St. Honoré Bakery Broadway — Restaurant in Portland

Terrible customer service by 3 members of the crew.

What happened: We were excited have the Strawberry Millefeuille (really good!) at St Honore. We discovered that the Ritual app was publicized at the counter and wanted to order using credits. However, it wasn’t on the app. Not a big deal, so we asked the cashier (X) while ordering why it wasn’t and X replied cluelessly that she’s not sure. We then offered to choose items available on Ritual which will add up to the same cost as the Strawberry Millefeuille. X wasn’t sure how to respond, stumbles then said she’d look for someone who knows.

We obliged and sat down waiting for her to have someone else assist us. However, X didn’t do it right away (there were 5 others around) and instead helped other clients for 10 minutes and had us wait until she was done. X did not approach us and we had to ask her, but as we moved towards the counter she tried to go to the back to avoid our questions.

Subsequently, she had a colleague (Y) attend to us but failed to fill her colleague in, so we had to explain the whole situation again. Y replied and said that the app is outside of their control and that it’s maintained by someone who wasn’t there. No apologies were offered for this oversight, and she looked at us condescendingly as if we were troublemakers. We weren’t happy of course, but offered our solution again. Y repeated her answer as if we did not understand instead of providing a reason why our solution wouldn’t work. X & Y then discussed for a bit, with Y returning by stating that they wouldn’t want to use different items as it may affect inventory. Understandable, though at this point it has been 20+ minutes with nothing done so we wanted to reflect our experience to their supervisor (Z).

Z came to us and repeated that the app is outside their control. We explained that this issue isn’t the point. Here was our feedback: Having issues with a new POS system is completely fine. The crew would need time to get used to it. However, when there are issues with the app, there should be training on what can or cannot be done by the crew, so the customer knows what the options are. It’s always best to deliver the bad news quickly (and effectively) to not waste customers’ time. Also, a “sorry” goes a long way, customers are generally understanding. Don’t try hide and avoid the client, or even leave them waiting. Be confident, customers get confused/worried if it seems like you are uncertain of how to move things forward. It’s ok not to know, say it with confidence and try to think of alternative solutions/find someone who might know. Communicate to colleagues about the situation to avoid repetition.

This unexpected situation was a failure on all counts to resolve a simple situation. Z eventually apologized and offered to give us the Strawberry Millefeuille but we declined. It didn’t seem like it would taste good anymore.

What’s sad is that all the hardwork and love which came together to make such a masterpiece of a pastry all came to a waste at the end: the customer experience.

We want your team improve on their service standards, so we can one they all happily enjoy a beautiful Strawberry...

The food is great but their customer service worse than McDonald's. Don't bother going here if your getting food to-go for more than 1 person. My boss was treating the office, a total of 4 people, for my birthday. We all ordered pastries as an extra special treat. When we unpacked our to-go bag and sorted out the order, none of the pastries were present. And our lunches were packed in random packaging as if someone didn't have the time to bother with the order.

UPDATE: I went back to try it again and this time I ate my lunch in the bakery. Once again the service was bad. There was condensation all over the glass display cases. When I asked for a menu since I couldn't see what was on offer the person behind the counter told me there is no menu. I saw something in a croissant and said I'd take the croissant since I couldn't make out what else they had available. It ended up being an okay but not worth the $9 I paid for egg salad croissant. The side salad that i guess makes the lunch $9 looked like it came from a bag that came from a factory thousands of miles away and all it was, was cut up lettuce leaves, half of a small tomato, and a suggestion of dressing. Considering all the other options there are for a quick and good lunch in Downtown I'd say skip this place unless you don't want to walk anymore and you happen to be at the doors to this place.

The food makes this place a 3 out of 5 stars. The service takes a star away so 2...

Pros: If you’ve been to Europe you’ll probably realize as soon as you eat something from here that the food is pretty authentic compared to other French style bakeries. They use ingredients from Europe that other bakeries often don’t use. Some of their pastries are literally to die for (my fav is the savory cheese croustade).

Cons: This location isn’t great compared to the other ones in Portland. Lots of sketchy people around (not their fault but still a con) and the employees are mostly kids who don’t really care about the work/customers, and the pastry line gets out of hand quickly on a weekend which is especially irritating when you can see 3 teenagers standing around in the back doing nothing but giggling to themselves while one older employee takes care of both the pastry case and register. The prices were already sort of unreasonable, and they just raised them again. I understand inflation is a thing, but $3.10 for one tiny macaron? $12.50 for a set of 4 (that math doesn’t even make sense)? $6.25 for a cheese croustade or apple turnover? Sadly I won’t be returning as often as I previously have with the new pricing. $7 for one pastry after tip is just too much, no matter how...