The Bread Shop

Critic's Review

I'd been to the Bread Shop once before for a sandwich, and I noticed on their menu that they serve breakfast. I'd never had a Venezuelan breakfast before, so I thought I'd try it.

The place is in a strip mall and it's one of the few places with food of this type that isn't in a bad neighborhood. They serve their breakfast menu until 11am.

Inside, it's a counter and some tables and chairs and 2 of those portable booths in the corner.

Breadshop inside

There's no service at the Breadshop, which isn't something I anticipated. Unintuitively, you don't order at the register. You order by the back wall, where there's a menu. So I stood in line while a woman behind the counter sliced bread, made eggs and took one order after another. The Combo #4, Venezuelan Breakfast, takes a few minutes to make. After placing your order you wait in line to get your beverage and to pay up.

I had to wait a while longer, so I grabbed a table. All of the tables were either occupied or dirty. I had to move some stuff to secure a place to sit. They flag you down when the food is ready, like I said, there's no service here.

Plastic and paper plates, plastic silverware and 1 salt shaker for the entire place (no packets). It's a real high-end experience.

Bread Shop Venezuelan Breakfast

The breakfast consists of Perico, which is scrambled eggs with tomato and onion, Guayanes Cheese, shredded beef and an Arepa with butter. The eggs were fine, but I don't get how these items are supposed to work together. Cold cheese and the pungent beef just didn't go with each other much less the eggs. Maybe this is traditional in Venezuela, but it's not a combo that makes sense. It wouldn't all work as an omelet, so it doesn't work if you keep them separate. I'm not sure what made the eggs brownish; probably just on the grill a bit too long.

The Arepa was downright lousy; it's supposed to have ricotta and salt but it had no flavor at all.

Bread Shop Arepa

Maybe they don't use salt here; but it wasn't something I wanted to eat.

Previously, I'd had a pretty tasty venezuelan sandwich here.

Bread Shop House Special

The sandwich was pretty good; it certainly had some interesting flavors. The meat was a bit dry and it was heavily seasoned. It was long on bread and short on ingredients for $8. It wasn't a lot of food for the price.

The breakfast with coffee was just over $10, which is about what I'd spend on Las Olas with plates, silverware, service and bottomless coffee. Usually these latin places are a pretty good deal. But it's not such a good deal here.

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Samantha

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Do you know if the store is for sale now ?

2 years ago

Administrator

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That was 5 years ago, so I doubt it.

2 years ago In Reply to Samantha

Maria

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I'd been going to this shop for about 3 years, even thought the customer service experience is usually terrible, as they don't have clear lines of "who's next," take forever to prepare the food and never smile (not even the owners!). I tend to put my order over the phone to avoid annoyance, and still usually something happens and I have to stand there for longer than planned. Once they sold a day old cheese bread to me and another time, an old dulce de leche cake. Today, I went to get a few small pieces and a cheese bread. I asked beforehand if it was fresh. The lady said yes. As soon as she brought it to me, I touched it and it felt cool and no smell was coming out of the bag. I told the owner in a soft voice that the bread was old and if he had a different one from today. He responded, very upset and loud, that if I didn't like his bread I shouldn't be touching it. I repeated the bread was old, and that he knew it. He repeated I shouldn't be touching it and that I always had an issue with his bread (it was only once before). I told him to charge it to my card, but not to expect me to buy any more bread from him. He responded, very rudely, not to pay for anything. At this point, I decided to leave everything on the counter and left. I will never go back to that place. I was an over 3 years costumer, bought at least 15 cakes a year from him, got pastries for my clients and my department by the boxes frequently. I consider this treatment unfair and unprofessional.

7 years ago

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