St. Honoré Bakery Thurman — Restaurant in Portland

We used to love this place, would splurge because every item was baked with care and if it cost a bit more, well we paid because it was so great...but fast forward to the past few visits. 8 croissants/1 elclair almost $50, fifty! Okay, deep breathes, it's worth it. We drive all the way home, in St Helens area and open our box with the delight of a kid on Christmas. Hmmm, these don't look quite so pretty like they used to. Naw, it's just me over thinking the $50 bucks we just spent. I reach for my extra special choice, the chocolate eclair and prepare to take a bite, mouth watering. First, I couldn't quite bite through it, what the heck?!?! The eclair part was actually hard, not soft. Finally I am chewing, hoping that hardness was just a fluke but through all the chocolate I taste a "burnt" flavor. No, like burned toast flavor so I turn the eclair over and low and behold, my eclair is actually burned. You can clearly see the black on the eclair and the I proceed to scrap off the chocolate and it is burned all the way through. Now, I understand mistakes, especially in food service so I immediately think, hey, they just had a bad batch...but then my darn mind takes over and I get peeved. Peeved that the baker, this IS a bakery, the baker saw they had burned the eclair and consciously made the decision to go ahead and fill them and put them our for sale at full price. You Ms or Mr baker, who should take such pride in your products you would never put out anything under St Honore name that wasn't of the highest quality. You duped me, knowingly. And for a hefty price tag.

This could mean a few things. 1. You are not a baker and could care less. You lost faith in your company and are willing to put out substandard products. You are now a chain so by sheer volume and sales, you don't care if you lose a few customers. You think we wouldn't notice. Which the goes back to you don't care to lose a few customers.

Like Starbucks, the quantity of patrons won't make a difference if your product starts to lack. Oh and if you are wondering about the 8 other pastries, the croissants were overcooked, edible and tasty but overcooked. Not worth my $50 and add in the mediocrity of the past few visits, we were no longer smitten with this place. I am nobody's fool. I will pay a lot for high quality, incredible food, but this no longer is that.

This was typed on my cell, please...

We were picking up other things around the area and decided to stop by St. Honore for some pastries as a snack for later.

PARKING - Street parking only, be mindful of the paid parking spots! There's several that have access to mobile parking apps, which make it easier for you to keep track of time and add if needed!

SERVICE/ENVIRONMENT - Really quaint corner store with very cute decor that went along with the theme of a French Boulangerie. There's a few small tables scattered around the store if you choose to dine-in, but it's not a very large space. The display cases have all the sweets and offerings you can grab - don't forget to round the corner to see the savory options on the other side of the cash register! They pack your pastries as you're ordering, and any heated items or drinks will be prepared once you pay.

FOOD - Saint Honore ($6.95): A gorgeous dessert that was hard to pass up, not only by the appearance but also it's named after the store! The puff pastry is delightfully airy and the vanilla custard is decadent and delicious. The caramelized sugar on top of the choux gives a nice bitter balance to the sweetness of the dessert.

Opera ($7.25): A classic cake that is one of my sister's favorites, so we had to grab one to try! There's nothing wrong or bad about this cake, but it also wasn't something that stood out to us.

Normandy Apple Toast ($6.20): A delicious bread pudding with vanilla flavored custard! I wasn't a huge fan of how big the apples were on top - they were monstrous chunks that made it a little hard to eat, but it was still delicious!

Maple Bacon Croissant ($6.00): A classic flavor combination, but put onto a buttery croissant. The croissant itself was quite deflated and not very flaky, but the pastry itself was nice and moist. The flavors of the bacon and maple came out perfectly.

OVERALL - A cute little shop to grab a pastry or two... or three; and some desserts to go along with them! Would definitely recommend the...

I would have given five stars because everything in here is amazing and most of the staff are very friendly and polite but today I got some very bad vibes from the two female bakers, shaping bread on the very publicly visible baking bench. It’s a total bummer because I want to support female bakers; however, these two made me feel so unwelcome watching them kneed and shape that I wondered why they weren’t in the back away from the customers. My dad is an oil painter who is regularly working on something, and he’s always friendly when someone approaches to watch him partake in his craft. Even when his 73 year old self is tired, he’s still always friendly and will at least say hello to observing customers. It seemed as if the two bakers were pretending I wasn’t there observing what they were working on as they began passive aggressively saying the following loud enough for me to hear, “Im so glad I didn’t have to learn with people watching me” and the other replied by complaining about the questions people ask while they are baking. I don’t understand how they could not see that as totally rude and such a turn off to the whole business. I walked away immediately after hearing this and they both continued to keep their heads down.

My hope in writing this is that they could try to be more friendly to their customers. I’ve worked in retail, I’ve worked in the service industry and I know that unless the customer is being a jerk, it’s best to be polite or friendly as opposed to...