a Friday morning.

The coffee tasted burnt and was watery. Really disgusting. I did not order another one on Sunday. It also took way too long for us to get our orders, simple sandwiches.

We waited in line for over 20 minutes on Sunday just to order. The guy behind the counter had no idea how to answer any question about the menu.

Additionally, they ran out of Mozarella and water bottles, but still charged us. who does their ordering in the kitchen?!? How does a cafe run out of basic cheese???

I did get a refund for the two water bottles after asking a few times. The guy at the register was in la-la-land. He should not be interacting with customers if he is not savvy. He gave the cafe a terrible name.

So the cafe is out of mozarella. We asked for goat cheese. All of us got our orders without the goat cheese. We went back to show the sandwich maker. He added the cheese finally, but not a normal serving... why be cheap on customers?!

There was 1 ready made sandwich with mozarella. We asked to add to it goat cheese. They heated the sandwich, without goat cheese.

We took back the sandwich, showing the guy he did jot add goat cheese. They brought it back with goat cheese- but removed the mozarella.

Omelletes- we requested to add goat cheese. Again, both egg orders came without the goat cheese.

The menu that shows the order with baguettes- they give you the tiny baguette roll, which is 1/3 of a regular baguette.

The cafe has potential. Make sure you are stacked with ingredients. Alerts the counter guys if you are out of something. Clean your coffee makers so they don't have burnt coffee in the bottom of the coffee maker Counter Guys should be quick, savvy, friendly, knowledgable. You need two guys at the counter, two guys making the sandwiches, at least.

Customer service...

I don't eat many baked goods so I don't go here that often. They have one product that I really like, their chocolate challah. There were two times that I've tried to order this product. The first time, I placed the order early in the week. They called me Thursday morning to tell me that they couldn't make it. No explanation, they just cancelled my order and refunded me the money. Frustrating, but no harm no foul. It was also right before the holidays, so although I was frustrated that a week's notice wasn't enough time for them to make it, I was somewhat understanding of the situation. The second time, however, I placed the order through the website. When I arrived there, they told me that they don't make chocolate challah except on Friday and that I could come back tomorrow to pick up my order. What? How do you not make something I placed an order for? I live more than an hour away from the place, going all the way back to pick up something that should have been available when I ordered it is insane. However, I had already paid for it and was really looking forward to getting it to share with my shul. So my wife went back on Friday to pick it up. They told her that the order had in fact been ready on Thursday and that they had to throw it away. Now they don't have the amount we had ordered and paid for, and they couldn't find the order in their system to cancel it and refund the money. So instead they decided to "make it right" in an entirely self serving way by letting her get an equivalent dollar amount of product (which we didn't want). These two experiences combine to make it so we will likely never recommend this business to...