Le Fournil - French Bakery, Café, Catering and Wholesale — Restaurant in Seattle

HORRENDOUS! I very much love French bakeries and French pastries, I had the pleasure to taste a variety of French pastries from different parts of the world, including France itself. Where do I even begin with Le fournil! A true disappointment and a rip off of a « French Bakery » Soggy and WET pâte sablée! (Shortbread). Anyone who has ever tasted a real tarte aux fruits or lime pie, knows that the dough is supposed to be hard (croquante)on the outside and slight buttery and soft on the inside! This bakery’s tartes are all wet, soggy and clearly served OLD! You can’t even hold it in your hand without it falling apart! Same thing with the Mille Feuilles, how is the pâte feuilletée soggy??? It’s technically impossible for that type of dough to be soggy and spongy like it is in this bakery, unless it’s served days old! It’s supposed to be flaky and crispy! Similar taste with the éclaires, sogginess and wetness all over their pastries! Croissants are not made with real butter and aren’t flaky, they taste like croissants from a grocery store! Either get a pastry certification or stop serving old pastries.

For people who aren’t familiar with the real taste of French pastries, please do your research, try different bakeries or try baking the basic doughs yourself from authentic French recipes and look at the difference! You’re being ripped off and charged outrageous prices for terrible, old quality pastries. I will never order from you again, I don’t know if the owner of this bakery is aware of what is going on and I truly hope you receive a visit from sanitation services for serving old items....

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I visited Le Fournil for the first time. We placed an order consisting of a pain au chocolat and two sandwiches. We ate our sandwiches while we waited for our pain au chocolat. No one called out that it was ready so I had to get up and try to get the attention of someone working behind the counter. I waited for five minutes before I was finally acknowledged and the pastry was given to me.

Today (9.23.12), we went back to Le Fournil, hoping the service would be better this go around. We ordered the same thing and to my dismay, they forgot my pain au chocolat again! So I politely told one of the males working behind the counter that I am still waiting for my pain au chocolate. He looks at me funny, turns and talks to the only women working there. After their brief conversation, neither one acknowledges me. The male goes into the back room, for what felt like ten minutes, as I stand at the counter waiting. The employee comes out with a tray of tarts and they both continue to ignore me like I'm not even there.

A 3rd person hands me a tart.

I go to the front of the line where the female employee is making coffee and she looks at me a few times, with a disgusted look, like I'm an inconvenience, and continues to ignore me. I ask another male employee about the pastry and, after 15 minutes of waiting, I receive my pain au chocolat with no apology.

This bakery was highly recommended to us. We were very disappointed by the poor customer service we received and will not...

Placed an online catering order for delivery for a birthday event.

Come party day my order was delivered (on time) but was missing a few items. Additionally a few of the items (mini tarts) were smashed in transit. I called and attempted to rectify the situation maybe ten minutes after accepting the delivery and was told by the employee who answered the phone that they were a barista and could not help - after acknowledging they had too many tarts on hand (I took this to mean that my missing tarts were still sitting at the bakery) and that I would have to call back on Monday to speak to a manager/someone who handles catering.

Since the weekend I have called twice and twice been told that the manager is not available. Today I was also told there catering does not have an email address to utilize in case there are issues with an order.

BOTTOM LINE:

The pastries are decent and great for a display spread.

I would caution anyone who is thinking of using their catering services. The chances that I would patronize Le Fournil again for my event needs are dwindling with every phone call placed to rectify what should have been...