Le Grenier a Pain is a French franchise with branches around Russia, China, Japan, Singapore and Kazakhstan. Le Grenier a Pain's tag line "the other bakery" offers the French experience in Bucharest.
It’s a large space where you’ll find a display of cakes and viennoiseries on the left, a bar, wine bottles and wooden tables. It's a restaurant more than a bakery with a menu of a hundred pages. This place is about a French baker called Michel Galloyer with his picture and name clearly mentioned all around.
At first glance, I would say that the display needs more clarity and freshness.
The menus are torn, old and used. With too many pages, you're lost in seconds. With the main menu, there is another one dedicated to drinks and cleansing juices. French detox with titles like ‘Glowing Beauty’, 'After Weekend Detox’, ‘Total Body Cleanse’, ‘Healing Natural Juices’.
French music plays in the background, while the manager on duty makes sure everything is neat and taken care off, and there are two waiters - again like almost all waiters seen in this country- don't smile.
Food is tasty...
Breakfast experience:
- Coffee: illy and it's good.
- Juices: Mango, pineapple and bananas, orange, bananas and carrots both fresh and refreshing but unfortunately served at room temperature. A juice -since it can't be served with ice- has to be very cold.
- The Croissant: Flaky, fresh, buttery, fluffy and full of taste. The croissants are empty on the inside, which is very bizarre; for example, the chocolate croissant is chocolate only because it has a few drops of chocolate on top.
- Croque Madame: Double square bread, one on top of the other with molten cheese, tender ham and Bechamelle sauce that makes all the difference. It is a beautiful looking sandwich with super tender enjoyable bread and rich ingredients. I loved it.
- Scrambled eggs with salmon is a bit dry but it is good enough.
- Quich Loraine, served hot, fluffy, a mighty crunchy crust, a toasted surface… It’s very rich in flavors. It’s a good way to start your day.
- Grenier sandwich, their signature, comes with charcoal grilled chicken marinated in herbs with blue cheese and Provence herbs. Here’s a lightly chewy French baguette with a crunchy end… the chicken is juicy and the herbs burst aroma while the blue cheese gives this sandwich a kick. I'll add some sun-dried tomatoes.
- My favorite is the simplest, a cheese stuffed croissant with layers of Emmental, butter and fresh greens. Imagine the buttery croissant with this intense cheese, light butter and the freshness of the greens. Don't underestimate its simplicity.
The food is delicious on all fronts. Prepared the French way, the food is fresh, crispy, buttery and full of flavor. This is a recommended place for sure.
What I noticed is in Romania is that people tend to follow trends rather than good flavor. I think people should come to this bakery more often because food is really good.
I'll improve:
- Waiters can't chew gum on duty!
- The food display needs to be brighter. The place needs white lights to look fresh.
- Change the menus and make them smaller.
Le Grenier a Pain is my recommended breakfast spot in Bucharest.
