Bonjour Bakery & Café — Restaurant in Moab

i really don't understand these outrageously good reviews for the establishments in moab, as they often serve mediocre cuisine for extraordinarily high prices: Bonjour Cafe is no exception.

I ordered a Chai latte with a ham & swiss croissant for $16. The staff were "agreeable" as one would expect from any service employee, but I was served some poorly cooked chopped potatoes with a greasy burnt croissant. The Chai latte also was almost entirely milk, which had an "ok" flavor. Although, it tasted as though they had squirted chai flavored syrup into a cup of milk from the supermarket. Was the food edible? sure. but for the money? I'm so sick of being served poorly prepared food at such ridiculously high prices. I sat the food container and my latte on a table, then quietly walked out to order the same thing from Starbucks up the street at $10.

Time and again I'm served food and coffee from these pretentious little shops that makes Starbucks look like an exquisite deal. I often wonder if that's their purpose? it's working. Frankly, I'm not surprised the only Starbucks in town gets slammed and frequently sells out of all their food items. Many cafes here just leave a lot to be desired...

response to owner:

ah yes, The “respectfully, you don’t know how ice works” Defense. Perhaps your typical customer requires your assistance in these matters, but I can reasonably navigate the output of my own senses. Thanks. Perhaps you'd like me to explain how similes work? If I were to say, it "tasted like" they squirted syrup into a cup of milk, it does not mean that is how you actually prepared it.

In any case, reflecting upon the food that was served to me, I’m surprised you’re surprised. Your “freshly baked” black mush bun with white ooze spilling out into a box of sweaty chopped potatoes looked quite literally like hot garbage. If you find that palatable, then I’m deeply inclined to agree: your cuisine certainly does not meet with my personal preference. Most of your customers are probably rolling in cash, but I’m poor. I'm not in the habit of wasting money by leaving my “freshly prepared food” sitting uneaten on a table when I’m hungry, but it was that bad and I'm so angry about so frequently paying so much for mediocre food I couldn't trust myself to speak to your employees.

The price wasn’t the problem. It’s what I received after paying it. You’re not understanding that the issue is "value", not cost. The prices are high, but the food and coffee served in Moab is “mostly” mediocre with a few minor exceptions.

Whether you compare yourself to your competitors is irrelevant. You serve the same products in the same market.

and maybe you do not toast frozen sandwiches and mix syrups in mass produced sludge with sugar on top and call it coffee, but you certainly missed the point I was making. The soulless company that does produces superior quality for less money. That's not a problem with my tongue, but with the food you served to me.

Admittedly, this may not apply to your entire menu nor exemplify your typical output, but my first experience was so bad I had not the courage to risk a second attempt.

take...

Highly overpriced pastries with long life in a fridge.

Our family stopped by Bonjour Bakery for dessert in August 2024 while staying in Moab. We chose the place based on good reviews. We anticipated some fresh and tasty French pastries (as the place's name suggested) after an awesome dinner in another restaurant. What a huge disappointment it was! We got 4 pastries and 1 beignet and all were pretty tasteless. We couldn't even finish them. They were sweet and looked good, but nothing else. It felt they were pre-cooked a while ago and served quite some time in a fridge. Even the beignet was tough and chewy. Yet we spent $40 on these so called "French pastries".

The service was very nice and friendly as well as the atmosphere. It seems the place earned its good reviews for their service, atmosphere, and food other than desserts. We didn't get a chance to try that and hence can't comment.

If you are looking just for fresh and tasty pastries this place is passable despite its promising name.

Pastries ordered Eclair Chocolate Mousse Cake Peanut Nutella Cheesecake Fruit Tart Beignet

Response to the restaurant's reply on my review:

I updated the review as you did have fair points about nice service and atmosphere. Also, I clarified what I meant by pastries being "from the fridge".

First: the name of your restaurant is "Bonjour Bakery & Café". First word is French and last letter in Cafe is deliberately stressed to look French. Out 5 pastries we ordered 4 had French words in their names. Why would we expect it not be French? How are we supposed to know that you call yourselves "European style patisserie"? And note, "patisserie" is also a French word :)))

Second: No, we didn't approach any staff regarding the pastries tasting bad. Why would we do this? Saying what? We don't like any of these, please give our money back? Would you do so? I doubt it, but who knows. It would make sense to complain if one pastry out of 5 tasted bad / was tasteless, but all of them were tasteless, sugar only.

Third: Sorry, for unclear language. Of course I understand that pastries are stored in a fridge. Especially in such a hot place as Moab. I meant that pastries sat in the fridge for long time, more than a day, maybe more. At least they tasted so. Like smth you buy pre-packaged with a long shelf-life. I updated the tile line of the review.

Fourth: We know how the ordered pastries should taste like. Had those in many different places, in US and Europe. Unfortunately, the ones we got in Bonjour Bakery & Café are very far from the standard. Have you ever tried a good beignet? I suggest a visit to New Orleans to try some at Cafe Du Monde and other places:)

Fifth: We actually had an awesome day at Canyonlands and Dead Horse parks and then an amazing dinner at Thai Bella restaurant (check my review on it). So, no, I'm not "taking it out on you". Unfortunately, it's just your pastries were not good and I'm sure you can improve it. Check my other reviews. All fair and...

Bonjour Bakery is a gem among the many food stops in Moab. Our hotel had a breakfast so we didn’t go out looking for food and we were pretty devastated on the last day that we went out for brunch after checking out of our hotel and stopped here at Bonjour. It’s delicious. We tried many different dishes from the flatbreads, sandwiches, and smoothies to the desserts and everything was excellent. The cheesecake was phenomenal and we have tried the cheesecake and every restaurant that offered cheesecake because it’s our favorite and it’s definitely the best. Also their pumpkin banana pecan bread had so much flavor and textures. Even their ice cream was one of the best we’ve tried. Everything is exceptional and the best part is they are open until 4 so you can come early before your hikes at 7am and come after a late checkout from your hotel or even coming out of the parks. A variety of options and you can’t mess up with any. Do yourself a favor and reward yourself by coming here. The staff is also incredible, everyone is so kind and willing to help you make a decision on their many great options.

Came back 7 months later and took off two stars because we were repulsed to find the tropical smoothie tasted weird and Turns out, The “orange juice” in the tropical smoothie is actually made with Sunny D. That’s disgusting and completely false advertisement as Sunny D does not even claim to be orange juice but an “orange flavored juice” on the label. We were pretty perturbed that one of our fave spots would trick consumers into consuming something so unnatural and artificial with loads of sugar that consumers may not be aware of when they see “orange juice” on the ingredients board and made us wonder where else they are cutting corners to save a few bucks but still charging almost $10 for a smoothie that is 90% artificially flavored juice cocktail from a $5 jug. Pretty...