Costeaux French Bakery & Cafe
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
28 Reviews for Costeaux French Bakery & Cafe
Very good, amazingly tasty quiche and turkey sandwich. The chocolate cake was good although admittedly not overwhelmingly amazing [what can I say, the reviews had me expecting more]. Service is a bit slow, but that can be good when taking a break from wine tasting.
The atmosphere is a little strange with the construction, but this is a reasonably priced bakery with some yummy rolls. The palmiers, however, left something to be desired. It's still worth a stop though.
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This place is my fav when in the area. Super service, huge portions, and a good selection of traditional breakfast items and other healthier selections. Good for dining in or take out, and also a well-stocked bakery to snag some bread prior to a wine tasting adventure.
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I found Costeaux using Yelp and it was a great find.
My girlfriends and I were coming up to Healdsburg for the weekend to celebrate a couple of birthdays. I called Costeaux and the customer service gal was very helpful in describing flavors to aid me in my decision. I selected a butter vanilla cake with chocolate truffle filling and chocolate mousse frosting. This was probably the best cake I've had in ages... certainly better than my own wedding cake!
We each ate 2 slices and the words that were uttered between bites were, "silky", "light", "amazing", and lots of moans and groans. It truly was a masterpiece.
We also came for lunch and enjoyed a great light meal. Very casual atmosphere but they serve high quality, tasty entrees. I came back a couple of times in the morning for their lattes which were also fabulous.
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Our friend Sheila got Jackie and me the best birthday cake ever from Costeaux. It was one of the best cakes I've ever had and it was also beautiful. They decorated it with fresh flowers. And it was so tasty! I am lucky I don't live too close or I'd be eating way too much cake here!
We also came here for lunch and it was wonderful. I had a Portabella mushroom panino, which was amazing. My friends enjoyed the quiche, croissants and seared tuna salad. A great experience. The lattes were also fantastic. Go eat here if you can.
We went there for breakfast. The crepe was suggested by the waitress and it was very good, but there were only 2 and not filling enough for me. My partner was stuffed though with his veggie omelet and the bread was very tasty. We also took home a strawberry tart, which was good but nothing amazing.
The staff was very nice and efficient; we were served very promptly. The outdoor patio seating area was very nice too.
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2.5 stars.
Underwhelming, which is a shame, since it has so much potential.
Costeaux has a lovely space, with welcoming trellised outdoor dog friendly patio and a vast, high-ceilinged interior.
However, it's not a good thing to walk into a bakery to be greeted by burnt smells. We milled about, wondering who to speak to or what it would take to get service. We stood at a counter for a long time and finally flagged down someone who instructed us to take a seat either inside our outside.
Service left a lot to be desired - our drink orders came at the same time as our food, so we waited for quite a while (20 minutes?) without even water to tide us over.
The food is average. The description of the eggs benedict (ham, bacon, spinach, avocado) sounded fanstastic, but the hollandaise was pretty weak and flavourless. The Crepevine on Irving in San Francisco makes a far better benedict. The boy ordered a breakfast panini and it seemed like they used stale, day-old bread as part of the pressed sandwich; the pressing made the crust just too hard and crunchy and quite difficult to consume. A side dish of garlic-artichoke sausage was waaay too salty. I had crushed ice in my OJ and the coffee is as another reviewer described it -- very very bad.
Unfortunate shortcomings for a place with really charming ambiance....
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Killer breakfast!!! I had scrambled eggs, artichoke sausage, country potatoes and toast. The eggs are so buttery and moist...mmmmmmm. Artichoke sausage was SUPER tasty! Country potatoes were nicely seasoned and not greasy at all.
I also tasted my sisters omelet, which was filled with spinach, sun dried tomatoes, bacon and brie. AAAMAZING!! Warm, melty brie over crispy bacon....I mean...come on...
The service here was great as well. I don't think you will find a better breakfast in the area.
A good if simple cafe in the bakery. A few tables out front for nice weather al fresco dining.
Clean, dainty, nutritious food. I like the sandwiches here.
I come here often for bread & pastries. Very french flavors and textures. My memories of Paris are re-kindled when nibbling on a Costeaux baguette. Pastries look a little rustic but are all very wholesome & delicious (Taste better than they look, and I'm being ridiculously over critical here, as they look just fine - Just not city slick).
My favorite bakery in Sonoma county - Wish that I lived closer so I could visit daily.
