Épicerie Boulud — Restaurant in New York

NOT DESERVING OF THE BOULUD NAME! Having had the privilege of eating at several of Daniel's excellent restaurants including his namesake restaurant, this Au Bon Pain rip-off is transparently sub par to many other quick lunch eats one can find in the city. $10 for sandwich of such poor quality is a slap in the face. Unlike many complaining about the service, there was a distinct effort by management and the employees to improve upon this. Service was excellent which is the only reason this isn't less than three stars. I've had several sandwiches there including the cubano and the banh mi. Save yourself time and money: you want a good banh mi go to Num Pang ... cubano, La Flor de Broadway or any other number of decent spots. The grilled cheese wasn't even that good for God's Sake! It's a grilled cheese supposedly designed by a famous French chef! You think they could better than a couple slices of Kraft singles on Wonderbread. The bread is passable, decent crumb, but absolutely nothing special. The gelato and the deserts are weak. All in all very disappointed. Comes off as cheap taste wrapped in sophisticated bow. Daniel Boulud often knocks it out of the park, but this place in its current form...

I often shop here, enjoying the breakfast and lunch, along with sweet treats, however in recent weeks the service has been barely adequate. Today was the last day that I will enter, b/c a big part of my attending any establishment is the service. This morning I entered with 2 ladies making sandwiches behind the pastry counter. At first, one looked at me and went back to what she was doing, then I said "excuse me" with both females turning to me but then ignoring me returning to making sandwiches. Unfortunately this was not the 1st incident in recent weeks, so I turned and exited. It seems they are MOSTLY catering to the European tourists, and even then, some were wondering where to ask a question. I don't know if the issue is that they are under-staffed, poorly trained, or just don't care b/c of the nature of the job, but I can assure the company, more and more customers will seek food elsewhere, b/c no one wants attitude or to be ignored when shopping at an...

They made a big deal of me asking for a cup of water. The guy working there bugged his eyes out at me and repeated “…a cup of water?” As if no one has ever asked that before. I said yes… and then he said, are you going to stay here and order? And i said yes. After he gave me the water I made sure to not come back and order, because that’s extremely inappropriate. I would have ordered a coffee and food, this is in a busy terminal and I had just traveled for hours, I would have definitely enjoyed having an iced coffee and a sandwich. Instead I went upstairs to Tartinery because they’re so nice to me all the time and don’t ever mind giving me an extra lid, and extra cup, whatever I need to enjoy my meal. You never know if I needed that first cup of water in order to take a medication, or quench my thirst after traveling. Epicerie Boulud was extremely close to a health violation with me. Shaming me for a cup of water...