Bon Appetit Bakery & Cafe

Freshly baked, and not over priced. Tou le joure bread is shipped in from a factory and reheated, but here it is fresh and cheaper

Snobby.. Left without ordering..no need to ever go back

Great pastry and great prices. What more could you ask?

They made us a custom gender reveal cake. Came out perfectly and they even decorated it for us! Tastes great too

This place made my heart smile! Great everything! I love to visit it

The best cafe in Ellicott City
Cozy, yummy, friend, nice

I love this place

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 5

Incredibly friendly, very affordable, and amazing selections for baked goods. My fave cafe for sure

Vegetarian options: All their baked goods have labels with exact ingredients list!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Bakery, Red Bean Bingsoo, Garlic Bread, Tofu Chips

Nice quiet Korean bakery, huge selection of baked goods. Macarons are good, and the coffee cream filled sweet roll I tried was really good too. I've only been here twice but this is one of my friend's favorite places to go.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Visited on Saturday around 8pm. Plenty of tables were available.
Ordered coffee and birthday cake. Good service. The staffs were very courteous. This place offers a variety of sweet breads.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Bakery, Red Bean Bingsoo

After the hike, I stop by for a quick croissant sandwich and coffee bun. Friendly and tasty

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I love this little bakery. Every single thing I have ever gotten from here has been perfect and delicious. The atmosphere is comfortable, and the staff are always lovely!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We called in a last minute gender reveal cake and they made it happen. It came out perfect! Thank you!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Bakery, Strawberry

Used to be good before COVID. Not worth it anymore.

I've come to Bon Appetit many times over the past few years. Before COVID, they were a decent mom-and-pop bakery. The sandwiches and snacks were cheap, and the quality was good considering the price. The store itself was open everyday until 11 PM (excl. Sundays), making it a really nice place for late night studying if you were looking to get things done at that hour. From what I remember, there were actually quite a few people who would be there at 10:30 PM either chatting or working on their laptops. There was a self-serve coffee station, and as long as you purchased one cup of coffee, you could get unlimited refills. During this time, the owners played K-pop in the background, making the atmosphere feel unique and cozy.

Over the past years, prices have gone up, but quality of the baked goods and the atmosphere in general has either remained the same or decreased. The pound cakes and castellas are saturated with oil and are very greasy. Many of the cakes behind the glass counter near the register are stale. When I asked the cashier, he said that some of them come from outside the bakery. The owners changed the store's hours, and they now close at 9 PM. The self-serve coffee station has been removed. They no longer play K-pop and instead play the most boring classical music you could imagine. However, my recent experience with them is what prompted me to write this review.

Earlier today, I ordered a turkey club sandwich over the phone. When I picked up my order, the sandwich was in a very poor condition. It was oversaturated with mayo to the point where the bread was soggy. The orange plastic on the ends of the toothpicks in the sandwich was peeling off, and several pieces of plastic were interspersed in the pool of mayo dripping out of the sides of the sandwich. Additionally, the container the sandwich was enclosed in was smeared with oil, as if the person who prepared the sandwich didn't even bother to wash their hands after making it. I also ordered an eclair, and as I mentioned above, it was stale. It basically fell apart as soon as I picked it up, and the cream inside tasted old. I guess this is one of the deserts that they outsource.

All in all, Bon Appetit is an okay bakery. However, there are plenty of better and fresher options out there.

UPDATE: I had diarrhea a few hours after consuming the sandwich featured in this review. Do yourself and your gut a favor and refrain from purchasing the turkey club sandwich here.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 4

They have really good cakes and great service. I also like that they're not a chain.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Bakery