Review: Bouchon Bakery in The Avenues

Just recently opened in Avenues phase III opposite Juicy Couture. Lovely looking seating area, soft pastel colours, the restaurant was almost full when we got there for lunch. A small menu with only a few lunch items but all looked and sounded good. The ladies on the next table had ordered the French toast and that looked amazing so I asked how it was, to which they answered it was way too sweet and consequently left 3/4 of it. So I ordered the fresh  pineapple juice, salmon quinoa salad and their signature Rosewater Paris-Brest pastry.

We were sat close to the cashier and two collecting areas for plates which proved to be very noisy with clattering plates and dropped cutlery. Service was below par, I was asked how my salmon quinoa salad was, to which I replied that the quinoa salad was slimy (possibly overcooked certainly not nutty), oily and tasteless as if it had not been seasoned or dressed, it really needed some citrus to cut the oiliness. The salmon filet however was cooked to perfection crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. So even though I expressed my negative comment it was not dealt with in an appropriate manner. 

My friend wanted to leave as the clattering was getting on her nerves and the disappointment in my salad had her ready to go elsewhere for dessert. I convinced her to stay as I really wanted to try the signature choux pastry with pistachio cream and raspberries. With my dessert I ordered a cappuccino. The dessert and coffee arrived and the waiter put them down and left. There was no cutlery or sugar given. My friend got up and to get sugar from another table and after a short while one of the supervisors had seen I had no cutlery and brought some over and a bowl of sugar. 

The signature pastry was unremarkable, a choux bun with a smear of pistachio cream and a tinier smear of raspberry jam paired with a huge amount of  patisserie cream hence there was no taste of the pistachio cream and raspberry jam which had sounded so good. Plus the pic on the menu had 4 raspberries on top and I only received 2 and a 1/2.

Sorry Bouchon Bakery but a disappointing visit after all the hype. 

I give it a 5/10