Le Pain Quotidien – E 55th St & 1st Ave

This place is pretty popular and often busy. What I liked a lot was the lemon ginger drink that was refreshing and tasted great.

Came here for a quick lunch since I was in the area. Upon arrival, the outside had most of it’s seat in occupied. I went inside to get one of the few remaining tables. Upon entry into the restaurant, I was immediately overwhelmed with something that smelled very much like dog shit. Outside I went. I ordered a chicken cobb salad.
Cobb salad was only ok. I would definitely not come back here.

Worst service, Tuesday post lunch with 4 customers including my son and me. There were 6 staff scurrying around but effectively doing nothing. I had to ask for spoon, cream for coffee and maple syrup which was generic pancake syrup. Maybe take out is better.

Came here for Paint Nite through a separate event. While the restaurant is cute and service seemed good, we were FREEZING sitting inside. Not sure why the heat wasn’t on. Not a pleasant experience at all, but to be fair, we didn’t try the food.

Horrible service. The servers just ignore you. It’s like they are on some other planet. They are oblivious to what’s going on. You can’t even get a menu let alone something to eat. We’ve been there several mornings and eventually left because there is no service. Don’t waste your time. Avoid this place

What I like:
— Good coffee
— Friendly service
What annoys me:
— Pretentious name I can’t ever pronounce
— Communal tables filled with pretentious people
— Fussy selection of mediocre sandwiches
— Did I mention communal tables?
I only go here when I am forced to.

Counter service is horrible. Always a line and always lots of disorganized activity behind the counter. The main problem is you have two people — (sometimes a manager as well) behind the counter and when you place your order, rather than have one person handle your order you often times have everyone behind the counter working on your order — even when it’s something as simple as an iced coffee to go. It’s maddening and mind boggling and entirely inefficient. One person is doing the ice — the next one is ringing up the order — it’s ridiculous. The whole process would go so much more smoothly and efficiently if one person handled one order at a time. What’s even more annoying is when you have one person handling your order and then in the middle of preparing your order they stop to take another person’s order and then you are waiting while they start working on the person’s order behind you. Again — it’s just completely inefficient. The management might want to take a walk down the block to Tal Bagel or Financier and sit at one of the tables and watch how things work there. Things run much more efficiently and it doesn’t take you ten minutes to get an iced coffee to go. That’s because they do as I just suggested above — one person works on an order not three people to an order — it keeps the line moving — gets customers in and out quickly and keeps them happy.
As for placing a take out order — i don’t bother trying to do so at this location anymore because it take forever and you have to keep asking them where it is. It shouldn’t take 30 minutes to make a salad. I often feel like it’s just sitting back there waiting and there is no one to bring it out.
You know for the prices they charge I would expect a higher standard of service. It seems like there is very high turnover at this location and they are always training someone new behind the counter which wastes even more time. I really wish this location would get their act together.

While waiting for a job interview in frigid weather of 2 degrees I tried this place for a quick bite and time to warm up. Nice place to relax and enjoy a slow pace, but not for someone in a hurry. Loved the tee shirts worn by staff — «Don’t Panic, We’re Organic.» Tried to buy the tee, but reserved for staff only. This location also has outdoor seating, which is a plus as I’ve returned with guests in the springtime. Definitely worth a visit, especially if you prefer mostly organic choices. Will only refer to this location as I’ve heard all are quite different, depending on mgmt.

First time at this one, I have been to quite a few LPQ’s around the city and even in Europe. My soft boiled egg was cooked too long so needed to be returned, I think the pricing for the coffee are incorrect and not on par with the other locations. my americano came in just one size which was small and I paid what I would of paid for a large elsewhere? The usual selections of the spreads were not offered.

The hot chocolate here is so yummy! Also The salads and sweets. Great latte, good service. I love The communal table. I took my mom who came to visit me last year there. She loved It!

Delicious, fresh, good service! Beautiful afternoon sun and I can sit outside, get free WiFi with my pup (they brought him water!) My new fav spot in Midtown East.

Nice patio, nice servers, very accommodating to kids. A little overpriced. Bring back the 4pm happy hour!

Terrible service. They just act like they don’t see you. If I could give them zero stars I would.

Sadly disappointed. I usually like Le Pain. When I ordered prosciutto ricotta tartine, two out of the four breads had barely any prosciutto on it and mostly fat which is really annoying for a $ 14.00 meal. See the picture I posted. Thats just robbery because I didn’t get what I paid for. I don’t want to get full on just bread, put the meat.
I told one of the staff member and she told the kitchen. She came back with a sorry and that they only put two slices of prosciutto, but clearly there was a variation in slice size since it was obviously less. She said she would let the manager know but still disappointed by bad service.

Very pleasant outdoor seating which sits slightly above 1^st Ave. Especially nice for dog lovers, because you can bring yours along. I had a wonderful plate of mixed cheeses and breads, along with a very fresh green salad. My husband had a roasted turkey/​avocado tartine (open faced sandwich) which was very flavorful. Happy hour prices include ½ price beer and wine selections through the dinner hour. For dessert, we split a Belgian chocolate brownie which was quite large and extremely chocolatey. The service was perfect — not too fast (we got to enjoy our before dinner drink) and not too slow. Our waitress was very friendly and did just what we asked!

The newest PQ on 1^st Ave. has outside seating for 20 on the patio. With usually excellent bread and café fare.

The place looks really nice and have a great pátio that you can bring your dog along. Which is good for those who have dogs. But the service is slow! They just don’t know what to do. The place was kind of empty and I was waiting for a waiter for a long time until I’ve decided to be waiving to get someone’s attention. I will give them a credit because it’s a new place and I’m sure they will work things out.

Lots of seating here, along with «take-​out» seating area (communal table) if you don’t want full service. There’s even a patio seating area that fills up on the weekends. I had to wait 15 minutes for my soup and when i finally got it, it wasn’t hot. This location appears to include all the standard Le Pain Quotidien coffee and tea drinks, baked goods, breakfast and lunch items.