Pain Du Monde

Their chocolate chip cookies are to die for, no joke!!! They’re the biggest, almost cake like cookies I’ve ever seen, I highly recommend these.

Glad we stopped here! A small community feel. The staff were fun, kind, and welcoming. The coffee was good, but the baked goods are the real draw. Try the apricot scone or the chocolate croissant– truly a foodie delight.

The pastries are fresh and delicious. The ham and cheese croissant was delicious. The ambiance is casual and reminded me of a little coffee shop I frequented in Milano Italy. The service is mediocre so if you’re in a hurry or starving then bring your patience with you. Oooops, they forgot to add our omelette so the wait was ridiculous

Sorry this little piggy ate all her sandwich before taking a picture! And let me tell you it was photo worthy! We shared a quick turkey club sandwich on the most amazing hot pepper jack cheese bun! And they split the meal so we each received a little salad and a cookie! So nice! Sandwiches and food here in general is super fresh and always delicious! Also love the teas and coffee! We love it here!
They also do great take out and soups! Forgot to mention their pastries are also worth an extra hour at the gym!!!
I have been know to grab a sandwich and take it over to the beach and just relax and have lunch!

At 1:59, my mom and I just stopped in to the PdM in CdM and we were immediately told they were closed. Interesting that the website says they are open until 3pm (I assume it has not been updated) yet the workers would not even take our orders to go with one minute to spare. Well, your businesses loss, off to Summer House we went, yum! $ 15 3 course lunch!!!

Food is fine. Coffee is good. Pastries good. What sucks is their website, which has been down now for weeks since. And the Corona Del Mar location’s phone number is all incorrect. Incorrect on their facebook, google, Unilocal,and pretty much all internet searches. I wanted to place an order before I came in to pick up since I’m a 2 blocks away. Every time I mentioned it to the employees, there was no real concern. «Oh Ok, thanks for let us know.» was a typical response. Only way I got a hold of them was to call the Fashion Island location for their phone number. Other than that, their website wasn’t even working, you just have to show up and get what you want. Sorry, this is the third visit in a month (only because i’m 2 blocks away) so now I’ll be going 1 block over to Rose’s café — which is really busy for many reasons.

Cute, quick, convenient café!
The almond twist is amazing so you definitely have to try it! They have other assorted pastries like croissants, pecan cinnamon twist, and cookies to name a few. They also serve coffee here so it’s a great stop for bfast.
The bathroom is located outside the store behind another shop but it isn’t too far and you’ll need a key to enter.
The girls there are very nice and welcoming and the prices are decent

Pros:
— selection of pastries. They had a pretty wide selection. (see picture)
— price wasn’t bad. A chocolate croissant, small hot chocolate, and blueberry muffin was about 10 $. Comparable to Starbucks I’m sure.
Cons:
— hot chocolate was too sweet. Typically really like hot chocolates, but wasn’t able to finish a small this time.
— small place.
— didn’t have too much variety for drinks.
Just ok overall.

I think everyone was hungover on New Year’s Day. Came here at 9:00am New Year’s Day and ordered 3 coffees, one omlette, and a yogurt parfait bowl. The dark roast coffee was so weak, you could see through it. I actually went back to the counter and asked them to pour it out and give me something else. Too bad the medium roast wasn’t any better.
Then it took approximately 25 mins for our food to arrive. The place was not busy. We went inside to check on the status and they assured us the food was coming. Well eventually it did with no apology as to the amount of time it took. The food was ok, nothing to get too excited about. Probably won’t be coming back here anytime soon.

I had to stay at my parents house in Cdm because my apartment was being repaired due to water damage, and this is the closest coffee shop to their house. I was on my way to work, and I needed coffee. I ordered a non fat vanilla latte. Not only was the price steep, the latte tasted really bland. I don’t know if it was the espresso they used or the syrup, but it wasn’t sweet at all! Bitter was more like it. It was lacking something that’s for sure. I was bummed because I had to drive 45 minutes while sipping a bad tasting drink. Oh well. It was worth a shot, but I’m going to stick to Starbucks or McDonald’s mccafe.

Respectable bakery with tasty treats. Hot coffee is good. Iced coffee leaves something to be desired. It is watered down and bland. It was a hot summer — I was always looking for a good iced coffee and unfortunately CDM needs to step up its coffee game.

