The French Gourmet

We stopped by for to-go desserts and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.My honey asked what they do better than anyone else and we were recommended the Raspberry Bagatelle. I had never heard of that before - it is incredible.It was our first time in so the server popped in a few complimentary macarons and they were perfect.There were quite a few people seated at tables for dining as well so I look forward to trying that next.

I walked in and saw a fruit tart for six dollars that I decided on. I saw that they offered wine so she directed me to the restaurant to sit down and told me that I could get my tart over there. I ordered a glass of wine for five dollars on a happy hour menu and received my Fruit tart. When checking out they charged me over $17 so I asked for the breakdown. He told me that the tart is $6 from the case but if I'm getting it sitting on the restaurant table, it's $11! I ordered it from the case and the only price that is listed is $6.When I received the fruit tart, the fillings were good, but the crust itself was so rockhard that even my metal fork and knife had difficulty cutting through. It crumbled into four pieces the second my knife finally penetrated. The service was fast, efficient, but if you are going to double the price of my tart without telling me bc of where I sat, then I won't be back. I could have gotten the food to go when I initially ordered it and received my glass of wine in the restaurant. The front desk girl did not assist in this idea as she clearly directed me to sit in the restaurant for both items knowingly it would cost me more. All around a bummer experience.

Food is good but service way toCrowded forOne waiter!! He was good but rushed!! Need more waiters

Awful customer service. Went in to order a sandwich and a specialty coffee. The cashier pointed for me to go get my sandwich from the cooler selection - I guess you cannot order from the counter-another customer walked in and the cashier proceeded to take that person's order instead of finishing mine. SMFH... Walked out ...Won't ever return.Unbelievable.Luckily in this area there are soooo many other places to choose from. Why patronize a place where they clearly could care less about customer service?

Talk about EXCELLENT service!! I went to the French Gourmet for a girl's brunch this weekend, and I felt pampered by our wonderful server. We made reservations online and sat on the patio. I thoroughly enjoyed my cappuccino in a cute clear glass cup, the croissant breakfast sandwich, and a mimosa. The ambiance makes you feel like you are at a classic European cafe, and our server made sure to set up and umbrella for us and a fly fan to make our experience top notch. This spot is a hidden gem!

TERRIBLE CANELE(2 stars)I hate to be the one to inform the public but you would think a French shop would execute a Canele de Bordeaux correctly - lies! My review was solely based on the caneles, their other desserts look more promising. I was craving a small pastry and walked in thinking in the back of my mind they might have a Canele and when I saw it, it looked terrible. The color was very off, they didn't look perky - they were tilted or slumped to the side, and you can see visibly the bottoms were extra burnt. And I still gave it a try JUST TO TRY. Call me a Canele de Bordeaux Snob/Connoisseur/Subject Matter Expert or whatever you want to call it... this was the saddest Canele I have ever eaten. 1) COLOR. Clearly they didn't use any bees wax of some sort to coat and caramelized the outer layer properly. The color was way too light. 2) TEXTURE. Based on the outer texture (as well as the inner), either the temperature and setting they use wasn't dialed in correctly or they didn't use copper molds. I say BOTH. Based on the shape and texture, I'm certain they used silicon molds. Cheap way of making these beautiful amazing desserts. The inside was nice and custardy but a little too wet and the outside was chewy and stale. You know when you refrigerate something that should be and it gets hard, chewy, and stale... that's exactly what the outer layer was like.3) FLAVOR. The inside had the flavor but the outside did not. All I tasted was a BURNT BOTTOM. This is one tiny pastry and the person helping me put it in a box. YES, a box. Lol. That's not necessary. You can just slide it in a tiny sleeve bag. When the box was handed to me for (1) Canele I said i don't need that big of a box and then she put it in a tiny bag. So wasteful. Until the next review...

Good food cannot mask really bad service. We were there on a Saturday night and when we arrived, there was only one table that was occupied. It took a while to put our drink order in. We received our drinks and it took about 29 minutes before our order was taken. People who came way after us left before we received our entrees. There were two helpers and only one server for the outside area. The experience of a more than two hour dine is way more than is necessary for the amount of food that we ordered.This went from being our favorite restaurant (before we even moved to SD, to one where it is not worth the aggravation.

My boyfriend found this place at random while we were looking for restaurants in North pb. I give him so much credit for finding this place, because it is beyond adorable! I haven't really had the chance to explore this area, considering I lived in PB in Mission Beach for the last few years. It's definitely a Hidden Gem, more of a warm, cozy, local type of vibe. Inside the restaurant, you will immediately see a bakery, offering a variety of cakes cookies and pastries. We did our best to resist ourselves to not purchase something before we eat dinner. To the left is the restaurant, entered through tons of bottles of wine. The ambiance inside is adorable. They did a wonderful job of painting French Vineyards, to make you feel like you're an old French winery. They also have an outside patio if you prefer to sit outside. It was slightly chilly last night, so we sat inside, I also wanted to get the full ambiance field. Enjoyment of our experience did not stop here. The service was phenomenal! I think that's the first time I've ever described service as phenomenal. The hostess was super friendly, she was also running the bakery, so I was really impressed with her hospitality skills. Our server was just as cheerful, informative, and attentive to us. We ordered a variety of dishes, including some cocktails. We ordered the escargot, and the pork belly brussel sprouts as starters. I ordered the Cucumber cooler as a cocktail as well as a diet coke. I ordered the rack of lamb with scalloped potatoes, and my boyfriend ordered the flame young. It is also a lot of food! I definitely took a box with my leftovers home. Before we left, we ordered some pastries and cookies at the bakery, which I am planning to go back tomorrow to pick some more pastries up on my way to my mom's house. I will definitely be returning customer.

We made reservations for Restaurant Week and they had over booked themselves. We had to wait 20 minutes to get sat and there was a line of 15-20 all with reservations. I think it was just way busier than expected due to the restaurant week special which caused the wait. For $20 for an appetizer and main it was a really good deal though.Once we sat down , the service was also pretty slow. Breakfast Croissant Sandwich 9/10French Dip 8/10 - good solid choiceFrench Onion Soup - 6/10 - the onions needed to be more carmelized . It didn't have as rich of a taste as this soup usually doesThey do have an outdoor area . Unfortunately it wasn't a nice day and was sprinkling but they did have umbrellas up

Tony was so amazing, good food and even better service:)Highly recommend breakfast sandwich add avo, and bottomless