La Madeleine - Alexandria

We love this cafe!!! Ordered some soup and coconut cake. It was one of the best coconut cakes I have had!! Now I want to go back for some more. I wish I lived closer, so that I could stop by every day.

La Madeleine is one of the best French bakeries! Unfortunately I gave this branch 4 stars cause the service was a little poor. I visited it on a Friday morning and it wasn?t that busy, but I had to wait a long time for my pastries to be heated up. I ordered the plain butter croissant, and the cherry yogurt danish croissant. I highly recommend both. They were super fresh and flakey. ???? I liked how they have a coffee station for refillable coffee. So you could just get the the small size and have as much coffee as you want. I paid a total of $10.17 (Receipt is attached).

It?s a good average cafe place to sit and catch up or sit and read a book. A chain. Workers seem hardworking and kind too. Only giving it a 3 because I?m still not sure if my coffee is decaf (I asked for it if possible twice and she didn?t ever clarify if it was or wasn?t) and they don?t have any gluten free friendly pastries to enjoy. Everyone around me seemed happy with their food.

We came here because it was the only sit down full breakfast restaurant open around 9am. We were hungry. The other guests we met who sat down next to our table were also from out of town and they were very friendly! This is what made our experience a nice one here. As one reviewer stated, this is like a French Panera Bread, which is a perfect description. It's not fancy, but the atmosphere is cute, quaint and cozy. The staff was overwhelmed, but did their best. The phones were ringing, and the cashier who took our order gave us paper cups for our coffees, even though we ate inside the restaurant. I saw other folks getting ceramic coffee cups. I also saw the manager and chef working hard and they seemed overwhelmed too. We ordered Croque Madame and two coffees. My husband who said these were NOT the typical Croque Madame at all, but we ate them. It was very rich and filling and I could only finish half. The salad that comes with it was nice. Next time I would order something much lighter. Coffee is self serve at the drink counter. Easy! There was one homeless ? woman who came in pestering folks getting coffee and yelling at them with her empty cup. She never poured herself a coffee, and as we left the restaurant, she was sitting in a chair near the entrance, talking to herself. The bathrooms were clean! The loudspeaker inside the bathroom gave French lessons given by a woman with a Vietnamese accent! Haha! If I am back in Old Town Alexandria, I might stop in again. I am grateful it was open early for us to have breakfast. Most restaurants along King Street were not open until lunch time.

While visiting Old Town Alexandria we stopped in here for a quick breakfast. Most everything else was closed on 4th of July. This was a pleasant surprise. The breakfast was simple but very tasty eggs, croissant, sausage, and potato pancake. I would recommend this place for a simple Country French style meal.