La Madeleine French Bakery & Cafe

Cheap quality don’t normally go together but is a relative descriptor. Cheap in comparison to other locations in old town, and quality much better than expected. Not a big fan of the style of service but maybe that’s how they bring cheap and quality together. Recommend for Breakfast. More to follow the next time I eat there because I most certainly will go back.

Nice place, had the chicken pie with mushroom sauce, super nice! Quick and easy with a nice atmosphere for lunch or a snack, probably not for dinner.

This was a really nice place to stumble upon. It was a little difficult to figure out where to order what. The food was delicious. I got the country French breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon. The food was prepared very well. The highlight of it was the croissant. It was perfect. Light, and fluffy. Will be eating here again for sure.

It was late and my family and I were looking for a place to eat. We were very lucky to find la Madeleine. The manager and staff were so friendly and accommodating. They welcomed us in minutes before closing and prepared delicious and hot meals to order! I would definately eat there again.

Until today I had never eaten at a la Madeleine Café. Apparently, it’s a French-​based chain that offers food and bakery goods. It was an early Friday morning and I wanted some breakfast. I wound up ordering a «Breakfast Croissant» with a scrambled egg, a slice of tomato and a couple slices of bacon. I have to say, it was not only quite fresh but it was delectable.
My only issue is that the patron in front of me was a bit demanding and the cashier was very frazzled by her so it took me much longer than needed to get my order placed. At this place, you pay first and then wait for your order at a pick-​up area. Once my order was placed it didn’t take very long to get it.
Overall, I rate this location 5 stars for the food and 4.5 stars for the service.

Food was fine but saw a baby roach crawling on the counter next to the salad bar croûton bowl and another on the window sill where we were sitting in the dining area.

I travel to Alexandria from PA for business a lot over the past 5 years and always stop there because of how convenient it is to where I am staying and it has a huge floor plan with great atmosphere. The pastries are always on point and delicious along with having tasty coffee options. Fair prices and again DELICIOUS pastries! The internet speed is a little shoddy though so if you are coming to do work online I would go elsewhere.

This La Madeleine location in the very heart of Alexandria City is a wonderful stop for fresh, heathy and delicious food and better than Starbucks coffee! The staff members are very amiable and helpful. Will be back :)

Always on point!
The food and service here is phenomenal.
I took a day off for my birthday to enjoy soup and a salad. I sat in a cozy corner and people watched.

I went there on croissant day. That was the first time to go to this one. I was super excited but… It was not fantastic. One cashier was not friendly nor sweet at all. She was kinda mean. I wanted to purchase some pastries but she changed my mind. I just grubbed the free croissant. They lost a local customer.
Taste:OK.
Price: Cheap. Under $ 5 for a good snack.
Customer service: Horrible. I know only the cashier tho…
Parking lot: Street parking.
Location: Great. The heart of Old town.

The food here was delicious. We stopped in for lunch after shopping. All of us had something different and were very satisfied with our meals. The restaurant overall however, is very chaotic and too noisy for a French Bakery or Café. They spend so much time and energy trying to direct people around their cafeteria style of ordering that it is pointless. They would be much better served by seating guests and taking orders from the tables. We were there for about an hour and only twice did we witness patrons that didn’t require assistance in ordering or figuring out where to go. All the chaos and noise is very distracting and takes away from the overall experience. Although we enjoyed our food immensely, the atmosphere isn’t worth it with so many great eateries nearby.

Cute French atmosphere, absolutely terrible service, very yummy food. You walk in, approach the lady with the iPad taking orders, then she tells you midway through order she doesn’t take the sandwich order you have to go to the register. Guy at the register tells you to go to lady, both employees are pretty clueless. Don’t know why they would split up the order intake like this. It’d be better if there was a sign directing foot traffic to both lines if they insist on taking in orders this way. The fryer also beeps extremely loud like McDonald’s which was pretty unpleasant ever so often.
However, that is all to say the food made up for it, very delicious. My friends ordered sandwiches and other soups and said they were very tasty as well. Coffee smelled great. Overall foodwise I give it a 4.5, experience wise a 3. Bonne appetite!

Oh La Madeleine… Why have you forsaken me? First rule of thumb… Don’t go in with any expectations. The problem is, I am coming from Las Colinas in Texas where the big brother of this restaurant is flawless. This particular restaurant in Old Town is like the younger, unpopular brother that couldn’t hack it on the football team so they made him a water boy.
Staff was short with words and distracted, too busy to be polite. I received complimentary lip stick on my glass of OJ — how kind. The bread/​condiments station was unkempt… Little plastic cups of jelly were covered inside, as well as out, with the sticky substance. When I asked the guy for fresh jelly he just told me «sift through there»…
The baguettes I have come to know and love so well were strangers to me. Instead of the perfect toasty, warm dough I’m used to, I got chewy borderline cold bread. I would keep going but at the risk of turning myself off from my next meal… I’ll stop short. Two homesick thumbs down.