Been to this bakery several times, for breakfast, picking up bread, etc. This past weekend picked up a cake I had ordered for an engagement party we were throwing. Costeaux did a fabulous job on this cake! When I ordered I knew the type of cake I wanted, but was pretty vague on how to decorate it, just giving them names and that it was for an engagement party. They made it gorgeous with fresh flowers and decorated it simply, but elegantly. I was very impressed with how it looked and we were all impressed with how delicious it was!! Would definitely come back when I need a special order.
My family and I drove up to Healdsburg one Saturday just for something to do. We figured we'd walk around, check out the shops, and grab a bit at this wonderful bakery. When it comes to sweets they really know what they are doing. Service was fast and proficient. We took an inordinate amount of time to order but were were never rushed. We asked too many questions about their pastries but each question was answered patiently.
Overall it was a great experience. Just what you would hope for when stopping in at a bakery for a bite. I'd give it five stars but I didn't try anything that I really felt was exceptional.
I woke up at 4 AM to get ready for and catch a flight to SF that left LAX at 6:30 AM. Followed by an almost 2 hour drive to Healdsburg, I was absolutely famished by the time I arrived, around 10:30 AM. Thank goodness for Yelp and the excellent reviews for Costeaux, or I may never have found myself having breakfast here!
Rollence P.'s breakfast sandwich on ciabatta bread was delicious, but I really loved my scrambled eggs (so buttery and creamy that my arteries are hardening as I think about them just now) with 5 generous strips of perfectly cooked bacon. And potatoes. Mm, potatoes. This was definitely the perfect way to begin my day before spending a few hours wine tasting!
Service was fantastic. Our server was so attentive that she noticed I needed more hot water for my tea before I even noticed it. On top of that, when I purchased a lemon bar (also scrumptious) for myself and a peanut cluster for the boy, the lovely woman behind the counter threw in an extra peanut cluster for him.
It looks like Costeaux gets lots of regular customers, and I like how the employees seemed to know quite a lot of people by name. Between the great service, delicious food (I can't stop thinking about how great the bread is), and the charming ambiance, I know I'll definitely have to come back.
I'm not sure if it's due to the barrel tasting event that they were understaffed therefore slow or that's how their service is normally. We walked in and asked if it's a self-served place. The lady informed us to sit down and someone will serve us. We sat down and waited for at least 10 minutes without service. I managed to get the menus from other tables myself and waited for another 5/10 minutes before someone came to our table to take our orders. My egg-white omelet with asparagus, goat cheese was delicious. My jasmine green tea was great too. It's loose-leave! I just wish their service is better else I don't think I will go back again.
I'd like to give 4.5, and a gree w/ a few comments of others below, but overall my experience has been all good here. great pastries, coffee, breakfasts, and service. I do tend to try to get there early and beet the rush because there's nnot a whole lot of seating.
This is an awesome little authentic french bakery in the heart of Healdsburg. I had the special of the day Panini and it was really good, the bread was crunchy and hard, but flavorful just like the way french bread is supposed to taste. It's so hard that it hurts the roof of my mouth. Apparently I've heard from one of the wine shop person that their breakfast food is even better, some french guy said they are the only ones who made scrambled eggs the way they do it in France. I've never had french scrambled eggs, I'll be sure to try that next time I'm ever in Healdsburg. The service was slow, and somewhat french-like, but we are in America, and we want fast service, so -1 star. The desserts are also very very good, make sure to save room from those!
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I have been going to Costeaux's since I was a little kid and they were in the location next door. I LOVE THIS PLACE!! Many of their items have changed over the years, like they don't have those awesome giant chocolate chip cookies anymore (bring them back!!!), but they still have their amazing coffee cake rings and chocolate snow top cookies. The selfish part of me didn't want to mention the coffee cake rings because they are hard to get and I wanted to save the chance for myself, but I have to rave!! I've only eaten lunch there and I really like their sandwiches; of course it's all about the bread. And their pull-apart bread is a classic winner.
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Excellent French Onion Soup and good to very good pastries. Stay far away from the coffee however. Over-roasted and horrible! Anyplace that serves breakfast needs to take their coffee seriously.
Ok, bear with me while I tell my tale of why I am in love with Costeaux Bakery. It will make you laugh, and maybe cry, but hopefully more than anything else it will make you hungry. But alas... I digress.
