Le Boulanger
Categories: Bakeries, Coffee & Tea, Caterers, Pizza, Sandwiches [Edit]
305 N. Mathilda AvenueSunnyvale, CA 94085 (408) 523-9800
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Wi-Fi: None
- Good for: Lunch
42 reviews
Mountain View, CA
"Great deli in Mountain View ! They have great bread choices and the dutch crunch is yummy ! Extensive menu with all types of sandwiches to…" read more »
20 Reviews for Le Boulanger
This chain serves up "high-quality" sandwiches in a very nice, upscale type bistro-like setting... but friendlier IMO.
Not bad at all, coffee was good, service is quick (tray and call number). The sandwiches are custom and they taste high-quality. I personally order the turkey with cranberry dressing. The turkey tastes juicy and flavorful in neat thick slices. Lettuce is the high-quality kind that provides great texture compared to cheap iceberg lettuce.
It's a bit pricey compared to say... Quiznos or Subway but to be honest I prefer dropping some dough here rather than those chains.
Ok sandwiches, though I think I could make better myself.
No, wait, I know I can.
But I love watching them make the bread!
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I like to support Sunnyvale businesses, and especially a bakery chain that is based in Sunnyvale. I thought this headquarters would be better than the store on Stevens Creek & De Anza in Cupertino, but I was wrong. The sandwich and salad combo I got (California Crisp & Primavera) tasted the same, with the same problems I noted in the Cupertino store.
First, the Dutch Crunch bread was hard. Not just crunchy, but hard and tough to chew through. It's the kind of bread that scrapes up the roof of your mouth. Ow!
Then, I noticed that the salad greens were not as fresh as they should be. I saw some bits of spoiled greens on the fresh greens, and sifted through my salad for any others. Le Boulganger is still serving tomatoes--the tomato slices in my sandwich were really sad-looking, as if they had been sliced two days ago and refrigerated (refrigeration ruins the texture of tomatoes).
Considering their sandwich/salad combo costs about a dollar more than Panera's combo, I would expect the quality of ingredients to be better.
I am truly disappointed in Le Boulanger. The flavor of the California Crisp sandwich and the Primavera salad are perfectly fine, but the bread and the greens really ruined the food for me. I am surprised that a bakery can consistently overbake its bread and still stay in business for so long.
The only thing good I can say about the Sunnyvale store is that it is huge, so there's always a table, and that it's cleaner than the Cupertino store. I usually find bits of food or lettuce and napkins on the floor of the Cupertino store--why?! I saw the busboy in the Sunnyvale store come around at least 3 times while I was there--he kept the place picked-up.
Good food, great for kids, intermittent service.
We eat here every week with our young sons. Sometimes twice a week. My husband loves their bread-and-chowder bowl. I'm very fond of any of their sandwiches.
Our boys like to watch the bread factory in action behind us. They never tire of seeing the industrial bread makers dump out hundreds of pounds of dough while we eat.
The only catch is that the service can run hot or cold depending on who's working the counters. Somedays we get our whole order, no problem. Others, we have to recite it for the cashier three and four times.
Arrive before 11:30 to get ahead of the crowds and get the best service.
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I ate here quite a bit since it was near my work and I love their bread for sandwiches. Also nice you can get 1/2 sanwich and soup. You will pay more but I think it tastes so much better. I love their Primervera salad and California Fresh Sandwich. It's great if you need something to go or only have a short time for lunch to sit down.
my ciabatta bread was pretty good... The sandwhich was not amazing, but pretty good. Nothign ground breaking to put some balsamic vinegar on bread with cold cuts now. But like I said, the bread was chewy and had character. The salad was crisp and the blue cheese did was not god awful...
So the good:
* seems they have good bread
The bad
* Fricken amazingly busy at lunch, like 30 peopl ein line busy, like bring a newspaper and a port-a-potty for the line busy.
* They burned the hell out of my friend's toasted sandwich... Like set it on fire burned!
* The prices are real high for a sandwich shop...
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This place is a part of my morning routine. I dig the Asian Chicken sandwich that these guys make. For about a month I ended up eating one of these for lunch every weekday. My other favorite is their Primevera salad. It gets really busy at lunch 11.30 - 12.30 and expect to wait for atleast 15 minutes before you are served. Sadly they close at 3 pm or I would have had my dinner also here.
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Good place for a sandwich. Great place for fresh baked bread.
Get the "Le Club" biggest and best sandwich they makes.
3 stars because its kinda expensive for what you get.
Way cool to watch the workers in the bread factory though. I get transfixed by them.
admittedly I dont really go for fancy sandwiches. For my sandwich all i need is the bread, the meat and lettuce in between, throw in some mayo, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and throw in some oregano, and i'm good to go. Sure the sandwich is fancy looking here, and it tastes pretty good. But you can goto any Au Bon Pain and get the same thing.
But i did like my sandwich alot here, which was turkey with brie. Of course, i havent been here since 2001 so who knows if everything is still the same here.
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Sandwiches here are mediocre but expensive.
However, they make a really good chocolate chip crunch cookie. I highly recommend this cookie!
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This is a great place for fresh sandwiches and salads. Fair pricing and quick service make for a great lunch if you're on the go.
The baked breads are OK, but the food is the real reason to hit this place up.
