National Boulangerie

They have a wonderful selection of pastries and baked goods in the café section. I’ve tried their chocolate croissant and a raspberry macaron. The croissant was good — pretty average. The macaron was delicious! Creamier than they usually are, but I loved it! They look have a lovely mint tea.
In the store section of this place, it can be hard to get help. I actually never saw a worker in there, but it’s not a big deal. If you just go back into the café and ask someone to help you, they are more than happy! We brought home a few beautiful fruit tarts and a cheese cake (can’t wait to eat them)!
There are some other pastries I’d love to come back here and try. Their sandwiches looked tasty as well!

Wonderful baguettes… but terrible service in the restaurant and shop! I’ve eaten here three times, and the service was insufferable each meal. Happened again today, after I ordered a to-​go sandwich to avoid actually sitting down.
There were three tables in the entire dining room. While I waited 30 minutes for a short-​handed kitchen to fix a single sandwich to go, the owner and a young manager sat at a table and ignored a table of customers (who finally got up and complained they had been waiting 15 minutes for anyone to come to their table), three women in the cheese shop area who couldn’t find a single person to wait on them, and what seemed to be a badly backed-​up kitchen staffed by one cook. I watched a waiter clown around with another staff member instead of paying attention to his tables, and when I complained that I had waited a half-​hour for my to-​go sandwich, the owner snapped that it had only been ten minutes, and that my sandwich would be out shortly. Never apologized, either for the delay or his own sloth. Amazingly poor customer service.
But hey, the baked goods are great. Just don’t interact with the rude owner or manager. Buy your baguette or pastry and leave. Bön appetit!

I went there yesterday evening. One of our friend recommended it but we kept forgetting abt it. After a busy day, hubby told me lets get a coffee and something light to eat and we arrived here and then changed his mind to have dinner here. It has a shop attached where they sell Pastries and cheese. Ambience is definitely French inspired. We were greeted right away and seated. Ordered Duck and Dumpling and seasonal fish which I forgot the same. Sorry. First of all, our waiter was very nice and attentive. He brought bread and saw that I wasn’t eating it and asked if I had any other preference and then brought me whole wheat bread with butter. A big plus. Though bread wasn’t hot, it was still good. Then arrived our food. Fish was to die for. It literally melted. I wasn’t expecting too much from previous reviews abt food but it was delicious. My duck dumpling was excellent also and I just loved my broth and seasoning. Perfect. I was full already but bc our dinner was really good, I had to try desert. We ordered chocolate cake and we are glad we did. It was amazing. We couldn’t finish it and had packed to go… I am very impressed with food and service we had and will definitely be back.

One of the cutest places I have seen. An amazing use of space and decorating, this place has so much to offer. A quick cup of coffee, daily shopping, an afternoon beer, or a quick bite to eat. A wonderfully helpful staff that was so friendly. I wish we something exactly like this.

One of my favorite places to have coffee and pastries. Authentic French baked goods. The market is also amazing.

I have only been here once. The atmosphere is very good and the waiters are nice and patient. I was surprised that they use «bowls» instead of «mugs» to serve coffee.
The prices the great. The quiche lorraine is amazing, the macaroons scrumptious, and I had no idea true éclairs could be that good.

I do not get the appeal in this place. I get it it looks real trendy and hip but it stinks.
Instead of doing a few things done well they try to do everything and fail miserably.
I tried this place time and time again and get nothing but disappointment. My friend had some shark and it was rotten. After trying to tell them they just kept saying how that’s how it’s supposed to be until he made them try it. They couldn’t help but spit it out. The bread is stale and all the baked goods are as well. The beer hall is okay but extremely overpriced. The food is not that good and again very overpriced.
The coffee is okay but in a place with so many items and all I can say is the coffee is okay? That means something is wrong and I finally give up. I won’t be ever going back again.
I love the revitalized area and I’m sad to not like this place.

This place caught my attention while I was searching for parking to partake at another restaurant. I came here for lunch with a friend and to my surprise I saw that it had a «beer garden» a bakery, butchery and a local product section. Although, a lot of the produce sold here is a bit pricey, they’re very close to whole foods pricing.
Now, the restaurant on the other hand was amazing simply because they’re food was phenomenal. I enjoyed every last bite. From the bread basket choices which come with; artisan bread and some raisin nut bread (I personally hate raisins but didn’t mind it in this bread choice I was given) the café Au lait was made to my liking, although I wish they’d be a bit more creative with the design, maybe a simple heart? ;)
I ordered the smoked salmon dish that came with a creamy dill based sauce with capers and pickled onions on a toasted baguette. It was such a beautiful presentation and even better taste.
My friend ordered the hanger salad which came with the best tasting piece of steak I’ve ever had! The rice salad that it came with was very delightful especially if you enjoy a ginger kick to it. My friend seemed to enjoy it as he finished his plate, but my palate didn’t agree so much.
Lastly, I ordered the 6 layer cake and that was just the most Devine tasting cake I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting. Well worth the $ 7.95 it was not too sweet yet not «box or freezer thawed flavor» you can tell it was made in the bakery, it just has that great texture and taste all around. I ordered it from seeing it on a Unilocal review myself, and so glad that I did. I’d highly recommend getting this delicious piece of heaven!