Last summer I was working on an offsite meeting for my department at work and part of the "fun" activity was going to be a scavenger hunt in Healdsburg. During the research we did in house for the hunt, we found out that this bakery was responsible for baking the crust for the world's largest pumpkin pie. Fun, right? So, I managed to drag some friends up to Healdsburg on a reconnaissance mission, part of which involved checking out this bakery. We got there just as they were closing (bummer) but got to chatting through the gate with the owner, son of who I think was the original guy responsible for the bakery. After a few quips (he could tell I was not a CA native by my "tone", I could tell he had spent some time back east - Go Villanova!) and telling him my story about the scavenger hunt, he felt bad we had come all that way and couldn't even buy something to take back. So he gave us a little baggie of free end o' the day baked goods that were so yummy I vowed to return.
Scavenger hunt came and went (they loved the attention) and then Winter Wine Road weekend comes up this year. I had vowed to never again go to the Singletree Inn (see my review there of about 15 minutes ago) and on an early morning walk remembered the Costeaux bakery. I got the girls up and out and off we went. What a treat! I had the breakfast sandwich, fried egg perfectly cooked, applewood bacon, yummy thin sliced ham, jarlsberg cheese on their own ciabatta roll. Nice, simple but tasty potatoes. Others at the table had the quiche (a tad runny but tasty), french toast (compote makes it), delish orange juice and I liked their coffee (sorry to whoever had an issue there).
But you know what made this so great, great enough for us to go back and get mostly the exact same meals on the second day? They are so nice, so hospitable, remembered us and the table we sat at. The owner guy who gave me those cookies last summer? He probably didn't remember me, but I remembered him and he was there, pouring coffee, checking in and just in general making this a fantastic place to eat. I took home a ciabatta of my own and a few cookies, not to mention a full happy belly.
Come here and revel in the glory. And get the juice, seriously it is REALLY good!
ok, I am done now.
the soft scrambled, chock full o' butter scrambled eggs are sin on a plate. they are diiiiiiivine and shouldn't be missed, especially when one is being fully embraced by healdburg's favorite resident, mr. hangover. these eggs saved my life after the debacle that was roshambo's rock, paper, scissors/2006 tournament, lemme tell you...
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Stopped here for lunch after camping in Hendy Woods. Wanted to go the Smokehouse in Geyserville, but they weren't open for lunch. Boy am I glad.
We've been wanting to come here for a while, but just never got around to it.
This is a find. Very good food.
I had the french dip. Shaved beef on a great sourdough roll, with melted gruyere cheese. Great sandwich. The dip was homemade. It came with a side mixed green salad that was simple but tasty.
My wife had the Fruits de Mer Crepe. This was outstanding. Seafood was fresh, with Crab, Shrimp, and a white fish, on a perfectly executed crepe, and real light cream sauce on top. It came with a fruit salad.
My daughter the difficult eater, and the plain grilled chicken that would normally come with the Cesar salad, and I have to tell you, even the plain chicken was perfectly done, with a very low key seasoning to it. It came with home made chips, which were great.
For desert we had a great chocolate bomb that was a thick chocolate cake with a tasty chocolate sauce.
They have won many well deserved awards for their sourdough bread, and their bakery looked outstanding.
Good wine and beer selection.
I would definitely go back.
The marathon of wine tastings may have impaired my judgement, but I'm still pretty sure that this place was most excellent. Every dish we ordered was great, the prices were reasonable, and the outdoor setting was welcome... (especially if some of your friends are particularly drunk... it's much more polite when they vomit outside)
The service was excellent, we didn't have to wait long but there was some confusion over our table; the staff was quite apologetic and offered us cookies for our trouble.
I pulled off of Hiway 101 on my return to SF this weekend to show my friend the town of Healdsburg, find some light snacks for lunch and to pick up a couple of the perfect chocolate eclairs my mom sometimes buys when she comes this way.
I started out at the Healdsburg Bakery as that is located in the same place as the bakery I went to years ago that was home of the perfect chocolate eclair...but alas, something was wrong. The shop looked different (well, expansion is likely in the intervening years) but more distressingly the eclairs looked different! They were no longer the light, whipped cream filled ones I remembered, but instead looked more "formal" and had a custard WITH whipped cream filling. I'm sure they are nice--but not what I came to get.
