La Bou Bakery & Café — Restaurant in Sacramento

I should have known troubles awaited us as we pulled into this empty parking lot location. Only three other cars. One owner, one employee, and one patron. Not only that, as soon as the hot air hit me when I entered the door, I knew something about La Bou had changed. THIS IS NOT A CHAIN!! It is now owned and operated by Asian only staff/ownership at this location, (a completely non-racial observation, btw). My next observation was that there were no fresh croissants or artisan breads displayed in glass, nice and fresh and covered, like it used to be. The bread items, (now left uncovered at room temp all day and night til close,) I was told, is only baked once a day early in the morning. Everything sits out all day and hardens. And it was so warm in there we could hardly breathe, and I am not exaggerating. I reminded the employee that their suddenly unsightly product is open for bugs and dust. She shrugged her shoulders and simply said: "Yep". I told them why they have no business and we walked out. I will never go there again or refer anyone I like to eat at that location. The service was rude, the food looked disgusting, not fresh by any means, the parking lot surprisingly empty as La Bou was once the hotspot for a good lunch, and the 85 degree atmosphere was crotch-rot worthy. Only a half star worthy and that was because the place was clean. (It better be clean since they're so slow now right?) Sad to see yet another business go down the tubes. I will always miss the turkey and cream cheese croissants....

I really like this La Bou. I like the food, I like the eastern European guy running the show. However, a very disturbing incident today.

I ordered my tuna croissant m the way I always do, as it turns out, that is without tomatoes (because everyone now sells store tomatoes, and they suck). I repeated my order, twice, for a total of three times, and it was read back to me twice. It was not read back to me by the waitress., Rather, the nice girls at the register. No… The waitress popped up later. She brought me my sandwich and I noticed a marked surfeit of tomatoes. I: I specifically said no tomatoes.

Indo Chinese waitress: You say etra tohmayo

I: Do not argue with me about this and rectify this issue.

The Indo Chinese waitress was nowhere near me when I ordered, she had no idea what I "say" and simply wished to dispute me.

In any event, please note, I said it three times,, it was repeated twice, and I'm sure any objective observer would rate my facility with North American standard English as far greater than her's.

Sergei, you should fire this woman. You should also be aware that the Koreans, who opened the place about three blocks to the north have got good food and friendly Koreans. When did you ever see friendly Koreans? Especially when compared to Southeast Asians. You gotta get rid of your lady. I wouldn't hire a Korean yet, but this Indo Chinese...

Really hit and miss. We used to love LaBou and ate there regularly. Since we were in the area, we decided to pick up lunch to go. Besides taking forever, when the food was finally bagged up, the staff member walked right past us (standing near the counter) and walked up to everyone sitting at tables to see if this was their order. He seemed lost until my wife asked if that was the chicken Ceasar salad. Then he finally noticed us. We knew to ask if there was bread with the order. (Last time they'd forgotten it). Only when we got home did we realize they'd forgotten the dressing. We were 15 minutes away from La Bou, so I ended up driving to the grocery store for dressing. When I called La Bou, I found out there wasn't a manager on duty that day. I'd have to call back the following day. (I forgot.) Lunch should not have to be...