Benjamin French Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Orlando

This post is in reference to a terrible incident I experienced at Benjamin French Bakery & Cafe Easter morning.

I would visit Benjamin French Bakery at least once a week and had a disappointing experience last Fall when I ordered an iced latte (espresso and steamed milk over ice) and inquired why they were serving it out of a refrigerated pitcher (like iced coffee). The drink I paid $4.75 was terrible and I politely asked to exchange it for a regular cup of drip coffee instead. The owners said I would have to pay full price for an exchange and despite my disappointment, I understood they are a small business so I absorbed the cost and disposed of the latte I couldn't drink in full. I decided to stick to Starbucks for quality consistency but continued visiting Benjamin's regularly for their pastries.

Yesterday, my mom was visiting our neighborhood and we decided to wait until Benjamin's opened at 8 am to enjoy our Easter morning with coffee and croissants. We made coffee at my home, poured it in to-go tumblers to enjoy as we walked my dog, and arrived at Benjamin's. I'm their first customer and it's Easter so despite my poor experiences with them in the past, I put my ego aside and make a point to be chipper. I ask the older woman behind the counter how she's doing. She responds curtly, I order 3 croissants at a total of $10.50 and she asks whether they're for here or to go. I'm excited to sit at a table with my mom to catch up so I say here. She points to my mom and says, "No outside drinks." I look over and my mom is not even sitting down but her tumbler is on the table she's chosen. I say, okay, "we don't have to eat here, we'll take it to go" but explain that we were planning to buy more croissants at the end of our meal to take to our family and now will not be doing so. At this point, I'm admittedly frustrated so I say, "You know, you have great pastries, they're wonderful, but each experience I've had has been so rude here." This is when she gets mad, holds my debit card hostage while she makes a speech about being a small business and having to protect her small business, to which I say, I understand but it doesn't mean that customer service has to be rude.

Here's where things get outrageous: The older woman repeatedly insists she's not rude, gives me back my debit card, and demands I return the pastries I'm holding in my hand back. At this point, I'm incredulous to why it's escalated so quickly and I'm trying to return things to normal because I don't want to ruin the morning for my mom. I try to hand her my debit card again and say no, I would like to buy these pastries. She refuses to charge me for them, continues demanding I hand her the bag back and yelling so I turn to walk out to remove myself from this situation when her husband comes around to stand next to me, points at the cameras and says he'll call the police. At this point, I'm still inside, looking for cash in my wallet to hand him since they won't charge my card but I only had a $20 bill. I'm obviously fearful so the male owner starts laughing and says, "What? I'm not going to hit you." I explain I tried to pay for the baked goods but his wife(?) wouldn't let me so he finally says you can pay right here and directs me back to the wife who suddenly wants my money again. I pay and say this is the last time I'm a customer here.

As I'm leaving, the male owner is being derisive, says a few things I can't make out but the last of which, I hear crystal clear: "Don't come back. I don't know how they do it in your country."

I am shocked and confused. My mom is shocked and confused because the owner is literally chasing me out on Easter morning while insulting my heritage? My features look Mediterranean but I should have said that as an AMERICAN, customer satisfaction is an operating value of any business. There are exceptional businesses to support in the neighborhood. This is truly not...

We came in here hoping to relax with a coffee after a bit of walking. The ambience is really nice, with both indoor and outdoor seating. There is a speaker system that plays European cafe music, so it really adds on to the experience. However, be advised that sometimes people may be smoking marijuana outside, a smell I personally am not very fond of.

The ambiance aside, this is the worst coffee we ever had in Orlando. The beans are completely over-roasted, the coffee tastes like it’s screaming and me and it wants to bite me. Even an iced latte, which is already diluted in milk, tasted pretty harsh. Upon asking the cashier where they source their coffee from/ what brand (e.g., Lavazza, etc.), she said that it comes from a wholesaler. She showed a bag that only had an “Espresso” sticker tag on it. I’m not sure where the wholesaler got the beans from, but they messed up big time.

As I tried drinking my cappuccino, I just couldn’t swallow the harsh-tasting substance, and I had to ask the ladies inside for some milk to soften it up. Bad-coffee-review aside, the staff were very attentive of the issue and responded exceptionally.

My one piece of advice to the owner is to test different coffee beans and select the ones that are not heavily, exaggeratedly over roasted (such as what we had). We did not order food because it looked pretty bland, but as we did not try it, there is no general consensus. I would definitely come back here for the outdoor seating and ambiance, but I wouldn’t touch the coffee ever again unless the coffee beans are replaced with something smooth.

Parking: there are about 4 spots in the back of the bakery and one of them is accessible. Restroom: private, needs a code WiFi: staff WiFi and guest WiFi, both...

This place is incredible!!! Best croissants and quiche that my husband and I have found since Paris...maybe BETTER!

You are greeted by a delicious smell of baked bread and savory quiches and welcomed by 2 lovely French women at the counter. They have an impressive array of croissants - plain, chocolate, Nutella, Nutella bacon (what?!?), blueberry, apricot, vanilla, blueberry, almond...and probably a few more I can't remember. They have a variety of quiches, sandwiches (panini or baguette), and crepes. They have plain baguettes you can take or eat there. Plenty of coffee choices and a fresh orange juice machine. And if you're in the mood, they have lots of wine to choose from as well!

We started with 2 cafe lattes - hot and delicious. I had a chocolate croissant - and fell in love instantly - and their Basque quiche (ham, cheese, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and rosemary). My husband had a vanilla croissant and their Montaigne quiche (bacon, confit onions, and goat cheese). Everything was incredible and completely transported me back to France. The croissants are crunchy on the outside and pillows of buttery air on the inside. The quiche's crust was buttery and flaky; each component of the quiche had a flavor of its own and came together for one perfect bite.

Needless to say, we took SEVERAL things to go (but one of the croissants never made it home...)

The place is lovely and intimate, yet has plenty of tables and high-top seating along the windows. It requires street-parking, so practice your parallel-parking skills. (It's...