Tatte Bakery & Cafe | Ridgewood — Restaurant in Ridgewood

Disappointing Experience at Tatte Ridgewood – All Hype, No Substance. I really don’t understand the hype around this place. I visited the Tatte in Ridgewood, NJ, and the experience was, frankly, awful from start to finish.

The espresso I ordered was extremely acidic with a terrible aftertaste—imagine something like burnt wire. My wife’s drip coffee wasn’t even warm. It had visible grinds floating in it and tasted like watered-down wannabe coffee. Completely unacceptable for a place that presents itself as a quality café.

We also ordered a plain croissant, a chocolate croissant, the breakfast sandwich, and the prosciutto fig panini. Every pastry was soggy, with a dense bread-like texture—nothing close to the light, flaky standard you’d expect. Honestly, the croissants you find prepackaged at a random deli taste about the same, if not better.

The cafe was packed, and the ambient noise made it nearly impossible to hear the staff or place an order properly. After 15 minutes of waiting, I asked a manager to check on my food. She responded rudely, saying it was normal to wait that long because they were busy. I waited another 15 minutes (30 minutes total) before checking again and explaining that I had a limited lunch break. The second manager’s only response was to offer a refund instead of trying to help resolve the situation. No apology. Just attitude.

This is not how hospitality works. The food was subpar, the coffee was terrible, and the management was downright rude and dismissive. It felt like they were more concerned with maintaining the image of a trendy café than actually delivering quality food or service.

If Tatte is spending big on PR and marketing, maybe it’s time they invest in what really matters: better food, better coffee, and some serious customer...

I really don’t like leaving negative reviews, but this place just didn’t do it for me.

The space itself is clean and bright, which I appreciated. But the ordering process was a little confusing if it’s your first time—you order at the counter, get a table number, then find your own seat. It felt more like a self-serve setup than an actual sit-down experience.

Service was pretty bare. We didn’t get any napkins with our coffee or almond croissant, and I had to go look for someone just to get some. You only get one napkin wrapped with your utensils when your food comes out, which honestly isn’t enough. Would’ve been nice to have a napkin dispenser at each table.

We tried the “breakfast sandwich” (eggs, Vermont cheddar, and applewood smoked bacon on house sourdough), and it was super underwhelming barely any bacon, and felt like something I could make at home. The sourdough was the best part, and probably the only thing that felt worth the price.

I also tried the “Egg in the Hole” (Jerusalem bagel, eggs, and chopped salad) it looked great, but lacked flavor other then overpowering flavor of the salad that reminded me of pico de gallo

The coffee (cold brew and iced latte) was okay—nothing special, and on the smaller side.

The almond croissant was the only thing I genuinely enjoyed—flaky and solid, but pretty standard.

Overall, maybe i ordered the wrong items but just didn’t feel worth the price...

"Hair in food" would be the title of this review. We went on a very busy Sunday so I give SOME grace but as soon as we walked in, we saw a waitress with two long braids and each braid was in both of the plates she was carrying. I had to tell her that her hair was in between someone's sandwich.

I was already on edge because of that, and then when we got to the counter we saw multiple people with their hair down, including the owner. On top of that, there are multiple pastries that aren't covered/in a case, so the cashiers/employees there are speaking (yelling because it was loud in there) over all the pastries, so we didn't order any of those because we figured we didn't want spit on our croissants.

We waited EXTREMELY long for food and when it eventually came, to no one's surprise, there was hair in my husband's shakshouka. Another 20 minutes for them to bring a second one. The manager told us that he'd refund the entire order but that didn't happen. It took us calling 4 times for this refund to actually take place.

There are 2 stars because the food was actually decent. Although I got the french toast and it was topped with strawberry leaves which I thought was odd, but it still tasted good. Unfortunate because we saw the potential but I can't shake the fact that this place is...