If I could give zero stars then I would.
On a cold rainy day, I decided that a bowl of potato soup and some bread was the way to go. I got my soup and then went over to get some bread. There was no bread on the tray, so I asked for some. A lady came out and pulled out a tray from underneath the bread station. When she unwrapped it, a roach ran out of the slices of bread.
I pointed out the roach to her and she flicked it off and tossed the slice it was on. She then proceeded to place the bread on the stand for consumption. She was shocked that I thought this to be unsanitary.
Knowing that employees at this restaurant will serve food after roaches have been on it, I’ll not be going in again.

The food here is good considering the price. However, this is the most crazy service I have received. The moment you walk in you notice the mayhem and chaos. The manager is disorganized and as a result you could tell his employees were disorganized as well.
When we were looking for the menu, we could not find it. We looked everywhere for the menu. We just settled with something someone else ordered because we just could not get a hold of a menu.
When we went to order and no one was at the cash register. We waited for someone to take our order for over ten minutes.
Then we waited and waited for our food. When it came out it was warm and pretty good. I was literally not expecting much in terms of the food.
Let me just leave you with the word chaos. It’s disorganized chaotic madness here.

I have a loving relationship with their oatmeal. I come frequently, on my remote work days, for it since I live a few blocks from the French bakery. Unsure of how the lunch and dinner menu is but the breakfast always satisfies.

Love this place. The food is very tasty and the house wine is better I thought would be .
Came here second time and I think once we move here will be regular guests. The only thing I disliked was the lack of flexibility to serve me a second glass of wine with my dinner on our first visit as they have closed the bar quite early. But everything else was great. Thank you

The food is fantastic but the service is terrible!!!
It’s confusing because you walk in and someone may greet you and help direct you but depending on the time of day you may be left on your own to guess. Someone led us to a young lady who held a portable ordering system and asked «how can I help»? We grabbed a menu at the hostess podium and asked about the quiche and a few other items to which she replied «quiche, soups, salads, sandwiches, pastries you can head over this way» *points to a cafeteria style set up*. So. what was she going to help us with then? What else was on the menu that wasn’t being sold cafeteria style? Sorry — I still don’t have an answer.
Either way, we had the tomato soup, grilled cheese, Cesar salad and a dessert that reminded me of a tiramisu tart. The soup and grilled cheese were AMAZING! The salad was way overdressed but at least the dressing was good. There is complimentary bread with butter and jams over to the side and you can request a glass for iced water.

This review is based on dessert and coffee order only. Having just returned from Paris, I was craving something as close to a Parisian Patisserie as possible, it’s practically impossible to get in Southern California.
My family of 5 were in and ordered all desserts. Crème Brule, coconut cake, lemon tart, cookies and chocolate parfait.
My husband ordered a cappuccino and I ordered black coffee dark French roast although it’s a serve yourself station I could have selected something else.
The desserts were perfection. The lemon tart was tangy and sweet, the crust was a little crunchy not flaky but still great. The coconut cake was creamy and moist, crème brule was delicious, cookies moist… everything met or exceeded our expectations.
I guess the previous reviews have prompted the staff to be more diligent in cleaning up because they practically harassed us several times trying to take our plates and clean up our table even though there were plenty of empty seats.
This is a great place for dessert and coffee. Haven’t tried the food but if it’s on par with the desserts I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
Order at the counter and seat yourself.

I fell in love with La Madeleine when I lived in DFW (where it’s originally from), but have been missing it now that I live in Oklahoma. So I was ecstatic when I stumbled upon one while visiting Old Town Alexandria. Unfortunately, that feeling was short-​lived.
Maybe I came on an off day, but I was disappointed with this location for several reasons. As soon as I walked in, I could tell that the staff was VERY disorganized. Even though I’m familiar with their relatively unusual ordering process, it was still hard for me to figure out at this particular location. I went to order, and the lady told me I had to go to the «to go» counter to do so. Even though I’m dining in? Ok, whatever. There wasn’t great communication as to why, so I’ll just assume the register is broken and go to the other counter. I went over there, and the guy who ended up taking care of me was friendly.
The food was decent, but that’s not something I usually say about my beloved La Madeleine. They are known for their food being amazing! The biggest let-​down was that my french onion soup was served with neither the cheese nor bread in it. If you’re anything like me and love your french onion soup, you know what a serious buzzkill that is.
I’ll likely come back and give it another chance as I’ll be in Alexandria for a little while and it’s hard to always ignore those strawberries romanoff cravings. Hopefully next time will be more like the La Madeleine I remember though.