I complain a lot and that's not because I am a professional grumbler but because I believe if you are charged top dollars for your food & drink, you should get it at a decent standard. It is just the norm.
Le Pain Grille looks good on the outside but looks can be deceiving, very deceiving....
I approached the counter after admiring the display and I stood there for over a minute and a half while all their pretty staff happily chatted behind the counter (there were about 4/5 of them) before a supervisor type person who was dressed differently rushed to me looking hot & bothered. Last time I checked, this was a cafe where people come to relax and chill out, the worst thing you can get is a hot & bothered person serving you.
My ordered was a skimmed latte and a raspberry tart and the person who took my order "ordered" me to stand and wait while she tonged the tart onto a plate, gave it to me, and "ordered" me to wait for my coffee. The tart has a base card which she did not even bother to take off, I don't get many things inedible on my plate often. They have enough staff to run a restaurant and the least they could have done is to deliver me my order when they were charging top dollar. I am sure in Times Square a lot of tourists will come by for a bite with loads of shopping in their hands and they will think the same.
While waiting for my latte, I saw the coffee dripped in under 10 seconds and the "barista" (a very very polite title, I could have called her something else) left the milk on the steamer while swanning round behind the counter. When I unveiled the drink, the dish-water like sewage confirmed my believe that they had no training on making coffee.
I had my last raspberry tart at the Congress at the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre and have stopped eating one since, I was served a tart with mouldy raspberries, was kinda hoping the raspberry tart here would restore my confidence in the poor pastry, it didn't.
The tart case was biscuit-like hard, undercooked, stale and no taste of any butter, I would imagine chewing on a brick is more enjoyable. The creme pat has no taste of vanilla, cream or egg. It is sweet no doubt but eating is not about empty calories. Raspberries are seeping. At first, i thought they must have been maserated in something, I was wrong, they are just seeping, not fresh, full stop. You know the sliminess you get from leaving lettuce in fridge for a long time and it turned grimmy, that is exactly the same. And the flaked almonds only adds to the whole bad experience as they were rancid. I could have picked up processed food from any supermarket, I don't have to come here for fine pastries.
The Italian tourists sitting next to me shaked their heads violently and uncontrollably after they had the coffee, a ringing endorsement of how the food & drink here have become the best of the worst.
Let's put this into perspective, for about $70, i bought a coffee and a tart here. I could have had 4 afternoon tea sets at Cafe de Coral and their food is prepared on the same day. i could have bought 3 coffees at Tsui Wah for the price I paid for the merky water here and at least they deliver what they agreed on the tin.
Looking pretty is never enough in this business and i think if Agnes b herself had what I had for afternoon tea, she would have weeped in shame.
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