I drink a lot of coffee from many different coffee shops. I’m one to support the mom and pop shops as opposed to the big corporate chains. However, I ordered the vanilla nut coffee this morning and it was literally undrinkable. Unfortunately I got it to go so I could go back and return it. They also said it was a fresh pot which I watched them brew so it couldn’t have been old. It tasted like a combination of plastic and extremely fake flavor. I’ve had better coffee from K-​Cups. If you’re a coffee shop I feel like you should taste your coffee and make sure it’s drinkable.
I gave 2 stars as opposed to 1 because the pastries were delicious.

They have good tuna salad, which I get often. Their sandwiches, salads, and pastries are also pretty good. The prices are a bit high, although you expect that in Orange County.
I love that they serve a little mini chocolate chip cookie with your lunch. I thought that was such a cute and unique idea! Plus they are delicious. Although, last time I got my lunch I didn’t receive one. I’m not sure if they just forgot or they stopped doing it. I think they should though! A very good idea :)

I usually enjoy their espresso and so I dropped in get a good iced coffee, send a few emails and use the restroom. No wifi? No bathroom? Iced coffee no good. I could’ve gone to rose bakery’s high I love at least they have a bathroom and good iced coffee. Also, there was 1 couple there. 3 people working. 2 tables dirty.

My favorite neighborhood coffee stop. The staff is always friendly and nice. The americano’s are my favorite. They taste great and are the top reason I keep coming back. The cinnamon twists are sinfully yummy and the breakfast burritos are fat and delicious.
For lunch I love the BBQ chicken wrap! The food is always fresh and made to order.
And — they have free dog biscuits on the counter so Henry gets a treat too :)
Cheers!

They have almond milk and that makes me super happy. The flavored brews are always yummy and the lattes are grey too. Love to hit this spot on a saturday morning after I go to the gym and take my coffee with me to the farmer’s market. Good stuff.

By far the best coffee in town. The staff knows everyone by name and is extremely friendly. My daughter loves the muffins!

This review is just for the coffee.
Popped in here quickly on a run that wasn’t so going well and turned into a walk. As I was walking back on PCH, I decided I had never tried this place before and popped in for some coffee.
Black coffee is easy to mess up but this place had pretty good coffee. The pastries didn’t look bad either. I will definitely have to come back and get a croissant to go with it!

I go here because it’s close. I don’t like the lake of professionalism. Feels like a high school with the employees eating and drinking and talking all the time. Yes «ALL THE TIME» I see the picture over the bar and can’t help to think that the owner couldn’t condone this behavior. After living in CDM for more than a year try to get in and out to save me the FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH.
Coffee is good for which makes a 2 star. If you enjoy watching employees eating, drinking from jugs of OJ and joking banter… May be your place.
I have been here over 100x and keep turning my head because I love to support the underdog. «Please help owner of PDM»

First a word on reviews and reviewers in general. I tend to «review the reviewer» when I am trying to evaluate if a place (restaurant, bar, whatever) is someplace I want to visit. So when a restaurant is generally well rated, but then has some «1» ratings I’ll look at what that reviewer has to say and then I’ll look at what else they have reviewed to see where we have been in common so I can judge their judgement.
So when I see that someone has 40 reviews and almost half are 1 and 2 star ratings, my first thought is, «how can this person pick so many bad spots to go to?» My next thought is, «do they imagine themselves some big time critic and think trashing businesses makes them seem erudite?»
For a coffee house to earn 1 star from me they’d have to throw scalding hot coffee on me and call me vermin. It would not be because I didn’t like their customers for being too rich or too old. To earn only 2 stars it would be lukewarm coffee they threw on me.
To pretend that Pain du Monde is a 1 star coffee latte place while giving Rose Donuts and Starbucks 4 or 5 stars, gives the game away. You just like your place better so you want to trash the competitors to boost up your fave.
Now for the actual review… I was tempted to give Pain du Monde a 5 rating just to counter what I consider some weird 1 star reviews, but I won’t play that game, not even for a place I like a lot.
Pain du Monde is more commonly called, «PdM» these days as a) a play on «CdM» and b) much easier to say the correct French pronunciation of «pain du monde».
I’ve been getting coffee and my morning scone at Pain du Monde since Scott opened his first location on Balboa Island many, many years ago and since he has closed that location, the PCH location has become my main choice with the occasional run over to the Fashion Island location.
The coffee is very good. They use premium roast beans and although dark roast black is my morning choice, I sometimes come back in the afternoon for a latte and the baristas do a great, consistent job. The food is quite good too, but more importantly, the people are great, not just the staff, but the regulars I run into in the morning and yes even the rich ones, the old ones and especially the rich, old ones.