Great atmosphere. Very hip without being too over the top. You can show up in casual clothes or your night time finery and still be ok. Excellent cocktails with fresh mixing ingredients. Very knowledgeable wait staff. Gorgeous bar. Be sure to walk next door to the grocery and check out all the fine foods for purchase.

I walked in and immediately was enamored with the look of this place. It’s a beautiful venue.
A few of us went to eat a late brunch after the Farmer’s Market. I opened the menu and I instantly got grouchy. $ 16 for a burger that doesn’t even come with a side? $ 16 for a waffle. A single waffle? No sides, no fruit, not even pretty presentation? Just a waffle on a plate. Yeah, it’s a stuffed waffle, but c’mon! It looked so plain sitting there with no presentation. You put all the effort in the décor of the place, but nothing on the food.
Then I decided I wanted a croissant from the front bakery to eat with my overpriced food. I went down and asked for the ricotta and spinach croissant to take back to my table. The guy tells me that it’s a $ 1 up charge to eat it in the café. What? I’m already dining there, so why would I be charged for this? It’s only a dollar, but it infuriates me that I have to pay extra. I almost told him I’d just eat it there in the lobby. Oh, and the croissant was not even that good.
The service also sucked. After I ordered my croissant, the guy took it to the back and said he’d heat it up for me. After everyone got their food, I was still waiting on my croissant. It finally came when my friends were done eating. It shouldn’t take 15 minutes to heat up a croissant.
I’m all for trendy venues, good quality food, and a pricey menu, but only if it’s justifiable. The food was alright, but was it worth double the price of some other places around here with good food? No. You’re paying for hipster nonsense.

Based on brunch experience (I have not tried the restaurant or market). Food was delish, prices decent but higher, atmosphere is awesome, very cute. Great presentation of pastry.
Had the mocha (off menu), very flavorful but not overly sweet or chalky. Also the Pain Au Chocolate. Flaky and tasty.

The Good: the food, deserts, coffee, music, the look of the place.
The Bad: customer service.
The Rundown: I like everything about this place aside from the customer service. The food is phenomenal, you won’t find fresh breads and muffins like this anywhere. All the choices are laid out in glass cases and you just pick what you want, this is exactly as it is in Europe. Their lattes and cappuccinos are wonderful. Their desserts are not overpoweringly sweet and they are always having something new based upon the season. The downside here is the customer service, probably the worst of any restaurant I have been to in Lexington. They lack the norms of saying things like good morning, or having. A demeanor that isn’t mean, just indifferent. They almost seem as though you are encroaching on their time for showing up here to eat. They don’t give suggestions or have pleasant personalities. Again though, the food is great, so their is that.
The Impression: the food is enough to have me come back, their breakfast muffin being my favorite. Even though the customer service is terrible, it is manageable due them not being flat out rude.

One star is exactly what our Sunday brunch experience felt like: The skylights and the décor of the dining room are the reasons for the one star. The regular menu is very limited. The special menu on the chalk board looked slightly more promising, but it is a joke to charge $ 16.95 for a salad with no discernible exotic ingredients and no protein unless you count goat cheese as a protein. Ordered chicken waffle, which turned out to have too much breading and was very greasy. The staff was not attentive at all. For the high price they charge and for the presumably chic and modern setting, one would expect quality service. What we got were pleasant smiles and incompetent service: The water was never refilled. We had to get up and walk to the breakfast area to ask (for the second time) for milk for coffee that we ordered. They seat new parties right next to each other even though many tables were empty. We could hear the breath AND every word of people next to us given how close the tables are. It was so distracting and complete lack of privacy that we felt uncomfortable talking to each other. This is not NYC! Pushing tables close together pretending you were an NYC restaurant does not make your food taste any better, nor does it justify the outrageously overpriced menu.
Will NEVER recommend this place to even people I do not like!

