La Boulangerie

This place is closing end of January 2014. Confirmed.
I’m sad for the owner because I think he’s passionate about what he does — but there’s just too much competition to be mediocre and I honestly don’t think he knows that his product (s) have really suffered as of late. Xon, if you ever want to take up golf I will teach you! Let it go man!

This is the only bakery in Seattle where you can get a decent croissant, often fresh from the oven. The owner works there alone, 6 days a week, so the aesthetic is not as clean and fresh as it could be, but don’t be fooled, the baked goods are excellent.

Someone please revive the Boulangerie, it has such potential! The elderly gentleman behind the counter seems a nice enough kind of fellow but he is clearly overwhelmed: the place is filled with weird boxes, is covered in a thick layer of dust (not flour), and doesn’t get much fresh anything. Someone should have a startup where hipsters roundup with mops and swiffers to clean up charming local places. The Boulangerie would be a top candidate because Wallingford deserves a proper bakery.
If you do go in ask for what is freshly out of the oven because everything else is either stale or REALLY hard. Oh, for the quality the of the goods the prices are way high: I payed $ 7 for a loaf of questionable age bread.

I walked in this afternoon and ordered an apple pastry for $ 4. I took it home, opened it up… and about 30 fruit flies immediately left the inside of the pastry and starting flying around my apartment. Good thing I didn’t bite right into it…
I don’t know how to report restaurants to the health department in Seattle, but I may have to find out. This place is a public hazard.

Very, very good when it’s fresh… but the days of lots of people, with a comfortable amount of disposable income, walking past, are gone. So be wary, not «careful» but wary. Things are sometimes older than I wanted, on occasion, so be wary. That is all.

Made my first visit to La Boulangerie with a friend after having brunch, and it was an utter disappointment. I love croissants, so I was eager to try their butter croissant. Unfortunately, the croissant I bought was stale, and rock hard. I should have been tipped off by the fact that the person behind the counter grabbed one from the nearby rack, and not the display case, and then went in back to warm it up.
With so many other great options for French baked goods across the city, I don’t see a reason for me to ever come back.

Went here twice lately. The first visit, I didn’t have anything but my companion thought his cheese croissant was tasty and fresh. The second visit, I had a pain au chocolat that was stale, not buttery flaky. The in-​laws had ok chausson au pomme and pitvhier. Not great but not bad. It got worse. We bought some treats to take home. Eclairs were rancid on the inside, fruit tart was brown, almond tart tasted old. Bottom line: literally bad food. Avoid.

This place looks charming from the outside but beware the rotting pastries on the inside. I looked down into the display case and noticed the fruit tarts. The fruit was brown! You couldn’t even tell what type of fruit was on the pastries they were so old. The cases were full of flies and there was a smell in the shop that made my stomach turn. I had tried the croissants before when a friend brought them for breakfast and there was an odd after taste that left me pondering. It’s like everything is mixed with rotting ingredients. This probably all sounds very harsh but the place is disgusting. Do not eat here. Ever.

In the 90’s, the Boulangerie was excellent. Everything was delicious, and everything was supremely fresh, as evidenced by the fact that they’d give a garbage-​bag full of hours-​old pastries to the homeless shelter every night (or they’d sometimes give it to the12-​year old boy who lived across the street, should he ask).
I’m not exactly sure when it was, but probably sometime around 2000, the bakery changed ownership, and the disparity in quality was immediate. The main difference is freshness: I am certain that not all items sold are baked same day anymore. It’s especially easy to tell for those of us who used to eat stuff from there every other day; croissants and palmiers that used to be soft/​crisp are now usually at some crappy stage of stale.
Very sad. Used to be one of the best bakeries around, now one of the worst. I have no idea how they stay in business in that spot, which must be expensive. Maybe they own it.

MAGGOTS in my ham and cheese croissant! I had one in my FREAKING MOUTH! Stay away!!!
We got a ham and cheese croissant, blackberry Danish, and a cinnamon roll. We were shocked at how completely stale they were, especially at $ 12 for the three. I was starving and attempting to eat the less crunchy center part of the croissant, and I simultaneously felt something move in my mouth and saw live maggots wriggling on the ham in the croissant. I have a strong stomach, but it made me want to vomit.
I went right back to the store to show the owner, and he said that was cheese. So I dug the live maggots out of the croissant right there on the counter for him. He kind of apologized and asked if I wanted something else instead. Are you KiDDING ME? Hell no I don’t want anything else from your disgusting store.
If I have food poisoning I am calling the department of health. Maybe I’ll call either way first thing Monday morning. This place should be closed

Sadly, La Boulangerie seems to have fallen on hard times. Years ago my spouse and I often visited the bakery to inhale the heavenly aroma & load up on flakey croissants and fresh baguettes.
We hadn’t been by in a couple of years, so were happy on a recent Saturday morning that we were in the neighborhood and had the chance to stop in. The first warning sign we should have noticed was that the bakery was empty — on Saturday morning? Stepping inside, we took a deep breath… and said to ourselves, «What on earth is that smell?» The half-​empty shelves in the pastry case weren’t encouraging either… but still we persevered, ordering several types of croissant and then exiting quickly.
We were crestfallen when we tasted our purchase. How, exactly, does a so-​called French bakery product a rubbery & tasteless croissant? After a few more exploratory bites, the whole lot went into the compost.
It seems the bakery has changed hands, and has declined precipitously since. We will never return… and will mourn the loss.

