Paris Bakery Cafe — Restaurant in Monterey

DECEMBER 2016 - Delicious food. Ask about the soup of the day! When I went, it was tortilla soup. The lady at the counter let me sample it and it was delish! They have a huge selection of desserts. You'll say that you want one of each! 😉 When I went, the restaurant was very hot inside, so I sat outside even though there was seating inside. Sometimes the shop gets really busy so there are long lines. Would come back again.

DECEMBER 2018 - Of course I came back again. :) This time the soup of the day was Cream of Broccoli Soup. I ordered the bowl size, but they didn't have enough to fill the bowl, so they let me choose a free cookie, so I chose a chocolate meringue. I like how they take this into account. (Although I thought the bowl was pretty full, I'm not declining a free cookie!) The soup (or all of their soups in general) comes with a nice piece of bread-awesome for dipping in the soup! The meringue was not as light and airy as I expected it to be. It has a strong chocolate flavor, which is nice, but it is extremely dense inside, so it doesn't melt in your mouth (you actually have to bite it.) - see photo. It's still pretty hot inside the cafe, especially when the sun shines through the window.

Prior to this review edit, I went to the cafe again in April 2018. The soup of the day was Tortilla Soup (yes, again!). Just as good as I remembered it to be. :)

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but there are vegetarian options like the Veggie Delight sandwich. In addition, the customer service is amazing, but there is...

This place is a Hazbeen. I happen to be getting coffee and a sandwich when quite an episode happened. I ordered both. They gave me a cup and I filled it. Coffee was cold. I asked if they would make a new pot. No, they said they don't make a new pot till they are out...? Um, so I need to order coffee till you run out to have a hot cup? Whatever people can argue about "Hot" all day long. The sandwich didn't come, I asked about it, they then started making it. But that actually brings me to why I won't come back. I overheard a lady asking about her sandwich. She had a kid who couldn't have been over two, got her cookies and was just as calm and patient as could be. Asked about her sandwich. Someone said "did someone leave a sandwich in the microwave?" to their credit they did insist on remaking it. When they didn't remake it promptly, because they didn't have ingredients, she asked for her money back.

Well, now that didn't go over well at all. They said after killing a lot of time till they had a sandwich in hand. The manager said, "why don't you want the sandwich, you ordered it?" The sandwich was made to go, She clearly wanted it to eat in-house. She said she had a doctors appointment and needed to go. Which to me is all the explanation necessary give her the money and chock up the loss? But they argued wasting time. Said the register wouldn't refund part of the transaction... Since when is that her problem? Yeah no, this place used to be amazing with that being how the manager responded, nope...

Overall: ⭐️☆☆☆☆

Food: Horrific

Avoid this place if you have any sense of taste whatsoever.

The words Paris and Bakery should not be used in the name of this shop. There is genuinely nothing at all authentic or good to report here.

They serve the poor people of Monterey bland, limp excuses for croissants in the misguided belief customers have no taste and will just put up with it.

If you want a croissant which is light, crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside with layers of flaky pastry served with a little butter and jam as it should be do not go here.

Let’s not even start about their interpretation of a baguette.

It’s a total disservice to the local community and disrespect to the French.

No wonder it was easy to walk straight into as opposed to other local places which had lines.

They may have been here a while but I can tell you their days are numbered. People are wiser and standards have been raised. This place is shockingly bad and I really, sincerely mean that.

As readers know, I always give credit where it’s due.

I wonder if the owners can stand up with hand on heart and look their customers in the eye whilst telling them they are being served delicious, carefully made, authentic French baked goods. I doubt it very much.

What I liked:

• Absolutely nothing

What I didn’t like:

• Dirty • Over priced • Not authentic • The ‘croissant’ • Cheap watery coffee

Do I recommend going? NO Will I go again? NO Was it good value?...