This bread store has simply fantastic sandwiches - especially the hot ones. My coworkers and I come here regularly and we have tried most of the menu by now. The winners (approximately best first) are:
- the reuben (especially vs the similar pastrami),
- the margherita (especially versus the similar classico),
- Asian Chicken (yes, the cheese is perfect on it)
- the ALT
- the BLT
- Hot breast of chicken and bacon
The ALT and BLT have some unusually sweet flavor that magically works. The clam chowder (which they always have) is excellent, and the indian curry soup (which they rarely have) tastes like a particularly good chicken curry served in a bowl. Lots of people love the California fresh, though I am not one of them. Skip the turkey chicken pesto sausage - it's turkey, chicken, and pesto formed into sausage!
And mind the hours; they usually close at 3pm.
This is one of my favorite places to grab lunch during the work week. Le Boulanger (pronounced "Le boo-lan-jay" with a soft 'j') suceeds where so many American establishments fail - they actually make good bread. They also have high-quality, fresh ingredients for their sandwiches and salads. In this location you can sit next to the large glass window behind which several people make enormous batches of bread and cookie dough. It's fun to watch them work. I recommend arriving early for lunch as the lines can get long.
this is my default place to meet friends... The food is mediocre, there is always a long line, the "free" chips have literally 8 pieces in them, but hey, it's a great place to take picky people. If they are veggies they can get a veggie sandwich or a salad. There are not too many "healthy" options on castro, so this place fits the bill...
Good lord, don't try to order off-menu here.
See, when I go to a sandwich place, I never want one of the fancy pre-set sandwich options that come with avocado and "vinaigrette spread" and red onion and only on sourdough and whatever. I know exactly what I want on a sandwich and I want them to accommodate me.
Apparently Le Boulanger's computers just don't let you build your own sandwich...or the person taking orders was clue-free. I'll give even odds on this.
Me: I'd like a turkey, bacon and jack cheese on white. Dry, no produce.
Counter person: Chicken and bacon on...
Me: No, turkey and bacon and jack on white.
Counter person: Turkey and chicken?
Me: Turkey and bacon! And jack cheese.
Counter person: Turkey...OK...
At this point she rang me up for...something. What I ended up with was a turkey, bacon and cheddar on a hard-ish French roll (and I hate chewy bread on sandwiches).
In general, this is a severely underwhelming sandwich. The turkey is quite obviously turkey log, and the bacon is peppered to death to obscure the fact that it isn't very good. For me, sandwiches are about quality deli meat, and this isn't the place for it.
Not impressed, I. It's out of my way to go here for lunch, and it's safe to say I'll never again go out of my way to go here for lunch.
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They must put something in these things to make you keep coming back. I'm totally in love the California fresh sandwich, which is nothing more than turkey, avocado and the usual fixings on a dutch crunch roll. Forsome reason I can't put my finger on, it's totally addicting.
I have probably eaten here more than anywhere else on the planet. It was right next to my office for two years and holds a special place in my heart.
Some recommendations:
- The name changes, but last I checked, it was called the Eggplant sandwich
- Italian Frittata egg sandwich - awesome!
- The cranberry/walnut/blue cheese salad whose name escapes me
- Order ahead for lunch
And a funny story:
I used to go into this location at 7 am two or three times a week to order the Italian Frittata. The place literally opens at 7 am and I'd be the first customer. I'd place my order and then I'd go sit at the table nearest to the guy who was making my sandwich in the kitchen. He could see me.
And everytime he finished the sandwich, even though I was the only person in the entire place, he would walk off in the wrong direction carrying my order and yell out "om-e-lette! om-e-lette!". Never once did he recognize me.
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i work nearby so i'll admit it's convenient, but when i'd rather go to subway not b/c it's .2 miles closer, but b/c the service is quicker and more friendly... and the sandwiches can compete side by side with those at le boulanger and the price is like HALF of what i'd spend at le boulanger... makes me raise an eyebrow... you, too??
parking is such a pain here around lunchtime... and they close at like 3.
i've also ordered catering from here... they place the vegetarian sandwiches at the BOTTOM of a mountain of ham, turkey, roast beef sandwiches... i dunno, that sorta bothers me.
Not impressed with this place. I came here for breakfast and got some type of sausage egg bagel sandwich. I felt like I was chewing on rubber. 3 stars because maybe their other stuff is good. I should have stuck to the idea of getting a lunch sandwich rather than a breakfast one. Had a taste of the ham and cheese crossaint, also not that good.
I really love the whole menu here (well, I haven't tried the whole menu, but what I've tried, I've loved). In the last year or so (possibly more?) they added the yummiest sandwich, and of course I can't remember what it's called, but it's something like the margharita fresco. Anyway, it's on the Hot Sandwiches side of the menu, and it's got mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and vinagarette on it and it is simply heavenly.
They also have an avocado and tomato number (again, can't remember the name of it) that is quite scrumptious, as well.
I've enjoyed the pizzas and the salads, too. Basically, I haven't had anything bad here.
My issues with this location: They are usually REALLY busy at lunch time, so parking is usually a bear. Also, when the lot is full, know you will probably have to wait in line for about 5-10 minutes to order and then wait again for your food. If you need to get in and out in a hurry, I'd call in your order.
I went for lunch last week and got take out. Luckily, I was so hungry that I wanted to eat while I was driving (naughty, I know), and I discovered that they gave me the wrong sandwich. I had to go back and park again. Yuck. But to their credit, as soon as I walked up to the counter, the lady knew exactly what I was there for, and getting the right sandwich took very little time. That was the first time there was an error with my order.
I just wish it was closer to my work... I would go all the time!
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