Leonidas Chocolate Cafe — Restaurant in Northfield Township

Overall a pretty mediocre experience if what you're looking for is a truly local French style cafe.

For whatever reason America/Americans just can't seem to get it right when it comes to a French cafe that isn't clearly some kind of corporate chain which isn't paying detailed attention to the quality & authenticity of what it serves.

As that premise would suggest; the pastries that we had were in our opinion overly sweet, and the lemon bar lacked the kind of tangy tartness you'd expect in most I've had in Paris and it instead seemed to really bank on the tons of lemon zest which (to their credit) was freshly zested onto the pastry, but gave it an overall bitter finish.

Coffee is another area of my disappointment with almost all these American style French cafes because virtually none of them know how to make good coffee. When asked if they could make a flat white she said she could, but what I received was closer to a Starbucks "flat white" than a traditional European style flat white, which was first given away when she asked what size I wanted (in Europe the size is set to 6 oz standard, no exceptions). The espresso's over roasted bitterness was about all I could taste through the milk which was also too hot.

All this to say, the hunt for a real quality French cafe in...

On 01/13, I placed an order for two sandwiches; the sandwiches should include egg as ordered. When I arrived home (20) mins away from the location, there was no egg. I called the store to explain the situation, and the person that answered the phone offered to remake the sandwiches. I say no because I would not drive 40 minutes again (20 back and forth) to pick up another sandwich. She then offers to add a note for me to pick up the sandwiches next time at no charge.

A week later, I call to place the order for the "replacement" sandwiches and 2 drinks. When I get to the store to pick up the items, to my surprise, the store manager told me that she will charge for the sandwiches but not for the eggs. At the start, I thought that it was a joke... This is not how you make up for a previous bad customer service experience.

She then told me that the last order was correct multiple times... while I was telling her that no, that the previous was not correct, the order was wrong because the sandwiches I ordered had egg and the ones I was handled did not. She then repeated that because the eggs were the only thing missed, she gave me the eggs for free this time... In this entire conversation, she was rude, unapologetic, and not...

Horrible horrible rude little girls working here. Had an issue 6/20. Wrote a review no response....Thought I'd stop in and give them another chance. The rude girl SOPHIA.. was at register I asked for someone else to help me and they advised me that they have a Rule that the person standing there has to help you. After going back-and-forth, the owners daughter Clemente told me I was refused service. Seriously!! This little girl was telling me this because of her friends rude behaviour. I called the owner in Evanston. She was very nice. I spoke to her and she informed me that this was her daughter and she was going to speak to them..could've called the authorities. You cannot refuse service to someone for no apparent reason just because I don't want the person I had last time was rude to serve them..EVEN IN NORTHBROOK PEOPLE... we are all still people your Northbrook status doesn't mean anything... NO WORDS ....these young people are so self-absorbed and plastic... They need some manners but of course none exist it's sad ... hope the owner really talks to her daughter and the staff, otherwise she's gonna lose a lot...