How many real, independently-​owned French bakeries are there anymore? I really want to like this place and the old man who runs it, but my experience is close to that of the other reviewers here. While I did not order a pastry it did take him well over ten minutes to make my mocha, and at $ 5.50 it was priced in the upper range of what I pay for the equivalent drink at other places. The baguettes that were being sold as fresh looked old and where they were stored looked dirty, as did the rest of the establishment.
Definitely consider that all positive reviews of any substance here are dated sometime before 25-​APR-​2009. It definitely seems like he lost his touch when he took over the business from its previous owners as most reviews before then describe a spectacular place. In the hopes that it is the unlikely case there is some cruel conspiracy against this poor fellow I may go in and try a pastry but I will be very careful about it and be extra conscious of the condition the item and the store.
I give this place two stars as the benefit of a doubt and because my friend liked the taste of the mocha.

Is this place a front for something? How does it exist?
I took one bite of my danish and it might has well been cardboard. Horrible.
There is a sign that says «day old bread: perfect for bread crumbs or feeding to the ducks!»
I’m not sure if ducks should eat pastries from this place. Stay away.

A tiny little bakery which had some very appetizing looking loafs of bread. I just bought a couple of their tiny pies (pecan and almond) and was very pleased with them.

Stinky BO. Bad bad bad bad pastries that are surprisingly expensive. Inedible. Gross. Smelly. Terrible.
Something is terribly wrong with this place.

This sort of tragedy rings true with evil dictators, blowhard celebrities, or a drunk senior trapped inside his Wallingford bakery. You CANNOT tell them shit, even if it’s for their own good.
Now, maybe at one point in time La Boulangerie was magnifique as the French would say but now it’s a pathetic lonely disaster. I stopped in last week and bought an almond crème croissant and a cinnamon raisin wheel (looked like a Lil Debbie’s snack). The owner disappeared in back to warm up the pastries.
As I looked around, I noticed the self-​serve Brita water dispenser on the counter which was casually coated in green mildew like a dirty fish tank. Ok, scary. I begin to take a look at the large fruit tart in the glass case and notice the fruit on top was a bizarre brown shade… Not caramelized in any sense, but spoiled. And like a traumatized victim paid the man $ 6+ with my paper sack in hand already revealing big grease stains as I left.
The almond crème croissant was rancid inside. It smelled like pungent vinegar. The Lil Debbie’s roll was dry/​limp but heavily glazed by a pleather-​esque layer of egg wash. A week old? Who the hell knows. No better time for the old man to hang his hat and sell the shop to a fro-​yo franchise, please.

This small french bakery is run by a Vietnamese with 50 yrs experience in french baking. Fresh baked bread, some amazing croissants and other french speacialities are what you get here. And some piping hot latte or capuccino.
We had a latte and an almond crème croissant. Absolutely delicious! We will go back again tho try the other fatty stuffs.

Zero stars.
GROSS, gross, gross!!!
Looks cute, I know, but…
Stinks of cigarettes. Dirty. Fruit flies.
And EVERYTHING IS HORRIBLY STALE OR RANCID.
Avoid this place like the plague. Maybe they’ll be forced to get their act together or close down entirely, doing us all a favor.
BTW, Unilocalers: For chrissake, stop saying a place sucks and giving them two stars. If it sucks, it’s 1 (or zero) stars. You look like a moron when you give a place that you think blows two stars.

Hmm… it’s interesting to notice that the reviews for this place are all across the board. Lots of 1s and lots of 4s and 5s. May be a hit or miss kind of place, and not a risk I may want to take in the future. Nonetheless, my single experience with this place was pleasant.
PROS:
1. Piles and piles of what appear to be fresh, newly baked goods. It crossed my mind when I walked in late on a Sunday night, «what’s he gonna do with all this bread?» It seemed to be waaaay too many pastries and loaves of bread.
2. Lots of almondness! Almond croissants, almond cream croissants, some sort of almond puff pastry layer bar, etc.
3. He warmed up my croissant without me having to ask.
4. Chatty, old man. Very friendly.
CONS:
1. The freshness of my croissant was questionable, but I still ate it.
2. It wasn’t as almondy as others I’ve tasted. Also, it was very buttery.

The old guy in the white t-​shirt has a really impressive resume and a neat background for you. Have him tell you a story about his early days of baking with your cup of coffee. So entertaining for your solo visits.
Just a bit for you: He was born in Vietnam and is fluent in French as we know a little bit of history the area was dominated by the French waaay back. His father owned a bakery back in Vietnam and he started to help as a young child. He said they had to bake everything from scratch in firewood ovens!!! Okay people can you imagine baking anything and have no idea what the temperature is but to estimate by just looking? Forget about our fancy ovens with timers and all the other baking gadgets we have today! Oh yeah, getting up in the wee early mornings with no lights either. Just that light from the firewood burner and there expertise was all they had to scale, measure and bake.
When he came into the states in the 70s he was a dishwasher boy for THIS bakery. The original owner taught him how to make these delicious treats and now wa la HE is the owner of this bakery.
Cool huh? We all knew America was the land of opportunity but who knew a quick cup of coffee will give you this much entertainment these days! Nice guy definitely come back for more good coffee and yummy desserts too!