I wanted to love this place. I really did.
The menu offerings and unique décor of the place appeals to me.
Unfortunately, it didn’t win me over.
Why? One word: macaroons.
I LOVE macaroons. When I saw National Boulangerie had them, I immediately located it and walked inside with the expectation I would have some amazing macaroons. (I also considered a cup of coffee, but the prices here a bit high so let that thought go). The flavor options were limited, I think there were only four or five flavors available. I ordered two: a lemon one and a strawberry one. After forking over three and a half dollars for two tiny macaroons, I was soooo excited to eat them. I unwrapped the plastic, took a bit out of the strawberry one, and… no flavor. None. The texture of the macroon was fantastic, but the flavor was lacking. Perhaps the lemon one would be better. Nope. Again, no flavor. What. A. Huge. Bummer. It doesn’t help that they were tiny. Nearly $ 4 for two tiny, flavorless macaroons? Booooo!
You need to do better next time, National Bou.
(Also, next time, I need to have more cash in wallet and try more on the menu.)

This review is based entirely on the seasonal Buche de Noël which I ordered to take to a holiday party this weekend. It was terrible, inedible … and those are the nice adjectives I can think of to describe it. It was almost like they said, «Let’s see how dry and flavorless of a holiday dessert we can make. Ready, set, go …»
I was embarrassed to be the fool who brought this concoction, so I spread the word that someone else actually brought it. Shh … don’t tell.

There were two employees. One seemed to be doing all the work while the other socialized and talked on her cellphone. I waited for the employee actually working. I got a Capuccino which she made correctly. To go I got a croissant that was very good, a grapefruit tart that was good but too sweet for my taste. A fennel, beet, ricotta tart that was very good and a pistachio religieuse that was not good. There was something wrong with the cream filling. The pastry shell was tasty so I ate that and through away the cream part. Everything was presented very nicely in the bakery.

(3.5 stars)
A unique idea– A bakery/​café serving French classics w some southern elements. You wouldn’t find anything similar around. I have been coming here for almost 9 months, albeit irregularly. Some of the unique things I tried so far;
— a great egg/​bacon/​gruyère muffin which was like a biscuit including a medium boiled egg
— a savory bread pudding which was a great fusion of savory elements of classic french quiche and a southern bread pudding.
They also serve some classic french goodies including croissants, eclairs, macarons. I would say that the quality of the baking has been a bit inconsistent. Sometimes they are good quality with the perfect taste and other times, I wonder if things came out of my disasterous kitchen. On a chalk board, you can find the list of lunch items they have for the day. Expect to find quiche, tasty sandwiches on great crusty french bread and even a bahn mi sandwich (hint: google «bahn mi» to find the french elements in it).
Prices are a tad bit high, even though what they offer is a unique concept. I wish some of their drinks would have a smaller size. I like having a good cup of tea (loose leaf) when I come here. I should call it a bowl of tea since it comes in a bowl. It’s basically the size of a large drink in a to-​go a cup and costs about that much but I would like the option of having a smaller size (and cheaper) tea.
I would say the service has improved over the last few months. I saw one of the owners interact with customers in the early days and it’s obvious that he shouldn’t really be in customer service.
Overall I enjoy the idea of what might become of this place. Some days are better than the others. Because of the price point of some item, this place is definetly more of «treat» instead of a regular stop for me.

Edited — a complete turn around. Now a frequent breakfast stop for me.
Staff — awkward and quirky cute girls mostly. I kind of dog it.
Coffee — tasty but $ 3.25 a cup
Food — the baked goods have really caught their stride. I come for the quiche though.
Ambiance — this is where they excel. The décor is cool, the setting is nice, the location is great.

The décor is quite unique, I will give them that. It is the reason that I would recommend anyone visit, at least once. It definitely doesn’t have a «southern hospitality» feel to it. I tried the ham and cheese croissant which are apparently cooked in the morning and then set in the case, not kept heated. That seemed a bit different to me, as I like my ham and cheese options warm. I am not a big coffee drinker, so I ordered a soda…$ 2.95 for a soda! I like the urban/​French atmosphere but the prices are ridiculous. I finished with my first ever macaroon, I know, I know, I am the last person on earth to try a macaroon. I ordered the mint chocolate macaroon, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.
Again, I would recommend that you try it for yourself, and don’t take my experience as advise on this area of food options, I am the girl who doesn’t like macaroons.

My brother brought home a delicious baguette and I was dying to know where it came from. Thankfully, my mom finally let me in on the «Surprise» and took me to experience National Boulangerie myself!
This little bakery has quiche, croissants, and other tasty treats in a very cute environment. As other reviews mentioned, coffee does come in a bowl (but cups are available if requested).
Although things do seem quite pricey, and there was very little room to sit, they were running a steady business for having been open only about a month. I’ll likely be back the next time I’m in town, and will hopefully see that they’ve expanded so that I can stay a while longer.