The girl at the lingerie shop directed us to the other bakery in town that she said had good chocolate eclairs. We took a walk over, window shopping along the way (my friend found Healdsburg to be yet another posh, NorCal town with little interesting about it--I remember it back when I was a kid from when 101 went right through town and it was a small 2 horse ranching town--it's definitely boomed since then).
We arrived at Cousteau French Bakery and Cafe. Well, my friend is a big crab cake fan ~ and the ones described on the menu sounded good. So I ordered two eclairs sight unseen (they had to get them from the back), they boxed them for my return trip and we took a table and ordered our crab cakes to share with coffee and another pastry.
The coffee was fine, but took a very long to make it to our table--the pastry was just so-so and in no way seemed "French". The crab cake we shared, on the other hand, was absolutely delicious and we soon we wished we had ordered two. It was a good size, though, and served on a bed of tasty spinach salad with grapefruit bits. Really one of the nicest crab cakes I've ever had...we were satisfied enough to continue on our way.
At home, further sad news...not only did the eclairs flail about in the box and lose their attractive appearance, but they were WAY too sugary, gooey, custard-filled (!) and had a sickenly sweet chocolate covering that was overdone by about 1/2 a cup too much. Really. Just Ew! Even my daughter was underwhelmed and she is not the eclair snob I am.
update: okay now 3.5 stars (up from 2.5) because I went back with my mom and daughter on a recent trip to Mendo county and we had good coffee, more crab cakes, and nice soup. Plus the bakery bread we bought for Xmas dinner was really perfect--very nice french bread. My mom loved her Brioche French Toast w/ fruit and it did look really yummy.
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Holy crap - best French dip ever. Quality meat, blue-cheese, delicious bread, onion dip. I think about this meal on a weekly basis. Moving on... the heavily tattooed staff wasn't perfect, she forgot my onion soup - but it's not like I needed it after that sandwich.
4-stars only because I had to feed the sandwich to myself.
Found this place while passing through town on an impromptu wine country vacation. Wow, this Bakery Cafe is absolutely perfect! Great cafe lunch, incredible pastries, tarts, desserts, nice staff and decor. Can you tell I REALLY liked this place? If I lived anywhere near it I'd happily have a weight problem!
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While at the Healdsburg Dog House, we got a tip to come here for brunch. As soon as we arrived, I looked at hubby and said "OMG! We've been here before!"
10 years ago, we went hot air ballooning in the wine country. On the way, our pilot (is that what you call the people flying the balloons?) made a stop here for us passengers to pick up some breakfast and use the restrooms. I didn't even notice the name of this place back then.
Back to now. We had a wonderful brunch there today. Hubby had the quiche and I had crepes. The quiche is filled with fresh vegetables and very tasty. The crepes were filled with crab, rock shrimps, asparagus and tomatoes topped with white sauce. You can tell they took great care of the filling. The asparagus was grilled, tomatoes tasted like oven baked and the crab meat was in large lumps. The crepes themselves were super thin. They're probably the best crepes I've ever had. Both our dishes were quite light as they both came with fresh fruits (grapes, pineapple, melons and berries) instead of potatoes and toast.
Other than brunch/lunch, it's also a bakery. You can pick up anything from baguettes to cookies to tarts to chocolates.
The patio is just wonderful. It is a covered patio with ceiling fans for the hot days and heaters for the cold days. It's just very airy, but protected at the same time.
Service is way beyond what we expected. Though it's a cafe, it is full service. The servers don't miss a beat. They are efficient, friendly and courteous. Sophie even got a bowl of water without us asking for it. The service here can give any high end restaurants a run for its money.
I just can't say enough good things about this place. If this place is in San Francisco, I would be there 2-3 times a week, easy.
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I have been going to Costeaux since I was a wee tot with my parents and it just doesn't get much better than this. Get there early because their tarts (massive pastries) sell out quickly as does their phenomenal breads. No visit to Healdsburg is complete for me and mine without a stop and stock up here. The staff is friendly and the prices are dirt cheap for the amazing quality. You know it's good when EVERY local knows Costeaux and gets that dreamy look in their eyes talking about it's pastries.
Mmm....sugar. Mmm....pastries. Mmmm...Costeaux. Traditional french pastries with a little Italian flair thrown in the mix. If you have a wedding in Sonoma or want a croissant with your coffee or on your way to wine tasting...stop by here...c'est magnifique!
Great bakery and friendly staff. Not sure if they still make it, but try the french onion soup...
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