The French Workshop — Restaurant in New York

I've been going to The French Workshop in Astoria daily since they opened on Monday, April 7. I also signed up for their loyalty card so I can earn points. Unfortunately, due to a horrible experience on Wednesday, April 9 I won't be going back anytime soon. Here's a synopsis (TLDR):

I ordered a sandwich from their sandwich bar at 12:50PM; Line was already chaotic as someone cut in and ordered in front of me. There's no system or order to how food is ordered.

I went to pay at the register and actually gave them a 15% tip. Started to wait for my sandwich.

About 15 minutes later I noticed that people that ordered their sandwich already got their food. I went up to the coffee bar (barista) to inquire as the register was busy. They realized that the sandwich was never put into the oven.

At this point, I was pretty upset as I just wrapped up a meeting and went to grab a quick bite before my next meeting (I live a block away). I asked for a refund and to see a Manager.

The register person then proceeded to tell me that next time I need to order from the sandwich bar before going to the register. At this point, I just brushed him off as he had no idea what transpired and he placed the blame on me. To me, this represents a lack of ownership and responsibility of their mistake. This is a failure on their part, as they are in the service industry. Additional training may be needed.

I finally got a refund and waited another 5 minutes for a Manager to show up. I believe he or she decided to not address this head on so the same barista came and spoke with me. I offered my feedback and my displeasure. And to no fault of his, the barista was very courteous and he handled it very well. Management, on the other hand, need to grow a spine.

After spending close to 25+ minutes and getting nothing but displeasure, I left.

Overall, this horrible experience will live with me for a very long time. And since they don't really care about me as a customer and not own up to their mistake, there's really no reason for me to spend my money there. And I'll make sure to communicate this to my friends but they can decide if you want to spend their money there or not. And likely, I'll go visit the other French Workshop locations as this was isolated to the Astoria location. Hopefully, The French Workshop Astoria can do better, starting with the ordering process, paying process, all the way to...

I’m really not trying to be a Karen about this because I get it, but I wish in the future that this establishment would be more upfront/consistent about their dog policy. I went in on opening day and asked an employee if they were dog friendly and they said it was fine for to-go orders, and I have gone in nearly every other day since opening day with my small dog and ordered coffee to-go with no issue (in fact, she was greeted nearly every time by employees/management and I actually made it a point to stop by as often as I did specifically because of the friendly environment.)

Today I went in and an employee called my dog over to greet her and a manager I had never seen before told me I had to leave unless she was a service animal. If he were friendlier about it I would absolutely return in the future on my own, but he was a bit rude about it, and again, I totally get it if that’s their policy, but it was a little confusing having an employee warmly call her over and socialize with her while simultaneously being told to leave by someone else standing literally directly beside them.

I’ve seen many other people bringing their dogs in for to-go orders, so it might be a good idea to put up clear signage or just be consistent in their policy enforcement. (To be clear, I do NOT think this is the fault of the staff, I believe this is a management issue, because the employees around this manager were visibly put off/confused by this interaction and it seems like there is miscommunication going on from higher up.)

Again, I really loved coming by this place specifically because I was told it was dog friendly for to-go coffee orders and they were so chill and nice to my dog, to the point where she literally tries to pull me into the doors every time we walk by. I hate to say this because I feel like such a Karen and that’s really not my intention, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back for a while, if at all, because the warm environment and sense of community played a huge role in the overall appeal of the place, and it doesn’t really have...

The ambience inside of the bakery was lovely. Lots of nice places to sit if you want to work while eating... The service was also good. They are friendly and accommodating. I'm not sure how I felt about my pastries of choice though. The lemon tart was more preferred than the 'le mousse chocolate'...

For the lemon tart, it wasn't necessarily bad. But if you are a fan of the lemon curd part there's about one centimeter, and an enormous amount of meringue, the lemon curd ratio to pie crust, was uneven---I would say it was about 80% meringue, 15% crust and 5% cream... I personally like meringue, so it didn't ruin the experience but not everyone is the same. I also found that their pie crust was nice and buttery, but very thick. Otherwise, it was good. The official description was 'sable biscuit, lemon curd, Italian meringue'.

Their mousse chocolate was subpar. The crust, tasted chocolate-y. But it was very hard like a graham cracker. Maybe it's supposed to be like that.. there were two fillings inside, the vanilla cream and the dark chocolate mouse. They were okay, but once again skimpy on the filling. There were some fruits on top; the strawberry was very nice and fresh, the other ones were just good too. A raspberry, two blueberries and a blackberry and a little decorative white chocolate piece. Not necessarily bad just not my personal favorite.

They're all pretty and decorative, so they're nice as pastries to bring as a gift or something. The price is about 6.00-14$ per pastry depending on what you get which is normal these days for a bakery. Overall I think it has a nice environment and the cakes...